This Week in the Woods

This Week in the Woods, we found fuzzy brownish-orange things on oak leaves. Elf bedroom slippers? Star Trek tribbles? Turns out, they’re yet another example of weird looking growths…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve been noticing the circular holes and brown, ring-shaped feeding patches created by maple leafcutter moth larvae. This insect has a clever way to hide from…

This Week in the Woods, it feels like the tipping point between the summer and autumn – cool, foggy mornings, and so many acorns on the trails. Yellow jackets are becoming more…

This Week in the Woods, the season has tipped toward early autumn, with the first turned leaves lying here and there on the forest floor. Fungi is abundant, including eyelash cup fungi –…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve noticed bright green lungwort lichen, which grows on the trunks of both conifers and hardwoods. Because of its lettuce-like appearance, it’s easy to…

This Week in the Woods we’ve been noticing leaf rolls on sugar maples and other hardwood tree species – single leaves that are wrapped up tightly like rolled cigars. These are…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve noticed more berries ripening, including red baneberry and its creepy cousin, doll’s eyes (white baneberry) which as its common name suggests, takes…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve had several encounters with clymene moths. According to the National Wildlife Federation’s Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America, this…

This week in the woods, we’ve had several close encounters with red-eyed vireo fledglings and adults. Common summer residents of deciduous woodlands, red-eyed vireos are hard to see but…

This week in the woods, we stumbled upon this clown-faced caterpillar, which we had difficulty identifying. The linden prominent is common but hard to find; it clings to the undersides of…

This week in the woods, the recent combination of rain and heat has produced a bumper crop of mushrooms and other fungal forms, including crown-tipped coral. This common, easy-to-identify…

This week in the woods, the spring chorus has simmered down, but there is still plenty of bird sound out there, including the “chick-brrr” of scarlet tanagers. The males appear as…

This week in the woods, we’ve been finding flies smooshed to the underside of tree leaves. This is the gruesome work of a parasitic fungus. Although not well understood, the process…

This week in the woods, and lawns, and perhaps in your garden, American toads are on the hop, hunting nighttime insects. Although most are predominantly brown or gray, some are more orange.…

This week, we’re straying out of the woods, and out of our “15 miles from the office” rule, to share a photo by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul of a snapping turtle crossing a road…

This week in the woods, we’ve noticed three different species of crane fly resting on leaves. At first glance, crane flies look like giant mosquitoes, but they’re harmless.…

This week in the woods, the forest floor has become noticeably darker. It is also getting drier. As trees and other plants unfurl their leaves, they’re pulling up a lot of moisture from…

This week in the woods, we’ve been noticing the new, bright green leaves of young quaking aspen. This is an early successional species, meaning that it quickly colonizes cleared areas…

This week in the woods, the forest floor is still sunny, but new leaves on our hardwoods are becoming more noticeable. Look for the glossy red leaves of last year’s red maple seedlings;…

This week in the woods, we’re noticing many more insects, including an abundance of tiny and hard-to-identify pollinators visiting spring wildflowers. Along with the increasing insect…