This Week in the Woods

This week in the woods, we start with where we can find some lingering green. When many other species’ leaves have browned or fallen away, striped wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata)…

This week in the woods, the landscape shows its skeleton, and we can see the true ridgeline beneath the now-leafless hardwoods. Also more apparent during the beginning of this bare month are…

This week in the woods, a white pine snag with much of its bole rotted away displayed some of its branch rings in three dimensions. In lumber, we would see these conical features in cross…

This week in the woods, river otter families may be moving to new areas to hunt. Every year at this time, we find at least one family of otters (mother and this year’s young) in the same…

This week in the woods, we stumbled upon several yellow birch logs completely engulfed in the fruiting bodies of turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) a polypore fungus that commonly grows on the…

This week in the woods, Editor Meghan McCarthy McPhaul encountered this garter snake making its way across a field, perhaps on its way to winter lodging. The snakes typically move into…

This week in the woods, late season caterpillars are making their fuzzy way across the ground in search of the perfect cocoon site. To help them on their way, they use “prolegs,”…

This week in the woods, we saw several Andrena bees, most likely peaceful miner bees (Andrena placata) heavily loaded with late-blooming aster pollen. These solitary bees are notable for the…

This week in the woods, we’ve been noticing the abundance of brightly colored berries and other fruit. The Northern Woodlands biweekly What in the Woods is That? quiz features six types…

This week in the woods, adult loons have begun their pre-migration partial molt. If you look closely at this adult bird, photographed from a respectful zoom lens distance in Strafford,…

This week in the woods, we’ve noticed a lot of aerial feeding activity above fields and wetlands along the Connecticut and Ompompanoosuc rivers, all sites within about 20 miles of the…

This week in the woods, common nighthawks are migrating down the Connecticut River corridor, and if you look up at twilight, you may catch a glimpse of them performing acrobatic dives and…

This Week in the Woods, Associate Editor Meghan McCarthy McPhaul discovered this snake skin in a woodpile. Snakes typically shed their skins several times a year, depending on such factors as…

This week in the woods, we observed an American robin chick making its first wobbly flight from the nest, which started off well but ended with a crash landing on the lawn. (The young bird was…

This Week in the Woods, as we move into late summer, there’s a lot less singing in the woods but we’re still hearing hermit thrushes, red-eyed vireos, and winter wrens. We’re…

This week in the woods, we’ve been seeing a lot of Monotropa in bloom – both ghost pipe and pinesap, shown here in the company of a bumble bee. Neither of these plants…

This week in the woods, we’ve been seeing northern pearly-eyes fluttering up from the ferns along long woods trails. These forest butterflies – beautifully marked with black spots…

This Week in the Woods, the American redstart chicks we featured last week have all successfully fledged. Here’s the last fledgling to go, a few minutes before the young bird hopped out…

This week in the woods, we didn’t have to venture far for a great nature photography opportunity. We found an American redstart nest in a stand of yard lilacs and set up a remote (no…

This week in the woods, we’ve reached summer’s second act. Spring blooming plants are producing seeds and fruits, and suddenly, butterflies seem to be everywhere. Monarchs…