This Week in the Woods

This Week in the Woods, keep an eye out for nature’s fireworks. All this recent rain, combined with a forecast for hot, muggy days, has set up perfect conditions for fireflies. In the…

This past weekend, a hairy-tailed mole encountered a rock underground and emerged into the daylight above it, scampered across the rock and jumped back into the earth. It then stuck its head…

This week in the woods, we’ve been enjoying the company of little wood satyrs. These early summer forest butterflies will be gone by mid-July, so now is the time to look for them in…

This week in the woods, white-tailed deer’s new antlers are becoming more noticeable as they grow. In this buck’s case, his antler nubs have just reached the moment when they touch…

In the third week of May, the Connecticut River Upper Valley experienced two unseasonably cold nights in a row, and in some places temperatures dropped to the low twenties or lower. This…

This week in the woods, white spotted sables have been showing up in meadows and (as in this photo) unmowed lawns. These tiny (about 2-centimeter wingspan) daytime moths will be flying until…

This Week in the Woods we were excited to find a Canada warbler. These are exceptionally beautiful birds – especially the males, with their dramatic black necklaces – but they can…

This week in the woods and fields, we’ve been chasing tiny butterflies. There are two very similar looking species of yellow sulphur butterflies in the air right now, orange sulphurs and…

This Week in the Woods, we begin with an announcement: if you were out jogging in Lyme this past Friday morning, and you saw a guy in a car aiming a camera in your direction, don’t…

This Week in the Woods, light green patches of ramps (wild leeks) have appeared in hardwood forests. We most often find them growing in nutrient rich, moist soils along forest streams. Ramps…

This Week in the Woods, American kestrels are feeling flirty and should be laying eggs soon, if they’re not already. This photo shows a dinner date in progress. The female is perched on…

This Week in the Woods, skunk cabbages seem to have gotten a later start this year than last, but we found a patch of them in a local wetlands, with their bright crimson spathes just beginning…

What a difference a few days makes! This week in the woods, we’ve been hearing new birdsongs, including the impressively loud, fast notes of winter wrens. As noted in this recent Outside…

This Week in the Woods, spring has finally arrived. Volunteers are on standby, monitoring temperatures and nighttime rain forecasts, to predict when spotted salamanders, wood frogs and other…

This Week in the Woods, we decided to devote this space to resolving, once and for all, a question that has concerned generations of young researchers: Yes, deer can fly. This photo shows a…

This Week in the Woods, our shed camera trap project revealed a beautiful weasel, probably a long-tailed weasel, in the act of carrying off its mouse prey. Weasels are relatively new animals.…

This Week in the Woods, we’ve been spying on flying squirrels (they appear to be southern flying squirrels) in a barn. These beautiful little animals, not much bigger than chipmunks, are…

This Week in the Woods, we’re sharing the third installment in our apple orchard photography project: a striped skunk who, based on its defensive posture, looks less-than-pleased to have…

This Week in the Woods, wild turkeys are out in agricultural fields, gleaning seeds left from harvests and, no doubt, the insects and other small prey they find there, too. Given how prevalent…

This Week in the Woods, our apple orchard photography project continues to yield fun results. In last week’s post, we shared an image of a gray fox. This week, it’s an eastern…