On a recent hike up Eagle Mountain in Milton, Vermont, we climbed to a ledge overlooking Lake Champlain. Turkey vultures soared overhead, tilting back and forth on the breeze. A sheer cliff dropped to the forest below us, a […]
Category: The Outside Story
Column, The Outside Story
The Outside Story: The life of a snapping turtle
Until 65 million years ago, huge reptiles dominated our planet – and every summer I think they might be making a comeback. The sight of a snapping turtle hauling herself onto a sunny log or lifting her incredible bulk […]
Column, The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Chrysalis Surprise: A Parasitoid Wasp
A caterpillar eats and eats, becomes a chrysalis, and after a period of metamorphosis emerges as a beautiful butterfly! Except, sometimes… it doesn’t quite work that way. Occasionally, while sitting on my deck, I spot smallish, orange butterflies landing […]
Column, The Outside Story
Doodlebug, doodlebug, are you at home?
The doodlebug waits. It is patient. It is silent. And it is hidden under a fine layer of dry, loose, sandy soil at the bottom of a small conical pit. Soon, a wandering ant will slip down the side […]
Column, The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Total eclipse of the duck
For most of the year, it’s hard to find a pond without at least a few mallards swimming around. These ducks, with their green-headed drakes and streaky brown hens, are among the most common water birds throughout the Northeast. In […]
Arts, Dining & Entertainment, The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Spicebush swallowtails: Beauty and defense
At first, I suspected it was the deer that had almost completely defoliated the northern spicebush sapling I had planted just weeks earlier. Only days prior, it had been brimming with new growth, and now all that remained were […]
The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Spotted turtles: Rare and reclusive
Named for their polka-dot-like markings, spotted turtles have declined throughout most of their range, which stretches from Maine south along the Atlantic coastal plain to northern Florida, and from western New York into the eastern Great Lakes states. This […]
Column, The Outside Story
The Outside Story: Spittlebugs hide in plain sight
Spittlebugs are the color of a new spring leaf, their bodies both tiny and so fat that you hardly notice their six miniature legs underneath. This plumpness makes them an appetizing snack for various insect predators—or would, anyway, if […]
Column, The Outside Story
The Northern Mockingbird: Master of Mimicry
When I worked on a college campus, a northern mockingbird often accompanied me on the walk between my car and my office. This slender gray bird darted from the hedges, flashing white wing patches and outer tail feathers before […]
Column, The Outside Story
Flying tigers
When our lilacs bloom in late May, pale yellow butterflies with black stripes arrive to feed on their nectar. These are tiger swallowtails. These exquisite butterflies have a broad black band along the edge of their forewings bordered with yellow […]