By Anna Morris Humans often ascribe traits that we admire to other animals. We treasure a dog’s loyalty, revere an eagle’s power, and applaud a dolphin’s intellect. We hold these creatures in high esteem, whether they are spotted rarely in […]
Category: The Outside Story
Column, The Outside Story
Water boatmen: Foraging beneath the ice
By Declan McCabe If you get a chance this winter, take a peek through the icy window of a pond surface. You may see water boatmen (order Hemiptera: Family Corixidae) clinging to the pond floor. Long oar-like hind legs propel […]
Column, The Outside Story
A robin’s winter habits
By Anna Morris One January day, my husband and I set off on a walk around our neighborhood. The temperature was a bone-chilling negative 19 degrees, and although we worked to get our blood pumping, our fingers and toes eventually […]
Column, The Outside Story
Carolina wrens move north
By Susan Shea I saw a new bird at my feeder last winter. In mid-December, a small, reddish-brown bird with an upturned tail, a white eyebrow-stripe, and a long, slender, down curved bill was on the deck below our feeder. […]
Column, The Outside Story
Eastern Dwarf Mistletoe: A bomb-bearing botanical vampire
By Kenrick Vezina Have you noticed the cheery evergreen sprig with pearly berries, currently perched over the doorways of Yankee traditionalists and those desperate to be kissed? That’s common mistletoe (Viscum album), which one botanical dispatch from the 1800s called […]
Column, The Outside Story
Reindeer lichen: Food of Santa’s reindeer
By Susan Shea Santa’s reindeer need fuel to pull that sleigh full of toys, and one of their primary winter foods is reindeer lichen, also known as reindeer moss. These are puffy, many-branched, pale green or grayish-white lichens up to […]
Column, The Outside Story
Walking with many legs
By Rachel Sargent Mirus Grinning and giggling, my 1-year-old son ran across the living room, only to trip over his own feet and faceplant on the carpet. Sometimes, two legs can be too many to coordinate. How, then, do invertebrates […]
Column, The Outside Story
Squirrel talk: What does that noise mean?
By Laurie D. Morrissey Even if you’ve never ventured farther into the forest than an urban park or a college campus, you’re probably familiar with Sciurus carolinensis, the eastern gray squirrel. While it’s easy to identify gray squirrels by sight, […]
Column, The Outside Story
Asiatic bittersweet: Festive, but invasive
My daily walk around my city this fall has been dominated by one plant. It is abundant and leafy with red berries and orange or yellow foliage. It seems to fit in perfectly with a New England autumn in its […]
Column, The Outside Story
The Canada goose migration: A grand spectacle of nature
› The musical honking of Canada geese and their V-shaped flocks streaming overhead are classic signs of autumn. I hear the clamor of geese as they fly low over my house, preparing to land in the hayfield in our valley. Sometimes I spot the large, black-necked birds before they […]