The American coot: Easy to spot, but a rare visitor in Vermont
By mid-October, many birds have migrated south, but some lucky birders may still be able to spot an American coot, an uncommon bird in New Hampshire and Vermont.
The joy – and science – of watching a leaf fall
We know people love to spend time watching leaves change color and taking in the autumn hues. And many can attest to spending time raking leaves to add to the compost pile. But who knew there is science in observing leaves falling to the earth?
Olfactory superpowers across the animal kingdom
By both emitting and sensing odors, animals can locate sources of food, orient towards their homes, find a mate, detect danger in their surroundings, and sense whether another animal is predator or prey.
Miniature mysteries of lichen moths
Getting to know lichen moths is tricky: they are small, and most are nocturnal and drab-colored. Their caterpillars are even smaller and often disguised to look like part of the lichen they feed on.
Remembering smooth slender crabgrass as a quiet engineer
Smooth slender crabgrass is often described as “drab,” and I can’t say that I disagree, though I’ve never seen a living specimen myself; the species was officially declared extinct by the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau in 2022.
Native sunflowers are nature’s solar avatars
Among the most widely cultivated and recognizable plants growing in gardens this time of year are sunflowers, members of the genus Helianthus.
Solitary sandpipers fly south
Aptly named, the solitary sandpiper generally travels and forages by itself, unlike most other shorebirds, which tend to congregate in large flocks during migration and on their wintering grounds.
How milkweed tussock moths evade predators
Milkweed tussock moths are native and common throughout much of the eastern United States, and are abundant in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The hairs of these caterpillars are not venomous, but they are barbed and serve as a defense against birds and other predators.
The handsome, but often-overlooked ovenbird
Ovenbirds sing their song late in the day as well as in the morning, and they continue singing later into the summer than most warblers. They even sing during the twilight hours and at night.
Incredible climbing vines
Woody grapevines are impressive climbers, an ability that enables them to reach sunlight with a minimum investment of energy. Vines are plants with a growth habit of trailing or climbing stems. By using a tree as a support, they don’t need to expend energy to develop supportive tissue.
Summer’s big celestial show: Perseid meteor shower
Few natural wonders are more awesome than the blazing fireballs that streak across our night skies. And the Perseid Meteor Shower, which appears during some of the warmest nights of the year, features up to 100 meteors per hour.
Cinnamon fern withstands the tests of time
Contemplating the cinnamon fern in our woods, I see in one glance the spores ripening over spring and summer, the creep of a rhizome over centuries, and the hundreds of millions of years of a lineage that has watched the dinosaurs come and go.
Bog beauty: White-fringed bog-orchid
White-fringed bog-orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis) is the showiest of our region’s 13 bog orchids, all members of the genus Platanthera.
A species of its own, the smooth green snake is a grassland hidden jewel
Most of our northeastern snakes draw their coloring from the palette of earthly tones, coming in browns, grays, and yellows. One species stands out: the smooth green snake, an emerald reptile that looks like it would be more at home in a tropical rainforest than in our northern biomes.
Jewelweed: A hummingbird magnet
Delicate orange flowers spotted with red-brown are known as jewelweed or spotted touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis). The name jewelweed may refer to the way silvery drops of rain and dew bead up on the bluntly toothed leaves or the way the flowers dangle like earrings.
As hunters, dragonflies surpass sharks in catching prey
Imagine you’re a fruit fly by the pond on a sunny day, whirring along in search of food or other flies. Suddenly, you’re scooped up, whisked to a perch, and efficiently devoured by a blue dasher dragonfly. For little flies like you, blue dashers have a 97% capture rate. For comparison, great white sharks only catch their prey 50% of the time.
A meal worth the sting
A number of our bird species, then, eat a non-negligible amount of stinging bees and wasps. So how do they do it?
The cecropia: A moth with a mission
The cecropia is North America’s largest moth, similar in size to a giant swallowtail butterfly. It’s one of several species of giant silk moths in the Northeast.
Glow-worms, blinkers, ghosts: The hidden diversity of fireflies
“Firefly” refers to more than one species in the beetle family Lampyridae. Some of the many include the Chiricahua glow-worm, twilight bush baby, Florida fishhook, double cousin, creekside tree blinker, Bill’s hitch, heebie-jeebie, quick one-two, and superb ghost.
Northeastern crayfish: Tiny predators with big impact
Crayfish are an essential part of the food web in river ecosystems, connecting to more than 240 other animals through the food web.