Adults on display
October 31, 2018 - To say that I love Halloween is perhaps the understatement of the century. The celebration of things that go bump in the...
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Ruby crownless royalty
October 30, 2018 - I didn't get in much of a trek, but with my granddaughter now enrolled in our local school for her very first day, I had...
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True survivors
October 29, 2018 - Since the first bona fide dragonflies were filling the skies some 300 million years ago, it's definitely fair to say tha...
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Fall classic
October 28, 2018 - Late by at least a couple of weeks, the colors of autumn are finally arriving. I found these stunners, mostly Red Maples...
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Avian harvester
October 27, 2018 - If yesterday's bird on the lawn was something of a mystery, this guy on a White Pine stem is an absolute certainty. The...
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Uncertain thrush
October 26, 2018 - This migrating songbird appeared on the wet lawn today, and didn't hang around long enough for me to obtain decent pictu...
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Almost autumn
October 25, 2018 - I know... misleading headline... Of course it's already fall, and it has been, according to the calendar, for more than...
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Yellow-rumped return
October 24, 2018 - As I noted yesterday, at least one songbird, the Eastern Phoebe, is loathe to leave. But with a nice traveling wind and...
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Not yet ready to leave
October 23, 2018 - The Eastern Phoebes are, most years, among the first songbirds to make it back to our neighborhood in spring, and even,...
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Impatiens killer
October 22, 2018 - It got really cold last night, and when I checked the maximum-minimum Taylor on the side of the house, the mercury—I kno...
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Armies of the afternoon
October 21, 2018 - If I'd been living in the South, this caterpillar would have been all too familiar. David Wagner's guide to moth and but...
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Searching for Spies
October 20, 2018 - Every year about this time, we pose the eternal question: where can we find Northern Spy apples? This venerable variety,...
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The first freeze
October 19, 2018 - Sooner or later, I knew I would wake up to genuine silver, and when the wind died last night and there was was no audibl...
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Unexpected hawk
October 18, 2018 - It was a chilly morning—quite close to genuine frostiness—and I headed out early to see if I could find and capture any...
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Catkin alert
October 17, 2018 - One of the more unusual nut-bearing shrubs in our woods goes by the name of the Beaked Hazelnut. Corylus cornuta is a re...
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Waiting for mail
October 16, 2018 - At first, I thought this was a small twig that had somehow gotten stuck on the newspaper attachment to the mailbox. It's...
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Named right
October 15, 2018 - Mosses are not easy to identify, but over the past few years, I've taken up the challenge and gotten pretty decent on a...
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Skeeter maximus
October 13, 2018 - The cold snap was short-lived and it never actually got below the freezing mark. So the insects received merely an incon...
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Woodstove time
October 13, 2018 - There was a little rain this morning, and when the clouds disappeared around noon, the weather took the last of the warm...
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Porcelain problem
October 12, 2018 - I had to be in New Haven today, but I had some time and good weather on the way home, so I stopped at one of my favorite...
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Where tree frogs dwell
October 11, 2018 - The recent rains and the omnipresent warmth have been just great for the mosquitoes, and, with the threat of awful mosqu...
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A touch of spice
October 10, 2018 - The foliage colors of autumn may, for a variety of reasons, be especially subdued this year, but that doesn't mean there...
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The color purple
October 08, 2018 - One of the most eye-catching mushrooms in our woods is currently popping up just about everywhere you look. The Viscid P...
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Premier witch
October 08, 2018 - it certainly hasn't felt much like fall, what with mostly way warmer than usual temperatures and almost AC-requiring hig...
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Dog day afternoon
October 07, 2018 - You never know what you'll find on a run-of-the-mill trek, but since I was with several botanist friends on the anything...
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Flower pot serpent
October 06, 2018 - In addition to trying to get out for the daily aerobic trek mandated by my cardiac team, I'm making an effort to tackle...
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Red menace
October 05, 2018 - Sometimes discoveries require drives to somewhat distant trails followed by long hikes to likely spots. Other times, all...
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Mottling saved
October 04, 2018 - I'm not sure the dragonflies are quite on the move yet—well, the ones that will be traveling southeast soon enough—but t...
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Horn o' plenty
October 03, 2018 - The abundance and diversity of local mushrooms continues to increase around here, what with our frequent rains and tempe...
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Marginalized
October 02, 2018 - Gradually, very gradually, I'm getting better with the ferns. I probably know at least a dozen pretty darn well, which i...
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Natural pest control
October 01, 2018 - Not all insects are bugs, of course, but this spiny critter that I noticed lying calmly in ambush in the last of the Hyd...
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