Out of hiding
March 31, 2016 - The bumblebees have been late this year and given all the bee-related calamities that have been in the news the past few...
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Sunbathing serpent
March 30, 2016 - Today's sunny but chilly trek was a combination of toil and pleasure. The work part involved assessing the management ne...
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Bloodroot, finally
March 29, 2016 - Given how warm March has been—with, of course, an exception made for a one-day snowstorm and a few minor cold snaps—I'd...
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Instead of ducks
March 28, 2016 - I trekked over to the local farm pond I visit often, and I was hoping to spot a few more returning species of ducks, bes...
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Now arriving... tree swallows
March 27, 2016 - Early spring is all about firsts, and at the Henne Preserve that, of course, started with the arrival of the first Great...
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Now we are six
March 26, 2016 - I had hoped that my granddaughter and I could have gotten out for a trek, but today, the two of us were rather preoccupi...
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Home improvements
March 25, 2016 - I've heard rumors about the return of the Osprey all week, but this gray and raw afternoon, I finally spotted the first...
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Caught in the act. . . finally
March 24, 2016 - If ever there is a more challenging critter to photograph than a Spring Peeper, I don't know what it might be. To be sur...
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Courtship dance
March 23, 2016 - It was a wonderfully warm day, and though I spent much of it indoors writing—virtuous me—I did eventually decide that I'...
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Spring restart
March 22, 2016 - For the Skunk Cabbages, the flowering season is pretty much over. The striped spathes—the hoods that kept the "hot-blood...
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A touch of blizzard
March 21, 2016 - Last night, the forecast for the first full day of spring included a lurid "Winter Storm Warning" and there was a defini...
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Spring business
March 20, 2016 - On my to-do list was a crack-of-dawn trek up Lantern Hill with a group of celebrants who would watch the Westerly Morris...
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Maple blossom time
March 19, 2016 - Most of today was given over to writing projects and planning for renovations on the home front, but on a gray and chill...
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Lookin' for a home
March 18, 2016 - There are other fascinating critters besides the prominent Wood Frogs and Spotted Salamanders out and about in the verna...
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Insect fakery
March 17, 2016 - The first bees have already emerged from their winter hibernacula, and not long behind them, their mimics are out and ab...
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Ducks—and a goose—in a row
March 16, 2016 - Another item on my natural history walk agenda is to visit places where I can spot the first migrating waterfowl. Mallar...
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Lep emergence
March 15, 2016 - These days, I have an agenda whenever I head out for a walk... and finding the first Mourning Cloak butterfly is always...
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Welcome home, Red-shouldered
March 14, 2016 - One of the signature sounds of winter's transformation into spring is the shrieking whistles of the Red-shouldered Hawks...
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Insect sacrilege
March 13, 2016 - The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and John all relate similar versions of the famous story of Jesus walking on the turbulent...
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Salamander sex
March 12, 2016 - Not too long after the Spotted Salamanders start to appear in the vernal pools than sections of the leaf litter under th...
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Big macs
March 11, 2016 - After a few last days in hiding, the Spotted Salamanders finally came out of their subterranean below-the-frost-line hau...
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Bee-ginning
March 10, 2016 - With the temperatures heading towards 70—no doubt record-warm territory—and my granddaughter Stasia in tow, the naturali...
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Fresh eggs
March 09, 2016 - Yesterday's bout of Wood Frog calling ended once the sun went down and the temperatures drifted back below 40. As is alw...
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First frogs
March 08, 2016 - After a chilly start to the day, the temperatures inched up... and up... and up... and when all was said and done, it wa...
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The awakening
March 07, 2016 - The first day of spring, as marked by the vernal equinox—the moment that the sun crosses the celestial equator and the h...
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Freezin' for a reason
March 06, 2016 - When my grandson Luc e-mailed an "opportunity" to help him raise funds for the Special Olympics, I had scant trouble say...
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Scatological
March 05, 2016 - OK, everybody poops, and as every naturalist soon learns, that necessity can often provide an important clue about an un...
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Graveyard shift
March 04, 2016 - My daughter-in-law started her fourth round of chemo this week, and while the treatments to curb a cancer that, during t...
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On the rocks
March 03, 2016 - This image is descriptive in more ways than one, although I didn't know it at the time. It's a shot of a nice gneiss (so...
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Gall-ing
March 01, 2016 - I was on the trail this afternoon through an old meadow that is giving way to weeds and small shrubs, but because nothin...
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Wood pile envy
March 01, 2016 - I've been heating with wood since around 1972, when I bought my first stove, a Whole Earth Catalog approved Ashley, whic...
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