Au revoir, 2017
December 31, 2017 - It's been quite a year, but as we ring out 2017 and get ready to celebrate the arrival of the 2018 model, my granddaught...
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Wounded White-fronted
December 30, 2017 - I decided to try my luck once again in the thus far fruitless pursuit of the Pink-footed Goose that other, more lucky—or...
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Suet robber
December 29, 2017 - Periodically, the suet in the suet feeder disappears mysteriously, and, on occasion, the feeder has vanished as well. Us...
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Hootenanny
December 28, 2017 - Around four, while I was hauling in wood to feed the increasingly voracious appetite of the basement stove—a cold wave i...
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Wild goose chase
December 27, 2017 - Just before the holiday, the Rare Bird Alerts were alive with the news that a very rare Pink-footed Goose, a species nor...
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On the road
December 25, 2017 - The night before Christmas, the available males—yours truly, my brother Rob, and my son Caleb—were busy with one of thos...
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A star is re-born
December 24, 2017 - Officially, I've always considered myself to be Jewish, but I've also adopted my wife's local customs, which include cel...
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The night before
December 24, 2017 - With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore:
"Twas the night before Christmas
And by the porch light.
The Winter Moths gat...
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Milkweed hunt
December 23, 2017 - I thought I was strong enough to tackle a trail where I knew, from earlier experience—which is to say, before surgery—ha...
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Anxiety antidote
December 21, 2017 - In the omnipresent chaos and high anxiety that precedes the holiday celebration, sometimes you just need a respite—and a...
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Winter refuge
December 21, 2017 - Several months ago, when the weather was still warm and I was in pre-surgery walking mode, the pock-marked edges of ever...
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Surprise demise
December 20, 2017 - Today was special: a drive into New Haven to hobnob with my friends and colleagues of the Yale Alumni Magazine over a fi...
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Quiet marsh
December 19, 2017 - I'm tempted, given how far behind I've gotten in this day-by-day chronicle, to just call it quits and start over with th...
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A wrinkle in sumac
December 18, 2017 - The so-called "road to hell" is said to be paved with good intentions. So it goes with my good intentions. Because of th...
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Making tracks
December 17, 2017 - OK, I didn't quite get my scheduling right. Turns out there was another storm that appeared right on the heels of Chloe,...
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After the storm... before the storm
December 15, 2017 - I was afraid this might happen: the need to take a break from writing and shooting in advance of the Christmas holiday....
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A lot like Christmas
December 14, 2017 - Last night, the Weather Channel and the National Weather Service started touting the imminent arrival of a storm the WC...
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Eider, too soft
December 13, 2017 - There's an old saying that describes the quality of the underfeathers of this sea duck, and it's this: as soft as Eider...
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Peeved portrait
December 12, 2017 - A photographer friend gave me a head's up on a great potential photo op: the appearance of a Snowy Owl at the Watch Hill...
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On the rocks
December 11, 2017 - To say that I don't know my lichens would be one of the vastest understatements in natural history; to say that I should...
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Oh mini Tannenbaum
December 10, 2017 - Winter Storm Benji, much feared, did not turn out to be the gale of the century. In fact, it didn't turn out to be much...
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A storm called Benji
December 09, 2017 - For one of the rare times in my life, I greeted the Weather Channel's shrill advisory that the nor'easter they'd named B...
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Going to seed
December 08, 2017 - Almost all of what passes for our landscape is in shade, and this, of course, means that over the past 30-plus years, we...
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Completely unexpected blossom
December 07, 2017 - OK, I lied... but not deliberately. A few days ago, when I noted that Witch Hazels were the last flowers to appear, I ho...
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Spinulosity
December 05, 2017 - Most of the ferns have gone to ground, but a few of them are evergreen and make every walk in the woods an identificatio...
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Seasonal sharpies
December 04, 2017 - .
When out on the trail and, more to the point, when bushwhacking through the backwoods, caution is still required. T...
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Wintergreen, spotted
December 04, 2017 - I'm still sticking to the roads for my walks—it's necessary to keep from stopping every few minutes to take pictures—so...
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Club member
December 03, 2017 - When I encountered this botanical tuning fork on my latest foray into the back woods, I was having either a "senior mome...
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The quiet season
December 02, 2017 - I'm getting braver by the day and venturing further and further into the back woods behind the house. After I'd gotten i...
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Excavation project
December 01, 2017 - Pileated Woodpeckers, our largest local member of the bird family Picidae, are more often heard than seen, and this morn...
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