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Odonate adulthood

June 30, 2017 - Most of the spring odonates were late this year, but such old friends as the Common Whitetails are finally beginning to...
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Difficult position

June 29, 2017 - In addition to a wealth of bona fide bumbebees, the air is often buzzing with large, loud, and, to my granddaughter Stas...
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Sand tiger

June 28, 2017 - According to lore, British evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane declared that God had an "inordinate fondness for beetl...
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Feather dance

June 27, 2017 - I had an inordinate amount of writing to do today, so I barely got outside, let alone on the trail. But after my wife re...
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"Terror" in the grass

June 26, 2017 - My granddaughter Stasia has become way too afraid of bugs this year, so it's become hard to get her on the trail with me...
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Spot on

June 25, 2017 - Among the many insects I don't know particularly well, Ladybugs, which are, of course, not true bugs but beetles, are al...
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The Light Show debuts

June 24, 2017 - In my somewhat misspent youth, I once went to Alaska in the hope and expectation that I would be an emergency forest fir...
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The plague, Gypsy Moth edition

June 23, 2017 - The End—the Gypsy Moth plague—arrived suddenly and without much advanced warning. Oh, I had seen a few dead caterpillars...
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Protection from poke

June 22, 2017 - We're going to have to work on her hedge shears technique, but there's no denying my granddaughter's enthusiasm! When I...
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Superfly

June 21, 2017 - It's been a fine season, so far, for mimicry, especially among the flies. But since I don't keep the kind of quantitativ...
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Mystery wasp

June 20, 2017 - Let's agree on one thing: you don't always have to be able to identify a critter right down to species to appreciate it.
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Fiddling about

June 19, 2017 - This afternoon found me in the car on the way to a doctor's appointment near New Haven, and after that ordeal, more ment...
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Nature's "White Flower Farm"

June 18, 2017 - There's the Moon Garden at White Flower Farm—a delicious all-white planting that every gardener would like to duplicate—...
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The Illuminati arrive

June 17, 2017 - I've been waiting for this arrival for the past few days—the vanguard of nature's, um, Illuminati. And this year, when—a...
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Road trip, White Flower Farm

June 16, 2017 - If it's the last Friday of spring, then it must be time for an annual road trip to White Flower Farm in northwest Connec...
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The graduate

June 15, 2017 - I got in two hikes today, and while the first involved walking my neighbor's dog through the backwoods and involved all...
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Old young friends

June 14, 2017 - Everything continues to be late this June, and the absence of some of the signature species of late spring has begun to...
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True Blue blossoms

June 13, 2017 - If you want to be surrounded with glorious flowering plants, there is, of course, an easy way: inherit or earn lots of m...
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Unnatural light

June 12, 2017 - It was around 9:30 on an incredibly warm and still night and I was just about to start getting the air-conditioner insta...
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Tiger in the laurels

June 11, 2017 - The Mountain Laurel Spectacular continues apace, and most folks I talk to agree that this Kalmia latifolia floral displa...
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Exclamation point odonate

June 10, 2017 - I am gradually getting to the point where I can claim at least a modest amount of identification expertise with the drag...
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The night of the Polyphemus

June 09, 2017 - I almost missed this miracle. It was getting on towards midnight, the Sox had somehow hung on to win over Detroit—a diff...
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Cyrano's return

June 08, 2017 - The Chill is starting to diminish, and as it departs, emerging life is making up for lost time. The Mountain Laurels are...
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Mini-serpent uncovered

June 07, 2017 - The Big Chill continues, but the rain has diminished from steady to sporadic. Heck, this afternoon, the sun even came ou...
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Marvelous mimics

June 06, 2017 - With the Mountain Laurels starting to put on a show in the backyard, I decided to visit another Laurel stronghold, this...
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Mountain laurel time

June 05, 2017 - Starting around the beginning of May, I've been watching the flower buds of the local Mountain Laurel shrubs begin to ta...
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Spike driver

June 04, 2017 - By this time in past years, the June air has been thrumming with dragonflies of all sorts and every walk would have yiel...
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Happy National Trails Day!

June 03, 2017 - After lots of preparation, I arrived at the Avalonia Land Conservancy's Benedict Benson Preserve, my weekly home-away-fr...
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Double lucky

June 02, 2017 - I wrote all day, and each time I thought about taking a break for a hike, the abundant sunshine gave way to a heavy thun...
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Life's a beech... fern

June 01, 2017 - The damp dreariness continues, but I'm in the preparation phase for an upcoming National Trails Day public walk that I'l...
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