The spotted turtle is spending the winter in our wetlands and streams tucked under a meandering riverbank or in a wetland submerged under woody debris.
Wildlife Wonders: Maggie Jones on Barred Owls
Barred owls may look lovable, but don’t be fooled. “Don’t let their adorable puffy heads and big, dark, watery eyes fool you,” Maggie Jones said, “Barred owls are badass. They are fierce.”
Tracking Quabbin Reservoir’s Winter Wildlife
On a brisk February afternoon last winter, I set out to look for animal tracks at the northern end of Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts.
Connecticut River Critters: Caddisfly
One of the many things we have learned over the decades working to make our rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands healthy and full of life again is that some of the smallest and least conspicuous river critters can play an outsized role in this work.
Barred Owls in the Backyard
One of the pair of adult barred owls, East Haddam, CT.
Wild Life Wonders: Great Blue Heron Rookeries
Great blue heron’s rookeries can be hard to reach for a good reason. These big birds don’t like intruders, especially during their nesting season.
One Photograph: In the Darnedest Places—NESTS
Some birds are unshakably consistent in their nesting ways, and good for them, I say. It’s heartening to know that some lives can sustain such constancy, and thrive.
Connecticut River Critters: The Mudpuppy
Mudpuppies gushing out of fire hydrants onto the streets of Albany, New York.
The 125th Annual Christmas Bird Count
It’s hard to believe, with our commercialized, extended celebration, that Christmas was banned by the Puritans and did not become a federally recognized American holiday until 1870.
Bank Swallows
A healthy river system is dynamic and dramatic, and many river critters have evolved to live amidst this energy and change.
One Photograph: The HAPPY Accidents
Luck: the blessing and the curse.
In finding, let alone in photographing any wild and free-willed creature able to absent itself by lying low or swimming, diving, stealing off on foot, or blasting off in flight, you need that blessing.
Wild Life Wonders: The Secret Life of Bumble Bees
It’s not an accident that the phrase, “busy as a bee” became popular. Bees have always had the reputation for being hard workers by pollinating plants,
One Photograph: Writ Small
To some of us, the best birds going are those famous for their speed and predatory punch (the falcons, goshawks, eagles, and the like), while others are most taken by those with the brightest colors (warblers, finches), or the most beguiling songs (the thrushes and some wrens, some sparrows). And to others still—the “listers,” generally—the only birds worth seeing are the rarities.
Know Your Crayfish
Crayfish, crawdad, mud bug—what’s your preference?
One Photograph: By EAR
“You can observe a lot just by watching,” noted the great 20th-century thinker, Yogi Berra; and he might have said with equal perspicacity that you can hear a lot by listening.
Below the Surface: Spawning Below the Surface
As our days grow longer in the Connecticut River watershed, many a young fish’s fancy turns to love. These spawning fish have unique ways of reproducing.
Connecticut River Critters: The Puritan Tiger Beetle
One of the many species of beetles that live in the Connecticut River watershed is the Puritan tiger beetle.
Wildlife Wonders: Are Coyotes Living Near You?
Hiking last summer in Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, a beautiful 1,000-acre preserve in the southeast corner of Connecticut, my eyes spotted movement about fifty feet off to my right in the shadows of the forest.
One Photograph: Three “Wish Birds”
As a Massachusetts boy who had been seeking out new birds for better than a year, I was possessed by an unwritten “wish list” of some ten or fifteen species I’d tried desperately but failed to see.
Below the Surface: Atlantic Salmon, a New England Icon
The Atlantic salmon is a near mythical creature, long prized by indigenous people, royalty, anglers, artists, and gourmands.