One Photograph: Three “Wish Birds”
March 1, 2024As 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
March 1, 2024The Atlantic salmon is a near mythical creature, long prized by indigenous people, royalty, anglers, artists, and gourmands....
The Fascinating Life Cycle of Dragonflies
March 1, 2024Warm breezes, the shimmer of light reflected off gentle ripples on the surface of a pond, the melodic trill of summer cicadas, and the translucent glimmer of dragonflies as they perform their aerial ballet—all of these images conjure thoughts of summer in New England....
Wildlife Wonders: Green Herons
March 1, 2024It’s well known by birdwatchers that green herons (Butorides virescens), who are common in the Connecticut River watershed, use their daggerlike bills to seize prey....
Below the Surface: Let’s Not Lose More Fish Species
December 1, 2023The Connecticut River ecosystem has a complex food web below the surface....
One Photograph: Birds? Why BIRDS?
December 1, 2023One day my younger brother put it to me. “How do you get interested in birds?” he asked. “Just how do you get interested in birds?”...
Wildlife Wonders: Here Come the Monarchs
December 1, 2023Each fall, as we all know, tens of thousands of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) fly from the Northeast to the central mountains of Mexico, where they huddle together and overwinter with other monarchs from across the country....
American Shad: The Iconic Fish of the Connecticut River
September 1, 2023Many areas in this country have icon species that add richness to their sense of place. The Texas Gulf Coast is busy working to restore the iconic Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, and we have here in the Connecticut River watershed the American shad (Alosa sapidissima)....
The Most Dangerous Animal in America
September 1, 2023Connecticut is at the infestation epicenter of a beast that kills some 200 Americans a year; injures at least 10,000 others; is annually responsible for billions of dollars in property damage; trashes native ecosystems; and spreads an infection that causes fever, headache, fatigue, and, if untreated, injury to joints, heart, and brain....
In the Darnedest Places: Rails
September 1, 2023In the marsh, the wilderness makes its last stand.” So wrote the eminent New England bird man, Edward Howe Forbush, now more than a century ago....
One Photograph- Where the Sea Breaks Through- at Griswold Point
June 1, 2023“Head for the inlets, where the sea breaks through,” wrote Roger Tory Peterson,* “if you wish to see birds by the hundreds”; and this 14-year-old had dearly wished to do just that. I asked my dad, who had grown up here at the mouth of the Connecticut, and he knew of exactly such an inlet....
Below the Surface- A Fishway for the Tunxis (aka Farmington) River
June 1, 2023Like a tree trunk dividing upward into branches and small twigs, our river systems have incredible complexity. The Connecticut River drains a vast, 11,000-acre watershed with many tributaries. Species of migratory fish ascended most of these, to differing degrees, depending upon which species and which tributary....
Wildlife Wonders: Be a Citizen Scientist and Enjoy the Fun
June 1, 2023Examples of citizen science at work might be as simple and meaningful as sampling water quality in a local stream for the Nature Conservancy or helping wildlife biologists count salmon that are using fish ladders to get around hydro dams and leap upstream to spawn in rivers like the mighty Connecticut River....
A Tenuous Success Story
March 1, 2023Ten meters above the water a herring gull glides and casts a dark shadow that cannot be a shadow, cannot be directly below him nor as cleanly defined in the absent brightness of not-yet-day....
Wildlife Wonders: Blue Jays
March 1, 2023They might be called all sorts of unkind (and unjust) names, like “bully,” “nuisance,” or “thief,” but I still like blue jays....
One Photograph- Great Island
December 1, 2022But from the first few dreamy days of April on well into May, where better to discover springtime than in one’s own patch of cozy, quaint New England woods?...
Peregrine Falcon Recovery
December 1, 2022The word peregrine is derived from pilgrim or wanderer. A fitting name for a species that may travel as much as 15,000 miles in a year to complete its migratory journey....
Helping Those Who Need Help in the Wild
December 1, 2022How many times have you seen an injured animal or bird and wanted to assist it, but didn’t know where to turn?...
One Photograph- The BIG Camera
August 31, 2022But from the first few dreamy days of April on well into May, where better to discover springtime than in one’s own patch of cozy, quaint New England woods?...
Celebratory Ecology- My Appreciation of the Brant
August 31, 2022Streamside walking connects us with the splendors of flowing water on our Water Planet....