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There is something magical about fireflies. On warm and humid summer evenings, the flashing lights in fields, meadows and even some backyards are a quintessential component of early summer. Fireflies appear in all sorts of movies and stories, including a book that I just read over the weekend celebrating the fourth. I suppose it is […]

Father’s Day just happened to coincide with the first day of summer this year, and the morning of Sunday, June 21, was just about as perfect as one could want. Cool air and bright sun produced a morning of utter splendor, which was then improved in its quality by a chanced to sit on the […]

I received a lot of positive feedback on my last house wren column and I thought that it might be fun to revisit the little family and give you an update on their progress. It also happens, quite randomly, that house wrens have been a regular topic of conversation among my colleagues at work. There […]

Even when one pays close attention to the events transpiring outside, there are details that can go “unseen” for a while. You might see something without taking a moment to let it “land,” and then it becomes difficult to really nail down when something that is relatively new started to happen. I do my best […]

One of those delightful chores that signals the beginning of spring is the task of building nest boxes for the birds in my yard. For the past 21 years, I have deployed several nest boxes in the hopes of attracting bluebirds to my yard. This works because I live in an open area with a […]

With the arrival of June, we find ourselves in what might be the most beautiful season that we experience here in New England. One might also make an argument that autumn is the most beautiful season of the year, but autumn means that school is in session, and thus a point is lost. School is […]

Every spring, when the grass begins to grow, the property owner is faced with a choice: mow the lawn and keep everything tidy, or leave it be … for the bees. For many the choice is simple, but I imagine that mowing is generally the choice that is made. I have attempted the “No Mow […]

The teenaged son of one of my school colleagues was exploring the woods near his house when he came upon a curious situation. The melting of the winter snow combined with the limited rains that we’ve had this spring worked to form pools on the forest floor. Some of these pools were nothing more than […]

Picture this: It’s a beautiful day in May and the weather finally decides to cooperate. It’s a weekend, the sun is shining, the temperature is in the 60s and you decide that it is time to take a walk in the woods. Leaf-out has happened and the woods are filled with filtered light that glows […]

Thursday, April 30, was a cool, cloudy and rainy day. Though the birds were singing, it was a bit nippy outside. I had been out briefly to fill the feeders, but cameras, recorders and other equipment would not appreciate the steady mist that was falling, so I kept myself inside for the most part. Up […]

I consider myself a very lucky person to have so many birds live out the daily events of their lives in such close proximity to my home. The secret, of course, is the endless supply of food that I provide for them in the feeders on my deck. With very few exceptions there is a […]

Happy Earth Day!! In our troubled times, fraught with all manner of chaotic maneuvers at the hands of our national leaders, one can start to feel desperate for anything that might point toward normalcy. Is there anything out there that might suggest that something — anything — is still working according to plan? Well, the […]