It’s Only Natural, March 2015
Looking for Antlers in the Winter Woods By Wiley Wood Deer hunting season ends in November, but a new season starts in February: shed hunting. It doesn’t require a gun or a license from the state. The point is to find antlers in the woods that have been shed recently by white-tail bucks. I learned […]
It’s Only Natural
Holding Ground: A New Approach to Land Conservation in a Changing Climate By Susannah Wood It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the news on climate change: polar ice caps melting at alarming rates, sea level rising, the oceans both acidifying and warming, levels of C02 closing in on 400 ppm, 2014 was the hottest year […]
The Christmas Bird Count
Citizen Scientists Make Their Mark By Susannah Wood On December 14, in the dark and cold of 4 a.m., Ray Belding is going to be in the woods calling to owls. For the next 10 hours or so he and his team will be counting every bird they see for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird […]
It’s Only Natural
Birth of a Fawn Bu Marie Lowe It is not often that people are privileged to view the miracle of new life in the natural world. My husband, West, and I were fortunate recently to do just that, in triplicate! While gazing out our bedroom window early one morning this past May, we noticed a […]
It’s Only Natural
Birding by Ear By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo There’s a certain lonesomeness that accompanies time in nature, which birding eliminates. It also affords a rare opportunity to glimpse into a secret natural world and observe a multitude of species. It is no surprise that birders are everywhere, especially this time of year. On a recent birding […]
It’s Only Natural
Spring amphibians: they slither, they hop, they are small and slimy, and they are important to Norfolk’s ecosystem By Susannah Wood We’d been watching the weather, and Monday night, April 7, looked like it might be good—about 40 degrees and wet. Wiley and I set off at 10 p.m. with flashlights and rain gear. The […]
Face Plant!
The wing span of 36 inches and the absence of ear tufts suggest that the owl that made this impression in the snow was a barred owl (Strix varia). They feed on rodents, which they take from the air, mostly at night, seizing them with their powerful talons. The photograph was taken with an iPhone […]
Winter Birds
By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo Most of us, at one point or another, question why we stay in the Icebox of Connecticut throughout the winter months, but do you ever wonder why the birds do? When observing a little black-capped chickadee chipping away at a backyard feeder with four inches of snow on it, do you […]
It’s Only Natural
I Break For Insects By Shelley Harms October is the time when woolly bears cross the road. I mean the caterpillars (though a large actual bear was killed on Route 44 this summer). And yes, I watch for the little crawly bugs and, if I don’t brake, I at least try to steer so the […]
It’s Only Natural
Connecticut Biologists Create Habitat for the Endangered New England Cottontail By Wiley Wood “You can’t miss it. It’s a 57-acre hole in the forest,” says Paul Rothbart, a project manager with the Connecticut State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. He is giving directions to a tract of state land in Goshen that, with the […]
