Something Wild
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Phenology Happens in the Field
We tagged along with Diane DeLuca, a biologist with NH Audubon on her rounds of the Deering Wildlife Sanctuary. DeLuca has been working on their
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Birdsong, Translated
With birds tuning up for the breeding season ahead, here are some memory tricks to help you recognize a few of the more common songs. Robins can be heard
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Marsh Marigold
Among the most conspicuous wildflowers of early May, my favorite is a native wetland plant, the yellow so-called “Marsh Marigold.” It’s also called
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Going Woodcocking (And Making Memories)
One of the rituals I shared with my children when they were growing up was stalking woodcocks during their spring courtship display. I guess I was sort of
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If It Sounds Like A Duck...Might Be A Frog
If you're out for a walk this month, and you hear something that sounds like ducks quacking, don't expect to see ducks. The call of a male wood frog fools
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Forest Pharmacy
The Chairman of the Society of Forest Medicine at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, Japan Dr. Qing Li, studies nature’s effect on the human immune system. A
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How Many Birds?
How many bird species might an attentive backyard birdwatcher, or "birder", find? The term "backyard" means any nearby open space, such as a stream
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Solar Salamanders
The online blog “Zoo-logger” reports on “solar powered” spotted salamanders, an amphibian common to New Hampshire and migrating soon to a vernal pool near
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Unique Nests
A bird can be identified by the different splashes of color on its feathers, or its distinct call, but did you know that you can also tell a bird by the
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Less Trees, Less People
The January issue of Atlantic Monthly online reported a curious connection between the death of 100 million ash trees killed after the arrival of the
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High Perch: Peregrines Nesting In The City
The peregrine falcon: Fierce, fast, high cliff dweller, symbol of the wild. All true, but increasingly peregrines can be found inhabiting urban canyons of
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The Maligned Fisher
The "fisher cat": ferocious predator of house cats whose bloodcurdling screams pierce the dark of night. Facts about this one wildlife species have mutated
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A Red Squirrel Valentine
The latter half of February begins the onset of peak breeding season for many furbearers and rodents. At Valentine's Day, tracks in the snow increase
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New Study: Cats Kill Birds, A Lot of Birds
There's new and unsettling information about domestic cats. A study just published estimates cats kill between 1 and 4 billion birds each year in the U.S.
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Groundhog Day – All Over Again
This humble, sleepy animal annually thrust into the glare of a thousand camera flashes in Pennsylvania by otherwise rational men wearing stovepipe hats
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Two Sides To A Thaw
Depending on winter severity, the annual "January thaw" offers a brief, welcome reprieve for a few days in late January. While never guaranteed, the
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Ravens Are Playful And Smart
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Ravens Are Playful And Smart
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The Common Raven is Exceptional
The stately Raven has garnered many connotations over the years, chief among them are for the bird’s intelligence. Additionally, this largest of songbirds is also known for is aerobic alacrity - flying upside down, doing barrel, etc - and playful proclivities.Stories of their intelligence abound, including one that involves Cheetos. A wildlife biologist was attempting to trap and band ravens. To lure them in, he spread Cheetos on snow and the bright orange color soon attracted several...
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Walls in Winter Woods
Experts estimate that by 1871 there were more 250,000 miles of stonewalls throughout in New England and New York—enough to circle the earth ten times. The majority of New England stonewalls were built between 1810 and 1840. Naturalist, Tom Wessels refers to these decades when forests were cleared to pastures enclosed by stonewalls as "Sheep Fever." He calculates the mass of stone in walls to be greater than the Great Pyramids of Egypt suggesting stonewalls should rightfully be considered...
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Crossbills Coming to NH?
A poor cone crop in Canada this year is driving crossbills south of the border in search of food.As volunteers fan out across the state for the annual Christmas Bird Count, they’re likely to see two noteworthy species down from the north this year. Both are named "Crossbills" for unique bills that actually do cross, all the better to pry seeds from a conifer cone.Crossbills are nomads, and for nomads it's all about following the food. While migratory birds follow predictable routes and...
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Sincerely Giant Pumpkins
Cartoon character Linus Van Pelt explains to Charlie Brown’s sister, Sally, how the “Great Pumpkin” rises from the “most sincere” pumpkin patch. The website “pumpkinnook.com” tracks pumpkin festivals and weigh-ins from coast to coast. NH offerings this year included the highly competitive weigh-off at Deerfield Fair, the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, a pumpkin “chunkin” contest in Milford, a “giant pumpkin drop” from a crane into a portable swimming pool and a pumpkin regatta with giant...
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Azure Crescendo
Generations ago, when people lived closer to the natural world, more outdoors than in, mild October days were called "bluebird weather. "The eastern bluebirds' gentle, quizzical notes were familiar and their distinctive habits recognized. A bluebird family remains together this time of year when most other bird species disperse. They favor field or open habitat, and typically perch on branches at field edge when they feed. Family members take turns dropping down to the ground then return to...
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Moose Hunt, Moose Ticks
October is the annual breeding season, "the rut" for the largest denizens of New Hampshire's North Country: Moose. It's also the annual moosehunting season. Following the initial recovery of moose populations, an annual moose hunt has occurred since 1988. That first year, 75 permits were issued for a three-day hunt in the North Country only. Last year, 400 moose permit hunters took 290 moose. This year 275 coveted moose hunting permits were awarded by lottery from among more than 13,400...
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Thoreau Remembered
Henry David Thoreau's death 150 years ago has inspired memorial events in Concord - the Massachusetts Concord - but Thoreau passed through our Concord on a trip by boat and foot that led to his first book.He made the trip as a 22-year-old with his brother John. In a flat-bottomed skiff they built themselves, they paddled down their hometown Concord River to the Merrimack. Heading upstream on the Merrimack to New Hampshire, their paddle was eased by a canal and lock system that bypassed...
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The Annual Autumn Lament
Something in the sudden acute awareness of slanting, September sunlight, standing amid fallen crimson maple leaves and with long-faded hopes for a Red Sox pennant bid aggravates my annual autumn lament. Despite fall foliage which will again be absolutely gorgeous, I remain vexed. There are only two seasons: "summer waxing" and "summer waning." The former runs January to June. The latter opens at the dying echoes of Fourth of July Fireworks and extends through December. We instinctively...
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Goldfinches, The Late Nesters
The bird world quiets down by late summer - but not the American goldfinch, one of the most common backyard birds. September brings the chatter of young goldfinches as they follow their male parent. They beg noisily, perched with head thrown back and trembling wings.Most songbirds switch their diet to high-protein insects when feeding their young, and they nest earlier when insects are most bountiful. For example, chickadees that keep bird-feeders busy in winter disappear in summer as they...
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Comments from Mt. Monadnock
This stream-of-consciousness postcard was assembled from random entries in the Marlboro Trail hiker register on Mount Monadnock, most-climbed mountain in the Western Hemisphere. A year of scrawled fragments… Winter: Happy New Year! Today is my half-birthday! Lost crampons on hike, if found please call… Played hooky from work, a great choice. Made pee-pee in the woods! Happy Spring! Spring: Happy Easter. Rescued two lost hikers. May we continue to be grateful for Mother Earth. Nice day except...
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Hawks Aloft
Once again, it's broad-winged hawk migration time. Whirpools of hawks soon will fill the sky, riding high on thermal lift as sun warms earth. When lift plays out they stream south in an orderly, and countable, procession.New Hampshire Audubon does just that - count the hawks - at Carter Hill Orchard in Concord and atop Pack Monadnock at Miller State Park in Peterborough.Here's what Henry Walters, the official counter at Pack Monadnock, wrote two years ago on September 18:"Over 3400 hawks...
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Hover Flies
While hiking on Mount Monadnock this summer, I witnessed an odd phenomenon: nearly-motionless hovering insects with orange-yellow stripes over a dark body suggesting wasps or bees. The tight aerial formation of insects hovered at eye level in a shaft of sunlight over the trail.The “Hover Flies” - sometimes called “Flower Flies” - belong to a LARGE group in the Order “Diptera” (the true flies). Those in the Family “Syrphidae” have only one pair of wings. All wasps and bees have two pairs of...
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Dragonflies Winging South
Late summer brings cool nights and clear air - and winged migration. Along with birds heading south, there's a few butterfly, moth and dragonfly species that respond to the migratory urge.One dragonfly - the common green darner - has been studied with results that suggest there's a lot of similarities between insect and bird migration. Tiny radio transmitters were attached with eyelash adhesive to green darners which were tracked by plane and ground crews.The dragonflies fattened up or...
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Not So Common Nighthawks
In mid-August, one of the most elegant and least known migration flights begins. Common nighthawks, a long-distance migrant, are one of the earliest to depart their northern breeding grounds. Despite their species name, they arent hawks and they arent nocturnal. And, alas, they no longer are common. Nighthawks are crepuscular, a great word for the handful of species that are most active at dawn and dusk.Formerly a bird of open country, common nighthawks shifted nesting sites to urban gravel...
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Got Wood? (The Other Energy)
Mid-summer is not too soon to think about heating next winter. By August, forest trees are beginning to prepare for the coming winter. With recent attention to the importance of local food production, we should consider ways to meet our heating needs using local wood energy. NH remains the second most oil-dependent state in the country for residential, commercial and industrial heating. Sixty-three percent (63%) of NH residents or 250,000 households rely on oil - or propane made from...
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The World Brought Close
A Something Wild listener recentlyasked for a recommendation for binocularspreferably in the low- to medium-price range. Its a great subject. My favorite word heard on field trips is "Ohmygod," an exclamation involuntarily emittedwhen someone sees a bird or butterflyor just about anythingup close through good binoculars.First, some basics. Theres two numbers printed on binoculars: 8x42 for example. The first number, 8, is magnification power, and the second relates to brightness. An 8x42...
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Natural Design
We continue to evolve and learn from Nature itself. The Missoula Montana-based "Biomimicry Institute" promotes the study and integration of natural design principles and serves as a resource for students and researchers through workshops and curricula.Bio-mimicry adapts natural systems which have evolved over 3.8 billion years of evolution to create more sustainable human technologies. Elegant and functional designs found in Nature have been used to create structures, complex machines,...
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An Expected Newcomer
Theres a newcomer in New Hampshire, a bird thats wild and prehistoric in looks and sound. The bugling of sandhill cranes is common in Wisconsin and Michigan where their numbers have rebounded from near eradication some 70 years ago. That reboundfrom the low hundreds to over 50,000 todayhas likelyled to a range expansion eastward to New England. Theres 11 known pairs breeding in Maine, and a few in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York. Surely New Hampshire is next.Cranes have been sighted in...
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The Changing Forest
A recent 10-year update to US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data reveals that New Hampshire now has a slightly higher percentage - 85% of the state now forested. Yet just as our human population is aging a so-called Silver Tsunami our forests are likewise aging. More than half the timberland in NH - 57% percent - is older than sixty-one years old.As forests age, they change in composition. A higher percentage is now shade-loving hemlock, beech, yellow birch and red or sugar...
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The All-American Lawn
Come the weekend, its time to tend the All-American Lawn; time tofire up themowers andweed whackers. Lawnsneed a lot of tending because they go against a basic law of nature: biodiversity,the ever-changing, dynamic system of plants and animals, flora and fauna.
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Dandy Dandelions
Youve got to hand it to dandelions. Theyre transplants from Europe that have adapted and spread very, very well. Anyone who has tried to pry dandelions loose from lawn or garden knows they have a long tap root. Leave any root segment and the plant will rise again.
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Of Mice and Ticks- Lyme Disease Surge
A surge in occurrence of Lyme disease is predicted for the Eastern U.S. three years after bumper acorn crops in 2009 and 2010 and following virtually NO acorns last autumn in 2011. Why is that? How do acorn crops influence rates of human illness?Oak forests demonstrate the ecological ripple effects when bumper acorn crops cause a population boom in mice which translates into an increase in ticks and a delayed-onset spike in reported cases of human Lyme disease.
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Silent Spring
Fifty years ago, Rachel Carsons book, "Silent Spring", woke the world up to the perils of chemicals that promised food crops free of disease and insects, and time outdoors free of mosquitoes.The book is credited with starting the modern environmental movement.It was the birdwatchers that first alerted the scientists about robins literally falling from the sky soon after DDT was sprayed, as well as longer-term declines in birds higher on the food chain.
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The Green Rx
Forests keep us healthy.
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Spectrum of Birdsong
Mid-May is like rush hour in the bird world.Migrants have returned for the nesting season and the air is full of birdsong.As you might guess, birdsong is as varied as birds themselves.In fact, birdsong is defined generously to include any and all sounds they make with territorial or courtship intentions.Lets start with a traditional vocalization and then branch out.
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Mayfly Ballet
Its not just anglers who follow emerging mayflies. The drama plays to appreciative audiences above and below the water. Hatching nymphs rise from dark, watery depths up to the wide blue sky, a glorious curtain call and tolling dinner bell.
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Cedar Waxwings
May brings apple blossoms, a universal favoritewhether in hillside orchard or backyard crabapple. Theyre also favored by one of the most elegant songbirds of all, cedar waxwings. Theyre a social species but sedate and quiet as birds goeasy to miss despite traveling in flocks.
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Wildflowers, the Indicator Species
Lovely woodland wildflowers are reliable indicators of soil moisture, fertility and light conditions. Wildflowers on the forest floor repeat patterns seen elsewhere each spring. The flowers speak to the patterns of why plants and trees grow where they do in our forests.
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Dilig-Ant
The ants come marching, one by one, up the kitchen wall; its a sure sign of spring. These are the worker ants, females all, tasked with delivering food to the colony. Male drones remain in that colony, on call for their one role in a very brief life: mating with a fertile female destined to be a new queen.
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Flowering Shadbush
In April, forest trees leaf-out casting shade. When buds open, most tree flowers bloom inconspicuously. But some rural roadsides and pasture edges are accentuated by the stunning white full bloom of a small native tree whose Latin scientific name is Amelanchier arborea.
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Get the Lead Out
As anglers dust off their tackle boxes, its a great time to make sure that all the lead is out.Decades of research by the Loon Preservation Committee in Moultonborough has proven the toxicity of lead fishing tackle to wildlife. One lead sinker an ounce or less in weight can kill a loon in a matter of weeks.Loons swallow grit and pebbles that help to grind up food, and sometimes theres a sinker in the gravelly mix. Fishermen lose a lot of sinkers.
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The Lorax
The box office success of the new Universal Pictures animated feature film The Lorax - based on a classic Dr. Seuss tale creates a window of opportunity to consider environmental messaging to a new generation of future leaders.The original Seuss tale is beloved. I can still recite it from memory. Tell us The Lorax Dad! my kids would beg. Like all Seuss books, The Lorax features rhymes, nuances and a moral.
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A Body at Play...
Weve all seen wildlife documentaries showing young animalslion cubs, perhapswrestling, chasing, pouncing on their siblings. Observe household puppies and kittens and youll see the same behavior: young animals at play.Play is defined as spontaneous, energetic behavior with no apparent purpose or goal. But whenever theres considerable expenditure of energy, a closer look is warranted.There may not be apparent goals, but the true benefits of play are being recognized by a growing number of...
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Frogs Are-a-Courtin'
When overnight rain arrives in March, male wood frogs emerge from cold leaves and soil to migrate to ancestral vernal pools still encased in ice.Wood frogs and Jefferson salamanders are the earliest amphibians to begin the annual rites of courtship in vernal pools formed by melting snow. The early imperative to breed drives small, chocolate-brown males to pools where they begin broadcasting clucking mating calls that sound like quacking ducks.
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Protecting The Land
In New Hampshire we value rural charactera value thats reflected in a strong history of land conservation.Central to that history is conservation of privately owned land by means of whats called a "conservation easement deed" that limits future development.Its typically afamily decision. A family chooses to conserve their land so that future generations will know the land as they do.The property stays on a towns tax rolls and its natural resources are protected in perpetuity.Land...
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The Dogs of March
In March, coyotes stalk, chase and kill winter-weakened deer in the equivalent of "Lions & Gazelles." Hungry coyotes now take prey larger than their usual fare of small rodents.
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Give a Hoot
Barred owls, New Hampshires most common owl species, also have the most familiar courtship and territorial songusually translated as, "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?"It can beheard all year, day or night, but really revs up as owl breeding season begins in late winter. Owls are early nesters.Wildlife produce their young when their primary food resource is most abundant. Mice, rabbit and squirrel populations are exploding when owl hatchlings on a continual growth spurtrequire...
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Do Animals Really Mate for Life?
With Valentines Day over, lets get real about "Romance"Do any animals really mate for life?
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Noisy Water Birds
Summer visitors to New Hampshire typically are eager to hear the call of a common loon, emblem of the wildand remote north woods. Popular souvenirs to take home include coffee mugs, sweatshirts and jewelryall with a loon motif.In addition to their striking appearance, I suspect the fact that loons chorus at night adds greatly to their mystique.Loons of winter dont get much attention, but scan coastal waters and chances are good youll see a loon or two offshore.New Hampshires breeding loons...
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Antlers in the Snow
While following deer trails in snow youll find pellets of scat and tufts of hair coarse grey and white hair, hollow in cross-section. A more coveted souvenir are "sheds cast-off antlers.After breeding ends in December, deer antlers loosen at the base. Once-formidable weapons of territorial defense drop with testosterone levels in January. The shed antlers cast by bucks and bull moose each winter are often promptly buried by snow.
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