Bent down in an apple field searching for a lost earring, I found a different treasure: a stout mouse-like animal, with a short tail and stubby...
Each fall, thousands of broad-winged hawks soar across the New England sky in flocks known as kettles, on their way to wintering grounds in South...
Some people have life birds, species of birds they’ve waited their whole lives to see in the wild. I don’t have one of these, but I do have a life...
Sometimes it pays to be an insomniac. One frigid winter night, I climbed out of my restless bed and slipped outside to stand under a sky littered...
I fall in love easily. I’ve been mad about river otters and star-nosed moles, and of course the venomous short-tailed shrew. But my first love was...
Freshwater mussels are not exactly charismatic. They don’t flit gracefully about like a Karner blue butterfly, or munch on clover like a cottontail...
I’ve taken to wandering the night lately — one of the pleasures of having a puppy. Willow, my pup, and I walk at all hours, from twilight to...
The northern watersnake, Nerodia sipedon, has a lot going against it in the eyes of most people. I’ve watched this medium- to large-sized snake...
I have always admired turtles and their armored ways; how they bask in the sun and retreat when the world is too much. Last summer, through the...