Last Saturday, Leslie and I presented a lecture about shrubs and the importance of shrubland habitat. There are roughly 40 bird species in the Northeast that use shrubland and a …
What can a shrub do for you?
Going Fishing
This Saturday, February 20th, our winter lecture will focus on ocean fisheries. This topic is of interest for myriad reasons, the strongest being that I’ve always enjoyed going fishing, especially …
Winter Returns
I hope you were able to enjoy the spring-like weather while it was here, but alas, winter has returned. Time to get out the snowshoes (well, maybe not just yet …
Welcome to the Graveyard
Many old cemeteries are well known nowadays as arboretums or bird sanctuaries, albeit not their original purpose. Some well-known examples are Mount Auburn in Cambridge, or Swan Point in Providence. …
MADCapHorse
My Norcross co-blogger and I coach a Massachusetts Envirothon team – a statewide, hands-on, environmental “Olympics” challenge for high-school aged students. One of the topics they must master is tree …
Stone Structures
If you live in New England, you’ve seen them. Stone walls, cellar holes, cairns, wells- many different structures made of stone. Some may take them for granted and some others …
The Butterfly King
When I logged in on Saturday January 9th, I was greeted with a Google doodle of a Monarch Butterfly. This date marks the day the overwintering site of this regal …
What’s in your feeder?
Last Monday was the Sturbridge Christmas Bird Count (I’ll post those results soon). In addition to counting the hundreds of ducks on Hamilton Reservoir (in my hometown of Holland), I …
Oh, Deer!
When I started working here at Norcross, I would always giggle while in the greenhouse. Leslie, our botanist, had (and still has) a poster featuring an image of a white-tailed …
Bark
The colors and texture of tree bark are something people are very unaware of even though they see bark every day. On a drizzly, overcast day (like today) the color …