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Monhegan Migration Report No. 4: Summer Weather and Summer Tanagers

Three Merlins and three Sharp-shinned Hawks chased Northern Flickers in open warfare this morning, a natural event each fall on Monhegan.

Monhegan Migration Report No. 3: The Usual Oddities

THE USUAL RARE BIRDS HAVE ARRIVED. Yeah, it’s an oxymoron. How can rare birds be usual? Well, this is Monhegan Island, after all, where oddities (avian and human) are commodities. Take Lark Sparrow and Dickcissel, which basically breed no closer to…

Monhegan Migration Report No. 2: Yellow-breasted Chat

It’s all about the yellow now on Monehgan Island. Here’s the day-two report.

Monhegan Migration Report No. 1: The Second Sunrise (Redux)

Breaking news from Monhegan Island: Yellow-headed Blackbird.

Slimy Slug Sex in Your Own Backyard

Fasten your seatbelt. On these hot humid nights, slugs are doing it — wet, wild courtship and copulation like you’ve never seen.

Vermont Rainbows

Double rainbows broke out across Central Vermont Wednesday evening. Here are a few images from my blog followers and Facebook friends.

Tune In and Bug Out Today at Noon

Kent McFarland, my colleague in conservation, and I speak for the spineless when we join Jane Lindholm at noon today for Vermont Public Radio’s annual Insect Show.

Life in Flight at Maine’s Eagle Hill Institute

From a classic field station and center for learning Down East in Maine, here’s a report on butterflies, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, orchids, lichens and some of the people who love them.

In the Rainforest: Pleasure and Peril Among the Unknown

Spend a lifetime in the rainforest and you will learn but a fraction of its secrets. In Costa Rica, the drama of life on Earth plays out on a thousand stages in every direction. So here’s a report on the beauty of the tropics, its poisons and pleasures, and the pitfalls of knowledge. Oh, there’s also a slide show.

Going Outside for ‘Flight Season’

Now begins my grand season of flight. I’m pulling the plug and going outside to chase birds and insects as much as possible until September. Maybe I’ll see you out there.

Warblers: Revealed and Redefined

Warblers are a force of nature, like gravity or sex or chocolate, like a Schubert piano trio or shooting the moon in hearts. Once you’ve enjoyed warblers, you only want more warblers. And there is no better time than now for warblers here in northern New England.

Spring Migration: The Surge Begins

The Black-billed Cuckoo beat its caterpillars senseless this morning before swallowing them whole. The Scarlet Tanagers sang for us in full-frontal view. And an Eastern Bluebird warbled from the top of a white pine. Another morning of spring migration.