Nature Watch
Art and words by Nona Estrin Foggy August mornings with the last days of early bird song. The stage is now being set for the next season. Alternate-leaved dogwood berries join many…
Nature Watch, May 17, 2023
Montpelier, ablaze with apple blossom: Ethereal whites, intoxicating pinks, in the densest crush of bloom seen in decades. First a flood of rain and…
Nature Watch, May 3, 2023
The sugar maples are blooming! Last time for a synchronous maple bloom was 2019. Red and Norway maples bloom every year, but sugar maples…
Nature Watch, Apr. 19, 2023
Red maple and especially aspen flowers dazzling us in the sunlight! Poplar copses suddenly that dreamy spring gray-green. But wait! Everything’s so mixed up!…
Nature Watch: Apr. 5, 2023
Last night, more snow. And today, 60 degrees? Migrants still pouring north. Group after group of hungry red-winged blackbirds, sporty-looking grackles, song sparrows, and…
Nature Watch, March 22, 2023
Blue sky and spring in the air. We’re leaving the house for a lookabout when a line of heavy squalls and winds pours over…
Nature Watch, Feb. 22, 2023
These last days of February — so special yet hard to put a finger on! Is it simply the sense that something is happening,…
Nature Watch, Feb. 8, 2023
Record breaking sub-zero winds on Friday and Saturday! Scores of birds, when not feeding, burrowed down in the snow on the south side of…
Nature Watch, Jan. 25, 2023
Snow! Skis, sleds, and snowshoes come out and we remember our winter selves. Here’s why we love this season, even if it’s weeks late!…
Nature Watch, Jan. 11, 2023
The Great Wind of December 2022 knocked a hole in parts of central Vermont. There were days without power after the morning of Dec.…
Nature Watch, Dec. 21, 2022
This summer’s drought likely created problems for mice and voles, the “meat-loaves” of foxes, fishers, owls, etc. The poor seed crop and lack of…
Nature Watch, Dec. 7, 2022
All quiet now, in this moment between fall and winter. But wait! It is mating season for some late insects, and … for porcupines! …
Nature Watch, Nov. 16, 2022
Will this bird show up in our yards this year? One of our two far-north sparrows that comes south for the winter is declining…
Nature Watch, Nov. 2, 2022
North Branch Nature Center’s free PLACE program took us on a recent Saturday to the new part of Hubbard Park, with Erica Hample, UVM…
Nature Watch, Oct. 19, 2022
The trees will gradually become bare as “scuffling season” goes into full swing. Late color from understory wild plums, with their dark graceful trunks,…
NATURE WATCH 2.20.19
By Nona Estrin A snow-bound February! Yesterday, with an adult grandson visiting, we discovered what Montpelierites have known all along: Hubbard Park is doing…
Nature Watch – Closer to Spring
by Nona Estrin Ready for sap runs and red winged blackbirds! Mating starts for the tiny pointed nosed shrew, perhaps the only venomous mammal.…
Nature Watch
by Nora Estrin Days Lengthen Gray, icy weather hides the approach of spring. But by February 1 the crow flocks break up into family…
Nature Watch
by Nona Estrin Let in the Fresh Air With each successive thaw, the snow pack slumps into gullies as water runs off the land.…
Nature Watch
Is there any other time of year when I want to sit on a rock in the middle of, say, the Shady Rill, at…