55° / 38°Mostly sunnySunset 4:29 PM
Sunny, mild, and light-winded, the best day to be out before rain arrives Thursday afternoon.
New video
For about 150 years, Massachusetts had no beavers at all. A few wandered in from New York in 1928, three more were set free in Lenox in 1932, and the state's last estimate is about 70,000. Right now they're sinking branches into the mud at the bottom of the pond: a pantry they'll swim out to under the ice all winter.
Right outside
When a thin, milky veil of high cloud slides over the sun, its ice crystals can bend sunlight into a huge pale ring, or bright spots on either side. Block the sun with your fist and look beside it.
Look closer
Queen Anne's lace, mullein, and thistle wait out the cold as flat circles of leaves pressed to the soil, where some soak up enough sun to sit warmer than the air. Crouch at a lawn edge and count the leaves on one.
Look up
Two days after new Moon, it is a hairline crescent hanging just above the western skyline in the glow after sunset. Find it before it sinks, then look for a faint gray glow on the rest of the disk: sunlight bounced off Earth.
Look closer
A porcupine never shoots a quill: it gives off a strong warning smell, raises its quills, and swings its tail first. The barbed quills only go into a dog that pushes in anyway, and then they can work deeper.
Look up
Dazzling Jupiter and a small red spark of Mars draw within about two full-Moon widths of each other in the east. Two mornings later the Leonid meteors stream from right beside the pair.
Right outside
The forecast has rain likely mixing with snow Friday night, with the low near 32. Snow can reach the ground while the thermometer by the door still reads a few degrees above freezing, because the flakes form in colder air above.
Go see
In November, migrating ducks and other waterfowl drop onto city ponds to rest and feed on their way south. The Forbush Bird Club's Saturday walk starts in Worcester and drives between nearby ponds to find them.
Coming soon
Mass Audubon leads a 1.5 to 2 mile night hike across Wachusett Meadow's fields on November 24, the night of a full Moon that is also a supermoon. Moonlit fields throw real shadows, and the hike listens for animals active after dark.
Coming soon
In early December owls are calling to stake out territory, and Mass Audubon's after-sunset Family Owl Prowl in Princeton goes out to listen for them. Kids 6 and up can come, and seats are limited.
Coming soon
Mass Audubon sets up telescopes at Pierpont Meadow in Dudley for an evening of winter stars and constellations, with an ear out for night animals at dusk. Families with kids 8 to 17 can come.
That's what's worth noticing.Go have a look.