Sky
Why you can see the moon in the daytime sky
The moon spends almost as much time up in daylight as at night, and on the right days it sits plainly in the blue sky.
What to notice outside around Sudbury in January
Each one says when to look, how to notice it, and where the facts come from.
Sky
Sky
Sundogs and sun halos: how ice crystals bend sunlight
Ice crystals high in the atmosphere can bend sunlight into a pale ring around the sun or bright patches on either side of it.
Sky
Crepuscular rays: sunbeams fanning out near sunrise and sunset
When broken clouds and haze meet a low sun, bright and dark bands can fan across the sky near sunrise or sunset.
Sky
How the sunset point moves along the horizon through the year
Where the sun sets on your skyline slides north through spring and south through autumn, fastest near the equinoxes and nearly still at each solstice.
Sky
The Pleiades, Taurus and Orion return to the early evening sky
Through late autumn and early winter the Pleiades, Taurus and Orion climb into the eastern sky earlier each night, changing the bedtime sky month by month.
Sky
The Big Dipper never sets from eastern Massachusetts
From eastern Massachusetts the Big Dipper is circumpolar, circling Polaris once a day, though the tip of its handle skims the horizon at its lowest.
Sky
The Andromeda Galaxy in the evening sky
The Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral galaxy 2.5 million light-years away, is well placed in the evening sky from autumn into winter. Binoculars help.
Sky
Your own shadow by full moonlight
A clear full moon casts a sharp shadow. Moonlight is reflected sunlight, hundreds of thousands of times fainter than direct sun.
Sky
Northern lights on a strong geomagnetic storm night
On rare strong geomagnetic storm nights the northern lights may glow low in the north, and a phone camera can show color the eye misses.
Sky
The twinkle test: how to tell a planet from a star
Stars twinkle because they are single points of light; a bright point that shines steady is often a planet, a tiny disk instead.
Sky
The moon illusion: why the rising moon looks so big
A rising full moon looks huge but measures the same width as it does higher in the sky. Test it with your fingernail.
Sky
Earthshine: the faint glow on a crescent Moon's dark side
On a thin crescent Moon the dark part of the disk can glow faintly, lit by sunlight that bounced off Earth first.
Sky
How to spot satellites crossing the sky after dusk
Satellites, including the International Space Station, glide across the sky as steady points of light after sunset and before sunrise, lit by sunlight.
Sky
Sirius, the brightest star, found by following Orion's belt
Orion's belt points to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. When it is low, its light crosses moving air and flashes red, blue and green.
Sky
Sun pillars: a column of light above the low sun
A narrow shaft of light standing up from the sun at sunrise or sunset, made by glints from millions of nearly flat ice crystals drifting level.
Sky
How daylight speeds up after the winter solstice
Daylight barely grows after the solstice, then speeds up to about 3 minutes a day. In January most of the new light lands in the evening.
Sky
Why the winter full moon rides so high in the sky
December and January full moons climb high in the south around midnight and stay up most of the long night, the reverse of the low summer full moon.
Sky
Earth's shadow and the Belt of Venus after sunset
On a clear evening a dark blue-gray band rises low in the east after sunset. It is the shadow of the Earth, with the pink Belt of Venus above it.
Sky
The Orion Nebula in Orion's Sword
The fuzzy star in the middle of Orion's Sword is the Orion Nebula, a huge cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born.
Weather
Weather
Hoarfrost: ice crystals growing on twigs, wires and weed stems
On the right cold morning, water vapor turns straight into ice and builds crystals on thin things like fence wire while the ground stays bare.
Weather
Why fresh snow makes everything so quiet
The hush after a snowfall is real. Fresh snow is mostly air, and that trapped space swallows sound instead of bouncing it back like pavement does.
Weather
Why sound carries so far on cold, clear, calm nights
On a clear calm night the air at your feet ends up colder than the air above, and that flipped layer bends sound back down so it carries much further.
Weather
Why there is frost when the air never dropped below freezing
On a clear, still night a surface facing the sky loses heat faster than the air, dropping below freezing while the air a few feet up does not.
Weather
Nor'easters: named for the wind, not the path
A nor'easter is a coastal storm named for the northeast wind over the coast, though the storm itself usually moves up the coast toward the northeast.
Weather
Why chimney smoke spreads flat on calm cold mornings
On clear, calm, cold mornings, smoke rises a little then spreads sideways, held under a layer of warmer air above the cold ground.
Weather
Graupel: how to tell snow pellets from sleet and hail
Soft, opaque white pellets made when supercooled droplets freeze onto a snowflake. They crumble in your fingers; sleet and hard hail do not.
Weather
Why frost lasts longest on the north side
Frost and snow stay longest on the shaded, north-facing side of roofs, walls and hills, where the low winter sun strikes little or none.
Weather
How to find low pressure with your back to the wind
Stand with your back to a steady wind and the center of low pressure lies off to your left, a little ahead.
Weather
What a jet contrail says about the air up high
A short-lived contrail means relatively dry air high up; one that lingers and spreads means the air up there holds a lot of moisture.
Weather
Glaze ice: what freezing rain does to twigs and wires
Rain that freezes the moment it touches a cold surface can coat every twig, bud and wire in a layer of ice called glaze.
Weather
Why snow can fall when it is above freezing
Snow forms in freezing air aloft and can reach the ground on a day a few degrees above 32 F, because dry air cools the falling flakes.
Weather
Why frozen ponds ping, chirp and growl
A frozen pond or lake pings, chirps and growls as its ice expands, shrinks and cracks with temperature change, heard safely from the shore.
Weather
Snowflake shapes on a dark sleeve
Snow crystals caught on a dark sleeve show six-armed stars, plates, columns or needles, and the shape records the temperature of the cloud they grew in.
Weather
Why static shocks come back every winter
Cold air holds little water and heating it adds none, so indoor air gets very dry and the charge you pick up has nowhere to leak away.
Weather
Ripples on icicles
Icicles grow when melted snow refreezes as it drips, and many carry evenly spaced ripples about a centimeter apart.
Weather
Why shadows on snow look blue
Shaded snow gets no direct sunlight and is lit mostly by the blue sky, and the bright sunlit snow beside it makes that blue stand out.
Weather
Snow that squeaks underfoot on the coldest mornings
Packed snow gives a soft crunch near freezing, but once the snow itself is colder than about 14 F it squeaks or creaks under your boots.
Weather
Ocean-effect snow on Cape Cod and the coast
When very cold air blows over warmer ocean water, narrow snow bands can land on Cape Cod, Nantucket, the Plymouth County shore, and sometimes Cape Ann.
Birds
Birds
Why robins travel in fruit-eating flocks in fall and winter
Through fall and winter, robins stop patrolling lawns alone and roam in nomadic flocks that live on fruit, which can be over 90 percent of the diet.
Birds
Wild turkey flocks in fall: hens and broods joining forces
In fall, hens and their grown broods join forces, and New England turkey flocks commonly hold several families, 40 or more birds, sweeping across fields.
Birds
Starling flocks twisting in unison: why they fly as one shape
Autumn starling flocks in Massachusetts fly as one shape-shifting cloud, turning in unison because no falcon can pick one bird out of a swirl of thousands.
Birds
Great horned owl duets: pairs hooting back and forth in late winter
In late winter a paired male and female hoot back and forth across their territory, and the female is the higher voice with an extra note at the start.
Birds
The chickadee's two-note whistle in late winter
In late winter, feeder chickadees add a clean two-note whistle, the second note lower, alongside the buzzy chickadee-dee-dee call they keep using.
Birds
Crows flying to a shared winter roost before sunset
After nesting, American crows pile into one enormous shared night roost, and for about an hour before sunset long loose strings of them pass overhead.
Birds
Dark-eyed juncos: the gray winter bird under the feeder
The dark-eyed junco, a slate-grey sparrow with a white belly, is in eastern Massachusetts yards from October to April, feeding on the ground under feeders.
Birds
Crow or raven: how to tell them apart by the tail
Crows and common ravens are both big black birds, and the tail settles it at a glance: a crow's opens like a fan, a raven's like a wedge.
Birds
Golden-crowned kinglets in the pines from fall into winter
Golden-crowned kinglets, among North America's tiniest songbirds, pass through Massachusetts conifers from mid-September through November.
Birds
Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks at bird feeders
Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks hunt songbirds at backyard feeders in Massachusetts; a feeder that suddenly empties may have one nearby.
Birds
Winter finch irruptions and the forecast that predicts them
Northern finches like pine siskins and redpolls winter farther north, but move south when seed crops fail; a forecast each fall predicts which may come.
Birds
Cedar waxwing flocks at winter fruit
Crested tan-and-yellow cedar waxwings travel in flocks to fruiting trees and shrubs, and sometimes pass a berry bill to bill.
Birds
Pileated woodpecker holes in dead trees
Pileated woodpeckers chisel large rectangular holes into dead trees, stumps and logs to reach carpenter ants, leaving big wood chips below.
Birds
Sea ducks on the winter ocean
Common eiders, scoters and long-tailed ducks spend the winter on open saltwater, diving for mussels, clams and small crustaceans.
Birds
Red-tailed hawks on roadside poles and trees
Big red-tailed hawks, most with a white chest and a dark belly band, sit on roadside poles and trees watching for mice and voles.
Birds
Snow buntings: Arctic songbirds on winter beaches and fields
Small brown-and-white songbirds from the Arctic winter on dunes, beaches and open fields, flashing white wings as the flock rises.
Birds
Owl pellets and whitewash: signs of an owl roost
Owls cough up the fur and bones of prey as pellets, and under a roost tree they reuse, pellets and white droppings can pile up.
Birds
Carolina wren song: the tea-kettle bird that sings all year
A small rusty-brown wren with a white eyebrow that lives in Massachusetts all year and is one of the few birds that sings in every month.
Birds
Brown creeper: the bird that climbs trunks from the bottom up
The brown creeper is a small streaky-brown bird that looks like bark and climbs trunks from the bottom up, then flutters to the next tree.
Birds
American tree sparrows: the rusty-capped sparrow of winter
American tree sparrows nest in the far north and winter here, hopping in small flocks in weedy fields, hedgerows, and under backyard feeders.
Birds
White-breasted nuthatch: the bird that climbs down trees headfirst
The white-breasted nuthatch climbs down tree trunks headfirst and hangs under branches, which woodpeckers and brown creepers cannot do.
Birds
Bald eagles at open water in winter
When ponds and lakes freeze, bald eagles, joined by birds from farther north, gather at open water below dams, on reservoirs, and at river mouths.
Birds
Eastern bluebirds that stay through the winter
Some eastern bluebirds stay in Massachusetts through winter, as pairs or small flocks, and live mostly on fruit.
Birds
Downy or hairy woodpecker: how to tell them apart
The two look nearly identical. Compare the bill to the head: short and stubby on the downy, nearly as long as the head on the hairy.
Birds
How ducks and geese stand on ice without freezing their feet
Warm blood heading down a duck's leg hands its heat to cold blood coming back up, so the feet stay close to freezing and lose very little body heat.
Birds
Crane Beach allows dogs October to March, and snowy owls may visit
Crane Beach bars dogs from April to September and allows them in certain areas from October to March, when snowy owls may rest in the dunes.
Birds
Cape Cod National Seashore beaches in the cold months with a dog
After the shorebird closures end in mid-October, leashed dogs can walk the Seashore's ocean beaches, where common eiders gather offshore.
Birds
Sanderlings and sea ducks on state beaches once DCR's dog ban ends
In the cold months the shore can hold sanderlings and sea ducks. DCR keeps dogs off its coastal beaches through September 15, unless a sign says otherwise.
Birds
Snowy owls and sea ducks at Plum Island's Lot 1 boardwalk
Snowy owls are occasionally seen in the dunes and marsh just beyond Lot 1 at Parker River refuge, whose beach overlook boardwalk is wheelchair accessible.
Birds
Blue Jays that mimic hawk calls
Blue Jays often copy the screams of Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks, so a hawk call from a yard tree is worth a look before you name it.
Birds
The Barred Owl's who-cooks-for-you call
The Barred Owl's hoot is a run of 8 to 9 notes that people hear as 'Who cooks for you?' Barred Owls live in Massachusetts year-round.
Birds
Purple Sandpipers on winter rocks and jetties
Purple Sandpipers are stocky, dark gray shorebirds that spend the winter on wave-washed rocks, jetties, and breakwaters.
Insects
Insects
Goldenrod ball galls in winter, and the fly larva living inside
The round swellings on dry goldenrod stems, marble to golf ball size, are each a fly larva's winter room, built by the plant on the larva's instructions.
Insects
Snow fleas: the hopping specks on melting snow are springtails
On a thawing late-winter day, snow around tree trunks can look dusted with pepper, and the pepper hops. They are springtails, a tenth of an inch long.
Insects
Mantis egg cases on winter twigs
A mantis lays one hard foam case in autumn and dies. The case sits out all winter on a twig or fence post, with dozens to hundreds of eggs inside.
Insects
Small tan moths at outdoor lights on mild November to January nights
On mild nights from mid-November into January, small tan moths gather at outdoor lights while their nearly wingless mates crawl up tree trunks.
Insects
How honey bees survive winter by huddling and shivering
A honey bee colony stays awake all winter, packed into a ball in the hive and vibrating flight muscles for heat, burning stored honey until spring.
Insects
Bark beetle galleries: the patterns carved under loose bark
Under loose bark on a dead log, a branching pattern in the wood marks a female beetle's egg gallery, with each side tunnel cut by one feeding larva.
Insects
Giant silk moth cocoons on bare twigs
After leaf fall, cecropia cocoons cling to shrub twigs and promethea cocoons hang inside a curled leaf held by silk.
Insects
Garden spider egg sacs that can last through winter
Orb weavers die in autumn, but their papery brown egg sacs can stay on garden plants all winter, with young spiders waiting inside.
Insects
Eastern tent caterpillar egg bands on winter twigs
A dark, shiny collar wrapped around a cherry, apple or crabapple twig is a tent caterpillar egg mass, waiting out the winter.
Insects
Why deer ticks stay active after frost
Adult deer ticks are not killed by freezing weather and look for a host on days above freezing when the ground is thawed and free of snow.
Insects
Hemlock woolly adelgid: the white wool on hemlock twigs
Tiny white cottony tufts under hemlock twigs are an invasive sap-feeding insect. They start small in late fall and fill out by spring.
Insects
Western conifer seed bug: the leaf-footed bug on your window
A large, harmless brown bug that seeks shelter on sunny walls and indoors in fall. Look for a flat, leaf-shaped flare on each hind leg.
Insects
Winter stoneflies: insects that emerge from brooks in the cold
Adult winter stoneflies are dark insects that climb out of clean, rocky streams in the cold months and crawl across snowy banks.
Insects
Willow pinecone galls on bare willow twigs
The small brown pinecones at the tips of bare willow twigs are galls made by a tiny midge, whose larva spends the winter inside.
Insects
Bumblebee queens dormant underground in winter
After the first hard frost the only bumblebees alive are young mated queens, dormant under leaf litter or loose soil until spring.
Insects
Bagworm bags on arborvitae, juniper and spruce
The small hanging bags on evergreens through the cold months are bagworm cases, and each one that held a female holds the next generation's eggs.
Insects
Winter fireflies: the firefly that spends winter on tree bark
The winter firefly does not flash as an adult. It spends the winter as a grown beetle in bark grooves and cracks, with two curved orange marks.
Plants
Plants
Winterberry holly: red berries on bare branches in wet ground
Winterberry is a holly that drops its leaves, so by late autumn its fruit stands bare on grey twigs in swampy places and holds there into winter.
Plants
Identifying trees by their bark in winter
With the leaves down, bark tells trees apart: shagbark hickory peels in long strips, black cherry breaks into dark curling plates, red oak runs in ridges.
Plants
Why some beech and oak trees keep their dead leaves all winter
American beech and several oaks carry some dead leaves into winter, a habit called marcescence, mostly on young trees and the low branches of tall ones.
Plants
Hemlock groves in winter: less snow, less light, and deer shelter
An eastern hemlock grove is so dense that far less snow reaches the ground and the light dims as you step in, which is why deer gather there in winter.
Plants
Clubmoss: tiny evergreen forests on the winter woodland floor
After leaf fall, patches of evergreen clubmoss stand out on brown leaf litter in eastern Massachusetts woods, spore-bearing plants related to ferns.
Plants
Sumac fruit cones: red winter food for birds
Staghorn and smooth sumac hold upright cones of fuzzy red fruit through winter, which birds pass over until other food runs out.
Plants
Christmas fern: the fern that stays green all winter
Christmas fern keeps its dark green fronds through winter, and each leaflet has a small ear at its base that gives it a stocking shape.
Plants
Counting a young white pine's age by its branch whorls
A young white pine grows one ring of branches, a whorl, for each year of upward growth, so counting the rings estimates its age.
Plants
Teaberry, the wintergreen with red berries
A low evergreen of oak and pine woods that can hold red berries through the cold months, with leaves that smell of wintergreen.
Plants
Cattail seed heads and their winter fluff
A brown cattail head can hold more than two hundred thousand seeds, and it comes apart into cottony fluff that carries them on the wind.
Plants
How to read tree rings on a cut stump
A light spring band and a dark late band make one ring. Wide rings often mean good years; narrow ones can mean drought or crowding.
Plants
Red rose hips on wild rose canes
Wild roses hold red fruits called hips on their thorny canes into winter, and birds and mammals eat them when food is scarce.
Plants
Opposite buds and the MAD Cap Horse twig test
Buds in pairs on a bare twig very likely mean a maple, ash, dogwood or horsechestnut, or a shrub like a viburnum.
Plants
Why big rhododendron leaves roll up in the cold
On a hard-freezing morning some big-leaved rhododendrons roll their leaves inward and hang them down, then unroll as it warms.
Plants
Partridgeberry: the red berry made from two flowers
A small evergreen of the forest floor whose red berry grows from two fused flowers and carries two small round scars.
Plants
Red-osier and silky dogwood: colored stems after leaf fall
Bare red to purple dogwood stems stand out in thickets along ponds, streams and wet meadows once the leaves drop.
Plants
Frost cracks and frost ribs on tree trunks
A long vertical seam or raised ridge on a trunk marks where bark split in a past cold snap and the tree grew new tissue over it.
Plants
Winter rosettes: plants that wait out the cold flat on the ground
Queen Anne's lace, common mullein, bull thistle, and shepherd's purse spend the cold months as flat green circles of leaves on the ground.
Plants
Horned and gouty oak galls on bare oak twigs
Knobby woody lumps on bare oak twigs are galls grown around tiny gall wasp larvae, and empty ones stay on the branch for years.
Plants
Winter catkins on hazel, alder, birch, and hophornbeam
Hazelnuts, alders, birches, and hophornbeam carry closed male catkins on bare twigs all winter, then lengthen and shed pollen in spring.
Plants
Sycamore and London planetree seed balls in winter
Sycamore and London planetree keep round, bristly seed balls hanging from bare branches, which break apart through winter and into spring.
Plants
Tell pines apart by counting needles in a bundle
Eastern white pine has 5 needles to a bundle, pitch pine 3, and red pine 2 that snap when bent, though some planted pines have 2 as well.
Plants
Witches' brooms: dense twig clusters on tree branches
Dense clusters of short twigs from one spot on a branch, caused by mites, fungi, phytoplasmas, mistletoe or a bud mutation, easiest seen on bare trees.
Plants
Beech bark disease: white fluff and craters on beech trunks
A tiny introduced scale insect leaves white woolly wax on beech trunks, then fungi enter its feeding wounds and kill patches of the smooth gray bark.
Plants
Birch seeds and catkin scales on the snow
Under a birch in winter, snow can be dotted with tiny winged seeds and three-lobed scales from the tree's seed catkins, which come apart bit by bit.
Plants
Polypody ferns on boulders and rocky slopes
Polypody ferns are small evergreen ferns that grow in mats on boulders, cliffs and rocky slopes, and stay green through the winter.
Mammals
Mammals
Beaver signs: chewed stumps and pale wood chips along pond edges
Beavers work mostly at night, so pointed stumps, pale wood chips and paired tooth grooves along a pond edge are often easier to find than the animal.
Mammals
Reading animal tracks in snow by the pattern of the whole trail
Snow blurs a footprint and widens it as it melts, so print detail misleads. The shape the whole trail makes does not, and you can learn three in a morning.
Mammals
Squirrel dreys: the leaf nests that show up in bare trees
A drey is a gray squirrel's nest of leaves and twigs, a foot or two wide and usually twenty feet up or more, hidden all summer until the leaves come down.
Mammals
Why coyotes howl more in late winter
Eastern coyotes howl, yip and bark to hold territory and keep track of family, most often on winter nights around the mid-February peak of mating season.
Mammals
Meadow vole runways hidden under matted grass
Meadow voles clip networks of inch-wide trails through grass and use the same paths over and over. Part the matted dead grass at a field edge to find them.
Mammals
Red squirrel cone piles under the pines
Red squirrels strip pine, spruce and hemlock cones at a favorite stump or log, and the scales pile up there over years, up to two feet high.
Mammals
Harbor and gray seals resting on the Massachusetts coast
Seals haul out on rocks, ledges, sandbars and beaches. Harbor seals are mostly cold-month visitors here; watch from 150 feet away.
Mammals
How woodchucks hibernate underground
Woodchucks sleep below the frost line in sealed, grass-lined chambers, with body temperature near the burrow's and a heart at a few beats a minute.
Mammals
River otter latrines and slides
River otters stay active all winter. Look for scat packed with fish scales at banks and docks, and slides down muddy banks.
Mammals
Where chipmunks spend the winter
Eastern chipmunks doze in underground burrows in bouts of torpor, waking at times to eat from the food they stored.
Mammals
Deer or rabbit: telling who nipped a twig
A ragged, torn twig end points to deer; a clean slanted snip points to a rabbit or hare, though voles cut cleanly too.
Mammals
Mice in birdhouses and old bird nests in winter
White-footed mice move into empty birdhouses and roof over old bird nests for winter. Look at the hole, never handle the nest.
Mammals
Red fox mousing: the listening leap onto hidden prey
A red fox listens for mice and voles it cannot see, then leaps high and dives headfirst into the grass or snow.
Mammals
Northern short-tailed shrews in winter
The northern short-tailed shrew does not hibernate. It stays active all winter, often in tunnels under leaves and snow, and must feed often.
Mammals
Deer beds: oval resting spots in leaves and snow
White-tailed deer rest in oval, body-sized patches of flattened leaves, grass or snow, often several together under evergreens or on sunny slopes.
Mammals
Muskrat push-ups: plant mounds on marsh ice
Muskrats gnaw holes in marsh ice and push plants and mud up into small domes called push-ups, rest and feeding spots for the animal below.
Mammals
Shed deer antlers on the winter forest floor
White-tailed bucks drop their antlers in winter; a found shed shows a rough base and the tooth marks of mice, squirrels and porcupines.
Mammals
Weasels in winter white and their tracks in snow
Short-tailed weasels turn white in late fall and keep a black tail tip, and long-tailed weasels can too. Their paired prints show in fresh snow.
Mammals
Red fox calls on winter nights
Red foxes breed from mid-January through February and are most vocal then: listen at night for barks, howls, whines, and a raspy repeated scream.
Mammals
Porcupines cannot throw quills, but a nosy dog can get quilled
Mass Audubon says porcupines raise their quills rather than shoot them. If a dog is quilled, Cornell says see a veterinarian; do not pull them yourself.
Mammals
Black bears in their winter dens in Massachusetts
Massachusetts black bears spend the coldest months in dens and are not considered deep hibernators. Cubs are born in the den in mid-to-late January.
Mammals
Fishers: not cats, and not the night scream
The fisher is a large member of the weasel family, not a cat. It lives throughout Massachusetts except on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
Fungi
Fungi
Why lichen turns bright green after rain
Rain turns a lichen's gray outer layer see-through so the green algal partner shows, while lichens with cyanobacteria go dark green, brown or black.
Fungi
How fallen leaves turn back into soil over the winter
Under damp leaf piles in eastern Massachusetts yards and woodlots, microbes, millipedes and earthworms turn dead leaves back into soil nutrients.
Fungi
Turkey tail fungus on fallen logs through the winter
Overlapping fans banded brown, buff and cinnamon cover dead hardwood logs all winter, the visible end of the work that turns a fallen tree back into soil.
Fungi
Jelly fungi like witch's butter that swell with rain and shrivel dry
Witch's butter and other jelly fungi are rubbery blobs on dead branches that swell after rain, shrivel to a crust in dry spells, then swell back again.
Fungi
Black knot on cherry trees: the black lumps are a fungus
Hard black swellings on a roadside cherry's twigs are black knot, a native fungus, not fire damage or an insect gall, and it can keep growing for decades.
Fungi
Artist's conk: the shelf fungus you can draw on
Artist's conk is a thick, woody bracket fungus on hardwood trunks and stumps that lasts for years, and its white underside bruises brown when scratched.
Fungi
Birch polypore, the bracket fungus of birch
A rounded bracket fungus that grows only on birch, with a white to grayish pore surface and a thick rolled rim.
Fungi
British soldier lichen and its bright red caps
A pale green lichen with tiny stalks tipped in bright red, found on old stumps, rotting logs, mossy ground and weathered fence posts.
Fungi
Cedar-apple rust galls on red cedar and juniper
Woody, brown, dimpled galls on red cedar twigs, made by a rust fungus; after warm spring rains a mature gall can sprout orange horns.
Fungi
Old man's beard lichen and its stretchy inner cord
A pale gray-green, hair-like lichen on twigs and branches; it is sensitive to air pollution, and a stretched strand has an elastic cord inside.
Fungi
Tinder conk: the gray hoof fungus on birch and beech
A hard, gray, hoof-shaped fungus on birch and beech trunks that lives for years and can be seen in every season.
Fungi
Lichens on gravestones and old stone walls
The gray, yellow-green and orange crusts on old stone are lichens, a fungus living with an alga, slow growing and differing from one stone type to another.
Fungi
Split gill fungus, the fan that shrivels and revives
A small fuzzy gray-white fan on dead hardwood whose gills are split down the middle. It shrivels in dry spells and starts working again after rain.
Fungi
Chaga: the black, burnt-looking fungus lump on birch trunks
The black, deeply cracked lump on a living birch trunk is chaga, a fungus, not a burn scar or a woody burl. It can sit on the tree for many years.
Fungi
Blue-green stained wood from the Chlorociboria fungus
Fallen sticks and logs stained bright blue-green are colored by a cup fungus called Chlorociboria. Its tiny turquoise cups appear far less often.
Amphibians
Amphibians
How wood frogs freeze solid in winter and come back in spring
Wood frogs do not dig deep or find shelter. They settle into the leaf litter and freeze, heart and all, and stay that way until the ground warms.
Amphibians
Bullfrog tadpoles that spend the winter under the ice
A bullfrog tadpole usually takes two years to turn into a frog, so a November pond holds last year's tadpoles, still tadpoles when the ice goes out.
Amphibians
How pond turtles survive the winter under the ice
Painted and snapping turtles winter on the pond bottom under the ice, taking what little oxygen they can through skin, mouth and rear end.
Amphibians
Where red-backed salamanders spend the winter
Eastern red-backed salamanders move below the frost line into burrows and root cavities while the ground is frozen, and come back up as it warms.
Landscape
Landscape
Stone walls in New England woods and the farms they once edged
Almost every stone wall in New England woods was a field or pasture edge, built of glacial stones farmers cleared between the Revolution and the Civil War.
Landscape
Kettle holes: ponds and hollows left by melting glacial ice
Some round ponds and deep hollows in eastern Massachusetts mark where a block of ice, stranded and buried as the last glacier retreated, slowly melted.
Landscape
Ice needles: frost columns that grow up out of bare wet ground
On a cold morning after wet ground, bare soil can sprout clusters of ice needles that lifted themselves out overnight, each with a little cap of dirt.
Landscape
Groundwater seeps: the patches of woods that never freeze
Groundwater at a seep arrives near the ground's average annual temperature, so it keeps trickling and stays soft while ponds and brook edges ice over.
Landscape
Glacial erratics: lone boulders the ice sheet left behind
A huge lone boulder in the woods or a field is often not local rock: the last ice sheet carried it from elsewhere and dropped it as it melted.
Landscape
Border ice along the edges of a stream
After a spell of cold, a stream can freeze along its banks and in slow water while the faster middle can stay open.
Landscape
How vernal pools fill back up after a dry summer
A fishless woodland hollow that dries by late summer starts holding water again after late fall rain, filling most with spring rain and snowmelt.
Landscape
Pits and mounds: how uprooted trees shape the forest floor
A mound beside a hollow marks a tree blown over long ago, its roots lifting soil and stone that stayed behind after they rotted.
Landscape
Eskers: winding ridges left by glacial meltwater rivers
An esker is a long, winding ridge of sand and gravel laid down by a meltwater river in a channel within or beneath the last ice sheet.
Landscape
Drumlins: smooth oval hills shaped by glacial ice
Drumlins are smooth, oval hills of glacial till streamlined by moving ice, and eastern Massachusetts has many of them.
Landscape
Wolf trees: old open-grown giants inside young woods
A wolf tree is a huge, wide-crowned tree with low thick limbs among straighter younger trees, a likely sign the spot was once a pasture or field edge.
Landscape
Why many Massachusetts beaches lose sand in winter
Winter storm waves can strip sand off many sandy Massachusetts beaches and park it in sandbars just offshore. Calmer waves bring sand back by fall.
Landscape
Trout fishing in Massachusetts stays open all year
The statewide trout season runs January 1 to December 31, and MassWildlife says water temperatures stay fine for trout from late September into summer.
Landscape
Life jackets for paddlers from September 15 to May 15
Massachusetts rules say canoeists and kayakers wear a life jacket from September 15 to May 15, and children under 12 wear one on a boat underway all year.
Landscape
Mass Audubon sanctuaries ban dogs while many state parks welcome them
Dog rules on Massachusetts trails come from the landowner: DCR, state wildlife lands, Mass Audubon and The Trustees each have their own.
Landscape
Roxbury Puddingstone, the Massachusetts state rock
Roxbury Puddingstone is old gravel of rounded pebbles and cobbles cemented into hard rock. It crops out in ledges and cliffs in and around Boston.