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 November
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
Why your noon shadow more than doubles from September to December
From the September equinox to the December solstice the midday sun drops from about 47 to about 24 degrees here, and your noon shadow more than doubles.
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
The Summer Triangle in the autumn evening sky
Vega, Deneb and Altair, the Summer Triangle, stay up after dark in autumn: high in the south in September and October, west by November.
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
How fast the days get shorter in fall
Between the fall equinox and the winter solstice each day is a little shorter, up to about 20 minutes a week, fading near the solstice.
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
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
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.
Weather
Weather
First frost in eastern Massachusetts, and what it shows
A cold, calm morning can outline leaves, seed heads, webs and tracks in frost crystals that vanish soon after sunrise.
Weather
Valley fog: why low fields fill with fog on calm fall mornings
On clear, calm fall nights the ground loses heat, cool air slides downhill, and by dawn low fields and river meadows hold pools of fog that clear in hours.
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 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 the first ice forms in puddles and buckets before ponds
The season's first ice turns up in puddles, birdbaths and buckets while the middle of the pond stays open, because shallow water stores little heat.
Weather
Steam fog: why ponds seem to smoke on cold autumn mornings
On a sharply cold, calm morning a pond still holding autumn warmth can seem to smoke. The National Weather Service calls it steam fog.
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
Second summer: the warm spell that follows the first autumn frost
Second summer is a stretch of abnormally warm weather in mid to late autumn after the first frost, the name the American Meteorological Society recommends.
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.
Birds
Birds
Canada goose families merging into big flocks after the summer molt
Once the flightless summer molt ends in late July, Canada goose families in eastern Massachusetts pool into growing flocks that graze fields and use ponds.
Birds
White-throated sparrows returning to Massachusetts yards in fall
From mid-September, white-throated sparrows that summered in the north woods return to Massachusetts yards, scratching in the leaf litter and whistling.
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
Ducks arriving at Great Meadows in Concord through late autumn
Ducks keep arriving on eastern Massachusetts marshes after the songbirds leave, and at Great Meadows in Concord, pools reflooded through fall feed them.
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
Yellow-rumped warblers eating berries in late fall
Yellow-rumped warblers are the common late-fall warbler in eastern Massachusetts, working fruiting shrubs in loose flocks after other warblers leave.
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
Hermit thrush: the brown thrush that lingers into fall
The hermit thrush, a small brown thrush with a reddish tail, passes through in October and early November, later than the other brown thrushes.
Birds
Black-capped chickadees hiding seeds in bark
Chickadees take seeds from feeders and tuck them into bark crevices to eat later, most of all in autumn and early winter.
Birds
Fox sparrows and their two-footed scratch
A large, rusty-red sparrow that passes through in late fall, hopping forward and scratching back through leaf litter with both feet.
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
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
Hooded mergansers and their fan-shaped crest
Hooded mergansers are small diving ducks of quiet, tree-lined ponds, and the males can raise a white-and-black crest like a fan.
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
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
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
Fall waterfowl on the Berkshire lakes counted since 1946
Birders have counted waterfowl on six central Berkshire lakes, including Cheshire Reservoir beside the rail trail, every early November since 1946.
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
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
Leaf packs in brooks and the insect larvae that eat them
After leaves fall, small streams collect them in soggy leaf packs, and crane fly and some stonefly and caddisfly larvae feed on them into winter.
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
Which way a snail shell coils
Held tip up with the opening facing you, a northeastern land-snail shell almost always opens on the right. Physa pond snails coil left.
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
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
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.
Plants
Plants
Acorn crops, and why a heavy year draws wildlife under the oaks
Oak acorn crops swing widely from year to year and tree to tree, and a heavy year concentrates squirrels, deer, turkeys and more wherever acorns fall.
Plants
Next spring's tree buds, already formed at the twig tips by fall
Trees in eastern Massachusetts build next spring's buds near the end of the growing season, so by fall every twig tip already carries next year.
Plants
Witch hazel: the shrub that blooms from October into December
Spidery yellow flowers with four crinkled ribbon petals open on bare witch hazel branches from October into December, beside last year's fruit.
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
Larch, or tamarack: the conifer that turns gold and drops its needles
Larch is the only native New England conifer that turns color and sheds every needle each autumn, going gold from mid-October into early November.
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
Oriental bittersweet: the invasive vine with orange and red berries
Oriental bittersweet is an invasive Asian vine whose yellow-orange capsules split in fall to show red berries, and birds carry its seeds to new ground.
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
Norway maples: the street maple that keeps its leaves late
Norway maples, an invasive European tree, often hold their leaves longer than native maples, then turn yellow. A snapped leaf stalk shows milky sap.
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
Why dry moss opens up when it gets wet
When moss dries out, the leaves of many kinds curl or press flat against the stem. Add water and they spread open again.
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
Hitchhiker seeds: burdock, beggarticks and tick-trefoil
Burs and barbed seeds that hook onto socks and fur on fall walks along field edges, and how to sort and remove them.
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
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
Tar spot: the black blotches on maple leaves
Tar spot is a fungus that leaves raised black blotches, like drips of tar, on maple leaves, largest on Norway maples, and it winters on the fallen leaves.
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
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
Why gray squirrels bury nuts one by one each fall
Each fall gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time across yards and woods, and the caches they never dig up can sprout into oaks, hickories and walnuts.
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
Buck rubs on young trees: what they are and when they appear
In early September bucks strip the velvet from their antlers, and through the November rut they leave rubs a foot to three feet up young trunks.
Mammals
Deer rut peak: why deer move by day in the first half of November
For about two weeks, deer drop their dawn-and-dusk routine and move at any hour. It is the rut, and the length of the day, not the cold, sets its clock.
Mammals
White-footed deermice moving indoors in autumn with their seed caches
White-footed deermice move into houses, sheds and garages as nights turn cold, and the first sign is a hoard of seeds or acorn shells, not the mouse.
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
Beaver food caches: the winter pantry of sticks beside the lodge
Beavers do not hibernate, so each autumn a family anchors cut branches in the pond mud by the lodge, a food cache they can reach under the ice all winter.
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
Muskrat lodges: cattail mounds in the marsh
In fall, muskrats pile cattails and mud into dome-shaped lodges in marshes and pond edges for winter shelter; ice push-ups come later.
Mammals
Young red foxes leave home in autumn
Red fox pups born in spring leave their family groups in autumn to find ranges of their own, and some travel a long way.
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
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
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
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
Beavers at dusk from the Pike's Pond boardwalk
Mass Audubon says Pleasant Valley's accessible trail leads to a viewing boardwalk that is usually a good place to see beavers at dusk.
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
Shaggy mane mushrooms that dissolve into ink
Shaggy manes come up on lawns and roadsides as tall white shaggy caps, then dissolve from the bottom edge into black ink within about a day.
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
Painted turtles basking on logs on bright autumn afternoons
On sunny autumn afternoons painted turtles still haul out onto half-sunk logs and rocks, before moving to the bottom, where they can go months without air.
Amphibians
Why spring peepers call again in autumn from dry woods
Spring peepers call again in autumn from dry upland woods rather than ponds: a single small peep with long silences, often mistaken for a bird.
Amphibians
Red-backed salamanders under logs: salamanders that never go to water
The eastern red-backed salamander lives its whole life under logs and leaf litter, hatching from an egg in a rotten log and never going to water.
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.
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
Fall pond turnover: why ponds mix from top to bottom in autumn
A pond layered all summer, warm on top and cold below, mixes all the way down in autumn, because water gets denser as it cools to about 4 degrees C.
Landscape
What the woods reveal after the leaves come down
For a few weeks after leaf fall, woods you walk all year show what the canopy hid: old bird nests, squirrel dreys, hornet nests and old stone walls.
Landscape
Why brooks recover in autumn once the trees stop drinking
Small streams bottom out in late summer and recover as the growing season ends, because once trees stop pulling water, rain can reach the water table.
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
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
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
Native brook trout spawn in stream gravel in October and November
Brook trout are the only trout native to Massachusetts. They spawn in fall, and the eggs stay in the gravel for about three to four months.
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
Glacial striations on Massachusetts bedrock ledges
Fine parallel scratches and grooves on bare ledges were cut by stones in the base of an ice sheet, and they record which way the ice moved.
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.