54° / 37°Mostly sunnySunset 4:25 PM
Sunny, calm, and mild, the nicest day to be out before rain arrives Thursday night.
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.
Go see
Indian Ridge is an esker: sand and gravel dropped by meltwater running through cracks in the glacier that once covered Andover, and it stands up to 50 feet tall. With the leaves down, you can see it snake through the woods.
Look up
Monday's new Moon comes back tonight as a sliver only 5 percent lit, sitting just above the western horizon in bright twilight. Find a clear view west soon after the 4:25pm sunset and try to catch it before it sets.
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.
Go see
In the cold months small sanderlings run after each retreating wave, and rafts of sea ducks can bob out past the breakers. DCR's summer ban on dogs at its coastal beaches ended September 15, so bring the leash.
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.
Happening unseen
All summer the woods pull groundwater up and breathe it out through their leaves. Now that they have stopped, more of the rain due Thursday night and Friday can soak down to feed the brooks: pick one and look again after the storm.
Go see
A Brookline Bird Club trip led by Dave Williams starts at the Topsfield Fair Grounds and ends at the Parker River refuge, looking for wintering ducks and geese, up to 25 kinds of them. It runs Tuesday 7:30am to noon.
Coming soon
Mass Audubon's Family Owl Prowl heads out at dusk in Topsfield looking for eastern screech-owls, barred owls, and great horned owls, and kids take apart an owl pellet to see what an owl ate. It is for families with kids 6 to 17.
Coming soon
Mass Audubon's Wicked Big Trees walk visits the sanctuary's oldest giants and the wildlife that lives in and on them, over several miles of trail. Only 10 seats were open on November 8, so book soon.
That's what's worth noticing.Go have a look.