Third Week of June 

Mother common mergansers are teaching their downy chicks to fish. 

Sometimes young great horned owls tumble from the nest before they can fly and are fed on the ground by both parents. 

White admirals, the dark butterflies with a white  band across their wings, are out. The larvae feed on yellow birch, aspens, and basswood, among other trees.  

Fourth Week of June 

Those annoying no-see-ums that are plaguing us now don't limit their feeding to human blood. They also take blood from the wing veins of moths and dragonflies. 

From now through August, leopard frogs will live away from ponds in meadows or damp woodlands. 

A 47-foot maple tree has 177,000 leaves and 675 sq meters of surface area. Two hundred and twenty liters of water move through the tree every hour on a sunny day. 

These listing are based on observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on your latitude, elevation - and the weather.

Our reaction to the word 'parasite' is usually one of disgust. After all, aren't parasites the creepy, revolting little creatures that burrow into animals' bodies and spread through unclean substances like blood, guts, and excrement? Don't parasites kill things...

Download the Article  

The Thunderstorm Mill: Making Lumber the Old-Fashioned Way, Elinor Osborn 

Osborn's article sheds light on an early chapter in the story of northeastern lumbering-the era of the water-powered sawmill. Help your students discover the logging history of your area. Students can divide into research teams to investigate aspects of regional lumber heritage, including technological innovations to the lumber industry (in tree felling, transportation, and milling), ecological changes brought about by logging, present-day logging industry, and any other topics your students identify as important. Were there water-powered sawmills along rivers in your region? How did forest cover change over time? Are there historic photographs in community archives that show old-time logging and milling? Are there community elders who were involved in early logging and milling? If yes, have students interview them, or invite them into the classroom to tell their stories. If your community has remnants of historic logging operations (water-powered mills, old logging railroad grades, and so on), have students visit and photograph them.  

Encourage students to develop an engaging display that brings your area's logging history to life, using photographs, dioramas, actual artifacts, time lines, and so on. Place it on display at your local library or other community meeting place.

Books: Timberrr!: A History of Logging in New England, by Mary Morton Cowan. Millbrook Press: 2003. This excellent book is appropriate for middle school students.

Logging and Lumbering in Maine, by Donald A. Wilson. Arcadia Publishing: 2001.

Tall Trees, Tough Men: A Vivid, Anecdotal History of Logging and Log-Driving in New England, Robert E. Pike. Norton & Company: 1999.

Download the Teacher's Guide 

(This activity is on page 2)  

Download the Article:

The Thunderstorm Mill: Making Lumber the Old-Fashioned Way     

Click here for the complete Teacher's Guide Archive! 

Our friend Elinor Osborn took this surreal picture. What is it?

Every other week we run a photo of something unusual found in the woods. Guess what it is and you'll be eligible to win a copy of The Outside Story, a paperback collection of our Outside Story newspaper columns. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner's name, will appear in next week's column. 

We'll only say that yes, you do know what it is. Maybe this will be the week we'll finally get to keep our book.