Discover Your Parks and Public Lands this August with VINS
by Anna Autilio Lead, Environmental Educator In 2018, we mark the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the most powerful and important bird-protection law ever passed. In honor of this milestone, nature lovers around the world are joining forces to celebrate 2018 as the “Year of the Bird.” August’s call to action is to…
VINS and iNaturalist
by Anna AutilioLead Environmental Educator Have you gotten into iNaturalist yet? At VINS, this citizen science project has become a favorite downtime activity for our staff. When someone spots a new wildflower blooming in the meadow, you can see at least a few of us up there with our phones out, taking pictures to document the sighting…
The Beauty of Native Wildflowers
By Anna Autilio Lead Environmental Educator In 2018, we mark the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the most powerful and important bird-protection law ever passed. In honor of this milestone, nature lovers around the world are joining forces to celebrate 2018 as the “Year of the Bird.” March’s call to action is to cultivate…
Look For It Now: Late-autumn meadows
Late November finds Vermont meadows in their brown and brittle glory. Tall, oat-colored grasses bowing their heads, heavy with seed; wildflowers — long succumbed to frost — curled up and gray, readily giving up their remaining seeds to the wind. A friend of mine said recently that early autumn in Vermont — with its showy…
Look For It Now: Wildflowers Seeding Out
This time of year, the late-summer wildflowers you savored in August and September are seeding out. Some become almost unrecognizable this time of year, having turned the autumnal tones of yellow and brown and replacing showy flower heads with seed pods of all shapes and sizes. You’re probably familiar with common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca): a…
Look For It Now: Spiked Lobelia
In July, it’s easy to overlook many of Vermont’s smaller wildflowers as the showstoppers — wild bergamot, Queen Anne’s lace, Black-eyed Susans and purple loosestrife — gain height and vie for bees’ attention with their bright colors and big flower heads. But a closer look at the forest floor and in-between meadow stalks reveals some…
Look For It Now: Dutchman’s Breeches
Until a few days ago, Dutchman’s breeches were, for me, a wildflower of mythical proportions. Surely a flower that resembles miniature pantaloons hanging upside-down from a clothesline could not grow plainly out in the woods of good old Vermont. But on a recent walk along a dirt road, scads of Dutchman’s breeches could be found,…
Look For It Now: Spring Flora
A few days ago, on an evening hike in the woods behind my Vermont home, the first signs of floral life poked through the damp carpet of last falls’ leaves. My hike was accompanied by the songs and calls of a wood thrush, a pileated woodpecker, a white-throated sparrow, robins and countless chickadees. I also…
Look For It Now: Banded Garden Spider
Autumn is nipping at this summer’s heels, but don’t put your field guides away just yet! There’s still time to take in plenty of flora and fauna in our own backyards. The meadow here at VINS is full of bright and hardy flowering plants and flowers. Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and great lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)…
Look For It Now: White Wood Aster
This late-summer native flower looks almost like an early snowfall dusting the forest floors of Vermont. You can find white wood aster (Eurybia divaricata) sprinkled about edges of the woods, growing 1 to 3 feet tall. The flower has white rays encircling a yellow center that reddens over time. The plant’s leaves have a narrow…
