Field Guide to April 2024
As grays and browns permeate the muddy landscape of late spring, summer colors lie just beneath the surface, almost ready to bloom. Strolling through your neighborhood or favorite woodland in April, you may begin to notice flashy dapples of the season’s first wildflowers. The trees around you will start to reverberate with birdsong while the ponds echo with choruses of Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers. If you’re lucky, you may even catch the buzz of an early-season bee as it forages. Here’s our guide to some of the new life bursting forth this month.
VCE is Abuzz with High-impact Bee Work
For over a decade, VCE has been positively buzzing with activity, surveying far and wide for bee species across the state. Our efforts kicked off with the Bumblebee Atlas in 2012 and reached a crescendo in 2022 with the State of Vermont’s Wild Bees report. Little did we know that this would start a multi-state ripple of pollinator work.
March 2024 Photo-observation of the Month
Congratulations to Levi Smith (origamilevi) or winning the March 2024 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! Their photograph of Bug-on-a-stick received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.
Field Guide to March 2024
March is a month of battles between warm and cold, between winter’s refusal to leave and spring’s insistence on arriving. So, here are some signs of spring to look out for this month.
February 2024 Photo-observation of the Month
Congratulations to iNat user @winterglow for winning the February 2024 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! Their mid-flight photograph of the fastest bird on earth, the Peregrine Falcon, received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.
Field Guide to February 2024
This month, wildlife and the rest of us here in New England will cross a significant threshold: 10 hours of daylight. You can sense it when you head out in the morning. Even though we’ve got lots more winter, at least the sound of spring is in the air. So here’s a Field Guide to February to keep your hopes up all day long.
January 2024 Photo-observation of the Month
Congratulations to iNat user @melissainvt for winning the January 2024 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! Her stunning image of a Bobcat in the snow received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.
Field Guide to January 2024
Although the days are slowly growing longer, life in the Northeast still finds itself in the depths of winter. January is about survival. Wildlife that doesn’t migrate adapts instead to make it to spring. Here are a few tidbits of natural history happening outdoors this month around you.
December 2023 Photo-observation of the Month
Congratulations to iNat user @c_burns802 for winning the December 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! Their photos of an exceptionally unique Black-capped Chickadee received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.
Field Guide to December 2023
Fear not—during December’s short days and long nights, there’s still plenty of life in the fading light. Once we pass the winter solstice, which strikes at 10:27 PM on December 21, more light will creep back. Until then, here’s some wintry natural history to keep you going.
