Paul, One day as I was looking out my kitchen window, I observed an interesting scene going on in my backyard. A bunch of robins were on the ground underneath a crab apple tree eating. Along came a squirrel that decided to join them. The robins didn’t seem to mind – they just kept on feasting away. Two blue jays… 0

According to the New Hampshire Audubon Society, the American red squirrel is a bird (just kidding). However, the form used by the Audubon Society for the recent Backyard Winter Bird Survey has a place for participants to indicate the number of red squirrels they saw on February 13-14. A total of 1,776 red squirrels… 0

Why is the turkey, a bird native to America, named after another country? Also, what is the current status of wild turkeys in New Hampshire? How the turkey got its name is shrouded in mystery, but the most probable scenario is an intriguing story. When Spaniards came to the New World, they discovered the turkey in… 0

Lichens are plants that can grow in the most inhospitable place and in the most adverse habitat, such as on a bare rock. Their secret is that they are two plants, a fungus and an alga, that are joined in a marriage where each contributes to their combined success. The alga produces the food for itself and the fungus,… 0

A young porcupine came awkwardly waddling into my yard last summer, as if he owned the place. I walked out to meet him but he started moving toward a nearby tree. I caught him on film just as he began to slowly climb it. Porcupines have no need to hurry. They have a formidable defense with their armor of dart-like… 0

Have you ever seen the golf-ball-sized, apple-like objects growing on oak trees? They are caused by a tiny wasp that enlists the help of the mighty oak tree to shelter and care for its offspring. The female wasp, which is wingless, crawls up the trunk of the tree in the spring and goes out on a limb to implant an egg… 0

Another restaurant has hit the dust. That is, a woodpecker’s restaurant. An old dead tree that had been a gathering place for woodpeckers and other birds seeking morsels of grub has fallen down. Beetles and many destructive insects were on the menu of the “Dead Tree Cafeteria.” When a tree dies, it takes on a… 0

Reta MacGregor of Goffstown was the guide when I went on a foray to hunt wild mushrooms at Livingston Park in Manchester. She has been studying and hunting wild mushrooms for more than 30 years. Her imagination was captured when she was given a book about mushrooms and she started hunting them in the wild. There were… 0

In the Oct. 27 issue of the Insider, “Inquisitive” asked why some leaves are falling before they turn color. I do not blame the Revelator for giving that question a polite brush off. (Ed. – Specifically, we said the leaves were mostly dead now so it was old news.) In a recent issue of “Audubon,” when describing… 0

Witches’ brooms are the strange and abnormal formations of dense twigs that appear in trees and shrubs and have always been a source of mystery. They got their name during medieval times when anything unexplainable was blamed on witchcraft. Today, these bizarre broom-like clusters of branches in trees and bushes… 0