This short blog provides a great overview of winter insects to look for when out and about at Stinson Lake. I have found that insects are easiest to spot just after a fresh snow, when the temperature is between 25 and 32. Please post what you find!
https://hvfarmscape.org/blog/winter-insects-1847-today
If you're interested in plants in New England, or just want to learn how to make IDs on iNaturalist, this project is for you! Come join the project at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/new-england-plants-id-a-thon-feb-25-27-2022
If you've never joined a project before, look for the Join button towards the top right of the page I just linked to. Click that, answer a couple of questions from iNat (the answers don't matter for this project), and you're in! You definitely don't need to be an expert to make IDs on iNat (I'm not), but if you can identify Queen Anne's Lace or Pickerelweed or Striped Maple or Oriental Bittersweet or other common plants like that, you can help out. Making IDs on other people's observations on iNat is an important part of the process towards getting more people involved with the natural world, plus you'll learn a lot.
And what else are you planning for a late February weekend during a pandemic, anyway?
Any questions, feel free to ask!
(Posted by lynnharper, February 02, 2022 05:52 PM)
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2021 AT 7 PM
Where’s the beef?! A Selection of friendly edible mushrooms of the White Mountains and sustainable ethics of wild mushroom foraging
Presented live via Zoom with time for Q&A. Pre-registration is required.
Click here to register: https://bit.ly/31aH6Ah
Following a brief introduction to the Kingdom Fungi, some information on identifying edible mushrooms in the White Mountains will be provided, along with a brief description of the sustainable ethics of collecting wild mushrooms for the table. Data concerning long term sustainability of mushroom foraging will also be discussed, including information on how you can get involved in this research locally.
Thomas Stoughton joined the Biological Sciences Department at PSU in 2016. He is an evolutionary biologist with a Ph.D. in Botany focused on assessing biodiversity of sessile organisms (principally, plants and fungi) using a broad spectrum of biogeographic, cytological, ecological, genetic (including genomic), and morphological data. The main objective of Stoughton’s research efforts is to provide useful information to land managers and practitioners of biology so that they can, in turn, make informed decisions regarding conservation of biological diversity.
Free and open to the public. Presented as part of the Museum’s ongoing virtual Mountain Voices series.
This information is copied from the Museum of the White Mountains at Plymouth State University Facebook page.
Participate in a project posted on the Vermont Atlas of Life
Be alert for giant silk moth cocoons on the sticks and twigs now visible on deciduous trees and shrubs.
According to the Vermont Atlas of Life, the" giant silk moths (Saturniidae) are massive by moth standards, including the well-known Luna Moth (Actias luna). In Vermont, five species in this group have been recorded: Luna Moth, Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus), Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia), Promethea Moth (Callosamia promethea), and Columbia Moth (Hyalophora columbia)."
Learn more about the project and how to find/ ID cocoons at https://val.vtecostudies.org/missions/cocoon-watch/ and join us on iNaturalist at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/vermont-giant-silk-moth-cocoon-watch.
