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By BILL DANIELSON

It was a rainy Sunday morning at the beginning of March and I was suffering from cabin fever. It hasn’t been a particularly cold winter, but I had been cooped up nonetheless. Saturday had gone by without incident, like so many Saturday’s since the new...

By BILL DANIELSON

Every week, rain or shine, winter or summer, I try to find something fun, interesting and positive to talk about in my column. This is actually an easy thing to do, but what can be somewhat problematic is finding a photo that will pair nicely with the...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was the end of a very long day, but, because of the increasing daylight that we have all been enjoying, it was still light out when I got home. I pulled up to the garage, but I had to get out to open the garage door because my door opener had died....

By BILL DANIELSON

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded. I remember it being hot in the summertime, but I think the effect of this heat was most noticed by me in the autumn. The Thinking Chair...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was early in the morning.  I had a fresh cup of coffee and a little something to nibble on as I sat down at my computer and tried to make a decision.  What was I going to write about this week?  There were two ideas rattling around in my head but...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was a cold winter’s night and my beautiful wife Susan and I were watching movies. There was a fire crackling in the wood stove, we were enjoying good food and drink and we were both all snoodled up and comfy. It was everything you could have wanted...

By BILL DANIELSON

I receive emails from readers throughout the year and I do my best to respond to them in a timely manner. Sometimes messages pile up in my inbox and sometimes things get filed incorrectly, but I genuinely do try to respond to every one. This year (the...

By BILL DANIELSON

My selection of a writing topic is not always an easy thing. Sometimes I sit down to the keyboard and find myself completely stuck. I haven’t had an idea all week and at the last minute I still find myself with nothing to focus on. These are the...

By BILL DANIELSON

It appears as though winter has finally arrived. November and December (most of which is technically autumn) were very mild and all through the Christmas break the high temperatures were consistently above freezing. This resulted in little to no snow...

By BILL DANIELSON

Every winter I get a few emails from readers who want to know if it is normal to see American Robins in winter and every winter I send out responses that indicate that the presence of these birds is quite normal. I then go on to discuss various...

By BILL DANIELSON

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  If I could have one wish for you on this day, it would be that you are able to spend some quiet time sitting outside on a beautiful morning in a place filled with birds. Perhaps that means you are sitting in the backyard...

By BILL DANIELSON

Last week, I started a two-part segment on woodpeckers. I took a look at the northern flicker, which is a bird that is somewhat uncommon in our area during the winter months. This is because flickers like to eat ants and they like to look for them on...

By BILL DANIELSON

Most of my wildlife adventures occur outside. The fields, forests, rivers, ponds and meadows of the area have provided me with an endless supply of ideas and topics for discussion and I have relied on that sort of diversity for the entirety of my...

By BILL DANIELSON

I’ve started my morning commute to work again, and for the past week, I’ve been listening to the daily weather summary on NPR. Covering a wide area of southern New England, this rundown of atmospheric conditions and regional statistics is always very...

By BILL DANIELSON

In 1985, the piping plover (Charadrius melodus) was granted protected status under the Endangered Species Act. To make a very long story short, a species that had thrived along the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada for hundreds of...

By BILL DANIELSON

A lifetime of learning about birds has given me a fairly respectable database of knowledge between my ears. Time is the real key to this sort of learning, but opportunity can be just as important. I live in the Temperate Zone well inland from the...

By BILL DANIELSON

I realize now that I got so swept up by the fact that I had set a new personal birding record for the month of November that I completely forgot I was in the middle of a series on sparrow identification. I was all set to culminate the series with the...

By BILL DANIELSON

September is that time of year when students in the United States go back to school. It is a predictable percussion point in the rhythm of American life, and it sets the tempo of many people’s lives for the following 10 months. As a teacher who...

By BILL DANIELSON

This year has been an odd one. With the political circus unfolding around us every day, the recent revelations about the misbehavior of so many men and with the international climate such as it is, there has been little to cheer for this year. Still,...

By BILL DANIELSON

I approached the small pond as quietly as I could. This was relatively easy because of the mowed grass trail, but I still wanted to make sure that I didn’t spook any interesting creature that might be feeding or relaxing near the water. Too many times...