Columns

Old-School Naturalist-

Notes from the fields and forests of upstate New York

By Marlene McTigue

Change is upon us. At 5:15 on Wednesday evening, the first traveler of the season was crossing the road.

Old-School Naturalist

Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

By Marlene McTigue

It begins earlier than you think. In fact, it is already underway.

Old-School Naturalist

Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

By Marlene McTigue

It all started with Herman.

We have shared our home here in the foothills of the Catskills with many a porcupine over the two decades we’ve lived here.

Here in the foothills of the Catskills, I take my daily walk in the woods with my trusty companion, Odessa, the anxious border collie. Odessa gets the stimuli she needs to find her calm, and I get to step into the woods and think.

OLD-SCHOOL NATURALIST- Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

The Secret Life of Trees By Marlene McTigue

No doubt you’ve heard the stories. Trees talk to one another.

Old-School Naturalist

Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York by Marlene McTigue Listening to the Night

Step outside on almost any summer evening here in upstate New York and you’ll hear a chorus of insects, frogs, birds, and maybe even the distant yips of a coyote. Those sounds are so familiar that most of us stop paying attention to who’s actually singing.

There comes a point, if you spend enough time watching the natural world closely, when you realize that not every story is meant to circle back.

Some continue on without you.

As I was walking along the trail in the early spring through the tall forest of oak and pine, I caught my first glimpse. Two mourning cloak butterflies, fluttering around and around each other in the cool air.

Old-School Naturalist: Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

By Marlene McTigue

In the Company of Poplars

Growing up in St. Lawrence County along the Grass River, our family home stood in the shadow of towering poplars.

Old-School Naturalist: Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New YorkThe Day the Woods Turned BlueBy Marlene McTigueThe woods are beginning to offer small gifts again. Not all at once, of course.

Old-School Naturalist: Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate NY- The Life Stages of the Eastern Newt

If I had to choose a mascot for Old-School Naturalist, it would probably come down to two creatures: the porcupine and the red eft. The porcupine represents the gentle, misunderstood side of the wild world we experience here, so much so that they have decided our hilltop home is theirs too.

Old-School Naturalist:

The Frog That Fell From the Sky

Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York by Marlene McTigue

I have always had a soft spot for amphibians. Growing up on the Laurentian Plateau in St.

The Lost Art of NoticingOld-School NaturalistNotes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New YorkBy Marlene McTigueNot long ago, an injured porcupine named Herman helped reveal something I had only begun to suspect. People are hungry to care again.

Old-School Naturalist- Notes from the fields and forests of Upstate NY by Marlene McTigue 

The Uninvited Rose or The Bane of My Existence - Multiflora

Put on your gloves and pull down your long sleeves, for today, my friends, we are diving into the multiflora. If you are like me, more than once you’ve referred to it as the bane of your existence.

OLD-SCHOOL NATURALIST

 Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

 By Marlene McTigueThree Years Beneath Our Feet

The Hidden Life of the June BugAs children, my younger brother Phil and I always knew school would be ending soon when the June bugs arrived. Their appearance came almost overnight.

Old School Naturalist-Notes from the fields and forests of Upstate New York by Marlene McTigue

A Walk Through the Season

Some days, if we’re paying attention, the natural world around us shows us that the season has quietly turned another page. On one late June walk through the forests, fields, and roadsides of the Catskill foothills, the landscape seemed to be marking the passage of time in wildflowers.

OLD-SCHOOL NATURALIST-Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New YorkBy Marlene McTigue

Nature’s Villains?  

Each summer, slender black wasps begin appearing around my front porch.

Old School Naturalist- Notes from the fields and forests of Upstate New York by Marlene McTigue 

Understanding Herman

There are certain wild animals that become part of your world so gradually that you do not notice, at first, how much space they have taken up in your life.

Then one day they are gone, and everything feels different without them.

OLD-SCHOOL NATURALIST-Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

The Magic of the Equinox by Marlene McTigue

The autumnal equinox arrives tonight at 8:05, the precise moment the sun crosses the celestial equator and autumn officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere.

But a change of season is more than a date on a calendar.

A note from Marlene-

Every now and then, nature quietly places something impossible in your path. A few weeks ago, while hiking one of my regular routes through the forests of upstate New York, I noticed what looked like a weathered old arm protruding from the trunk of a boxelder maple.

Before the Meadow Goes Quiet by Marlene McTigue

When Old-School Naturalist began back in March, we started by noticing the small signs that winter was giving way to spring. Remember that first salamander crossing the road?

Old School Naturalist- Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate NY by Marlene McTigue

After the Flood

For three days, it rained. Not the soft summer rain that settles into the forest and darkens the bark of the trees, but the kind that changes things.

OLD-SCHOOL NATURALIST

 Notes from the Fields and Forests of Upstate New York

Make Way for Woollies By Marlene McTigue

It happens every year. By the middle of September, somewhere along a country road you’ll travel or making its way across your driveway, a woolly bear caterpillar begins an improbable journey.

Your Invisible Neighbors by Marlene McTigue

Odessa came jaunting back into view through the woods with a coyote trotting beside her. For one ridiculous second, the scene registered as nothing more alarming than a dog returning with a new friend.

Old-School Naturalist Launches Across Five Regional Newspapers

This spring marks the official launch of Old-School Naturalist, a new nature storytelling column appearing across five regional newspapers.

The column will be published in the Times Journal of Schoharie County, Greenville Pioneer, Ravena News-Herald, Columbia Paper, and Granville Sentinel Times, bringing stories from the fields and forests of upstate New York to readers across the region.