History, Natural History & the Arts
A stunning moth visits my deck in late summer. At an inch long, it doesn’t have the stature of a luna or cecropia moth, but the brilliant gradient of vermilion to gold across its wings and body, offset with contrasting black bars, is eye-catching.
It’s a painted lichen moth, a member of a group of small moths whose caterpillars are known for feeding on lichens. [Read more…] about The Miniature Mysteries of Lichen Moths
New York State is facing a historic “Super El Niño” for the upcoming 2026–2027 winter season, with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center placing the odds of a very strong event lasting through winter at over 90%.
This rare atmospheric pattern is shaping-up to be one of the most intense on record and indicates that winter in New York will likely feature milder overall temperatures, reduced total seasonal snowfall, and an elevated risk for large coastal storms. [Read more…] about The Winter Outlook & An El Nino Update
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will permanently close its Philadelphia museum to the public on Sunday, September 27, 2026. “For nearly 200 years, the museum has been a welcoming space, creating memories for generations of families, schoolchildren, nature lovers and scientists,” an announcement made to the public says. “The Academy is more, however, than the galleries and display areas. Our collections containing more than 19 million specimens and our critical scientific research must be prioritized.” [Read more…] about One of America’s Oldest Natural History Museums Closing
Celestial events are among the oldest and most profound human experiences of the cosmos, inspiring stories as grand as the sky is wide to explain the marvelous spectacles that arch overhead. Few natural wonders are more awesome than the blazing fireballs that streak across our night skies.
And the Perseid meteor shower, which appears during some of the warmest nights of the year, features up to 100 meteors per hour. [Read more…] about The Perseids: Summer’s Big Celestial Show
Imagine you’re a fruit fly by a pond on a sunny day, whirring along in search of food or other flies. Suddenly, you’re scooped up, whisked to a perch, and efficiently devoured by a blue dasher dragonfly. For little flies like you, blue dashers have a 97 percent capture rate. For comparison, great white sharks only catch their prey 50 percent of the time. What makes dragonflies such successful hunters?
Stacey Combes and graduate student Christofer Brothers film dragonflies hunting inside a greenhouse to learn more about their technique. Combes and Brothers focus on “perchers,” species that wait on perches and take short flights to nab prey. [Read more…] about Dangerous Dragonflies: Fast & Furious
Strung Up: How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children (Beacon Press, 2026) examines how the lynching of Black children became not an aberration, but a normalized feature of American racial violence.
Drawing on meticulous archival research Strung Up traces how white supremacy trained itself socially, culturally, and psychologically to tolerate and ritualize the destruction of Black childhood, including the unborn. [Read more…] about ‘Strung Up’ Explains How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children
Snapshot NY, a citizen science program created by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University in 2025, will begin Year Two in July.
The innovative program, which enables the public to participate in the state’s efforts to monitor wildlife by deploying privately-owned trail cameras, has already enlisted more than 800 volunteers. [Read more…] about Snapshot NY Citizen Science Wildlife Monitoring Project
The Black-Crowned Night Heron, historically the most abundant wading bird in New York Harbor and an important environmental indicator, is vanishing fast, according to new research led by NYC Bird Alliance and published today the scientific journal Conservation Science and Practice. The study confirms that local Black-Crowned Night Heron populations have declined by 55% in just 22 years. [Read more…] about NY Harbor’s Black-Crowned Night Herons Could Vanish
The annual Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative State of the Lake meeting was held in March in Burlington, Vermont. The meeting offered an opportunity for the public to learn about the ongoing research and angling opportunities that exist on Lake Champlain and is now available online. [Read more…] about 2026 State of Lake Champlain Fisheries
A canoeist paddling toward the center of Middle Saranac Lake can still hear the dull, monotonous roar of car and truck traffic. Are there any places left in the Adirondacks that could still be considered remote, far removed from the sounds and sights of urbanized America? And if so, how many?
That is what a group of environmental protection organizations – the Adirondack Council, Adirondack Wild, Adirondack Wilderness Advocates and the Rewilding Institute – hope the Adirondack Park Agency and the Department of Environmental Conservation can determine. [Read more…] about Measuring and Protecting Adirondack Park Remote Places
One of the great joys of early May in the Northeast is the dawn-break aubade of songbirds returning to summer habitats or passing through to their nesting grounds in higher latitudes.
Mornings that only a month ago were silent – save the croaking crows and shrieking blue jays – are now filled with a polyphonic chorus of trills, chirrs, and fluted arias that quicken both body and soul. [Read more…] about Songbirds Struggle With Noise Pollution
Every year I know that spring has arrived when it’s time for my family to forage for ramps on a two-acre patch on the hill above my house. We have just a few weeks to enjoy their spiciness before they disappear from the landscape, along with other spring ephemerals.
While we prize many spring ephemerals for their fleeting beauty – flourishing before the overstory trees leaf out, then dying back as the shade season begins – they also are important to nutrient cycling in woodlands. [Read more…] about Forest Spring Ephemerals & The Vernal Dam Hypothesis
New York Attorney General Letitia James and 20 other attorneys general today filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block sweeping new funding conditions imposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that they say jeopardize billions of dollars in funding for critical state programs.
The lawsuit challenges USDA’s new “2026 Conditions,” which force states to comply with vague and arguably unlawful policy requirements or risk losing essential funding for programs that feed families, support farmers, and protect communities. Attorney General James and the coalition are asking the court to block these conditions and protect states’ access to funding already approved by Congress. [Read more…] about Attorneys General Sue Trump Regime Over USDA Funding Conditions
![Beryl (/ˈbɛrəl/ BERR-əl) is a mineral composed of beryllium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula Be3Al2(SiO3)6.[6] Well-known varieties of beryl include emerald and aquamarine.](https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Mineral-Beryl-e1774449180809.jpg)
Wiley, which calls itself “a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation and learning,” has announced a new collaborative project with the American Museum of Natural History to extend access to the Museum’s renowned mineral collection to scientists around the world.
This new project, a Raman spectral database, serves the museum’s mission to disseminate knowledge about the natural world “through scientific research and education.” [Read more…] about Spectral Database Planned for Museum of Natural History Mineral Collection
Light in the evening brings the first sign of spring’s arrival. Before the snow has fully melted or any scraps of green start to appear, those lengthening days are a promise. Just when I’ve forgotten the world was ever anything except cold and gray, I’ll step outside into a mauve six o’clock sunset and remind myself to be patient.
Soon the salamanders will be stirring in the leaf litter, the fiddleheads will poke their sleepy heads above the ground, and color will return. But how does the forest know when spring has truly arrived? [Read more…] about The Lengthening Days of Spring
The New York State Board of Regents has approved a new statewide requirement to integrate climate education across K–12 classrooms.
With the decision, New York becomes only the second state in the nation, following New Jersey, to require comprehensive climate education across all grade levels. [Read more…] about New York State Approves K–12 Climate Education Requirement
Mile-long Trout Brook cuts downhill through heavily bouldered glacial moraine. Like any woodland brook, it features waterfalls, cascades, pools, and coves.
By mid-December it is usually frozen over, with audible water running under the ice and snow. Only a mile from my home, I often visit this brook from mid-November until late March to see the splash-enhanced bulbous icicles and frozen foam.
During some recent winters, however, climate change has brought unseasonably warm spells, incomplete ice covers, decreased water levels, and insignificant snowfall, all of which expose ice formations normally unseen. [Read more…] about River Ice: Seeds, Frazil, and Flocs
The morning after a nighttime snowfall evokes feelings of newness and wonder. If the air is calm and the trees still retain their coat of fluffy white, I immediately bundle up and head out to explore. I trudge into the woods looking and listening for signs of life in this alien world.
It is not uncommon for me to follow in the footsteps of others; coyotes, bobcats, foxes, deer, rabbits, and squirrels have already been out and about. I visually follow their tracks, trying to decipher the short vignettes that have been temporarily etched onto the landscape. I stop for a few minutes to listen. Everything is still. [Read more…] about A Tiny King of the Winter Woods: Golden-Crowned Kinglets
In April 2025, the Sand Lake Historical Society was contacted by Will Lenihan, who is the Gardner and Curator for the Native Flora Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
He was curious about a small perennial carnivorous plant that was documented by Charles Horton Peck (1833-1917) of Sand Lake, in eastern Rensselaer County, who was the New York State Botanist from 1867-1915. [Read more…] about History Supplies Leads to Rare Carnivorous Bladderwort
Winter is the perfect time of year for stargazing due to longer hours of darkness and typically crisper, clearer air — what astronomer’s call “good seeing.”
From sighting twinkling stars and constellations to roving planets, distant galaxies, and countless astronomical wonders, stargazing not only allows us to embrace the night sky but also unlock our perspectives on the universe. Ideal stargazing locations exist far from light pollution, with unobstructed views of the skyline. [Read more…] about Beginner Stargazing at New York’s ‘Dark Sky Destinations’
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