Not just a few robins. Hundreds of robins.

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Insect frass all over your picnic table this year? You’re not alone. Matt Ayers, an ecologist at Dartmouth is happy to see them. He writes that caterpillar abundance fluctuates by 20-fold, depending on the year. It’s all good, not an outbreak, and many different species of caterpillar are providing food for birds this year.
Bears have been digging up jack-in-the-pulpits throughout the hardwood parts of our land. They make neat, clean little cone-shaped holes and only eat the big plants. The small jacks that so often surround the parent plants remain – until next year.
Showy orchis is flowering.
The year of the toad? They seem to be everywhere, all sizes, and now trilling from ponds.
On some birds the contour feathers have what’s called an afterfeather, a little fluffy plume from the same follicle as the big feather. This provides extra insulation and is especially common in grouse.
Burlington had never seen more than 4 straight days of 90 degree heat in June. Yesterday was the 5th straight day. Today will be the sixth.
As of 11 a.m. this morning, the storm has dumped 26 inches of snow in Dorset.
Scarlet tanagers tend to sing from the treetops and the leaves are big enough now to obscure them. It might take a little time to see one but it’s well worth the effort.