View from Mt. Tom in high summer (Woodstock, VT) © Kent McFarland

The dog days of summer are here, hot and sultry. The Romans referred to this time of year as the days of the dog star, when Sirius appears in the sky just before the sun and marks the hottest days of summer. Read all about August's natural wonders in this month's field guide.

Read it here.

Mansfield Update: Interns Reflect on a Summer on the Mountain

A clear view of the Green Mountains from near the top of Mount Mansfield © Emily Marple

Another week up on Mount Mansfield filled with beautiful birds and views! Read this update from the perspective of two of our summer interns, Julia Stahl and Emily Marple.

Three Scientist-Led Field Trips Left this Summer

VCE board member Jared Keyes points out a bird flying through the canopy on a walk through Mt. Auburn Cemetery. © Alex Johnson

Join our staff scientists in the field to learn more about VCE's work with butterflies and bees. We have three small-group field trips remaining this summer so visit the VCE website to learn more and reserve your spot(s).

When You Give to VCE, You Give to Wildlife

Ruby-crowned Kinglet banded on Mt. Mansfield © Michael Sargent

Thanks to generous friends like you, VCE’s biodiversity research, long-term monitoring programs, community outreach, and community science initiatives advance wildlife conservation across the Americas. 

That’s a really big impact, and you can be part of it! 

However you choose to contribute, please know that we deeply appreciate your support for VCE and your commitment to wildlife conservation.

The second Maria Miner Bee ever documented in Vermont visits one of its floral favorites, the blooms of the Interior Sandbar Willow. © Spencer Hardy

Congratulations to Spencer Hardy for winning the July 2023 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! His exciting record of a rare bee species received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.

Not only does this iNaturalist observation showcase a stunning specialist on its favorite pollen-provider, it also marks the second record of this species in Vermont. As the coordinator of the Vermont Wild Bee Survey, Spencer has searched the state far and wide for bees like this individual. Specialist bees, like the Maria Miner Bee, are picky when it comes to which pollen they provide for their offspring. Some of them prefer the pollen of rare or unevenly distributed plants. If a plant is rare you can expect any species that depend on that plant to be even rarer, which is what brought Spencer to a grove of Interior Sandbar Willow trees on the shores of Lake Champlain. INaturalist records such as this one help fill in our incomplete knowledge of pollinators in Vermont. Want to help the Vermont Center for Ecostudies track down rare bees? Check out our Most Wanted list and the list of specialist bees by host plant on the Vermont Wild Bee Survey website.

Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist, where you can vote for an August winner by clicking the ‘fave’ star on your favorite photo observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries, and you could be a winner!