Matt Pelikan

Perhaps the type of wildlife inquiry I receive most often is about abundance: “Butterflies (or birds, or dragonflies) seem especially scarce (or especially common)...

Most everyone knows the basics of insect metamorphosis: It’s the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. We don’t often think, though, of how...

Among my favorite groups of insects are the robber flies, the predatory members of the family Asilidae. Ranging in length from a half-inch or...

However screwed up the world may be, certain things keep chugging reliably onward. Pandemic? Protests? Birds don’t care. Their focus is elsewhere, and their...

American oystercatchers have an interesting history on the East Coast. Originally, they probably occurred across much of the region, from the Gulf of Mexico...

Spring migration is a hit-or-miss proposition for a Vineyard birder. It never brings the sheer volume of birds that fall migration brings, and to...

As the weather starts to warm in April, one of the first and most obvious groups of insects to become active are the bees....

As usual for this time of year, the production of more mourning doves is in full swing in our small Oak Bluffs yard. But...

Breaking a decades-old tradition of wallowing in seasonal affective disorder and grumbling about late-winter weather on the Vineyard, your intrepid Wild Side columnist and...

On Friday the 21st, I surprised a hermit thrush as it fed on multiflora rose berries next to the building I work in. The...

Winter, naturally, is a slow season for insect observation, with only a modest variety of particularly hardy or specially adapted species active. Some of...

Groundhog Day might be my favorite holiday. It’s not that I have any particular fondness for rodents. And the six more weeks of winter...

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a human being. As such, while there are exceptions, you’re likely more than five feet long and weigh...

Ah, there are few things better than a natural history problem solved! A tough ID nailed down, a droll bit of ecology revealed. Such...

A bit larger than a blue jay, belted kingfishers are chunky birds with a scraggly crest on their head that gives them their regal...

I could never pick just one favorite bird. But surely on the short list would be the short-eared owl, a crow-size, brownish bird of...

A high percentage of the meadow voles that I see are in a difficult situation indeed: dangling from the talons of a red-tailed hawk...

On Wednesday, Oct. 30, word of a dead leatherback turtle beached on Cape Poge turned up on social media. I was one of several...

At least one of these magnificent Arctic birds of prey turns up here most winters, and in so-called “irruption years,” when prey shortages or...

When it comes to migration, the blue jay, among our most familiar and recognizable birds, plays by its own rules. By and large, the...