Matt Pelikan
Wild Side: Most unusual songbird
The results of the Vineyard’s Least Conspicuous Songbird Contest are in, and they’re unanimous: The brown creeper, Certhia americana, is the undisputed champion.
Tiny at...
Wild Side: New signs of spring
My last column — of course you remember! — looked at how our late February blizzard likely affected wildlife. One thing I neglected to...
Wild Side: Ready to fight
Well, that was interesting. The blizzard of Feb. 22–23 was not the worst one I’ve experienced in the 28 years I’ve lived on the...
Wildside: Dee-dee-dee
It’s always fun, if you’re a birder, to watch a new species get established in your area. And in the case of the tufted...
Wild Side: Heleomyzidae family of flies
Given the roughly 110 families of flies (the order Diptera) in North America, and my twice-monthly publication schedule for this column, I figure I...
Wild Side: Songs from the trees
It may sound strange to refer to one of our most conspicuous songbirds as “enigmatic,” but there you have it: There is a lot...
Wild Side: Knowing how to play the game
The sight, as I’ll explain, is hardly an unusual one. But seeing a great blue heron in winter on Martha’s Vineyard always jars my...
Wild Side: Unintended consequences
As a kid growing up in Lexington, I took to nature study generally, and birdwatching in particular, with overflowing enthusiasm and at a very...
Wild Side: Butterflies, insects, and birds
Every piece of the natural world is important, playing a role in supporting other pieces and keeping the whole shebang stable and resilient. But...
Wild Side: Migration chaos
Looked at in the most general terms, avian migration is a simple phenomenon. Certain bird species avoid winter conditions that they are poorly equipped...
Wild Side: Poised for the plunge
The days grow shorter, the sunshine weaker and more oblique. On a nice day, there may be an hour or so either side of...
Wild Side: The secondary screwworm fly
As the growing season winds down, insect activity fades as well. After all, many insects associate closely with plants, either as pollinators or as...
Wild Side: Aster bee
Regular readers of this column will know that there are very few species that I don’t like at least a little. I even give...
Wild Side: Assassin bugs
Every so often around the BiodiversityWorks office, where I hold my real job, somebody finds something cool, and we all flock outdoors to see...
Wild Side: The vulnerable yellow-winged grasshopper
One question that I keep coming back to is, “Why are rare species rare?” This query often inspires a related one: “If it’s rare...
Wild Side: The handsome Trigonidiidae
I didn’t begin paying serious attention to Orthoptera — that is, grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids — until 2010. But in the 15 years since...
Wild Side: The far side of the really great pond
This Wild Side column comes to you from Kent, England, where I’ve been sampling the local wildlife for the past week or so. From...
Wild Side: The Smiths’ conundrum
The following is not my story, but it’s still a good one, with a lesson to teach about how the human mind interprets the...
Wild Side: The ligated furrow bee
Among the 204 bee species known from Martha’s Vineyard, there are many rare or specialized species that you’re unlikely to encounter unless you make...
Wild Side: Wet sand biodiversity
Ranking high among the Vineyard’s ecological treasures are our great ponds — those shallow basins, fed by groundwater and penned in by barrier beaches,...