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By BILL DANIELSON

Stress. Anxiety. Panic. Sound familiar? Well, don’t worry because it’s not just you. Everyone is feeling it. You are not alone. That being said, the feelings of stress, anxiety and even the occasional rush of panic is no less real just because others...

By BILL DANIELSON

September and October are months of farewell and I spend a lot of time trying to squeeze in a last visit with each species of bird before the they finally decide to pack it in and head south. Great friends that have spent the entire summer with me...

By CHRIS LARABEE

Advocates for the Deerfield River affirmed their support for a request to the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) asking the agency to cease stocking rainbow trout in the upper Deerfield River during a public listening session last...

By STEVE LeBLANC

Rescuers who helped free more than a hundred dolphins from the Cape Cod shoreline say they’ve confirmed that the mass stranding that began June 28 was the largest involving dolphins in U.S. history.There were two previous events on record in Hawaii...

By MATTHEW BROWN

To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their...

By EMILEE KLEIN

As South Hadley Army veteran Shayne Patrick Burke, 35, hiked along Signal Mountain in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park last week, he instinctively felt that he wasn’t alone.Burke began talking and singing to himself and breaking branches, noises...

By KARI BLOOD

One of the reasons many of us love living in the Valley is being able to see wildlife around us. But those sightings will become increasingly rare if humans don’t take bold steps to slow the loss of species around the world. Scientists are sounding...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SUNDERLAND — Police responded to the area of Bull Hill Road and Route 116 Tuesday morning for a report of a moose struck by a vehicle. Upon arrival shortly after 7 a.m., though, there were more questions than answers, as first responders found an...

By JAMES PENTLAND

HOLYOKE — Armand Laramee was heading out on his morning walk around 6 a.m. Tuesday when something lying in his yard caught his eye.His first thought was perhaps his neighbor’s black cat had been hit by a car. He went to check on it.“Then I saw that...

By JAMES PENTLAND

HATFIELD — If deer, bobcats or foxes are passing through their neighborhood, Hatfield Elementary School students have a new way of finding out.With the help of two Amherst College students and two Smith Academy eighth-graders, John Higuera and Ted...

By MADDIE FABIAN

Ask almost any conservationist about an Endangered Species Act (ESA) success story and they will tell you about the bald eagle.“Growing up, I would have never seen a bald eagle in western Massachusetts,” said Jeff Collins, senior director of...

By BILL DANIELSON

Dear Reader: I can’t believe that 2023 is almost over. Next week I am going to work on my traditional Year-In-Review column, but today I have decided to give myself permission to go back to one of my favorite photos of 2023. This is a photo that I...

By JAMES PENTLAND

With deer activity peaking as they move into their breeding season, officials are warning motorists to be careful to avoid colliding with the wandering ruminants, particularly during the evening commute.Vehicle-deer collisions in Massachusetts are...

By BILL DANIELSON

“One has only to sit down in the woods or fields, or by the shore of the river or the lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him, — the birds, the animals, the insects; and presently, after his eye has got accustomed to place, and...

By DOMENIC POLI

Experts say that if you encounter a bear it is important to immediately make yourself look big, talk very calmly and slowly back away.But after that, if you saw the carnivoran mammal in Massachusetts, you can go to bit.ly/3raabc8 to report the...

By MADDIE FABIAN

EASTHAMPTON – Flora Majumder, age 88, enjoys taking a 20-minute walk every day. Where she lives — at Lathrop Retirement Community in Easthampton — paths, trails and exercise classes that accommodate the use of a cane or walker are plentiful.But, due...

By JULIAN MENDOZA

MONTAGUE — Anywhere from 100 to 10,000 species go extinct each year, a rate 100 to 1,000 times faster than historic extinction rates, according to the American Museum of Natural History. Other species see their habitats condensed by urban development,...

By JAMES PENTLAND

AMHERST — Sharks have long been creatures of fascination, but having focused on them in his work for almost 10 years, UMass biology professor Duncan Irschick has found that most three-dimensional models are poor representations of the marine...

By BILL DANIELSON

Three or four times last week I noticed an enormous raccoon on my deck in the moments just before dawn. This was clearly a raccoon that was scrounging for any scraps left over from the meal that I had set out for the birds the evening before and I...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was the Friday of my spring break week and the weather had finally improved. The previous weekend had been beautiful with record-setting high temperatures, but I had been fortunate enough to pick up a case of strep throat from one of my students...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — It’s springtime in Northampton again, and that can only mean one thing — the bears are back.A crowd of onlookers gathered around the Hampshire County Courthouse Sunday to catch a glimpse of a black bear that made its way up one of the...