Harris Center for Conservation Education

09/04/2026

We are so excited about this new collaboration with New Hampshire Public Radio!

🐾 Starting this Sunday, join Harris Center naturalists Karen Rent and Susie Spikol to uncover the everyday magic waiting just outside your door. This new series for curious kids and the young at heart covers everything from insects and mushrooms to squirrels and wild turkeys. As the seasons change, you'll learn to spot winter birds, identify evergreen trees, track white-tailed deer, and explore the worlds of porcupines and owls.

🎧 Listen live at 9:35 a.m. every other Sunday, starting September 6, stream anytime at nhpr.org, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting Sept. 6, join local naturalists Karen Rent and Susie Spikol as they uncover the everyday outdoor magic waiting right in your backyard.

09/03/2026

🍄 The Harris Center's SuperSanctuary of protected lands spans more than 27,000 acres, and it’s brimming with biodiversity — from slime molds to swifts, moss to minks. We're using iNaturalist to document as many of these species as possible, and sharing one particularly interesting observation for each month.

👀 From August, we bring you a fungi capable of MIND CONTROL. (Seriously!) Insect-destroying fungi can take control of their hosts, manipulating zombified insects and causing them to climb to elevated locations, where they become affixed to leaves, pine needles, or blades of grass. From there, the fungi forcibly shoot spores into the air, which helps them reach new hosts and continue the infection cycle.

🐝 Naturalist Kate McKay () found this sci-fi fungus during last month's Mini BioBlitz at Partridge Woods in Nelson, where a small team of community scientists identified more than 200 species of plants, animals, and fungi in just three hours.

🔍 What will YOU discover? To learn more and add your own observations, visit harriscenter.org/inaturalist.

📸: Kate McKay

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09/01/2026

🛶 Tag along on a meditative marsh paddle in the latest Backyard Naturalist column by Phil Brown. This slow adventure is all about savoring the sights and sounds of late summer: gliding through a sea of spatterdock, tuning into the wetland bird chorus, and even a little excitement as a Merlin makes an appearance and the swallows and kingbirds take note.

🔗 Read the full story on our website at tinyurl.com/summer-paddle or at the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript at ledgertranscript.com/2026/08/25/marsh-paddle-wildlife-observation/

📸: Phil Brown (marsh) & Chuck Carlson (Merlin)

08/31/2026

🌞 As summer draws to a close, we want to extend a huge THANK YOU to our summer interns, who brought curiosity, energy, and essential help to the Harris Center’s conservation work over the past several months!

🌳 For Addie Perry — this year’s Erik Buxton forestry & wildlife intern, who is pursuing degrees in Forest Resource Management and Forest Technology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry — that meant everything from inventorying forest communities to assisting with kestrel banding.

🥾 Quinn Hutchings, who studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, and Jens Petersen, who holds an MS in Environmental Science & Policy from Clark University, provided critical help with a critical task: monitoring the 130+ protected properties — spanning nearly 14,000 acres — that the Harris Center is responsible for visiting each year.

🦇 And the Harris Center–Keene State College conservation internship program, now in its thirteenth year, gave a team of four KSC Environmental Studies & Sustainability students — Laurel Feindel, Emma Goldsmith, Benjamin LaBier, and Ayushma Limbu — hands-on experience counting bats, surveying salamanders, measuring trees, pulling invasive plants, and more.

🪶 "Every day I found myself learning something new," says Addie, "and as I continue my education, I expect to pull from all I’ve learned during my time at the Harris Center.”

👉 Get more details (including more photos of our interns in action!) at harriscenter.org/in-the-field-with-our-summer-interns.

📸: Michelle Aldredge, Phil Brown, Brett Amy Thelen & Mary Verrilli

Keene State College SUNY ESF Clark University SPARCnet

08/29/2026

An update from our partners at Hawk Mountain on Moose the Broad-winged Hawk, who was affixed with a GPS transmitter on her SuperSanctuary breeding territory last summer! She has already made quite the journey — and she hasn’t even left for Central America yet.

As autumn migration approaches some broadwings remain on their breeding territories, while others move more widely after nesting. Over the years, GPS tracking has revealed a range of notable pre-migratory and post-breeding movements among our tagged birds.

For example, Moose, an adult female breeding in Antrim, NH, USA, left her mate and two young on 22 July. She returned to Holderness, an area where she also spent time after breeding in 2025. From there, she crossed into Maine for a few days, then looped back into New Hampshire before returning to her breeding territory on 18 August.

Over 27 days, Moose moved between two states and traveled 375 km (233 mi), all before her southbound migration back to her wintering area in the Department of Retalhuleu, Guatemala.

08/26/2026

🌙 Look up: it's nighthawk migration season!

🦟 Thousands of these long-winged, mysterious birds are winding their way south between their Canadian breeding grounds and wintering habitat in South America, feeding on flying insects as they go.

👀 Look for them on warm evenings in late August and early September, especially along the Contoocook, Ashuelot, and Connecticut river valleys. Their erratic, floppy flights bring the late summer skies to life!

📸 Harris Center bird conservation director Phil Brown captured these beautiful images while counting nighthawks at Powder Mill Pond as part of an ongoing migration monitoring initiative.

📖 You can read more about nighthawks in this Northern Woodlands's article by science director Brett Amy Thelen: https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/summers-last-exhale

08/17/2026

🌲Thanks to Northern Woodlands for this lovely profile of Harris Center teacher-naturalist Nikko Gagnon!

✍️ One of our favorite excerpts: "I love hearing people’s stories. I recently gave a presentation on beavers in a memory unit at a retirement home, and people had great stories from throughout their lives of dealing with beavers on their property and visiting beaver ponds – just all kinds of stories. I think making those connections is so important in recognizing the collective experience we have in nature. Another program I help lead walks for is called “Babies in Backpacks and Toddlers in Tow,” where we go out with young families and experience whatever nature has to share that day, whether it’s acorns, icicles, or flowers. It is so much fun to see the world through their eyes. It makes me appreciate how there’s always something to learn or wonder about when we are outside. I’m so happy to be able to share that with people."

🔗 You can read more at: https://northernwoodlands.org/blog/article/natures-stories-nikko-gagnon

Nikko Gagnon is a teacher and naturalist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, New Hampshire. Nikko studied environmental science at University of New Hampshire and worked at a number of environmental education organizations in California, Maine, Washington, and British Columbia, before moving back to New Hampshire to earn a master’s in environmental education at Antioch University. When she’s not leading learners of all ages in nature programming, Nikko enjoys paddleboarding, hiking, and rock climbing.

🌲 Read our latest Blog: https://conta.cc/4zkoF78

📸: Nikko Gagnon

08/11/2026

An update on our Broad-winged Hawk monitoring project with Hawk Mountain! 🪶

08/10/2026

🌾 Grassland birds like bobolinks and eastern meadowlarks are disappearing faster than any other group of birds in the Northeast. What can landowners, farmers, and communities do to help?

Join Kate McKay, avian technician with the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District for a free Zoom program on Tuesday, August 11, from 7–8 p.m. Learn about the challenges facing these iconic birds, practical habitat management strategies, and the Connecticut River Valley Grassland Bird Project, which provides free site visits, management recommendations, and financial support for participating farmers and land managers in southwestern New Hampshire and southeastern Vermont.

Can't make it live? Register anyway, and we'll send you the recording afterward!

Learn more and register today at https://harriscenter.org/events/managing-fields-for-grassland-birds

This program is co-sponsored by the Harris Center for Conservation Education, Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District, Cheshire County Conservation District, and the Monadnock Conservancy.

📸: Danita Delimont

08/10/2026

🦋 How do you track a butterfly that flies thousands of miles?

The answer is surprisingly high-tech.

Join New Hampshire Audubon biologist Lindsay Herlihy to discover how scientists are using tiny radio transmitters to follow monarch butterflies on one of the world's most remarkable migrations. Learn what this cutting-edge research is revealing about monarch travel routes, why these iconic butterflies have declined so dramatically, and how you can help support monarch conservation here in New Hampshire.

This fascinating Zoom program will also highlight NH Audubon's groundbreaking tagging work, which is helping identify the critical habitats monarchs need to rest and refuel on their journey to Mexico.

📅 Wednesday, August 5
🕖 7–8:15 p.m.
💻 Via Zoom
🔗 Register today at https://tinyurl.com/monarch-zoom

Can't join live? Register anyway, and you'll receive access to the recording a few days after the program! Thanks to New Hampshire Audubon for co-sponsoring this event!

📸: Ben Conant & BlackBox

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