Recently there was tremendous interest in the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, especially for those living in or traveling to the 110 mile swath of totality. Television news, newspapers, and other media outlets had countless stories about where to find the best viewing places, how to get there and back, and how to safely watch the eclipse, as well as plenty of post event comments and impressions. Eclipse mania prevailed! But was there similar interest in the 18th century, particularly during the years of the American Revolution? Read more ..read more

New York State Parks and Historic Sites will celebrate I Love My Park Day on Saturday, May 4th. This annual event is an opportunity to give back to state parks and historic sites in your area. With more than 100 events, I Love My Park Day is the largest single-day volunteer event in New York. Participants help prepare public lands by planting flowers, clearing away trash, and eliminating invasive species before the start of the summer season. Read more ..read more

On April 7, Environmental Conservation Officer Christopher DeRose received a call from a Nassau County, Long Island, wildlife rehabilitator reporting a group of photographers setting up close to the active nest of a great horned owl and her chicks, who they believed were harassing the birds as they attempted to get photographs. Officer DeRose reported that he responded and observed the group on a bike trail with some of them pushing through the nearby brush toward the base of the tree to get closer to the owls. Read more ..read more

Hanging at the top of the main stairs at Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, NY, is a pair of portraits. With them is a framed brooch which contains locks of hair. These portraits are of Thomas McDonnell and his wife Frances Halsey McDonnell and were painted in 1852 and 1853 respectively by John G. Taggart, a New York trained artist with a studio in Saratoga Springs. In her portrait, Frances is wearing the brooch that now hangs beside her. Read more ..read more

Among the many groups of insects that exist on our planet, the most abundant, diverse and ecologically successful are the beetles. And while many of these hard-shelled bugs are viewed as ugly and unwanted by humans, the ladybug beetle is considered to be one of the most attractive and environmentally friendly creatures in nature. With a conspicuous dome-shaped, orange shell marked with black spots, the ladybug is difficult to mistake for any other invertebrate. Read more ..read more

It All Balances Out Sooner or later One way or another What goes around Comes around In the end It all balances out Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE. Read more ..read more

The shift begins around the time we turn the clocks ahead, a gradual transition from winter’s steady chorus of chickadees, squawking jays, and crows cawing over the compost pile to – well, more. On an afternoon walk along back roads, I’ll hear an avian uprising and look up to find a large flock of red-winged blackbirds gathered in the still-bare branches overhead. A week later, the trill-to-mechanical buzz of a song sparrow sounds from a hedge in the yard. Read more ..read more

The annual burn ban is still in effect until May 14th in New York State. Some may question: then why is the Department of Environmental Conservation lighting prescribed fires? The short answer is that wildfires are dangerous out-of control fires typically caused by humans accidentally – it doesn’t take long for an unattended fire to spread into an uncontrolled wildfire.  Prescribed fires however, are carefully planned and executed by trained professionals. During the burn ban period, burning residential brush and yard debris in towns with a total population of less than 20,000 residents ..read more

There is a map drawn on the inside cover of an old book. On its handwritten pages, the book tells the story of the earliest days of Brentwood’s schools; the schools of a hamlet in the middle of Long Island, some forty miles from New York City. On the map we see part of the first school, an octagonal building erected among the pine barrens more than a century and a half ago. Read more ..read more

Saratoga National Historical Park in Stillwater, NY, recently made significant changes to the furnishings of the Neilson House to better reflect its appearance in the fall of 1777, during the Battles of Saratoga. The first step was conducting extensive research into who occupied the house and their belongings. It was determined that a folding camp bed would represent the presence of General Benedict Arnold in his divisional headquarters. Support was offered by donors and the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield, and the process of finding craftspeople who could replicate the techniques and skill o ..read more