By Kelly Bahl Outreach Naturalist While conifer doesn’t have quite the festive ring to it like Christmas tree does, it plays ...

Starting in late summer 2023 red crossbills appeared in southern Maine in large numbers, likely driven by the abundant pine cones.

Their upper and lower bills cross like a pair of scissors. The bill serves well to separate adjacent scales of the cones of conifers. Once the scales are separated, the hard harpoon-like tongue of ...

Conifers, as a group, have narrow, needle-like foliage and produce cones. Unlike the majority of cone-producing plants which ...