Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith goes looking for butterflies and their food plants. This early August afternoon, before a heavy rain drove me home, I watched two monarchs apparently mating and another acting as if it would soon be laying eggs. I found them on milkweed plants. Flower and weed […]
Read articleQueen Anne’s Lace graces the Berkshire meadows in August
What is more spectacular than the color combination of brilliant yellow of dyers chamomile and pure white Queen Anne’s lace in a back-yard garden? Especially when nature sees to it that both are seeded together, with no help from the gardener. Just the sight of the two flowers together is […]
Read articleRare butterflies thrive at Lime Kiln Farm sanctuary in Sheffield
Berkshire Naturalist Thom Smith takes a walk through a Mass Audubon property in Sheffield. From beginning to end, a visitor to Lime Kiln Farm Wildlife Sanctuary would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful walk that includes vistas of the Taconic Mountains beyond open hayfields and history with glimpses […]
Read articleMonarch butterflies migrate 2,500 miles north to New England each year
When I was a boy, about 7 or 8 years old, our family sometimes picnicked at a rest area along Route 7 in New Ashford. Behind the picnic area back then lay a hillside meadow where I would chase butterflies and grasshoppers about for hours at a time. The hill is […]
Read articleMay is migration season in the Berkshires
In migration season, Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith finds birds from warblers to herons, wildflowers and other signs of May in the hills.
Read articleThom Smith explores Bartholomew’s Cobble in wildflower season
Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith recalls a walk through Bartholomew’s Cobble, a Trustees of reservations Property in Sheffield along the Housatonic River.
Read articleThom Smith wishes the Berkshires a happy May Day
May Day in the Berkshires traditionally means wildflowers. Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith offers a bouquet of images of blooms in the woods and fields
Read articleBluebirds and robins stay north through the Winter
Even through a cold and snowy winter, some bluebirds and robins will spend the winter here in New England, and Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith looks for signs of them.
Read articleThom Smith Watching for wood frogs
For some, it’s the first pussy willow that marks spring. Others claim the spring peeper to be the true harbinger. Not quite, but close. It is hearing the first wood frog issuing his quacking-like, mate-attracting song that marks spring for me.
Read articleThe earliest signs of spring show unexpected color
By mid-March the magic of winter, like ice on our ponds, grows thin, and we begin looking for spring, the slowest of seasons to take hold in The Berkshires.
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