The first adventuresome blossoms of the tiny yellow dandelion mimic we call coltsfoot come up in March, and a April settles in, masses will appear along the banks of gravel roads.
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Thom Smith searches for spring wildflowers
Ever wish that you were first name friends with the wildflowers that begin coming up in April and fill the woods with color in May? This short stretch of spring is a season of its own — in these short weeks while the spring sun warms the soil, and light reaches […]
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Chicory blossoms blue in late summer
Berkshire naturalist Thom Smith finds late-summer wildflowers in the fields. A quick glance along August roadsides will immediately reveal white flowers, yellow flowers, pink flowers, orange flowers, all intense, and competing for the attention of pollinating insects of all shapes, sizes and descriptions. Among them grows a purple-blue blossom with […]
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May 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.
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Thom 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.
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Shadblow on Pine Cobble
‘Are these shad blow? Because they’re all over up here.’ I ask my mother, because she taught me shad bush, serviceberry, years ago, walking the plank walk in the marshy hollow of the woods at the end of our street. But today I ask her by phone, because I’m standing halfway up Pine Cobble.
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Thom 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
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Wildflowers run wild at Bartholomew’s Cobble
Trillium cover a hillside with wide three-corner flowers and the pungent odor of … old socks. “Remind you of your locker room days?” said Carrieanne Petrik-Huff, laughing, after a wildflower walk at Bartholomew’s Cobble.
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