Bill Benner and Butterfly Gardens

  • Post published:03/07/2015
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Bill Benner, veterinarian, birder, and butterfly gardener, is a man with many strings to his bow, but they all play tunes of the natural world and its fragility. He will be talking about the natural world, climate change and the impact it has on our own part of Massachusetts at GreenfieldCommunity College’s Senior Symposium on Tuesday, March 10 from 2-4 pm. As a young man Benner attended CornellUniversity because of their ornithology lab. “I just wanted to study…

Street Art: The Audubon Mural Project

  • Post published:02/12/2015
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The February Audubon Newsletter features an amazing art project - painting portraits of all 314 climate threatened or endangered birds on  the roll down security gates in  the Hamilton Heights area of NYC, where coincidently,  John James Audubon once lived. This is the brainstorm of gallery owner Avi Gitler, and artist Tom Sanford. Street art to spread the word about the plight of these birds. The New York Times thought this was a great idea too. The Newsletter…

Berries for the Birds

  • Post published:10/13/2014
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Many of us plant berry bushes, but do you specifically plant berries for the birds? Feeding the birds is a enjoyable activity, but because I have always had cats I have planted high bush cranberries, holly, and cotoneaster instead of putting up bird feeders. However, my first reason for planting these shrubs that produce autumnal berries is because they are beautiful. In addition to the plants I have deliberately put in my landscape I am lucky to have…

Birds and Blooms for Every Gardener

  • Post published:09/26/2014
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In spite of its name, Birds AND Blooms, I always thought of this magazine as concentrating on Birds. However, I've been looking at it from time to time and have come to  realize that it has lots of  good information for gardeners, too. In fact, as we all become more aware of  the pressures on our environment, climate change, depredations of host environments for migrating birds,  and a  simple desire to attract those 'flowers of the air" birds…

Elderberries, Chokeberries and Good Health

  • Post published:07/26/2014
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Elderberries and chokeberries are not as beautiful or familiar as spring’s strawberry, but these small dark berries that ripen in late summer pack a nutritional wallop. I’ve know the elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) since childhood, but the chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) is fairly new to me. Whether you call the elderberry a tree or a bush, it is having a very good year. I seem to see elderberry bushes everywhere I go. I can easily identify the bushes with large…

In the Pink at the Lyman Plant House, Smith College

  • Post published:03/09/2014
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Banish the winter blues and get In the Pink at the Annual Bulb show at the Smith College Lyman Plant House. This annual show, always fabulous, is running from now until Sunday, March 16. It is no surprise to me that the powers that be would choose In the Pink as the theme for this year’s show. I love pink, as anyone who strolls down the Rose Walk can attest.  But there is something spring-like about all shades of…

Birds That Sing in the Spring Tra La

  • Post published:02/26/2014
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Here are the birds that sing in the spring. Robins are joining the blue jays - and other birds that I can only identify as Big Birds and Little Birds. Sunday the temperature reached a high of 46 degrees, and gentle breezes are wafting across the hill. Birds have been flying in and out  of  the staghorn sumac grove across the lawn. The snow is still deep in  spite of warmer temperatures these last few days. Birds are…

Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell

  • Post published:12/08/2013
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  Beatrix Potter is known to almost every parent, but not as well known as her most famous creation, Peter Rabbit. In Marta McDowell’s new book Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: the plants and places that inspired the classic children’s tales (Timber Press $24.95) we meet Peter’s progenitor. In 1890, the 24 year old Beatrix bought Benjamin Bouncer at a pet shop and used him as the model for Peter for some paintings that she sold. That was the…

Walking in Our Woods with the Mass Audubon Society

  • Post published:06/21/2013
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  I’ve always known we have many different types of bird habitat here at the End of the Road. We have fields that surround our house and the garden. We have a wetland and a pond. Mostly we have woods, about 35 or so acres, surrounding the house, fields, and wetlands. I have walked in our woods. I have taken grandchildren up the lane, part of the old road to Rowe that was discontinued decades ago. The tree-lined…

Wildlife at the End of the Road – Wordless Wednesday

  • Post published:06/19/2013
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Over the years many kinds of wildlife have passed by the End of the Road. This white peacock visited for a couple of years, but we think he finally met his fate. Weasels can fit through the tiniest holes in the hen house, but we caught this one. Lots of frogs and toads this year. This porcupine was happy to bask in the winter sun outside the hen house. The most recent visitor was a  young moose. He…