Mass Audubon Blogs

As summer draws to a close and the days get shorter, the season’s last generation of Monarch caterpillars are busily munching away at their favorite food: milkweed. This final calorie-binge will sustain them as they “pupate,” ensconcing themselves in a chrysalis to spend 8–14 days metamorphosing into their adult butterfly form. The adult butterflies that hatch […]

Go on hawk watches, attend a fall festival, tag Monarchs, clean up a beach, look at the stars, and more at a wildlife sanctuary this weekend. Berkshires Go Canoeing on the Housatonic River in Lenox, looking for swallows, herons, kingfishers, muskrats, and signs of beavers along the way. (adults and children ages 10+, registration required) More […]

Last week the Global Climate Action Summit was held in San Francisco, bringing leaders and citizens together from around the world to celebrate achievements on climate action and commit to further steps. A few takeaways: It was announced that 27 major cities, including Boston, have already reached peak greenhouse gas emission levels and are now […]

By The Numbers: The 2018 Bobolink Project We’re tallying up the results of this year’s Bobolink Project, and the numbers look great! The Project protected 932 acres of nesting habitat, up from 512 acres in 2016 (which was the project’s first year at Mass Audubon). Field surveys showed 368 pairs of Bobolinks on participating farmers’ land. […]

Yesterday afternoon a powerful thunderstorm moved across Broadmoor featuring a temperature drop of nearly 30 degrees in an hour and frequent lightning. A lone white pine in the middle of the Old Orchard Trail was struck by lightning. Nearly every year one of the tall white pines is hit by lightning, but this tree was […]

Any chance we can trellis the earth to keep it from leaning further away from the sun? Because we need more daylight hours to bring in the fall crops! On the positive side, sales are strong, and we are spending the majority of our time harvesting tomatoes, beans and greens. Andrew delivered produce to Somerville […]

Hello, Wednesday Morning Birders! While David Moon continues to enjoy his holiday, David Larson joined me for this week’s Wednesday Morning Birding. After a bit of misting, we had a rain-free rest of the morning. Skies remained overcast, temps were in the upper 60s, and there were light winds out of the northeast. Aside from […]

This week’s distribution will include: Kale Squash Corn Onions Beans Sugaring Pumpkins Winter Squash Potatoes Corn Stalks We will have pick your own herbs and flowers and cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes will be slim pickings, but they are still out there for the determined picker!   As the season is winding down, be sure […]

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary research staff and dedicated volunteers, hundreds of diamondback terrapin nests are protected in the towns of Wellfleet, Eastham and Orleans each year, resulting in thousands of hatchlings released back into the marsh. This is extremely important work, as diamondback terrapins are listed as Threatened under […]

Just like that, another summer at Wildwood has come to a close. We wanted to take a look back on the 2018 summer, “By the Numbers”-style: 440—The number of overnight campers ages 9–14. 57—The number of Leaders-in-Training (LIT’s; entering grade 10) and Leaders-in-Action (LIA’s; entering grade 11). 6 —The number of states we visited with “Teen […]