NatureWatch s Thom Smith answers questions about woodpeckers, black vultures and rose-breasted grosbeaks and suggests that local bird lovers join the Hoffman Bird Club.
Mass Audubon has begun its fall migration birding programs at The Mount and Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, both in Lenox, and Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Pittsfield.
Q: I am interested in seeing the 17-year locusts [cicadas] and don t want to wait another 17 years. Can you suggest places to see and hear them? Will they be around here, and if so, when? I know the annual ones are always noisy here when the hot August summer days get underway.
â Randy J., Pittsfield
A: Unfortunately for those of us living in the Berkshires, we are too far north. Regardless if we have been waiting 17 years since 2004 for the last locust cycle to see locusts, or since 1970 for three cycles, we are going to be too distant for a day trip.