health, for example? 0h, very much so. it s very pleasing to see that some doctors are actually prescribing time out in the open air, time out with rather than pills to tackle things like depression. mental health, it s going to be a huge issue following on from this pandemic. i think wildlife is going to be having a key role to play. i have been lucky through the pandemic. i have a small garden. i can go out and look at birds nests. i had can go out and look at birds nests. ihada can go out and look at birds nests. i had a lovely donor can nest this spring. that was followed a few lea ked spring. that was followed a few leaked weeks later by finding a black bird nest with four fully grown checks on it. things like that. they don t just grown checks on it. things like that. they don tjust make your day, they make your way, they make your month, and they give you that left that you need just to plough on. all kinds of things. butterflies coming in here. spring flowers. a few moths as we
early summer. and a male ermine moth, beautiful white moth with these delicate blackspots. virtually anybody anywhere can do exactly what idid anybody anywhere can do exactly what i did this spring. if you have got a garden you can do it. if you haven t, you have got the local park. it is vitally important now more than ever that people do get out and they connect with nature.|j love the ermine moth. i can see why it is called an ermine moth. it is beautiful. tell us what people can do? people are not lucky to have a garden, how can they engage with nature? yeah, it doesn t matter where you are. everybody will have a local park, a local cemetery, may be a stream, a river or a canal. just get out to somewhere that is quieter. a little bit wilder. if you are in the middle of london you have more chance of seeing a fox that i have here in mid wales. so many people now are doing urban birding,
there s been a news story developing lately in the commonwealth of massachusetts, but to see it, to fully take it in, you have to slow down, get off the grid and be very quiet. it s like the old expression about stopping to smell the roses, but in this case, it s about butterflies. and these butterflies may be on to something bigger than even massachusetts. we get the story tonight from our chief environmental affairs correspondent anne thompson. reporter: in this lush garden of verbena, butterflies that have long called massachusetts home three american ladies. reporter: are making way for an influx of butterflies from the south, like fiery skippers. until recently, more likely to
notebook under the bench. from september 2007 we had ten common checkered skippers and reporter: this is a southern species. yes, this is a southern species, a fiery skipper. reporter: this year, the buzz is all about the giant swallow tails, common in the deep south. have you ever seen 108 giant swallow tails in a season? not in my whole life, nevermind one season. reporter: like the butterflies they note, some may consider these club members accidentals too, accidental scientists, not breed. if they go out and look and they re interested, and they write down what they see, that s a perfectly valid observation. reporter: seeing nature s patterns change right before their eyes. anne thompson, nbc news, northampton, massachusetts. and that is our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i m brian williams, and we sure hope to see you right back here with us tomorrow evening. good night. captions by vitac www.vitac.com
light in florida and texas than new england. we call them accidentals. in the old days, you would see perhaps one or two fiery skippers, and now you see dozens. reporter: the shift of southern butterflies to the increasingly warmer north is detailed in the journal nature. harvard professor greg breed is the study s lead scientist. we see the species that are more adapted to warmer clients are increasing, and species that are adapting to colder climates are decreasing. it seems sensible to infer that this is some climate driven pattern. reporter: is it climate change? that would be the most logical inference. reporter: the study is built on the work of citizen scientists. all members of the massachusetts butterfly club, and the 20,000 sightings they ve noted over a period of 19 years. the data includes tom ganion s notes. so how do you keep your records? how do you know what s been here? i have a running log right here that i keep. reporter: other club members add their