Cragsmoor Conservancy

05/12/2026

From Guardians of Nature:

Those splotches that look like dried mud on your maple tree aren't mud. They're 30 to 50 spotted lanternfly eggs, laid last October, and they're set to hatch in next weeks.

Spotted lanternfly is one of the most aggressive invasive insects to spread across the eastern US in years. A single tree can host dozens of egg masses. One hatched mass becomes thirty nymphs by May. By August they're adults, swarming maples, walnuts, willows, and grape vines, and laying the next generation on anything that doesn't move — fence posts, picnic tables, the wheel wells of your car.

🌿 Where to look this weekend:
- Bottom 6 feet of any tree trunk, especially maple, walnut, willow, and tree of heaven
- Underside of deck railings, picnic tables, wood piles
- Behind house numbers, on fence posts, under outdoor furniture
- Vehicle wheel wells, undercarriages, trailer hitches — they lay on metal too
- Look for a 1 to 1.5 inch smear that looks like dried gray mud or putty

🌿 What to do if you find one:
- Hold a sealable bag underneath
- Scrape with a credit card, plastic putty knife, or stiff stick
- Drop the entire mass in — fill the bag with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer
- Seal the bag and discard in regular trash
- Report the find to your state agriculture department — many states track sightings
- One mass takes ten seconds. Most infested trees carry between five and twenty.

One credit card. One sealed bag. One weekend. Or thousands of nymphs hatching in May 🌿

04/20/2026

Don’t forget to feed your Peeps! This weekend is predicted to be the peak of the Peeps migration and then their numbers will drop off dramatically so make sure you have your feeders out and filled. These are the yellow phase Peeps but they are also seen in a variety of other colors. These photos are from Western New York but the outbreak is found throughout North America.

02/21/2026

Ruby-throated hummingbirds are already crossing the Gulf of Mexico right now. Thousands of them — each weighing less than a nickel — flying 500 miles nonstop over open water to reach the southern US.

By mid-March, they'll spread across the Southeast. By May, they'll reach the Canadian border. And most of them will remember exactly which feeders were out last year.

Here's what matters: put your feeder out two weeks BEFORE your zone's expected arrival date. Early scouts are the hungriest and the most likely to establish your yard as a stop. Plain white sugar water — one part sugar, four parts water. No red dye. No honey. No artificial sweetener. Change it every 3 to 5 days, more often in heat.

Even better than a feeder: plant native trumpet-shaped flowers. Coral honeysuckle, bee balm, cardinal flower. These provide nectar AND the tiny insects hummingbirds actually need for protein. A feeder supplements. A garden sustains.

Your zone is on the map. The birds are already in the air.

12/25/2025

11/07/2025

Voters in New York narrowly approved Proposition 1, a ballot measure that fixes a constitutional violation in the Adirondacks and will eventually add 2,500 acres to the Forest Preserve in the park. According to unofficial election results, Prop 1 was approved by about 46% of voters, while more th

10/26/2025

https://www.birdsandblooms.com/birding/birding-basics/do-fake-spiderwebs-kill-birds/

Halloween is often a delight for homeowners — but can decorations such as fake spiderwebs hurt birds? Here's what our birding experts say.

10/09/2025

https://dashboard.birdcast.info/region/US-NY-111

Explore nightly migration data in your region

09/25/2025

Migration Alert: Over 470 million birds are forecast to fly across the eastern Midwest tonight. Turn off all nonessential lights from 11 PM to 6 AM to keep them from becoming disoriented. Make windows safer with bird-friendly treatments to prevent collisions. More than a billion birds die in glass collisions every year. Discover proven ways to help them on their journeys south: https://bit.ly/stopbirdcollisions

09/04/2025

HUMMINGBIRD HELP: Our Ruby-throated hummingbirds are heading back south on their annual fall migration. Please consider keeping the hummingbird feeders out and stocked with hummingbird nectar now through at least late October. One part white sugar and four parts water works! The most common and heaviest concentration of the Ruby-throated humming bird is zipping southward with the arrival of yet another cold front across the eastern United States.

The tiny hummingbird is incredible and can flap their wings up to 80 times per second with a heartbeat of over 1,260 per minute! That burns a lot of energy and requires calories and frequent feedings during peak migration into September. Hummingbirds can feed every 10-15 minutes and can consume up to 3 times their body weight in daily food as they migrate southward during the day.

If you've seen them hungry and at your feeders in great numbers recently, this is why! Keep them fed and spread the word. Safe travels as this migrations takes the next several weeks, see you again in the Spring!