Follow the Trail with Bill Reid,
The Last Green Valley's Chief Ranger

This holiday weekend marks the half-way point of The Last Green Valley’s Walktober. So far, the weather has been mostly glorious and allowed our beautiful Heritage Corridor to shine. With three more weeks to go, however, Walktober really begins to heat up as the temperatures…

I visited my grandparent’s old place in New Hampshire this past weekend to tend to the flower gardens and lawn. The tranquility of a glorious early fall day was interrupted by the constant staccato chip, chip, chip call of several resident chipmunks. I lost count…

Already the leaves are starting to change color. The red maples catch my eye first, especially those growing along streams and wetlands, with their bright red leaves shining in the afternoon sun like a warning flag – winter is coming. Soon, each day will start…

Wednesday at 3:20 p.m. marks the Autumnal Equinox, the official end of summer and the start of the seasonal change towards winter. For some, autumn is their favorite time of year with cool sweater weather and the colors of fall leaves changing from shades of…

“A good trailsman always leaves a trail a little better than he finds it.” ‑‑ Edgar L. Heermance, “Father” of the Connecticut Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail System, from Connecticut Walk Book, 20th Edition, 2017. Some of the wonderful outdoor resources we have in the 26 Connecticut towns…

My friend Dick Waterman from Hanover, one of the three villages of Sprague, is a regular reader of this column. Thanks to his inquisitive nature, coupled with years of documenting the natural world in his neighborhood, he has provided me with several ideas to share…

“For days now, monarch butterflies have been drifting through. While birds are migrating south by night, in starlight and moonlight, these butterflies are moving south by day, in brilliant sunshine and under the shadows of clouds. The night of the migrating songbird finds its parallel…

“Father and brother Harold built the little stone original museum that was begun in 1930 and completed and opened in 1931. The purpose of this little stone room was to house our collection of various artifacts that had been made and used by our people…

On the evening of July 24, I was joined by 28 intrepid TLGV members, their children and friends at the Wyndham Land Trust’s Lyon Preserve in Pomfret. We were there for a program led by CT DEEP Wildlife Biologist Devaughn Fraser. She is an expert…

We have an old honeysuckle bush in our front yard twisting up a pipe 10 feet into the air. Planted by the previous owners, the orange-red flowers spreading out five feet around attract hummingbirds to their trumpet-shaped flowers. On sunny, warm days they move between…

“The scales have tipped and the days have more of early fall than early summer in them. Mornings dawn with heavy mists that burn away in time. The annual overturn in sound has already taken place. The chorus of singing birds has diminished; the music…