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APRIL 2024


LET NATURE SING THIS SPRING
How to make a happy home for pollinators
 

1. Don't rush into clean up. Wait until temperatures are reliably in the 50s throughout the day and night for at least a week to help protect nesting pollinators. Embrace a natural appearance. 
2. Cut invasives (Japanese barberry, burning bush, privet, autumn olive, multiflora rose) to the ground, March through May.
3. Rethink your yard and expand native plants areas. Find easy garden plans for all situations in Native Plants for the Small Yard. 
4. Before planting have your soil tested. 
5. Be careful selecting grub control products.They can be extremely harmful to other insects, including beneficial ones that eat grubs. Learn about safer alternatives.
 


BUTTERFLIES LOVE COLOR
 
Butterflies are attracted to pink, orange, red, yellow and blue flowers. They are best adapted to local, native plants. When planting your garden broaden your palette: think like a pollinator!
 
FEATURED BUTTERFLY OF THE MONTH: 
EASTERN TAILED-BLUE
Eastern tailed-blue (Everes comyntas), shown here on a pink Joe-pye weed flower, is a common butterfly, ubiquitous in open areas. 

Flight Time: Late April to late October, with multiple broods.

Larval Host Plant: When they are in the larval, or caterpillar, stage Eastern tailed-blues can be found on wild indigo, tick-trefoil, wild lupine, and bush clover.

Adult Food Source: Nectar from winter cress, white clover, wild strawberry and spring aster.

To protect Eastern Tailed-Blue butterflies, plant native plants mentioned above. Also keep leaf litter to cover overwintering butterflies in their nearly mature larval/caterpillar stage. 
 

Life cycle of  butterflies and moths:  
Egg - hatches into tiny caterpillars, or larvae, on a host plant,
Caterpillar (larva) - feeds on leaves of host plant and then locates a place to hang upside down and form chrysalis (butterfly) or cocoon (moth),
Butterfly chrysalis / Moth cocoon (pupa) - undergoes metamorphosis to emerge as butterfly or moth,
Butterfly / Moth (adult) - lays eggs on the host plant and looks for food source from nectar, sap, rotting fruit, etc.
 


HEALTHY YARDS FOR
POLLINATORS, PETS & PEOPLE
Speaker Series
The Payoffs of a Pesticide-Free Yard - April 24 
 

Moderated by Melanie Hollas, Co-chair Pollinator Pathway Stamford

Talks free. Workshop fee. Registration required.

Where: The Whittingham Discovery Center, Mill River Park, 1040 Washington Boulevard, Stamford, CT (Parking)

Wednesday, April 24 
The Payoffs of a Pesticide-Free Yard 
Louise Washer
President, Norwalk River Watershed Association
Co-Founder, Pollinator Pathway

Join us for an eye-opening discussion about pesticides commonly used on lawns and gardens and their negative impacts on human health, our environment, and biodiversity. Our speaker, Louise Washer, a co-founder of Pollinator Pathway will discuss effective alternatives to pesticides and the importance of adopting sustainable practices to protect our air, water, and soil, and thereby promote biodiversity. She will also cover the need to update state policy around pesticide restrictions, specific pesticide legislation currently being debated in the CT Legislature, and what you can do to help make Connecticut a leader on this issue. 

Louise Washer serves on the board of  Pollinator Pathway, which is now in over 353 towns and cities in 22 states and Canada. She also serves as president of the Norwalk River Watershed Association, as a member of the Norwalk Mayor’s Water Quality Committee, and on the steering committee of the Hudson-to-Housatonic Regional Conservation Partnership (H2H). Websites: https://www.pollinator-pathway.org  and  https://norwalkriver.org

Learn about upcoming speakers and topics in this Healthy Yards series.

Questions: PollinatorPathwayStamford@gmail.com

A presentation of Pollinator Pathway Stamford and Mill River Park Collaborative.
REGISTER: The Payoffs of a Pesticide-Free Yard


EARTH DAY CLEAN-UP &
AUDUBON WILDLIFE HABITAT WALK
Kosciuszko Park - April 20th  
Earth Day is every day in the pollinator world! Join Pollinator Pathway Stamford as we kick off our annual clean-up at Kosciuszko Park. Once again Stefan Martin, conservation manager at The Connecticut Audubon Society, will lead informal walks around this multi-acre park teeming with birds and other interesting wildlife.

We provide gloves, bags and handheld trash pickers. You provide the cheer!

Saturday, April 20, 2024
10:00 am - 12:00 noon


UPCOMING EVENT
Arbor Earth Day - April 21  
Bring the kids to Arbor Earth Day at Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens and celebrate trees! Pollinator Pathway Stamford will be there to share fun, interesting and interactive activities about trees, birds and caterpillars. Hope to see you.

Sunday, April 21, 2024, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm. Check the Arboretum's website for updates.


SAVE MIGRATORY BIRDS
Lights Out Connecticut
April 1 - May 31
 

We can do our part to turn off unnecessary outdoor and indoor lighting from 11:00pm to 6:00am each night during peak bird migration to reduce risk of light pollution to migratory birds.
Learn more at LightsOutCT.org.

Spring Migration:  April 1- May 31
Fall Migration:  August 15 - November 15
 

BEE CONNECTED
Join Pollinator Pathway Stamford and add your property to the map.
Take the pledge to help bees and other pollinators.
 
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Copyright © 2024 Pollinator Pathway Stamford, All rights reserved.


Our web address is:
https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/stamford

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