Wing and a Prayer and vicinity

[Josh]

Hey all,

Anyone who is developing a butterfly garden, re-doing their yard to support pollinators, or generally into native plants might want to visit Wing and a Prayer Nursery in Cummington. My wife and I went there yesterday for their season opening. They had dozens of species for sale, and the signs for each not only had the usual information about growing conditions, flowering season, etc. but also listed which butterfly species used each plant as a caterpillar host. They had not only flowers and shrubs but several native grass species and a few sedges, with a couple of hosted skipper species noted for most of them.

https://www.wingandaprayernursery.com/

Elise Barry posted last July about this place, when Charley Eiseman was leading a program there.

Wing and a Prayer is about 40 minutes’ drive west of Nasami Farm in Whately, another great place where many of us buy plants, run by the Native Plant Trust (the same organization that runs Garden in the Woods).

https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/for-your-garden/nasami-farm/

The drive there is beautiful and passes some great places to stop and look for birds and butterflies, including Mass Audubon’s Graves Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Cummington Fairgrounds, which is adjacent to a nice wetland called the Flat Iron Road Marsh. About 10 miles/15 minutes’ drive west of Wing and a Prayer is Eugene Moran WMA, which many of us know as “the spot” for finding Arctic Skipper, among other species.

This drive also goes past some fun places to eat, like the Local Burgy food truck and the Old Creamery Co-op; a third one, the Williamsburg Snack Bar, was closed by flooding yesterday…

Have fun,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose, Ph.D.
Amherst, MA
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/opihiman
https://www.facebook.com/opihi

Writer/compiler, Bird Observer
https://www.birdobserver.org/

Columnist, “Earth Matters”
https://www.gazettenet.com/search?bodysearch=earth+matters
https://www.hitchcockcenter.org/category/earth-matters/

Vice-president, Hampshire Bird Club
https://hampshirebirdclub.org/

Northeast Chapter head, Dragonfly Society of the Americas
https://www.dragonflysocietyamericas.org/northeastdsa