Thank you for letting me share a year of nature in my backyard. The entire Nature Moments series may be used for free by anyone, anytime for the purpose of spreading enthusiasm about nature. Special thanks to Bowdoin College, Maine Audubon, the Davis Conservation Foundation, friends and family who starred in the videos, and our fabulous team: Wilder Nicholson, Tom Porter, Rebecca Goldfine, Paul Benham, and Genie Wheelwright.
The Sound of Extinction
Whip-poor-wills, swallows and other birds that feed on flying insects are rapidly disappearing throughout the northeast. The same is true of too many other animals and plants. Once you pay attention to nature and come to care about it, you can hear the loss of species in the deep heart’s core. It sounds like this.
Parade of Frogs
How can so many frog species co-exist in the same pond without competing for food or accidentally mating with the wrong species? One solution is to reproduce at different times of year. From mud season until the first autumn frosts, you can witness a parade of different frogs.
The Buzz About Bees
Bumblebees have tiny brains but extraordinarily sophisticated behavior. If you follow a bee as it forages for pollen and nectar, you’re likely to find that it specializes on only one type of flower. In this latest Nature Moments video, ecologist Patty Jones explains that bees’ choices are influenced by plant chemicals and the behavior of other bees.
Nature Moments in the News
The yearlong Nature Moments video series was recently featured on local ABC affiliate WMTW’s “Made in Maine” series, hosted by Steve Minich, and on Maine Public Radio’s “Maine Calling,” hosted by Jennifer Rooks.
Herbivory in Moderation
Those holes, rips, folds and tubes that you find in leaves? They’re mainly the work of larval beetles, moths, flies, sawflies and other insects. In moderation, herbivory is a sign of a healthy environment because it indicates that our native insects have not been decimated by pesticides or climate change.
Stripes Between Tides
In animals, stripes serve to provide camouflage or warn predators. At the scale of landscapes, stripes reveal differences among plants in animals in their ability to deal with difficult environments, predation, or competition for space, as marine biologist Amy Johnson explains. Look for stripes the next time you climb a mountain or visit the beach.
The Songs of Trees
If you close your eyes on a breezy day, you can identify trees just by the rustle of their leaves. Are they singing to each other? For David G. Haskell, ecologist and author of The Songs of Trees, listening closely to the distinctive voices in a forest “can ignite our curiosity and get our minds into the lives of trees.”
Getting to Know Bug Spit
You never know what you’re going to find inside a gob of spit in a meadow. If you’re lucky, it might be a young spittlebug. The “spit,” which is left over from feeding on plant sap, protects these harmless insects from predators and parasitic wasps.
Climate Change: Trust But Verify
Is climate change just a hoax? It’s not … but why not follow Ronald Reagan’s advice and “trust but verify” by looking for evidence — pro or con — in your own backyard? If you pay attention to animals, plants and weather, you may discover that your neighborhood really is getting warmer.
Last Chance Dance in Plants
Flowers look so innocent. But just like humans, they can be manipulative and very picky about their mates, as illustrated by ladyslippers and irises, two common bumble-bee pollinated plants. (If you want to learn more, see Zink and Wheelwright, Amer. Midland Naturalist 137: 72-78.)
Color and Communication in Turtles
Animals like painted turtles use different parts of their bodies to send distinct messages. Backs and bellies are designed to mislead predators, while faces, with their fine details, advertise a turtle’s identity and quality to nearby competitors and mates.
Benefits of Obesity in Woodchucks
Woodchucks are called groundhogs and whistle pigs for a good reason: they spend six months gorging themselves before going into hibernation. If they don’t double their weight, they might not survive the winter. (Thanks to Chris Mayer for sharing her expertise and Ariana van den Akker for her photography.)
Lichen Partnerships
Those splotches on rocks, tree trunks and twigs? Lichens! Lichens are actually a symbiosis between two major divisions of life, neither of which is a plant. And you can find them everywhere, as long as the air is not polluted.
How to Build a Bird’s Nest
If you ever have the opportunity (and permits) to dissect an abandoned bird nest, you’ll discover that female birds are ingenious architects of solid, well-insulated, camouflaged homes for their eggs. They’re able to do it without practice or instruction, using found objects like rootlets, feathers, twigs and mosses.
Birdsong Baby Babble
Songbirds aren’t born with the ability to sing proper songs. Instead, they have to listen to adults in order to learn their songs, and then they need to practice. Adult females can distinguish the perfected songs of experienced males from the “baby babble” of young birds. If you listen carefully, so can you.
Packing Leaves into Buds
How do plants pack their growing leaves inside such small buds? There are four main methods: leaves can be folded, rolled up, coiled, or pleated. The way a particular species packs its leaves has less to do leaf size or shape than with the plant’s evolutionary history.
Faith in Trees
Trees provide us shelter, fuel, food, protection from climate change, and beauty. But they also have deep spiritual importance. In a treetop conversation, forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni points out the connection between trees and religion.
Warm-Blooded Skunk Cabbages
Which plant has a metabolic rate as high as a hummingbird’s, generates enough heat to melt its way through the snow, and has the ability to regulate its body temperature just like a warm-blooded animal? Here’s a hint: they look like cabbages and smell like skunks, which attracts early spring pollinators.
House Invaders
If you live in an old house, you probably are acquainted with these three home invaders: long-bodied cellar spiders, western conifer seed bugs, and multicolored Asian lady beetles. Although they’re not native to the northeast, they’re completely harmless and really quite companionable.
Wood Frog Thumbs
As soon as the ice melts from ponds, wood frogs emerge from hibernation, filling cool spring nights with the sound of their croaks. To tell males from females, just look at their hands. Males have absurdly muscular thumbs, the better to hold onto females in the fierce competition for mates.
Galls, Cankers and Witch’s Brooms
Have you ever noticed tumor-like growths on plants? Fungi, insects, mites and bacteria are like “body snatchers,” penetrating plant cells and manipulating them to produce galls, cankers and witch’s brooms for the parasites’ benefit. Fortunately, most are benign.
The Odd Thing About Mosses
Mosses are among the most ancient plants on earth, and their peculiar biology shows it. The lovely leafy green plant that all of us are familiar with? It has just half the normal number of chromosomes, like an egg or sperm!
Sugar Maple Tappers
In February, when it’s still frigid at night but daytime temperatures are starting to warm, it may look like trees are just sitting there doing nothing. But inside their cells, changes are happening and sap is starting to flow.
Keeping Your Own Nature Journal
Taking “forest baths” and recording your observations can be wonderful therapy for modern times. Here are some tips from acclaimed natural history writer Bernd Heinrich for keeping your own nature journal.
Outsmarting Squirrels
Why is it so maddeningly difficult to keep squirrels off birdfeeders? After all, they’re just rodents with brains the size of a ping-pong ball. Squirrels are such amazing problem-solvers because they’re observant, social, experimental and persistent.
Life Under the Ice
Have you ever wondered what could be living underneath the ice of a frozen pond? With no light or air, and temperatures just above freezing, you’d think life would be impossible but….
How Leaves Deal with the Cold
Plants may not move as quickly as animals, but check out the “behavior” of rhododendron leaves when it’s frigid. Their drooping and curling help prevent damage from excess light when it’s too cold to photosynthesize.
Leaping Snow Fleas
What animal can jump 100 times the length of his body — without using any of his six legs? Take a walk in the snow on a sunny February day and look closely in your boot prints.
Birds’ Personalities
Have you noticed how different bird species have distinct personalities?
Some are shy and skittish, while others are curious and gregarious. Don’t you wish you could get inside the head of a bird to see what makes her tick?
Sexing Trees in Winter
Depending on the species, plants either have separate sexes, like most animals, or they are bisexual. But how can you tell a plant’s sex in winter, when there are no flowers? (Hint: look to see if it has fruits.)
Jonathan Livingston Gull
Gulls are extraordinarily variable in the way they look. The color of an individual’s plumage, legs, and eyes reveals not only what species it is but also its age, condition and social status.
Fungi, The Original Recyclers
If it weren’t for fungi, dead trees might not decompose and nutrients would be locked up, unavailable for other plants and animals to use. You can easily find (and make art with) wood-rotting bracket fungi even in winter.
How to ID Winter Trees at 60 mph
American beech is actually easier to identify in winter than in summer, even at 60 mph, because it holds onto its dead leaves all winter. The reason? The ancestors of beeches evolved in the tropics where plants photosynthesize year-round. Beeches just happened to keep a tight grip on their leaves when they moved north.
DIY Holiday Fireworks
You can find lycopods (aka clubmosses) growing on the ground in most northeastern forests. They are the only living descendants of ancient lineage of towering trees. And they have a special talent: their oily spores are amazingly flammable, perfect for DIY holiday fireworks!
A Deer’s Day
Most mammals are only active after dark, so it’s harder to get to know them than, say, birds, which are active and conspicuous during the day. But you can figure out how mammals like white-tailed deer spend their time by noticing subtle signs of their behavior.
A Close Look at Mosses
Have you ever taken a close look at mosses? They’re simply elegant, and you can find them almost anywhere. They’re not that hard to tell apart especially with Ralph Pope’s moss field guide, so why not get to know them?
Red-backed Salamanders, Forest Heavyweights
If you took all the moose or deer in a northeastern forest and put them on a scale, they wouldn’t weigh as much as the superabundant but often overlooked red-backed salamander. (Hard to believe, I know, but check out the study “Salamander Populations and Biomass in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire” published in the scientific journal Copeia in 1975!)
Fungi on the Move
Fungi use mushrooms to disperse their offspring, much like plants use fruits. The spores of fungi can be spread by wind, by animals, or by a combination. The oddest fungi are stinkhorns, which do it by smelling like rotting meat, attracting flies to transport their spores.
Why Do Leaves Change Colors?
Why do leaves change color in the fall? I asked Bowdoin College Biologist Barry Logan that question. It turns out that the answer depends upon what color you’re talking about. Who knew that red acts like a leaf’s sunscreen?
Sex Ed for Botanists
Gender in humans turns out to be more complicated than we once thought, but gender in plants is pretty complicated, too. Plants can have separate sexes, like most animals, or they can be hermaphroditic — but in two different ways. Next time you pass a flower, check it out!
Would You Put This Stuff on Your Lawn?
You’d have to really hate butterflies, beetles and bugs to spread insecticides all over your lawn. Take a closer look at the ingredients and cautions on the package — you may decide not to use it, and share your lawn with other living creatures instead.
Bouquets and Biodiversity from Your Lawn
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you didn’t mow your lawn for a while? When I tried that, three dozen different flower species appeared, providing a banquet for insects and birds.
Swimming with Leeches
I used to be afraid of leeches until I tried a simple experiment which showed that they much prefer frogs. Now I’d much rather swim in a natural pond than a sterile chlorinated pool.