Nathaniel T. Wheelwright
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.