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 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.
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.