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 …
Maine's Naturalist
Maine’s First White M Hairstreak
One of the big draws for me getting into birding when I was a high schooler was the opportunity to make contributions to ornithology through citizen science. I found eBird early on and seeing my sightings fill in gaps on range maps or bar charts provided the instant gratification I needed to stick …
Nature Moments: 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. As Bowdoin professor and Maine Audubon trustee Nat Wheelwright explains, the "spit," which is left over from feeding on plant sap, protects these harmless insects from …
Celebrating Moths with Maine Audubon
Moths are an underappreciated, relatively little-known group of insects. They aren't just little brown bugs that come to your porch light! Varying from leaf miners (at barely 0.1 inches long) to the Atlas Moth of Asia (with a wingspan of over 12 inches -- around the same size as the world's largest …
March of the Migrating Fish
You don't have to travel to Africa or the Arctic tundra to witness one of the world's great migrations. Maine's migratory fish provide a rare opportunity to see wildlife in abundance, and they are an excellent example of resilience and persistence. Species such as salmon and shad, blueback …
Nature Moments: On 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, explains …
Nature Moments: 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 …
Nature Moments: 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 Maher for sharing her expertise and Ariana van den Akker for her …
Nature Moments: 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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpnROtN-JhE Nature Moments are …