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 …
Maine's Naturalist
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 …
Nature Moments: 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, …
Nature Moments: Birdsong Baby Babble
Every bird in the world makes some kind of sound. But in order to develop a proper song, explains Nat Wheelwright, some of them need to listen to adults and then practice what they hear, in the same way children learn to speak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JymW5QXppKE Nature Moments are …
Golden-winged Warbler in South Portland
Warbler migration has just about peaked and the diversity we're seeing in southern Maine has been great this year. Our warbler walks at Evergreen Cemetery and Capisic Pond had a slower start but this week we've been seeing around 18 species of warblers each day. One of our "dream birds" to find is a …
Nature Moments: Packing Leaves into Buds
How do plants pack their growing leaves inside such small buds? Nat Wheelwright explains the 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 …
Nature Moments: 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 with Nat Wheelwright, forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni points out the connection between trees and …
Nature Moments: Warm-Blooded Skunk Cabbages
In his latest Nature Moment, Nat Wheelwright asks: What 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 …