Nat Wheelwright’s latest “Nature Moments” video takes a closer look at the rich world of fungi: 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. But stinkhorns do it by smelling like rotting meat, which attracts flies […]
Nat Wheelwright
Nature Moments: Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Nat Wheelwright’s latest “Nature Moments” video is especially timely: The last thing deciduous trees do before dropping their leaves in the fall is salvage nutrients that they can reuse next year. In the process, they reveal orange and yellow colors. Red is a different story: it serves as an autumn sun screen. View all Nat’s […]
Nature Moments: Sharing Your Lawn with Bugs
Bowdoin professor and biologist Nat Wheelwright describes his latest “Nature Moments” video this way: You’d have to really hate butterflies, beetles and bugs to spread insecticides all over your lawn. Once you take a closer look at the ingredients and cautions, you may decide to share your lawn with other living creatures. Be sure to […]
Nature Moments: Swimming with Leeches
Bowdoin professor and biologist Nat Wheelwright explains his latest video: 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. If you want to make your own natural history observations, The […]
Nature Moments: Bouquets & Biodiversity from Your Lawn
In this installment of Nature Moments, Bowdoin professor and biologist Nat Wheelwright asks what would happen if we stopped — gasp! — mowing our lawns. Mowing lawns�costs time, burns fossil fuels, and produces a biological desert. When Nat let his own grass grow, three dozen flower species appeared, which in turn attracted a�diversity of insects […]
Introducing Nature Moments with Nat Wheelwright
We’re really excited about a new partnership with Bowdoin College professor (and Maine Audubon board member) Nat Wheelwright. Each of Nat’s 90-second “Nature Moments” videos — which we’ll share here over the coming months — introduces one or more animals or plants, describing its natural history. The goal of the videos is to open up […]