Backyard naturalist
  • Published
    June 23, 2021

    Dana Wilde: What kind of grass is that?

    Ignorance about grasses is startling, writes Dana Wilde, given the fact that we live on them.

  • Published
    May 26, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Thoreau and the bluets

    If I don’t make it hard for the mosquitoes, writes Dana Wilde, they will innocently do their best to kill me.

  • Published
    May 12, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Parables for a changing climate

    Temperatures in the last 10 years are markedly higher than any time in recorded history, writes Dana Wilde.

  • Published
    April 28, 2021

    Dana Wilde: The April pilgrimage

    I wonder, when we reach the promised lands of June, July and August, if it will be record hot again this year, writes Dana Wilde.

  • Published
    March 24, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Forces of nature

    In the ancient experience, the stars were forces, detectable through fear, that we are obliged to pay respect to, writes Dana Wilde.

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  • Published
    March 10, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Thoreau and the lichens

    Thoreau was among the original naturalists to think of the whole Earth, not just his own woods, as one ecologically integrated process of processes, writes Dana Wilde.

  • Published
    February 24, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Along came a spider

    By now it’s more or less accepted medical wisdom that pets provide emotional nourishment for humans, writes Dana Wilde.

  • Published
    February 10, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Alien invaders

    A species of "true bugs" invading our homes started in recent decades, writes Dana Wilde, as they moved eastward amid milder winters.

  • Published
    January 27, 2021

    Dana Wilde: Spiders in space

    What would happen, Dana Wilde asks, if you plunked spiders into a weird environment — like outer space?

  • Published
    January 13, 2021

    Dana Wilde: The death of the great auks

    We like to think we’ve come a long way in conservation. Which we have, sort of, writes Dana Wilde, but the Earth is right now undergoing its sixth mass extinction event.