Wild With Nature

In July, I spent a morning getting to know a prairie dog town in the Helena Valley. This episode is an exploration of prairie dogs - along with the animals and plants that their towns support. 

This is the story of a male Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus). I found him in October, hanging from a goldenrod stem near a stream. Over the winter, I learned about his life. I watched him hanging from the goldenrod through snow and subzero temperatures. In March, concerned that an animal would eat him, I brought him into a terrarium where I could watch more closely. On my dad’s birthday, Jun...

Encontré el capullo de la polilla de seda por primera vez en octubre, colgando de un tallo cerca de un arroyo pequeño. Lo observé a través del invierno amargo, hasta que en junio la polilla adulta emergió. Ésta es la historia de él: una historia de esperanza, transformación, luz y sombra.

Two-groove milkvetch (Astragalus bisulcatus) is an enigma: a beautiful native plant, it's also a toxic selenium-accumulator. For Pollinator Week 2022, I took a close look at the bees visiting this plant, searched out other native flowers in the habitat surrounding it, and explored how we might encourage more biodiversity in our yards.

Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula): it's a much-hated, non-native plant, listed as a noxious weed by the State of Montana. But surprisingly, it's also a haven for a diversity of pollinating insects, especially ichneumonid wasps. This is the story of a day in the field and all of the pollinators I found on a small patch of leafy spurge.

Nesting Brewer’s sparrows are rare in the Helena Valley of west-central Montana. But five years ago, I found four of them singing from a small patch of sagebrush near Devil’s Elbow Campground, along the eastern edge of the Valley. In June 2022, I went back for another look. I didn’t find any Brewer’s sparrows, which raises some great questions about what makes good-quality sagebrush habitat. I did...

The only way to understand a grassland is to get up close and personal with it. In June 2022, I did exactly that. Marisa Diaz-Waian invited me to take a look at a rocky hilltop near Marysville, Montana, where she hopes to boost native plant diversity and create excellent habitat for lots of insects and other critters. This is a story about the beginning phases of a restoration project - and learni...

Many of our insect-eating birds love to forage in chokecherries. But what are they catching? In June of 2022, I took a close look and tried to find out. This is a story about the remarkable hunting abilities of birds, my own not-so-remarkable insect-hunting abilities, and some of the surprising diversity of insects that can be found on chokecherry bushes (Prunus virginiana). This outdoor adventure...