Nature on the Doorstep

A Year of Letters

Angela E. Douglas

• Editorial: Comstock Publishing Associates
• Año: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781501768132
• Categoría: Biological Sciences
• Categoría: Botany

Nature on the Doorstep reveals the simple pleasures of paying attention to the natural world in one's own backyard over the course of a year. In weekly letters, Angela Douglas shares the joys and curiosities of a decidedly ordinary patch of green in upstate New York cultivated through the art of "strategic neglect"—sometimes taking a hand to manage wildlife, more often letting nature go its own way.

From the first flowers of spring to cardinals singing in the winter, Douglas shows us the magic of welcoming unexpected plant and animal life into one's backyard. A paean to the richness we find when we stop to look and let be, Nature on the Doorstep celebrates the role humble backyards play both in conservation efforts and in an expanded appreciation of the living world.

Índice

• Preface
• A Note to Readers
• The Letters
• March 22, 2020 On the horns of a dilemma
• March 29, 2020 Spring is coming …
• April 5, 2020 Wordsworth’s flowers
• April 12, 2020 Vultures and rabbits
• April 19, 2020 Bloom where you are planted
• April 26, 2020 Winter’s dregs
• May 3, 2020 The English daisy
• May 10, 2020 Bud burst!
• May 17, 2020 And now it’s summer
• May 24, 2020 Chipmunks and woodchucks
• May 31, 2020 Looking up
• June 7, 2020 Natives and aliens
• June 14, 2002 Save the bees!
• June 21, 2020 A terminological jungle
• June 28, 2020 Empires under the maple tree
• July 5, 2020 Fireflies: a wonder of the Ithaca world
• July 12, 2020 The Deptford pink
• July 19, 2020 Blue jay birds and blue jay humans
• July 26, 2020 Call my bluff
• August 2, 2020 Termite mound or Italian villa?
• August 9, 2020 Happy families
• August 16, 2020 The orthopteran orchestra
• August 23, 2020 Backyard munchers
• August 30, 2020 Wasps galore
• September 6, 2020 The official end of summer
• September 13, 2020 Garden silks
• September 20, 2020 Late season flowers
• September 27, 2020 The War of the Seasons
• October 4, 2020 The backyard harvest
• October 11, 2020 Making a living in the backyard
• October 18, 2020 The winter birdseed feeder is back in business
• October 25, 2020 Fall colors
• November 1, 2020 The end of the 2020 orthopteran orchestra
• November 8, 2020 Fake news!
• November 15, 2020 What’s on today’s menu?
• November 22, 2020 It smells to high heaven
• November 29, 2020 Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater
• December 6, 2020 Hawk, beware!
• December 13, 2020 Life in the leafless trees
• December 20, 2020 Nearly a foot of snow
• December 27, 2020 Mass Sparrow Attack
• January 3, 2021 Celebrating the last day of the year
• January 10, 2021 Winter sounds
• January 17, 2021 Sparrow Wars
• January 24, 2021 The daily red squirrel
• January 31, 2021 It is nothing but winter—winter, cold and savage
• February 7, 2021 A Miller B nor’easter and a Bumpus event
• February 14, 2021 Finding their voice
• February 21, 2021 The daily crow commute
• February 28, 2021 Periwinkle for tea
• March 7, 2021 Snow fleas
• March 14, 2021 All change
• Postscript
• Acknowledgments
• References