Nature Obscura

February 17, 2020
Naturalist blogger and self-proclaimed reluctant city dweller Brenner takes a deep dive into urban nature in her probing first book, which she calls a “projection of the nature found in a city onto a piece of paper.” Organizing her work around the seasons, Seattleite Brenner explores a side of her city few others have seen. Winter is more active than many might believe (“a closer look reveals that nature is very much awake, but changed”), with hummingbirds, moss, and tardigrades among the flora and fauna Brenner finds, while spring brings ferns, flies, and muskrats. In summer, the species Brenner investigates include dragonflies, three-spined stickleback fish, and moon snails, with their insatiable love of clams. Autumn offers the somewhat stomach-turning plasmodial slime mold, which Brenner’s quest to see leads to a trip to British Columbia. Brenner is so enthused about the natural world that she buys a bug zapper and disables its killing powers, choosing instead to study the insects that seek out its appealing ultraviolet light. Impeccably researched and written, Brenner’s smart debut is ideal for those with a deep interest in nature.

March 1, 2020

Naturalist Brenner writes an absorbing set of observations of the natural world found in urban environments. She looks for spiders in basements and collects moths from street lamps. From there, she brings lichens home from the park and searches for slime molds on rotting wood. The narrative continues as the author gathers moss from the shingles on her roof and then collects tardigrades from the moss, describing not just where to look for urban species, but also their fascinating traits and behaviors. Notably, Brenner examines how resilience and adaptation allow species to thrive in cities and change the environment they live in, and how they influence the community (and us) to adapt to them. From crows to flies to fungi, Brenner's work shows how little we know about and how rarely we see the species that surround us. VERDICT Though focused on Brenner's hometown of Seattle, this unofficial guide to finding wildlife in unexpected areas is wide ranging and companionable. Also included are tips and resources for budding urban naturalists.--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

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