Overview of The SciFri Book Club reads ‘The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year’
This Science Friday book club conversation features author Margaret Renkl discussing The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, a memoir-like nature book built around observations from her own backyard over the course of a year. The discussion centers on how everyday encounters with crows, birds, insects, trees, and other wildlife can deepen our understanding of grief, climate change, biodiversity loss, and our relationship to the natural world. The episode also brings in entomologist Douglas Tallamy, whose native-plant advocacy helped shape Renkl’s thinking about what it means to truly “welcome” wildlife into a yard.
Main Themes and Ideas
Nature as connection, not escape
- Renkl says her goal as a writer is to help people fall in love with the wild world.
- She argues that we protect what we care about, not what feels distant or abstract.
- The backyard becomes a way to see kinship between humans and other living beings, especially through crows and other corvids.
Grief, fear, and ecological loss
- Renkl reflects on how her earlier book, Late Migrations, leaned into solace during personal loss.
- The Comfort of Crows is meant to be more balanced, acknowledging that the real grief now comes from:
- climate change
- habitat destruction
- biodiversity loss
- She describes these losses as visible, immediate, and difficult to ignore.
A backyard as a site of restoration
- Renkl describes her yard as once sterile-looking and overrun with invasive plants, but still full of potential because it already had mature native trees.
- Over time, she and her husband transformed it by:
- raising mower blades and reducing lawn pressure
- leaving leaves in place for fireflies and other insects
- planting native species
- creating habitat for caterpillars, bees, birds, and more
- The backyard is presented as an ongoing restoration, not a finished project.
Douglas Tallamy’s Advice and Perspective
Why native plants matter
- Tallamy explains that a healthy yard should support a food web, not just look tidy.
- He emphasizes that native plants are essential because local insects evolved to eat them, which in turn supports birds and other wildlife.
- He frames lawn as an “ecological deadscape” when it dominates too much land.
Practical first steps for homeowners
Tallamy suggests:
- starting with an inventory of your property
- reducing lawn gradually
- planting an oak tree if possible
- turning the area beneath trees into planted beds
- treating restoration as a process, not a one-time project
Small spaces count
- Renkl adds that meaningful habitat work does not require a large yard.
- A strip between sidewalk and street, a balcony container, or a small patch of land can all contribute.
- The point is to participate in a larger ecological effort wherever you are.
Intervention, Ethics, and “Helping” Wildlife
When to step in
- Renkl discusses the difficulty of knowing when human intervention is appropriate.
- She draws a distinction between:
- natural predation, which is part of evolution
- human-caused threats, such as feral cats or other invasive pressures
- Her rule of thumb: if the problem is human-made, humans have an obligation to respond.
Balancing compassion and realism
- The conversation acknowledges that not every attempt to help wildlife is simple.
- Feeding, rescuing, or protecting animals can sometimes interfere with natural processes.
- Still, both guests emphasize that many modern threats to wildlife are not “natural” in the first place.
Notable Takeaways
- “We save what we’re in love with.”
- Nature is not optional; human life depends on it.
- Restoring even a small piece of land can produce visible, encouraging results.
- Loving wildlife includes accepting complexity, predation, and grief—not just beauty and comfort.
- Native planting is a practical way to support pollinators, birds, and carbon sequestration while reducing lawn.
Closing and Call to Action
- The episode ends by inviting listeners to join Science Friday’s book club at sciencefriday.com/bookclub.
- Science Friday also asks scientists to call in with how life in the lab has changed under the Trump administration, especially regarding grants, brain drain, and university policy changes.