Episoder
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Listening to the land, in a very tangible way, can lead to some pretty special moments. Whether it is Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapilus) scolding an Eastern Screech Owl (Megascaups asio), hearing the thunder heralding a powerful storm, or the waves washing up on the beach, the land speaks to us through sound in thousands of ways. We just have to stop and listen.
To wake up early and walk only a few feet to track on the chilly morning beach is a gift. To spend time connecting with one of my brothers while connecting with the land, truly a gift. To listen to the waves, the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) while wandering among the rocks and sand, again, a gift.
I brought my recorder with me out to McGregor Point on Naadowewi-gichigami/Lake Huron incase any sounds moved me, and of course, such a big beautiful sea tugged at me in the foggy morning. I had to record.
To learn more :
Online Etymology Dictionary entry on âgossamerâ -
Aside of our human cultural space there is the broad other-than human animal place. A world we exist along with, and yet are still achingly removed from. This wilder edge is always calling out, audibly and silently, with gesture, scent, behaviour and sound. George Bumann has been practicing paying attention to this world in ways that I long to.
In his new book, Eavesdropping On Animals : What we can learn from wildlife conversations, George shares stories and studies which reveal and inspire would be listeners to hear what that imminently natural world is always already singing out. He looks at animal communication strategies and draws out lessons and tools which he shares in approachable and digestible ways.
In the interview we explored various communication strategies, from audible calls to subtle body language including unique alarm and welcome calls. We spoke about our presence in nature and discuss ways to minimize disturbance while recognizing our place in the ecosystem. George and I go deep into the diverse forms of communication throughout the other-than human language-scape. He also shared some insights into how engaging all our senses, especially sound, we can better attend to that wonder full zoolexicon at that wilder edge.This is one of the good ones.
To learn more :
George Bumannâs website
Eavesdropping on Animals page
Eavesdropping on Animals Online Course with George -
Manglende episoder?
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As Julie Beeler writes, it wasnât until 1969 that fungi were taxonomically separated from plants and recognized as inhabiting their own kingdom. There is so much that we do not understand about their taxonomy, their natural history, their functions in their ecosystem, or their medicinal values. With all that we do not know, Julie Beelerâs amazing work, set on paper as the Mushroom Color Atlas draws a clear path towards understanding the possible tones and timbres of colour and shade which we can pull from some of members of this vast kingdom.
The Mushroom Color Atlas showcases the variety of colours derived from the fungi themselves, as well as some of their identification features and where we might find them. The book also highlights the dye preparation process, which fabrics and mordants to use, and the some of the chemistry which makes all the magic happen.
We spoke about Julieâs history as a designer, artist, and educator, her own deepening relationship with fungi, poisonous mushrooms, and the future of fungi in fashion and beyond.
From the colour to the fungi themselves to our human connections with the broader ecology to the movement for a more conscious and considerate fashion, working with fungi creates deep mycelial intimacies with the world we inhabit, and Julie helps guide us through.
To learn more :
Mushroom Color Atlas.com
Mushroom Color Atlas on instagram -
While teaching up at the Lodge at Pine Cove this past weekend we came across lots of tracks and sign. Tons of Sawfly (wasplike insects) cocoons, some leaf miners, galls a plenty, Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) holes and feeding sign, Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and Moose (Alces alces) scat and lots more. But there was one bit of sign that was really annoying me⊠something I wasnât sure about. There were mussel shells laying about all along the rivers edge. Along the beach, the rocky cove, and all across the depths of the French River. They had all been opened, most split at the hinge, some cracked, many fragile and crumbling apart when put a bit of pressure on them. Someone had been feeding on these mussels for quite a few years it seemed, and I wanted to, maybe even needed to, figure this mussel mystery out.
What kind of mussel whose remains I was finding? Who are the animals who live in this place that consume them? Who was leaving these middens about? Did they leave any other clues behind? Why couldnât I find anything?
I really get into puzzles sometimes and this one made for a great distraction from the anxious excitement of teaching in a new place.
This episode was recorded just after sunrise, along a wet winding trail in the mist of a gentle rain. It was awesome.
Corrections : While I said something along the lines of Clams and Mussels are the same, I think this is incorrect. There seems to be differences based on structure of their shells and how they attach or burrow into substrates.
To learn more :
Bird Tracks and Sign by Mark Elbroch and Eleanor Marks. Stackpole Books, 2001.
The Best of the Raven vol. 1 by Dan Strickland and Russ Rutter. The Friends of Algonquin Park, 1993.
Animal Tracks of the Midwest by Jonathan Poppele. Adventure Publications, second ed, 2022.
Peterson Field Guides: Mammals by William H. Burt and Richard P. Grossenheider. -
For the last couple of years, I have been going to Pawpaw Fest which my friend and neighbour Matt Soltys organizes. Matt Soltys, for those listeners who donât know yet, is The Urban Orchardist. He teaches me about fruit and nut trees and I help him try and sort out which insects are leaving their sign on the trees.
But back to the point⊠Pawpaws. Asimina triloba. A fruit with a comeback story. Have you tried one yet? I bet most folks listening have. They are growing more and more, both literally on the land and metaphorically in all the surrounding hype. Is it worth the hype? Matt Soltys seems to think so. He is growing hundreds of them (I had to fact check this statement, and yes, it is true).
We sat down to discuss Pawpaws, a bit about their ecology and about the assisted migration that likely allowed the Pawpaw to arrive in Southern Ontario. I really donât know much about the species but want to get as much info as I can as they are likely going to be seen on the landscape more frequently as people get excited about this peculiar fruit. Why the big leaves? How did they get here? What happens at Pawpaw Fest? Where is it? How do I get there? (Sunday October 6th, Simpler Thyme Organic Farm, 1749 Hwy 6, between Guelph and Hamilton.)
For more info listen to the show or check out The Urban Orchardist instagram page.
Correction : Matt mentioned Malus floribunda as the name of the apple native to the southern Great Lakes area, but he afterwards he realized he made a mistake, and the species is Malus coronaria.
To learn more :
Shrubs of Ontario by James H. Soper and Margaret L. Heimburger, ROM Publications , 1982.
The Dawn of Everything by by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Allen Lane, 2021.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann. Knopf, 2005.
Growing Trees From Seed by Henry Kock. Firefly Books, 2008.
The role of anthropogenic dispersal in shaping the distribution and genetic composition of a widespread North American tree species by Graham E. Wyatt, J. L. Hamrick, Dorset W. Trapnell. Ecology and Evolution, 2021.The Urban Orchardist website
Mattâs Instagram -
Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) is a very common, very attractive and conspicuous species on the landscape. We see them often and are probably pretty familiar with the flowers, fruit and form. I see them down by the river, in the understory of thick forests, and sometimes on the edge of wet meadows. I have also been hanging out with them recently in areas which can be called âpost-industrial wastelandsâ; lands where industry has so polluted and harmed that there are still pollutants and chemicals wrapped up in the soil. But still the Jewelweed thrives.
For this episode, like most episodes, I wanted to explore a little bit more about the Jewelweed I so commonly see. I wanted to ask some questions about the flower development, the explosive seed pods, and about a non-native cousin who seems to be showing up in places more commonly these days. I also dig in on the concept of âpost-industrial wastelandsâ a little as these lands are probably very common across the Great Lakes Bioregion where I live.
Hope you enjoy the show!
To learn more :
Wild Urban Plants of the NorthEast by Peter Del Tredici. Cornell University Press, 2020.
The Book of Swamp and Bog by John Eastman. Stackpole Books, 1995.
Summer Wildflowers of the North East by Carol Gracie. Princeton University Press, 2020. -
As an aspiring wildlife tracker I want to know about the signs that animals leave behind. Due to my annoyingly excitable curiosity this includes all animals, and all types of sign. This includes the regurgitated masses of undigested food that makes up a bird pellet.
When it comes to pellets, I have found a couple before. Some full of hair, assorted skulls and other bones, feather parts and even a couple full of seed husks from plants. But when it comes to sorting out who left these pellets behind, there is an extraordinary lack of resources to help folks figure it out.
I got excited to interview Ed Drewitt again. His new book Bird Pellets, out now on Pelagic Publishing, has tons of photos, lots of detailed info and some great hints on how to identify the makers of the pellets we find. While the book was written with a British and Irish context in mind, there are many overlaps with Turtle Island/North American species which I find quite helpful.
As for Ed? He is a professional naturalist, wildlife detective, and broadcaster for the BBC. He has been studying urban Peregrines for over 15 years, and looking into the contents of bird pellets for even longer. He has been on the show before and has been a great help in answering some of my ornithological mysteries pertaining to Peregrine Falcons in the past. It was nice to reconnect over his great new book.
To learn more :
Ed Drewittâs website
Bird Pellets book website
Ep. 142 : Raptor Prey Remains with Ed Drewitt
Blog post on predated Herring Gull which I consulted with Ed on to determine the predator. -
While looking into possible Red Wolf (Canis rufus) genetics found in a Coastal Louisiana Coyote (Canis latrans) populations, biologist Dr. Joseph Hinton set a trap. Sadly, when a Coyote, later named LA25M was caught in this trap, his leg was irreversibly damaged. Joe decided to bring this Coyote to a vet and get the leg amputated, an unusual procedure when working with study animals, but possibly better than euthanizing the canid. Shortly after the surgery, the LA25M was released with a radio collar and monitored to determine his use of territories. Turns out this Coyote did quite well, regardless of the amputation.
When I read Joeâs paper, I was intrigued and had to ask about an interview. Graciously, he replied and we set one up.
Joe and I discuss his working getting to know Red Wolf genetics present in Gulf Coast Coyotes, why it may be important to keep track of the mixing of Red Wolf and Coyote DNA, and what a three-legged Coyote may get up to on their home range, and off of it, once released. Itâs a pretty cool story. Worth a listen.
To learn more :
Space use and fate of a three-legged coyote â a case study by Joseph W. Hinton, Kelsey San Martin, Kristin E. Brzeski, Jazmin J. Murphy, & Amy C. ShuttWolf Conservation Center -
Every year I get the privilege of co-leading a spiritual retreat weekend with the wonderful Greg Kennedy at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre. This year we revamped the âTreesâ retreat from a couple of years ago and I switched it up, including a talk on Friday night on âWhat is a Forest : Of exclusion and of Communityâ.
This wasnât a talk about a particular ecosystem necessarily. Instead it was an exploration of the shady history of the word and concept of âforestâ, The first English use of the word forest doesnât describe a specific ecozone; instead it was the place where royalty and gentry removed the people to keep exclusive regal hunting grounds for them and their noble guests. It meant the expulsion of peoples, and the emergence of the enclosure movement (so incitefully taught to me by Rain Crowe and Sylvia Federici many years ago), and plausible contribution to the witch hunts across Europe. âThe forestâ is not neutral territory. It is a contested zone.
This topic is significant to me, as in, itâs important to remember the contexts of where these exclusionary ways of interacting with the land have come from and how the plans and technologies of power were then exported, and are used with colonial intent on different lands and different people. It is important to remember how those who came before resisted this theft of the commons, and it is important to remember that we are as connected to those ancestor as we are to the trees, screes and seas.
To learn more :
Caliban and the Witch by Sylvia Federici. Autonomedia, 2004. (pdf link)
The Once and Future Great Lakes Country : An Ecological History by John L. Riley. McGill-Queenâs University Press, 2014.
The World Turned Upside Down by Leon Rosselson, performed by Billy Bragg -
I have been feeling a little bit distant lately. Like some sort of anxious attachment distant. Avoidant even. While trying to not be too clingy or handsy with the land, I have slipped into a disconnection, being one that just observes but doesnât participate in the ways that brought me into relationship with so many plants in the first place. I have been feeling this disconnect, and recognizing something had to be done. Then along comes Red Clover.
After attending a workshop on edible and medicinal plants I felt called by the Red Clover (Trifolium pratense). Here was a plant that I felt I could harvest without much impact on the populations, or harm to local species who depend on T. pratense. It felt like I could relearn relationships with the broader landscape, incorporating components of taking and consuming - components of relationship making with plants that I have felt conflicted on recently - and therefore helping to heal that separation which has been sneaking in. Since harvesting, I have also been doing deep dives into Red Clover natural history, and ecofunction. It has been a gift from this special plant to learn from them, harvest them, teach about them and drink the tea made from the flowers.
Thatâs what this weekâs show is all about.
To learn more :
The ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario by Timothy Dickinson, Deborah Metsger, Jenny Bull, and Richard Dickinson. ROM, 2004.
The Book of Field and Roadside by John Eastman and Amelia Hansen. Stackpole Books, 2003.
American Wildlife & Plants : A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits by Alexander C Martin, Herbert S Zim, Arnold L. Nelson. Dover, 1951.Incredible Wild Edibles by Samuel Thayer. Foragerâs Harvest, 2017.
Held By The Land by Leigh Joseph. Wellfleet Press, 2023.
The Earthwise Herbal vol. 1 by Matthew Wood. North Atlantic Books, 2008.
Rhizobium leguminosarum wikipedia page -
In the midst of a lowland forest at the edge of town, out for a slow walk with a pal, we heard the calls of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) and started looking for them. We saw them first in an Eastern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) tree, as they were quickly making their way towards the South. Then when we turned a corner we got to witness some courting behaviours which somehow reached deep and woke me from a slow low mood I was in.
Sometimes Cedar Waxwings are regarded as a âjust a..â bird. âItâs just a Cedar Waxwingâ, you might hear from another birder who is looking for some elusive flycatcher or late migrant. But if we take the time to pay attention to the mundane, we sometimes see some magic in elusive or even commonplace behaviours.
Finding the magic in the everyday is one of the beautiful parts of paying attention to our wild neighbours. The small moves sometimes mean the most. These small moves are what inspired this weekâs show.
Image of Waxwings : Alan Rice, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
To learn more :
Birds of Ontario by Andy Bezener. Lone Pine, 2000.
Bird Song : Identification Made Easy by Ernie Jardine. Natural Heritage, 1996.
Stokes Guide to Bird Behavior Vol. 2 by Donald and Lillian Stokes. Little Brown and Company, 1983.
Peterson Field Guide to North American Bird Nests by Casey McFarland, Matthew Monjello and David Moskowitz. Houghton Mifflin Harcout, 2021.
American Wildlife & Plants : A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits by Alexander C Martin, Herbert S Zim, Arnold L. Nelson. Dover, 1951.
Life Histories of North American Wagtails, Shrikes, Vireos, and Their Allies by Arthur Cleveland Bent. Dover, 1965.
Birds of Forest, Yard & Thicket by John Eastman. Stackpole Books, 1997. -
For the past few years I have been going out at night in May to record the calls of American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus) and Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens) by the Eramosa River. I used to live much closer to the river and I could hear the songs from my window at night. When I heard those songs, I knew it was time to go record, and that the radio show that week was going to be the calls of the Anurans.
The problem was that lately, it has been pretty quiet on the home front. Maybe it was a bit too chilly for the Anurans to sing, or the rain has prevented me from bringing my recorders out, lest they get destroyed. But there have also been some really good nights, quite suitable for toad and frog song, but still it was quiet but for the Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). What was going on?
Turns out that the frogs just arenât in the river where they usually are, probably due to an oil spill last April in the spot where I usually go record. I ended up going to a small wetland with a friend and there we recorded a different species, the Northern Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans melanota) calling in a small Cattail (Typha sp.) swamp.
Thereâs a profound beauty in allowing the non-human world to articulate themselves, and to give language voice, sharing their expression on platforms often dominated by our human-centric narratives. Collaborating with other life forms for my show allows me to fill in some details here and there from my books, but really, the other life has other language to carry the show and I donât need to interfere.
It really is a gift to listen in on these non-human conversations, and I think we should practice that listening as much as possible. I recognize that traipsing about the river at night is not a sport everyone can enjoy; it may not be safe or may not be fun, but getting the chance to tune into the voices and songs of other animals is definitely a chance to learn. By offering our platforms to amplify the voices of other beings, we can not only expand our awareness of the world, but I believe it helps to promote their selfhood and agency, and remind us all of the inherent worth and value of all the others who take up space, and make place on the lands, and in the waters, we share. And when it comes to us humans, by practicing the art of listening, we are also working to kick at the bounds which isolate us from the rest of the world.
Listen in and hear what the Green Frogs have to say.
To learn more :
Herpetology (3rd ed.) by Laurie J. Vitt and Janalee P. Caldwell. Elsevier, 2009. -
The Eramosa River Valley is the place where I live, play and work. Having spent roughly the last 20 years along the banks of the river, sitting, running, riding, and learning about the lives lived along the shores and walls, there are many days where I just sit back and realize how much I love this place.
When I heard about a group of folks who were working to conserve the land as a national urban park, I admit I got a little wary. Who were they? Do they care about this place as much as I do? What is their motive? How will this change my relationship with this place? Will it change the landscape of the valley? How will the river be affected?
I ended up doing some research into the campaign and decided the best thing to do would be to just reach out and ask about an interview⊠and nearly right away, Brian Skerrett, spokesperson for National Urban Park Guelph got back to me, and we made the plan.
Brian enthusiastically answered my questions and helped me understand the hope and scope of the proposed park and taught me a lot about the land I love. I realized that he too really appreciates this place and wants to see the valley cared for and protected. The National Urban Park Guelph folks are really focused on building community awareness and community participation in developing this park idea, and doing so in a good way.
I asked a lot of questions throughout our interview, including some I had never thought about before.. How do you build a national park located in the middle of the growing city? How can a park be a tool for healing and reconciliation? How can an old prison become a tool for social change and the protection of a beloved of a river valley?
Hopefully this episode helps build the possibility of a healing place to visit, sit and learn to fall deeper in love with the river I long to know more.
To learn more :
UrbanParkGuelph.com
Urban Park Guelph on Instagram
Urban Park Guelph on Facebook -
This past weekend I got to participate in my second track and sign evaluation with Tracker Certification North America and one of the most interesting things I learned was some new Earthworm sign which triggered the thought⊠I really donât know much about Earthworms (class Oligochaeta), but I want to start digging in.
I ended up crawling through all of my books to see what I had on the topic, but there wasnât much. A couple paragraphs here, a photo or two there, but there was enough to tickle my curiosity. They are a slippery group of species to distinguish but there are at least some common characteristics across them.
Really this is a good reminder that we often take some of the more common species for granted, ignoring the usual, rather than deepening that already accessible and immediately present relationship.
Listen to the show if you want to learn more, too. These worms have a lot of interesting things going for them.
Some resources I used include:
Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Forests by John C. Kricher and Gordon Morrison. Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Natureâs Year by Drew Monkman. Dundurn 2012.
Tracks and Sign of Insect and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman and Noah Charney. Stackpole Books, 2010.
A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America by J. Reese Vashell, Jr. -
I have been thinking a lot about the diversity of sexuality and gender in nature. Wondering about how different animals, plants, and fungi present sexually. How do different species mate? What characteristics are considered belonging to one sex, but in reality, may be shared by many sexes? Many sexes? How many are there? Why do some species have thousands of sexes, and some species only have one?
Maxwell Matchim (they/them) has been asking some similar questions but through a different lens, thinking âabout the ways in which Trans people exist between worlds, much like amphibians. The way in which Trans people change their bodies over time as means of survival.â And with these questions, they have been making a documentary. When my pal Miki told me about this, my first thought was âthis is a conversation I am looking forâ. When I reached out, Maxwell was game and we set up the interview.
We talked about Maxwellâs experience so far in producing the documentary, unisexual Ambystoma salamanders, gynandromorphism (having characteristics of two sexes) in birds, classification of species which might not actually make sense, and so many other queer natural histories and how we might relate to them in the context of the present social political world.
This is a conversation I would love to be having all of the time, looking at the parts of life which just donât abide by the dominant narratives. If youâre into that, youâll like the show.
To learn more:
Understanding Myself as an Amphibian gofundmeMaxwell Matchimâs instagram
Queer Forest Club instagram
Feminist Bird Club instagram
Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals) by Eliot Schrefer
Evolution's Rainbow Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People by Joan Roughgarden
How Far the Light Reaches : A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler -
When I look into the authors who wrote most of the naturalist, ecology, natural history books on my shelves, I mostly see white people, especially the older books. When I do interviews with folks in the field, I still find a majority of those who I am talking with are white folks. I wholly recognize that is on me in a lot of ways, but I also recognize that historically, access to these fields has been gatekept by and for white folks, mostly men.
When I come across initiatives that challenge that dynamic, I get stoked. When I find out they are taking students out to some of the places I have and continue to go to to learn about the natural world, I get really stoked, so much so, that I reached out to see about an interview.
Alannah Grant and Jonathan Chu are graduate students in Integrative Biology at Guelph. They are also the University of Guelph liaisons for FREED where they lead the organization and fund-raising (amongst other things) for UoG students to participate in FREED excursions. I wanted to ask them about recent movements to bring awareness to and correct the lack of representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in environmental sciences, how they organize themselves, what is working and what they do on these excursions?
I am always excited when the things I love are made more accessible, so more folks can appreciate, participate, teach and learn. We all live on this wild planet and we should all be able to take part in the profound experiences of exploring, examining and connecting with the land, on the land. This is what FREED helps folks do.
To learn more :
FREED website
FREED instagram -
Ok, so this is weird, but I love death.
Dying, decay, decomposition, breakdown.. synonyms that sort of warm my heart in a strange kinda way. When I think of death I think of nutrients breaking down into small parts, making it easier for other things to consume and to continue to grow and live. I think of how death makes all life possible. How without consuming things like veggies, grains, fruits, mushrooms, and maybe even meats, all things which were once alive, we could never live. I am grateful to death so that I may live. I too am grateful to those things which help break things down. The decomposers which turn trees into soil and enable all the plants to grow, soil bacteria to thrive and create suitable substrates to all the fungal bodies in the dirt.
Todayâs show is all about those fungal forms which help breakdown trees into consumable soil nutrients; white rot and brown rot. I have talked about them before on the show, but I wanted to dig in a little bit more. I hope you enjoy it!
To Learn More :
Field Guide to Tree Diseases of Ontario (pdf)
Polypores and Similar Fungi of Eastern and Central North America by Alan E. Bessette, Dianna G. Smith, and Arleen R Bessette. University of Texas Press, 2021.
Plant Pathology by George N. Agrios. Harcourt Academic Press, 1997.
Disgustipated by Tool -
This passed weekend I was able to go out tracking with folks at Wiijindamaan where I once again notice the Poplar Vagabond Aphid Gall. And last week, I was having another conversation with folks about the Spruce Pineapple Adelgid Gall. Galls persist through the Winter and into Spring when many of the insects which have created them will begin to emerge.
Since now is the time to be keeping an eye out for the insect emergences, I figured I would share my excitement for these two galls. Not only are they beautiful and unusual, but they also highlight my growing feelings on what I call âbiology 202â, a deep appreciation for the complexity of life beyond our cultural assumptions. Itâll make more sense when you hear it.
To Learn More :
Petiolegall Aphids : Swollen or disfigured leaves of poplars (pdf)
First record of antipredator behavior in the gall-forming aphid Mordwilkoja vagabundaPoplar Vagabond Gall Aphid (Aphididae: Mordwilkoja) video on youtube.com by Carl Barrentine
InfluentialPoints.com entry on Mordwilkoja vagabunda
Life History and Gall Development of Mordwilkoja vagabunda (Homoptera: Aphidae) on Populus deltoides
Life History and Gall Development of Mordwilkoja vagabunda (Homoptera: Aphidae) on Populus deltoides. Part IIâGall Development
The Insects and Arachnids of Canada part 22 : The Genera of the Aphids of Canada - Homoptera : Aphidoidea and Phylloxeroidea : pg 472 (pdf)Influential Points entry on Adelges abietisINTRA- AND INTER-CROWN DISTRIBUTION OF THE EASTERN SPRUCE GALL ADELGID, ADELGES ABIETIS (L.), ON YOUNG WHITE SPRUCE -
Did you know that birds are more closely related to turtles, than turtles are to snakes? I just learned that. Did you know that the scutes on a turtleâs back are made from keratin, the same stuff as our fingernails and Rhinoceros horns? Just learned that one too. Even better, do you know what cloacal breathing is? I bet you do⊠but how does it work? Thatâs some of the interesting stuff I got to ask naturalist, author and educator Kyle Horner recently when we spoke about his new book Turtles of North America out now on Firefly Books.
Itâs a pretty good book, with range maps and conservation statusâ which are more relevant and up to date than many of the older field guides to turtles, and covers more species. It is a book full of photographs which help detail the information written in the species accounts and natural history sections.
And this weekâs show isnât just about turtles! It is a bit of reptilian and amphibian mashup, because for the second part I give a short report back from a recent field trip down to Sudden Tract to check on Spring salamander migration. Tis the season!
To Learn More :
Turtles of North America at Firefly BooksSeagull Is Not a Dirty Word - Kyle Hornerâs Blog
Kyle Hornerâs Instagram -
I just got home from Algonquin Park. I got the privilege to spend the past week tracking Wolves, Moose, Martens, Grouse, Flying Squirrels, and so many other creatures throughout the length of the park. We woke up at 6am every morning and were out by 7, scouting for new trails. When were were through with our day we came back to hit the books and share stories of all that weâd seen. It was magical, inspiring and motivating. Restful as much as exhausting.
One animal I spent some time learning about over the week was the Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus), a small brown finch like bird edged in yellow who flew down on to the new snow, skipped, hopped and flew off again. The Pine Siskin was my focal species for the week. Sadly on our last day, two dead Pine Siskins were found on highway 60, hit by vehicles as they were on the road, consuming the de-icing salts.
I got to hold the birds and take a closer look at their small amazing bodies in the sunlight pouring through the window at the wildlife research station. I measured their feet, admired their plumage, and wondered at how they could survive so long out there in the cold and snow. What were they eating to warm their fragile little bodies through the Winter nights? If they hadnât died on the road, where would they go to in the Spring? I decided on the way home I would do a little research and make the next show all about them.
Hereâs to the Siskins and all theyâve taught and inspired in me.
Sources used in this episode:
Birds of Ontario by Andy Bezener. Lone Pine Publishing, 2000.
Peterson Field Guide to North American Bird Nests by Casey McFarland, Matthew Monjello, and David Moskowitz. Houghton Mifflin Harcout, 2021.
The Birderâs Handbook by Paul Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye. Simon & Shuster, 1988. - Vis mere
