The Wandering Naturalist

It's our first Live Podcast! Wilmer Fernandez, board member of Audubon Minneapolis, joins us at the Migratory Bird Festival at Eastman Nature Center  to discuss the project he coordinates between Aves Honduras and Audubon Minneapolis to monitor the birds that migrate between the two areas. We discuss some of the findings that the Honduran researchers have made and what we can do to help migratory...

Dr. Ken Peterson, Professor of Biological Science at Bethel University joins us to discuss what it is like volunteering to monitor ospreys, and the results of a paper he published from the data collected by Three Rivers' volunteers and staff on ospreys.  

After their extirpation from Minnesota, it was estimated that it would take until 2030 to 2080 before Ospreys naturally made it back to the Twin Cities. As of 2022 there are over 100 active Osprey nests because Three Rivers Park District reintroduced them. Listen to Judy Voigt Englund and Larry Gillette, the Three Rivers' staff who led the reintroduction, about how they returned the Osprey to our...

Wander with Angela and Brandon as they explore the unique adaptations of the Osprey. This bird is the penultimate fisher, with adaptations seen nowhere else!  

Thomas Howes, Natural Resource Manager of the Fond du Lac Reservation, joins us to discuss the rules that dictate how Native People can possess and use eagle artifacts. He also discusses the work he has collaborated on to update the US Fish and Wildlife Service's rules so Native Nations can work with the USFWS to allow access to eagle artifacts that starts to better meet the needs of Native People...

Lori Arent from The Raptor Center talks with us about the specialized care raptors need, and how The Raptor Center provides that. Learn about what a day is like at The Raptor Center, how to tell if a raptor is injured and needs help, and how to prevent raptor injuries.  

Margie Menzies migrates (via Zoom) from Hawk Ridge to discuss what makes raptors unique, why Hawk Ridge near Duluth is one of the best raptor watching areas in the world, and how cloacal swabs are helping Hawk Ridge researchers better understand raptor habits.  

Connor Wood from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology talks about how he uses sounds in animal conservation despite being tone deaf. Using passive acoustic surveys he has studied Spotted Owl populations, surveyed the entire Sierra Nevada mountains with a team of only 15, and even studied endangered toads. What is a passive acoustic survey? Will this technology make Angela obsolete? Listen and find out.

Steven Hogg from Three Rivers Park District and Sam Safran, Ph. D. Candidate at the University of Minnesota,  join us to discuss how Three Rivers Park District surveys for birds. How do you document all the birds in an area? Do you really have to wake up before dawn? Do the birds at least make you coffee? How can you use bird calls to evaluate restoration practices? All this and more will be answe...

Join Angela and Brandon as they explore how birds make the complex calls that both delight and sometimes aggravate at 4 in the morning. From the syrinx, to what the calls mean, and regional accents in birds, join us as we tune in to bird calls.

Three dedicated volunteers from Three Rivers Park District discuss how they monitor and care for a purple martin colony, what they do if a storm blows a house down, and why they enjoy caring for these dazzling birds.  

What does a motorized couch have to do with Purple Martins? Joe Siegrist, President and CEO of the Purple Martin Conservation Association, joins us to explain. Learn what it's like to be on an undercover stakeout in Brazil looking for Purple Martins, why Purple Martins are given fanny packs for their migration, and what research the Purple Martin Conservation Association is doing.  

Angela and Brandon discuss an animal that has become completely dependent on humans for housing, Purple Martins. Angela teaches Brandon about Purple Martin life history, the bird's relationship with humans historically, and dispels a few myths about their relationship with mosquitos.   

Geoff Miller, a PhD student working with the Twin Cities Coyote and Fox Project joins us to talk about the research he is doing to shed light on what coyotes are doing in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Having found coyotes everywhere in the cities, from completely urban to city parks, he explains how the project works, why it is being done, some preliminary discoveries, and how our listeners can partic...

Scott Noland is a Land Manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He joins us to talk about land management with coyotes, the benefits they bring to the area he manages, and how people should act when they see a coyote.  

Angela and Brandon explore the fascinating history of the largest predator in urban areas, coyotes. From it's plethora of names, to unique adaptations that let it thrive even when hunted by humans, the coyote is a misunderstood animal full of amazing attributes.  

Quantina Beck-Jones joins us about her personal experiences in nature, from the time she was a kid to today. Nature has been important to her since she was a child and she shares what it means to her, why seagulls helped her connect with birds in Minnesota, and her work with Urban Bird Collective to help people overcome barriers to getting into parks.  

Join us as Joel Brown, a professional historic interpreter, talks to us about the legacy of George Bonga and the rest of his family. One of the first African American's born in what became Minnesota, George Bonga's involvement in the fur trade and participation in several treaties helped create the Minnesota we live in today.

In January and the rest of our long winter, many of our Minnesota birds are not here...where do they go and what are they doing?  To give us some perspective on our missing birds of the winter season, Leonal Chavez, a coffee farmer in Honduras, talks with Angela and Brandon about dedicating his land to bird conservation.

Dr. Sushma Reddy, Bell Museum's Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology, discusses what it is like managing the Bell Museum's 46,000+ bird specimens, new advances in science that has allowed the relationships between bird species to be better understood, and why the dinosaurs are not actually extinct.

Zack Mohlis from the Three Rivers History Team joins us to talk about the history of birding in Minnesota, why a state geologist led the research on birds in the 1800's, how dead birds in the mail helped science, and his favorite lines of poetry, we mean scientific writing, from the state birds report.

Kick off Season 4 as Brandon and Angela discuss what birding means to them, talk to Kim Nowicki of Eastman Nature Center and John Moriarty, Senior Manager of Wildlife, about Three Rivers Park District's Big Year of the Bird, and they discuss why birds are a good gateway to the outdoors. 

Nadia Abuisnaineh is a NASA Solar System Ambassador. She joins us to talk about what a Solar System Ambassador is, why the night sky is so important, and a Citizen Science Project you can do to help scientists determine the impacts of light pollution using constellations.

We often think of Greek constellations when we look at the sky, but every culture had their own constellations and stories. James Knutson-Kolodzne and Jessica Heim of Native Skywatchers join us to share Indigenous star and earth knowledge, explain what Native Skywatchers is, and give resources so you can learn more about Dakota and Ojibwe constellations and stories.