Gia and Bob are excited about the arrival of the 17 year periodic cicadas. We hope to inspire you to either love cicadas or maybe just hate them a little less. Bob and Gia share 17 cool things about cicadas. There is nothing to fear when the cicadas are here!

Please listen to the episode to learn all about our contest to celebrate the cicadas! Email us your entry to info@natureguys.org.

Related episodes: Cicadas are Kinda Cute, The Nature of Oaks with Doug Tallamy

Our sources for this episode include:

• Cicada Safari App created by Dr. Gene Kritsky 
• Cicada Mania: Cicada Insect News, Facts, Life Cycle, Photos, Books …
• When the Woods Hum by Joanne Ryder (the book is out of print but check your library)
• Cecily Cicada (2021 Edition) by Kita Helmetag Murdock and Patsy Helmetag
• Periodical Cicadas The Brood X Edition by Gene Kritsky

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Bob reads an amazing new book Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201 Mile Journey Following The Monarch Migration. Tune in to his conversation with Sara Dykman, the first person to follow migrating monarch butterflies on her bicycle. Learn more about Sara and some of the lessons she learned on her nine month adventure from Mexico to Canada and back.

Please check out Sara’s website Beyond a Book. Bicycling with Butterflies is published by Timber Press.

Related episodes: Monarchs on the Move, Mighty Milkweed

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Charles and Bob discuss vernal pools. Bob has always been intrigued by vernal pools and with time at home due to the pandemic he decided to build one in his backyard. Learn about his first aquatic visitor the water strider. Also learn about an amazing creature that lives in a vernal pool at Cincinnati Nature Center. If you have not seen fairy shrimp be sure to check them out. Charles explains what they look like and why they are found in vernal pools.

Related episodes: The Nature of Oaks with Doug Tallamy, Dragonflies, Damselflies and Wood Frogs Quack It Up

Our sources for this episode include:

• Vernal Pool Chronicles: a YouTube channel about vernal pools with some fantastic footage
• Colburn et al., 2007: Diversity and ecology of vernal pool invertebrates (Chapter from: Science and Conservation of Vernal Pools in Northeastern North America)
• U.S. EPA informational page – Vernal pools
  

Bob’s Vernal Pool

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Greg Torres and Bob discuss one of the most important trees in Florida. The Red Mangrove is the protector from storms and provides safe harbor to many living things.

Congratulations to Greg who won the 2021 Go Wild for Jeopar-Ding fund raiser that premiered virtually on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 to support the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Check out related episodes on our Wildlife Refuges page.

Watch Greg’s YouTube video on red mangroves.

Our sources for this episode include:

• Florida’s Extraordinary Mangroves
• Essential Facts about Mangroves
• Florida’s Mangroves

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Bob chats with Doug Tallamy about his latest book The Nature of Oaks. The book shows you what to look for on and near oak trees every month of the year. Hear a few of the amazing stories of oaks. If you have or want oaks in your yard or just want to appreciate their irreplaceable role in the health of our environment this podcast will inspire you to learn more about this magnificent tree.

Books by Doug Tallamy are published by Timber Press:

• The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
• Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard
• Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants
• The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden with Rick Darke

Click here to learn more about Little Seed Libraries.

Related episodes: Northern Red Oak and Blue Jays are Not Blue

Special thanks to Cincinnati realtors Molly and Sara at Haven Home Group (Coldwell Banker Realty) for sponsoring this episode.

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Gia and Bob discuss one amazing woodpecker. If you live or travel to the west make sure you check this woodpecker out. This episode is part of our Keystone Species series. Thanks to Christina Zorn for the great research!

Related woodpecker episodes: Wow it’s a Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpeckers Support Their Mates, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers Slurp Sap

Keystone Species series: All About Alligators, Firefighting Beavers

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Our sources for this episode include:

• All About Birds
• USDA Fire effects Information Systems
• Wikipedia
• Animalia
  

Charles and Bob discuss the Hooded Merganser. It is a duck that has some very un-duck like qualities.

Related episodes: Mallards Mate with Other Ducks, Firefighting Beavers, What It’s Like to be a Bird with David Sibley, Erin Brockovich

Our sources for this episode include:

• 10 Interesting Facts about the Hooded Mergansers
• The Cornell Lab All About Birds
• Hooded Merganser

Thanks to the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for allowing us to display this excellent photo of a pair of hooded mergansers.

Chris Clements of Imago joins Bob to talk about the Japanese concept of 72 seasons. Chris challenges us to go out and visit nature regularly in our own neck of the woods. See how it changes every few days. Try to come up with your own micro-season and give it an evocative name.

Our sources for this episode include:

• Micro-seasons – Headspace YouTube video
• Japan’s 72 Microseasons
  

Seeds have many ways to get out into the world. Greg shares fascinating strategies plants use to disburse seeds.

Related episodes: Hedge Apples, Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch

Our sources for this episode include:

• Falling Far from the Tree: 7 Brilliant Ways Seeds and Fruits Are Dispersed
• Daniel Janzen – Bio and Research
• The Ghosts Of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms by Connie Barlow
• Lengyel, S.; et al. (2009). Chave, Jerome (ed.). “Ants Sow the Seeds of Global Diversification in Flowering Plants”
• Howe, H. F. & Smallwood J. (1982). “Ecology of Seed Dispersal” (PDF). Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 13: 201–228.
• The Ant Dance – YouTube video with Greg Torres
• The Bird Dance– YouTube video with Greg Torres

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Gia and Bob are in Bob’s backyard on a cold winter afternoon talking all about alligators. Alligators are a great American success story. Thanks to Christina Zorn for the great research! This episode is part of our Keystone Species series.

Keystone Species series episodes: Firefighting Beavers

Our sources for this episode include:

• Definition of Alligator
• Alligator Biology and Behavior
• JW Lang and HV Andrews, J Exp Zoology (1994) Temperature-dependent sex determination in crocodilians.
• Cramp Meyer Sparks and Franklin. (2008) Functional and morphological plasticity of crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) salt glands. Journal of Experimental Biology 2008 211: 1482-1489; doi: 10.1242/jeb.015636. https://jeb.biologists.org/content/ 211/9/1482
• American Alligator from National Geographic
• Crocodilian Biology Database