Encounters North Podcast

Out on the vast wilderness of the North Pacific Ocean, join host Richard Nelson and a noisy gang of black-footed albatrosses. These are big, beautiful, long-lived, ocean-going birds that few people ever get to experience. Learn about their absolutely mind-boggling feats of soaring flight, long distance travel and so much more.

Join host Richard Nelson along the tide flats of the Copper River Delta in Alaska, surrounded by the flurry and flutter of thousands of shorebirds who congregate there during their spring migration.  (Program Update: Of the 57 species of shorebirds that breed in the U.S., 5 are listed as “Endangered”, 7 are listed as “Species of Greatest Concern”, and 19 are listed as “Species of High Concern”.)

Who can fly, walk underwater and sing its heart out even in winter?  The American dipper of course!  Join host Richard Nelson stream side and spend some time with North America’s only aquatic songbird, also known as the water ouzel. (Program Update:  The “winter wrens” of the western U.S.  have been renamed “Pacific wrens”, as they are now considered distinct from Eastern U.S. and European populations.)

Join host Richard Nelson, off the far northern coast of Alaska, sharing the polar sea ice with a ringed seal basking in the spring sunshine. Explore the complex and fascinating lives of these Arctic seals and the genius of Iñupiat subsistence hunters. (Episode update: Data from monitoring the Alaska Native subsistence harvest has shown no sustained negative effects of the current level of sea ice decline on the ringed seal population so far.)

Join Richard Nelson as he paddles his kayak amid a surging, swirling, roaring herd of about 100 Steller sea lions.  Get ready for some awesome sounds and close encounters with this amazing marine mammal!

The herring have returned to Sitka Sound, so it’s time to join Richard as he tries to catch herring in a traditional way dating back many thousands of years.  Listen to Tlingit elder Steve Johnson explain how his grandfather described the spring returns of herring in unimaginable numbers—and the rich body of knowledge of the elders, as important a resource as the herring themselves.

Grab your pb&j sandwich and join host Richard Nelson in his skiff, off the coast of southeast Alaska. A surprise guest is diving for its lunch nearby—a bottom-feeding baleen whale, the beloved gray whale. There’s the heart-shaped blow, sucking the sediment for food and so much more to learn about these fascinating cetaceans.

Head out to the dew-soaked paddocks in southeastern Australia with host Richard Nelson and a rich array of magical morning creatures.  Meet sugar gliders, kookaburras, giant huntsman spiders and so much more. Another favorite Encounters Down Under episode! (Recorded in 2013)

Prepare your ears for what many consider to be the most exquisite voice of any bird in the world–the superb lyrebird. Tag along with this incredible bird and your host Richard Nelson, in the forests of southeastern Australia, for another fascinating Encounters Down Under episode.

Mooooo!  Join Richard Nelson right smack in the middle of a herd of munching and mooing black Angus cows, on a livestock property in Australia.  One of the most wide spread, most abundant animals on earth, which most everyone is somehow connected to in one way or another.  This fascinating and intimate portrait is a favorite Encounters Down Under podcast.