Nature Guys

Awhile back my sister Suzanne called me. She was excited because a pair of mourning doves had nested on an upstairs window ledge of her house. As it happens I was reading David Sibley's book What It's Like to be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating, to Singing What Birds are Doing and Why.

My sister is a great lover of books so I made her an offer I knew she could not refuse. I suggested that I would send her a copy of the book if she would put together some questions that I might use in this interview. Suzanne has never to my knowledge passed up the opportunity to read a book she is interested in so she quickly agreed.

A few weeks later she sent me this email: "I really enjoyed reading What It's Like to be a Bird. As you know, I am not someone who spends much time thinking about birds and my knowledge of them is very limited, but I like them and found this book to be a great source of information for someone like me. I am very impressed that Sibley did both the text and the illustrations, which are great. So here are some general questions and questions about mourning doves, which may or may not be of use to you."

Hope you enjoy the interview!

Related episode: Mourning Doves

Our sources for this episode include:

• Sibley Guides
• What It's Like to Be a Bird by David Sibley

Today's episode is sponsored by Cinfed Credit Union. You have questions, Cinfed has answers! Providing financial services for more than 85 years to a wide area around Cincinnati. Become a member at cinfed.com!

Listeners often ask me what can you do to help out Nature Guys? This is our annual Giving Tuesday podcast and I have a very specific call to action for this episode. Donate what you can to a great organization that means a lot to Bob. Tune in to find out how you can donate.

Our sources for this episode include:

• Imago
• Giving Tuesday

Today's episode is sponsored by Cinfed Credit Union. You have questions, Cinfed has answers! Providing financial services for more than 85 years to a wide area around Cincinnati. Become a member at cinfed.com!

Witch Hazel is an amazing and strange plant. It took naturalists a long time to figure out what might pollinate it. Greg Torres, a very talented horticulturist, joins Bob to discuss a plant that you can find blooming in December.

Our sources for this episode include:

• The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden by Rick Darke and Douglas Tallamy
• Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy
• Evolution and biogeographic diversification of the witch-hazel genus (Hamamelis L., Hamamelidaceae) in the Northern Hemisphere by Xei, Lei; Yi, Ting-Shuang; Li, Rong; Li, De-Zhu; Wen. Jun (2010) Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
• History of Hamamelis (Witch Hazel), Extract and Distillate by Lloyd, J. U. and J. T. Lloyd. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. 24(1935) (3):220–24.
• FDA Skin Protectant Drugs

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union for sponsoring this episode.

Introducing Gia Giammarinaro as my cohost for todays episode. Gia is the lead Naturalist at Cincinnati Parks California Woods Nature Preserve. Her favorite rodent is the beaver. How many people do you know who lunch with beavers? Gia was actually on the Parachuting Beaver episode and returns with an amazing story she found in National Geographic.

Related episode: Parachuting Beavers

Our sources for this episode include:

• How beavers became North America's best firefighter https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/09/beavers-firefighters-wildfires-california-oregon/
• Controversy builds around beaver dams https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/controversy-builds-around-beaver-dams/0kkaK8Bs4dNCzR6etmPP4M/
• The Benefits of Beavers https://waterwisewisdom.com/2020/02/01/the-benefits-of-beavers/

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union for sponsoring this episode.

I got a wonderful email from Kim who homeschools her children and wanted some advice. Her oldest son is hoping to do something in the field of nature. I also received this email from Charles Van Rees a Conservation Biologist and Naturalist offering to be a guest on the show.

"I want first and foremost to thank you for bringing your expertise, humor, warmth, and energy to a great podcast on natural history. I recently moved from a crowded city in Europe to rural Montana, and have been looking for good podcasts on natural history to keep my mind occupied during frequent, long drives. Your podcast has brought me a lot of joy, laughs, and learning during a tough transition and helped me get back in touch with North American nature. Thank you so much! On my way into work this morning I heard your 'Welcome 2020' podcast and your mention of wanting to feature more 'humans' on the show. In case you were looking for additional humans, I wanted to offer myself as a potential guest, since I absolutely adore the show and would love to give something in return. I'm a wetland ecologist and conservation biologist with expertise in freshwater biodiversity and ornithology, and currently work as a postdoctoral research scientist at Flathead Lake Biological Station in Polson, Montana. My past work has been on endangered water birds in Hawaii and migratory gulls in Seville, Spain. Aside from that, I'm a passionate student of natural history and have been trying to spend more time integrating nature study into my work as my career advances. I've been featured on a couple podcasts before and think it's tremendous fun. If you'd like to learn more about me I'd be happy to chat anytime, or you can have a look at my website."

I decided it would be a good idea to have Charles answer Kim's email. What started as an email exchange evolved into doing a complete episode. If you know people who are interested in the natural world as a career please share this episode with them.

You can contact Charles Van Rees and learn more about his activities on his website cbvanrees.wordpress.com or on Twitter @Gulothoughts.

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union for sponsoring this episode.

Nature Guys Podcast spends lots of time connecting you to nature on this amazing planet. We are excited to have Dean Regas the astronomer for the Cincinnati Observatory (https://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/), as a special guest on Nature Guys. After this episode I think you are going to be inspired to step outside and look up.

• 100 Things To See In The Night Sky by Dean Regas https://www.cincinnatiobservatory.org/dean-regas/about-dean/
• Looking Up podcast https://www.wvxu.org/programs/looking#stream/0

Special thanks to Cinfed Credit Union (https://www.cinfed.com/) for sponsoring this episode.

Cohost and Cofounder of Nature Guys Podcast sadly passed away in August 2020. Bill's dream was for Nature Guys to continue connecting people to the natural world.

Read Bill's obituary at http://www.springgrove.org/obituary.aspx?id=5351

Next time you pass by an old chimney keep your eye out for this amazing bird. They can eat three times their own weight every day.

Our sources for this episode include:

• Chimney Swift Conservation Association (project directors Paul and Georgean Kyle) http://www.chimneyswifts.org/
  • "Chimney Swifts America's Mysterious Birds above the Fireplace" by Paul and Georgean Kyle
  • "New Habitat for America's Mysterious Birds" by Paul and Georgean Kyle
• Chimney Swift https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chimney_Swift/overview
• Chimney Swift https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/chimney-swift
• Fun Facts About Cigars With Wings https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2014/05/14/fun-facts-about-cigars-with-wings/

People often put out Purple Martin houses to help control insects. In fact the Martins in the eastern United States could not exist without these houses.

Our sources for this episode include:

• How to Attract Purple Martins https://www.purplemartin.org/purple-martins/attracting/
• Fun Facts About Purple Martins https://www.thespruce.com/fun-facts-about-purple-martins-387110
• Interesting Facts About Purple Martins That Will Make You Go Wow https://birdeden.com/interesting-facts-about-purple-martin
• Purple Martin Conservation Association https://www.purplemartin.org/

Find out the amazing story of how the House Finch made its way all the way across the United States.

Our sources for this episode include:

• House Finch https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch/lifehistory
• Interesting Facts about House Finches https://animals.visualstories.com/interesting-facts-about-house-finch
• House Finch or Purple Finch? Here's How to Tell Them Apart https://www.audubon.org/news/house-finch-or-purple-finch-heres-how-tell-them-apart
• Crossley Field Guide Books https://crossleybooks.com/book/the-crossley-id-guide-eastern-birds/