In this episode, Bill and Steve dive into a tiny, bustling world - a world that’s hiding on the feathers of the birds we see every day. Joining them is Dr. Alix Matthews, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University at Buffalo, and she reveals the strange lives of feather mites — how these barely-visible hitchhikers feed and get around and whether or not they’re helping or hurting their avian hosts.

This episode was recorded on September 4, 2025 at Walton Woods in Amherst, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Check out Dr. Matthews’s website and research here.

And watch a presentation on mites she did for Audubon Arkansas in October 2025.

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Gumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Check out the Field Guides merch at our Teespring store. It’s really a great deal: you get to pay us to turn your body into a billboard for the podcast!

Photo Credit

Dr. Alix Matthews - https://matthewsalix.weebly.com/feather-mites.html

It’s part 2 of our dive into the Insect Apocalypse, with our good friend Dr. Jason Dombroskie from the Cornell University Insect Collection!

In this part, Jason fills us in on the drivers of the Insect Apocalypse and - most importantly - what we can do about it.

This episode was recorded on August 21, 2025 at Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area in Dalton, NY..

Episode Notes

During the episode, we made the claim that 40 million acres of the US is lawn, and that that area is equal to all of the country’s National Parks put together. True? Well, sort of. The claim that the U.S. has about 40 million acres of lawn—roughly equal to all our national parks combined—is only partly true. A NASA-funded study led by Cristina Milesi estimated that turfgrass covers about 128,000 km² (≈31 million acres) of the continental U.S., making it the largest irrigated “crop” in the country (Milesi et al., Environmental Management, 2005; NASA Earth Observatory). Later analyses and popular summaries often round that up to ≈40 million acres (e.g., Scienceline, 2011; LawnStarter, 2023). By comparison, the total land area of all officially designated U.S. National Parks is about 52.4 million acres, while the entire National Park System—which also includes monuments, preserves, and historic sites—covers about 85 million acres (National Park Service, 2024). So while lawns and parks occupy areas of similar magnitude, lawns do not actually equal or exceed the combined area of the national parks.

Is it better to mulch leaves on your lawn or leave them be? Here’s what we found: It’s generally best to mulch your leaves with a mower rather than rake or remove them. Research from Michigan State University found that mowing leaves into small pieces allows them to decompose quickly, returning nutrients to the soil and reducing weeds like dandelions and crabgrass (MSU Extension, “Don’t rake leaves — mulch them into your lawn”, 2012). Cornell University studies similarly show that mulched leaves improve soil structure, moisture retention, and microbial activity (Cornell Cooperative Extension, “Leaf Mulching: A Sustainable Alternative”, 2019). However, in garden beds, wooded edges, or under shrubs, it’s often better to leave leaves whole, since they provide winter habitat for butterflies, bees, and other invertebrates that overwinter in leaf litter (National Wildlife Federation, “Leave the Leaves for Wildlife”, 2020). The ideal approach is a mix: mow-mulch leaves on grassy areas for turf health and leave them intact where they naturally fall to support biodiversity and soil ecology.

Episode Links

The Cornell University Insect Collection

Also, check out their great Instagram feed

And their annual October event Insectapalooza

Find out more about the recently discovered species of Swallowtail, Papilio solstitius, commonly known as the Midsummer Tiger Swallowtail- https://www.sci.news/biology/papilio-solstitius-13710.html

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Works Cited

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Gaona, F.P., Iñiguez-Armijos, C., Brehm, G., Fiedler, K. and Espinosa, C.I., 2021. Drastic loss of insects (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in urban landscapes in a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Insect Conservation, 25(3), pp.395-405.

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Van Klink, R., Bowler, D.E., Gongalsky, K.B., Swengel, A.B., Gentile, A. and Chase, J.M., 2020. Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances. Science, 368(6489), pp.417-420.

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Visit thefieldguidespodcast.com for full episode notes, links, and works cited.

The guys are back in the field with our good friend Dr. Jason Dombroskie from the Cornell University Insect Collection!

Listen in as Jason leads us through fields and forests, trusty butterfly net in hand, filling us in on the so-called “Insect Apocalypse.” Are insect populations really collapsing worldwide? What do the numbers say? How bad is it, and — most importantly — what can we do about it?

In this part, we head out on the trail with Jason. He introduces us to some insects we find along the way and schools us on why insects are so important, and in part two – he delves into the details of the insect apocalypse – what we know and what we don’t know.

And since we feel bad that you can’t see what we got to see – we bring back a little trick we had in our last episodes with Jason – each time we find a critter listen for the sound of a camera shutter. That’s the signal to visit this episode’s page on our website – thefieldguidespodcast.com -  we’ll have photos there timestamped so you can see what we’re looking at, along with some extra info. Enjoy…

This episode was recorded on August 21, 2025 at Rattlesnake Hill Wildlife Management Area in Dalton, NY..

Episode Notes

Steve said he heard that there are more species of just weevils than there are of fish. Is that true? At one point in the episode Steve mentioned he’d heard there are more species of weevils than there are of fish. I looked it up, and he’s right! Scientists have described around 60–70,000 weevil species, with the real total likely over 100,000, while all the fish in the world come in at about 35,000 species. So as surprising as it sounds, Steve’s claim checks out—the humble weevil family really does outnumber all the fish.

It was also mentioned that some insects are only known from a single specimen in a collection and have never been seen again in the wild. We looked for a study and found a large one from 2018 that looked at more than 800,000 insect species – it found that about one in five—around 19%—are described from a single specimen and never collected again (Lim et al., Current Biology, 2018). It really shows how much of insect diversity is still barely known.

Pollard Walk - During the episode Bill asked about something called a Pollard Walk. That’s actually a standard insect survey method. The idea is simple: you walk a fixed route—usually the same path each time—at a steady pace and record every insect you see within a certain distance, often about 2.5 meters on each side. It’s kind of like a birding “point count,” but moving. The method, named after Eric Pollard who developed it in the 1970s for butterfly monitoring, is still one of the most widely used ways scientists track insect populations over time.

Visit thefieldguidespodcast.com for full episode notes, links, and works cited.

Part 2 of our time in the woods with naturalist Sandy Geffner. This time, Sandy leads Steve and Bill on a “hike”—though with Sandy, the word takes on a different meaning. You might not cover much distance, but you’ll travel miles in understanding: exploring ecology and hearing stories of the forest and the wildlife within it. Enjoy!

This episode was recorded on July 21, 2025 at JP Nicely Memorial Park in West Falls, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Sandy’s favorite books: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard.

But we feel that we have to call ourselves out here because we’ve been critical of Simard’s work before and maybe we should’ve brought this up with Sandy during the episode (but we obviously didn’t have the stones). For a deep dive into some of the criticisms of Simard’s word, check out the In Defense of Plants podcast’s series of episodes that starts here. Or this article by three professors who’ve spent their careers studying forest fungi.

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Photo Credit

The Natural Side of UB by Robby Johnson

What exactly is a “naturalist”? Spend a little time with Sandy Geffner, and you’ll find out. Steve and Bill rarely go more than an episode or two without mentioning him—a naturalist who profoundly shaped both their lives. This month, they head into the woods to talk with Sandy about how a baseball-loving kid from Long Island became someone who’s inspired countless people to deepen their connection with the natural world.

This episode was recorded on July 21, 2025 at JP Nicely Memorial Park in West Falls, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Earth Spirit Educational Services

Rogers Environmental Center

The State University of NY at Buffalo’s Dept. of Environment and Sustainability

Sandy’s UB Faculty Page

Santee Sioux Reservation

Stony Kill Farm Environmental Education Center

Tifft Nature Preserve

Cayuga Nature Center / Treetops

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Photo Credit

SUNY at Buffalo

It’s hard to believe, but we’re doing another episode on fish! This time around, Steve introduces us to the Sturgeon (family Acipenseridae), from their dinosaur-era origins to their caviar-fueled scandals (did you know Beluga caviar comes from Sturgeon? Bill didn’t either). So strap in as the guys touch on Sturgeon, for the very first time.

This episode was recorded on June 29, 2025 at Eighteenmile Creek County Park in Hamburg, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Coming soon!

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Gumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Works Cited

Coming soon…

Photo Credit

Beluga Sturgeon (Huso huso) photo by Максим Яковлєв. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%91%D1%96%D0%BB%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%B0_(Huso_huso).jpg

In this special bonus episode we're crossing over with The Spark Bird Podcast! (@sparkbirdproject)

Bill joins one of the hosts of the Spark Bird Project podcast, Jenn Lodi-Smith, to go birding in Buffalo’s historic Forest Lawn Cemetery, sharing spark bird stories, conservation efforts for migration, and the joy of birding in community.

You’ll also hear reflections from folks at the Feminist Bird Club of Buffalo (@fbc.buf) May the Spark Be with You outing, all recorded on-site at Forest Lawn Cemetery. This episode is a celebration of connection, accessibility, conservation, and the shared love of birds that brings us all together.

This episode was recorded on May 4, 2025 at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

The Spark Bird Project

The Spark Bird Podcast

The Femenist Bird Club Buffalo

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Gumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Visit thefieldguidespodcast.com for full episode notes, links, and works cited.

Bill and Steve return for the second part of their look into the Dawn Chrous, that early morning explosion of bird song that refuses to let you sleep in.

This episode was recorded on April 20, 2025 at Majors Park in East Aurora, NY.

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Gumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Works Cited

Gil, D. and Llusia, D., 2020. The bird dawn chorus revisited. Coding strategies in vertebrate acoustic communication, pp.45-90.

American Redstart vocalizations used in the episode were from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s YouTube page.

Photo Credit

The doubly deeply disturbing image that graces this episode was generated by AI in Canva.

Bill and Steve look into the Dawn Chrous, that early morning explosion of bird song that refuses to let you sleep in.

And, for all you Daniel-haters out there, this episode is 100% Daniel-free (but Bill and Steve are both crying on the inside. We miss Daniel buckets, and we're betting you do, too).

This episode was recorded on April 10, 2025 at the California Road Rereation Area in Orchard Park, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Are there orioles in China? Bill shared the classic Chinese poem from the Tang Dynasty (~600–900 CE) - the one called "Feelings on Awakening from Drunkenness on a Spring Day" by Li Bai, and Steve wondered:  Are there Orioles in China. Turns out that, yes, there are, and they’re more oriole-y (?) than ours! That’s because our New World orioles, like the one we’re betting you’re thinking of right now (the well-known orange and black Baltimore Oriole) belong to the family Icteridae and are not closely related to Old World orioles. Instead, they’re closely related to blackbirds and meadowlarks, fellow family members in the Icteridae.

Old world orioles in Europe and Asia, on the other hand, belong to the family Oriolidae. Our orioles were named after them because of the similarities to the old world orioles in behavior, diet, and appearance, but, despite the similarities – these families are not closely related. The similarities evolved independently due to convergent evolution (when species develop similar traits in response to similar environmental pressures).

So, yes, Steve, there are orioles in China, but it’s tough to say for sure which oriole Li Bai heard in his drunken stupor because Birds of China reports seven species found throughout the country, and, as we pointed out, given Li Bai’s state, maybe the bird was only in his head.

Is there a Thorpe’s Law? When Bill mentioned William Thorpe, a British biologist and ornithologist, Steve thought he recalled there was an ecological law or concept credited to Thorpe. Bill scoured the Internet, but the closest thing he could find was Taylor's power law, an empirical law in ecology that relates the variance of the number of individuals of a species per unit area of habitat to the corresponding mean by a power law relationship. If that made sense to you, Bill asks if you could kindly explain it to him. bird

Can someone look at a sound spectrograph and identify the bird? The guys wondered if a sound researcher looking at sound spectrographs (visual representations of bird song) could get good enough to know what bird they’re looking at just by the visual? An internet search was inconclusive- a lot of sites talk about using the spectrographs as an aid to get better at understanding and ID’ing bird song, but we couldn’t find any that specifically addressed this question. We’ve emailed some bird biologists and we’ll update these notes when we hear back!

Social Monogamy vs. Sexual Monogamy: Steve talked about how he’d heard that even in species that bond for life, members of the pair will still seek out other mates. True? First, let’s make a distinction that Steve alluded to in the episode: that is, social vs. sexual monogamy. In birds, "monogamy" often refers to a social bond, where a pair stays together and raises offspring together. However, this doesn't necessarily mean they are sexually faithful to each other. So, socially monogamous doesn’t equal sexual monogamy. Looking in to this, we landed on a passage in The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior – a birder’s bible if there is one – it reports: “90 percent of all bird species are socially monogamous, but some level of cheating is common. Cheating, or “extra-pair copulation” also occurs, but rarely, among birds of sexually monogamous, mated-for-life species, “but is not yet known how many species engage in extra-pair copulations, since many species remain to be studied. However, it appears that genetic monogamy may be the exception rather than the rule among birds.”

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Gumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Check out the Field Guides merch at our Teespring store. It’s really a great deal: you get to pay us to turn your body into a billboard for the podcast!

Works Cited

Gil, D. and Llusia, D., 2020. The bird dawn chorus revisited. Coding strategies in vertebrate acoustic communication, pp.45-90.

Greives, T.J., Kingma, S.A., Kranstauber, B., Mortega, K., Wikelski, M., van Oers, K., Mateman, A.C., Ferguson, G.A., Beltrami, G. and Hau, M., 2015. Costs of sleeping in. Functional Ecology, 29(10), pp.1300-1307.

Staicer, C.A., Spector, D.A. and Horn, A.G., 1996. The dawn chorus and other diel patterns in acoustic signaling. Ecology and evolution of acoustic communication in birds, pp.426-453.

Dawn Chorus sounds used in the beginning of the episode: “Dawn Chorus in Tompkins County, New York” posted by the Cayuga Bird Club https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zZtjYQUgaQ

Photo Credit

The deeply disturbing image that graces this episode was generated by AI in Canva.

In this episode, Steve leads a discussion on the invasive Grass Carp. The guys go over the evolutionary history of grass carp and its relatives, its biology, its introduction to The Great Lakes region, why people are concerned, and anything interesting Steve found out about it.

There are a lot more interesting fish topics that we can explore in the future, at least while Steve is researching fish. Enojy the episode!

This episode was recorded on February 24, 2025 at JP Nicely Memorial Park in West Falls, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Seagulls are fish.

Common Carp are invasive and cause environmental damage. The guys didn’t get this right. For shame!

Sponsors and Ways to Support Us

Gumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)

Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes.

Support us on Patreon.

Check out the Field Guides merch at our Teespring store. It’s really a great deal: you get to pay us to turn your body into a billboard for the podcast!

Works Cited

Chapman, D.C., Davis, J.J., Jenkins, J.A., Kocovsky, P.M., Miner, J.G., Farver, J. and Jackson, P.R., 2013. First evidence of grass carp recruitment in the Great Lakes Basin. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 39(4), pp.547-554.

Mitchell, A.J. and Kelly, A.M., 2006. The public sector role in the establishment of grass carp in the United States. Fisheries, 31(3), pp.113-121.

Wang, Y., Lu, Y., Zhang, Y., Ning, Z., Li, Y., Zhao, Q., Lu, H., Huang, R., Xia, X., Feng, Q.I. and Liang, X., 2015. The draft genome of the grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) provides insights into its evolution and vegetarian adaptation. Nature genetics, 47(6), pp.625-631.

Wu, C.S., Ma, Z.Y., Zheng, G.D., Zou, S.M., Zhang, X.J. and Zhang, Y.A., 2022. Chromosome-level genome assembly of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) provides insights into its genome evolution. BMC genomics, 23(1), p.271.

Photo Credit

Peter Halasz (User:Pengo), Melbourne, CC BY-SA 3.0 Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) at Tropicarium Budapest. No changes made to photo