Matt Iles has been studying birds for about 12 years. He is humble, thoughtful and a wonderful teacher. He has taught me a lot and is a treasured friend and colleague. For this show we walk through the old fields of tall grass, Goldenrods, and assorted shrubs asking questions about his career as a bird biologist, about bird migrations, and his upcoming workshop “FlockShop #1 - The Eramosa River as Migration Stopover” put on with naturalist Adrian Iacovino at the Guelph Outdoor School.

Matthew’s instagram is   https://www.instagram.com/wild_m.iles/

Some useful online resources:

birdscanada.org/apps/checklist/ - Birds Canada Checklist tool.

audubon.org/field-guide - Online Bird Field Guide.

allaboutbirds.org - Useful information on I.D., Habitat, Range and assorted Natural History

ebird.org/canada/home - Keep track of your own finds, and support researchers.

Wonderful interview with Mountain Lion biologist and author Dr. Mark Elbroch, talking about his new book "The Cougar Conundrum : Sharing the World with a Successful Predator". Mark Elbroch shares some Cougar natural history and we hear his thoughts on the role media can play in Cougar conservation and his work with Panthera, a large Cat conservation organization protecting Cats around the world.

https://markelbroch.com/

https://islandpress.org/books/cougar-conundrum

https://www.panthera.org/

Sometimes it is hard to find ways to connect with the landbase in our daily lives. Our built up environments; navigating a world that seems to orient away from the land; and living with communities that don't support our goals of intimacy with nature.. but imagine how it might be trying to challenge this disconnect while locked up? 

Prisons are terrible places that don't really do much towards the healing of those incarcerated there nor the communities where they come from. They really just replicate and reinforce the ways our culture hurts us - alienation from our communities, from ourselves and from the land. But there are renegades. Folks in prisons looking out for the small life which breeds in the gaps and cracks, uncontrolled by the guards and their world. Today we hear some of those stories.

Originally aired January 16, 2017.

Discussing some hows and whys about storytelling as reciprocating interaction and interspecies language making. How can we work with stories to learn, teach and communicate better with each other in regards to the natural world, and then on top of that, how can we hear the stories of the natural world better so we can be a part of the learning, teaching and communication which is always already ongoing?