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PODCAST

Natural Connections

Natural Connections is a weekly newspaper column created by Emily Stone, the Naturalist/Education Director at the Cable Natural History Museum in Cable, Wisconsin. In each episode, Emily reads her fun and informative weekly column about Northwoods Nature.

science natural sciences

All Episodes

05:00

270 - The Fantastic Fox reprise

Natural Connections ·

2023/05/18

Foxes can interrupt the Lyme bacteria’s cycle by reducing the numbers of mice and chipmunks available for the ticks to feed on. The ticks may find a different host—one who doesn’t carry Lyme—or they may just starve to death. The effect is so powerful that one area of western New York with unusually high numbers of foxes had no reports of Lyme. This research is so interesting, that we're repeating an episode from 2019, with a few small changes.

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05:20

269 - Tuning Up Our Ears for Spring

Natural Connections ·

2023/05/11

Each spring as the northward migration takes flight, I use the CD to re-train my ears to identify the songs of the birds who have been away all winter. The robins, bless their loud hearts, are pretty helpful with this, too. There are several birds whose songs are described in comparison to the robin’s. And, I just learned, the birds themselves tune up their ears in the spring.

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06:58

268 - Find a Puddle and Some Happiness (again)

Natural Connections ·

2023/05/04

It’s not really breaking news anymore that relaxing in nature makes us happier, but it is worth repeating. Nature relieves mild depression, reduces stress, and increases happiness for both adults and children. And, without the icy winds of January or the mosquito hordes of July, this is the perfect season to walk slowly through nature. Go find a puddle, a leaf, a breeze, and some birdsong, and you will also find an increase in well-being.

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05:48

267 - Prairie Chickens Boom

Natural Connections ·

2023/04/27

As the rumble quieted and everyone finished their last sentence, a ghostly sound filtered through the gray mist. Oooo-oooo-oo…the sound of prairie chickens booming. Eerie though it was, the sound also reminded me of whimsical amusements like blowing across the top of a pop bottle, or swinging a hollow tube through the air. Males make the sound by passing air through their syrinx. The orange air sacs—which are extensions of the esophagus—amplify the sound. Another name for prairie chickens is

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05:30

266 - Spring Arrives with Lois Nestel

Natural Connections ·

2023/04/20

I found myself wanting to contemplate more quietly the things we exclaim about every spring. Going to my bookshelf, I selected a slim volume on cream-colored paper: Wayside Wanderings by Lois Nestel. Lois was the Museum’s founding naturalist and director. Although we never met, I love reading her words, admiring her sketches and photographs, and learning from her quiet wisdom. About spring, Lois wrote: “Poor, weary, battered spring, after many reversals, seems to have finally arrived. The time of

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06:05

265 - The Glowing Attraction of Spiders

Natural Connections ·

2023/04/13

The muggy air turned cool as darkness fell. Armed with two flashlights and a camera, I crept from the quiet street into the yard and hoped no one would see me. Turning on the bigger of the two flashlights, I swept the beam from side to side. Bright stripes glowed, dark circles sucked in the light, and glitter covered everything. Illuminated by ultraviolet light, the Museum’s pollinator gardens were magical on that July evening in 2021.

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05:41

264 - Wings in Winter

Natural Connections ·

2023/04/06

Now is not the time of year I usually think about butterflies. So the brown, leaf-like shape on the giant snow pile outside my kitchen window caught me by surprise. The butterfly was one of several species who overwinter as adults. Monarchs are another famous example. While we may not be thinking about butterflies during this long winter, they are out there surviving…hopefully. Read more or listen to this week’s Natural Connection.

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06:04

263 - Aurora Magic

Natural Connections ·

2023/03/30

“The sky is dancing!” wrote my friend. I threw on a warmer coat and headed back outside. Pillars, curtains, and swirls of light danced along the horizon. My jaw dropped as the pillars shot upward, and then overhead and behind me. Light danced across even the southern sky. And directly above me, the curtains turned to curving bands that flashed, wiggled, and swirled. After almost losing my balance, I gave in and lay down on the snow to look straight up.

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06:07

262 - Facebook and Frog Phenology

Natural Connections ·

2023/03/23

The frog call chorus already arrived at a first grade classroom near you! First the kids learned to imitate several frog sounds. Then I assigned each row of students to be a particular species. Finally, I directed the students in a full season of frog songs. “Wood frogs begin, with peepers close behind. They keep going while leopard frogs start! Then the wood frogs and peepers stop. Bullfrogs begin. Leopard frogs go quiet, and finally in August all we’re left with are the bullfrogs

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06:55

261 - MORE Bear Babies

Natural Connections ·

2023/03/16

Back in January, Dr. Sartini allowed a group of Wisconsin Master Naturalists to join her team on a reconnaissance mission to find out if this den had cubs, yearlings, or just the collared adult. As I wrote, we saw the mom’s sleepy face, and heard the grunts of two cubs. Two cubs were all I’d been expecting when I lucked into joining Dr. Sartini and her students on this data collection visit to the same den. Eager hands reached out to take the cub and nestle him into a puffy winter coat. Soon more

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05:36

260 - Snowshoe Field Trip

Natural Connections ·

2023/03/09

Thick clouds of snowflakes swirled as I climbed the steep hill. Behind me, a string of 20 third graders from Hayward Intermediate School padded along on the Cable Natural History Museum’s rental snowshoes. Their feet were quieter than usual—in many years the trails are hard-packed ice by the time we embark on this annual field trip. This year, fresh snow dampened the crunch of plastic and metal. This field trip is designed around the Mammal Tour at the North End Trailhead, a roughly 1-mile loop

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05:18

259 - Visiting Glaciers in Alaska and Wisconsin

Natural Connections ·

2023/03/02

As I work with a committee to design and build our new exhibit “The Northwoods ROCKS! Where Geology is the Foundation for Fun,” (opening in May!) I have geology on the brain. Thinking about the glaciers that once covered Northern Wisconsin also has me reminiscing about walking on and paddling next to modern glaciers during my four-month trip to Alaska in the summer of 2018.

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05:37

258 - The Wandering Grosbeak

Natural Connections ·

2023/02/23

Evening grosbeaks are colorful members of the finch family. They got their name not because they are the color of the setting sun, but because English settlers thought the birds only came out of the woods to sing at sundown. French settlers reportedly gave them the more accurate name of le gros-bec errant, the wandering grosbeak. These bright birds travel widely toward the best winter food sources in movements known as “irruptions.”

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0:51

257 - The Last of Us in Real Life

Natural Connections ·

2023/02/16

A few steps down the trail, another oak sapling caught my eye. This one was only chest high and barely half-an-inch in diameter where it disappeared into the snow. And it was hairy. My second look revealed that the twigs were covered with small, shiny, brown domes, and from most of these domes sprouted a forest of little black clubs. Their shape reminded me of Earth tongue fungi and pin lichens, both of which I’ve written about previously. As I finished hiking the loop, I spotted these odd-looking

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06:25

256 - Counting Cubs

Natural Connections ·

2023/02/09

For over 30 years, students and professors from UWSP have conducted research on the seasonal movements, habitat selection, and reproduction of Wisconsin’s black bear population. During that period, bear numbers have risen from 9,000 to 24,000. The researchers’ hard work has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge about black bears in Wisconsin, and informs bear management, too. On this late January morning, a small group of Wisconsin Master Naturalist volunteers were lucky enough to join

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05:34

255 - Patterns in Sand

Natural Connections ·

2023/02/02

Tiny forests of mosses poked up between pale sand grains. Carpets of bluish lichens protected little hills, and pixie cup lichens raised their chalices as if waiting for the right vintage of raindrop. Here, miles from the desert, was another community of cryptobiotic crust holding together sand as the stone falls apart. The sandstone on the South Shore is five times older and gets twice as much rain, but otherwise is not so different from some of the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. Looking up from

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05:23

254 - Two Shades of Nuthatches

Natural Connections ·

2023/01/26

White-breasted nuthatches weigh more than twice their little cousins, the red-breasted nuthatches. More handsome than cute, their black head grading into a gray back and mostly white belly is quite natty. Beyond size and color, these two cousins have some interesting similarities and differences. They both eat mostly insects in the summer, and feed insects to their chicks as well. Both find those bugs by clinging to tree bark with their super strong feet and long claws, and moving headfirst down

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05:18

253 - Scatology in the Classroom and on the Trail

Natural Connections ·

2023/01/19

“So who do you think made this scat?” I asked, while holding the handful of rubber bear scat aloft. Several hands shot into the air. Omnivore. That was an easy one. Next, I pulled out a replica of scraggly fox scat, and a pile of rubber deer scat. No problem. Most kids were confident that they could categorize any scat they might find in the woods. Most kids were delightfully grossed out by the thought. Now it was time for the next step. As odd as it may seem, being able to identify animal scat

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06:03

252 - Foraging Fervor by Mary Swanson

Natural Connections ·

2023/01/12

I enjoyed making weed soup as a child. Here’s the recipe: fill a plastic pail with water, add cut grass, dandelion leaves, a generous handful of weed seeds, mix well, and show Mom. Since then, I’ve taken classes, accumulated books, and joined walks with experts on edible wild plants. I’ve progressed to wild plum and apple chutney, capered milkweed buds, and maple-glazed black walnuts. Throughout my life I’ve dreamed about a more natural lifestyle, growing and gathering my food. Can foraging really

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06:27

251 - Wings on the Ground

Natural Connections ·

2023/01/05

During the Museum group’s visit to El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve, our guide Daniel called me over to an educational display he’d laid out on a stump. Each of the three butterflies had been eaten by a different predator, and their bodies bore tell-tale clues. Each of these predators—the mice, the grosbeaks, and the orioles—have something in common with the monarchs themselves: they can ingest milkweed toxins and survive.

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