Nature Snippets

Possibly the most common non-human resident in the average home is the long-bodied cellar spider. These innocuous beasties provide non-toxic, round-the-clock pest control for just the price of a small place to live. And although there are those who'd be less than thrilled by these little guests, they keep actual pest populations in check. This episode discusses how you can document the guests in your home and share them for posterity and science.The episode art is modified from a photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Ryan Hodnett.

I recorded this back in January and am finally getting around to launching it today. This episode features a fascinating little beetle larva that clings to rocks in rivers and in wave-washed lake shores. Water penny beetle larvae were first mis-described as isopods and later the error was fixed. You can find them on river rocks where they graze on periphyton. The episode art is from photos taken by then UVM student Erin Hayes Pontius when she worked in the lab at St. Michael's College. It shows a water penny (genus Psephenus) on the left and a false water penny (genus Ectopria) on the right.

The winter season ha provided some wonderful snowflakes. IN this episode I discuss a Vermonter know as "Snowflake Bentley". Wilson Bentley attached a bellows camera to a microscope and made some of the first snowflake photographs ..... thousands of them. And while he made scientific studies of snowflakes, I'm just having fun, and you can too.Episode art is a photo I took using a Nikon Dipahot inverted microscope from the 1980s.Upcoming bug talks:March 7 & 9 in the Flower Show in Essex Vermont: https://vnlavt.org/vermont-flower-show/workshops/ March 19 in Newport Vermont: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/turning-stones-discovering-the-life-of-water-tickets-1242151802479

Of late, I'm more frequently called upon to talk about bugs than ever. But to reduce the chances of rendering my audience comatose, I use live insects and hands-on demos to keep things moving. You can also!! This episode describes how to get aquatic insects at almost any time of year using inexpensive improvised gear found in a dollar store, or more durable equipment if you intend to make a habit of this sort of thing. To see a recent talk go here: tinyurl.com/3htf29tv And to read about it, you can find my book here: https://tinyurl.com/McCabeBook Episode art: timing a standardized sampling event

Freshwater ecologists often group invertebrates based on how they eat. Black fly larvae filter particles out of the water and in one case, they managed to help put a murder behind bars. This time around I'll be chatting about these incredible little organisms that improve water quality and are food chain links between incredibly small morsels and the fish we love to catch. I'll also be sending some love out to those incredible curators and lovers of books that run independent book stores. On both sides of the Atlantic I have been graciously hosted by independent book stores and I wanted to show my appreciation in this small way. North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier Vermont will be hosting me on September 26th at 6:30 PM and this event will be co-hosted by Bear Pond Books. We'll talk about my book: Turning Stones: Discovering the Life of Water! You'd all be most welcome!

Macroinvertebrates, or the invertebrates we can see, are sentinels of clean water monitored by professional biologists. They can also be a gateway drug for budding scientists young and young at heart. This episode describes inexpensive equipment for catch-and-release studies of macroinvertebrates in ponds and streams. This video takes you through the same approaches. Episode art is clipped from an image uploaded to Wikimedia commons by John Rostron. Driving directions from Danville if you'd like to join us on Saturday 6/29/24 9:00AM: At the Route 2 light in Danville, turn south onto Peacham Road. Take an immediate left (at the Danville Post Office) onto Brainerd Street. Stay on Brainerd Street for .8 miles, where you will keep right onto Greenbanks Hollow Road (dirt road). Stay on Greenbanks Hollow Road for 1.9 miles. Go through the covered bridge, and continue south on Thaddeus Stevens Road for one mile. Parking instructions: The parking location is on the side of Thaddeus Steven Road at the town line between Peacham and Danville which is one mile south of the Greenbanks Hollow covered bridge in the vicinity of 3027 Thaddeus Stevens Road. See you at 9am on Saturday. 

Imagine a worm that enters the body of a different species, and then takes over its brain, altering its behavior to the benefit of the work and to the detriment of the host. Such is the story of the horsehair worm. Following this episode I'll announce 2 events. The first is on Wednesday June 19 at 7:00 PM in Beardsley Zoo but also live on Zoom: registration is required: https://connecticutsbeardsleyzoo-bloom.kindful.com/e/june-evening-lecture-2024. I'll be co presenting with Aimee Turcotte (St. Michael's College class of 23). The second event will be a book talk & signing co-hosted by Northern Woodlands at Norwich Bookstore: https://www.norwichbookstore.com/events/20240620 Episode art for this episode is by Eduard Solà Vázquez and shared on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nematomorpha_Somiedo_(white_background).jpg

In warmer weather, have you ever encountered a cloud of flies buzzing up and down near a water body? Chances are that you have encountered a swarm of midges. This episode gets into the biology of these amazingly diverse little insects. I am also pleased to announce my first book event at Phoenix Books in Burlington Vermont at 7:00PM on Thursday June 6th 2024. Finally, I reveal some secrets of the podcast recording process in my back yard shed. The episode art is a photograph of a male adult midge with its characteristic feathery antennae. The females have simpler antennae but are none the less incredible products of fine-tuned evolution. The art comes from Wikimedia user WanderingMogwai and is shared under CC-BY-SA-4.0 Original image is here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Non-Biting_Midge_chironomus_spp..jpg

It is entirely likely that you share your dwelling with some generally innocuous beetles that subsist in corners on dried crumbs, cat hair, or other dried organic materials. But, it can sometimes happen that these beetles reach numbers that can threaten wool carpets or fur coats....or worse still, these insects may consume your insect collection. This episode discusses these fellow travelers. The episode art pictures a varied carpet beetle, one of many species in the family Dermestidae that we discuss today. The photograph was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by user Didier Descouens.

I'm learning new audio editing software and left a silent minute at the beginning......all fixed and thank you for your patience. What sucks the juice out of many plants, leaves a sticky mess that promotes mold growth, and will lay its eggs ANYWHERE. The answer is the spotted lanternfly, a beautiful insect that hails from East Asia and is spreading from an introduction site near Allentown Pennsylvania. Although it is pretty, it can be destructive in its home away from home. The episode art this week was uploaded by Wikimedia user WanderingMogwai and can be found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spotted_lanternfly_displaying_underwing.jpg

Scuba divers pump compressed air into or out of jackets to hang neutrally buoyant in the water column. Few insects can manage the same feat and must hang onto to plants or expend energy swimming. But one insect can shunt oxygen in and out of an air bubble to "float" anywhere between the water surface and the pond floor. This same insect turns camouflage on it's head to adapt to its unusual back-stroke approach to swimming. Backswimmers do all of this and are also well equipped with a beak that can get your attention if you mishandle them. The episode art is modified from Didier Descouens' stunning image found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notonecta_maculata_MHNT.jpg

A friend and radio broadcaster in my home town asked me to record something about the process of writing and publishing a book. I suspect that each book develops on a unique trajectory, and mine seems certainly to be unique. It's my first book and so I claim limited expertise on the topic. There were pitfalls, and one major one, but it was nothing I could have avoided. So this podcast is certainly not a how-to, but more of a how-I-did. And when you write your book, I'm sure it will be in a very different way than I did. Episode art is Adelaide Murphy Tyrol's art on the book cover. The book is available for pre order here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/turning-stones-discovering-the-life-of-water-declan-mccabe/20598149?ean=9781684751839 and also on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

We have dramatically changed our climate. It's easy to consider that the change is slight. After all, who can remember what our climate was like back in the 70s? Back when it was "normal"? But consider this, roughly 60% of the US population had not even been born until the 1980s. So, our childhood recollections of "normal" weather occurred when climate change was already well underway. Scientists call this phenomenon the "shifting baseline" - what we each consider baseline conditions is very different from what a pre-industrial baseline might look like. This episode examines long-term data sets to explore how climate has affected important parts of the New England culture like ice fishing, lilac flowering, and maple sugaring. The episode art is from the Joe's Pond Association website. It shows a concrete block perched on a wooden pallet on the frozen pond. "When the ice breaks, the pallet will fall, and down will come cinder block".....unplugging a clock to establish the precise moment of ice out! Please pay them for their photograph by placing a bet on when the ice will go out in 2024: https://www.joespondvermont.com/ice-out-tickets.html

Ladybugs, Ladybirds, or Lady beetles are familiar to all in art and in reality. These little munchers of aphids and other garden insects are common in many habitats. If the supply of soft-bodied insects on your cabbages dwindles, the adults will fly off to other plants in your garden and elsewhere. Because lady beetles have been collected and sold for as biological control agents, species have been moved from place to place and even between continents. This episode covers such topics and also addresses efforts to document rare native species and even farm them for reintroduction into their former habitats. Episode art is from iNaturalist contributor Bill Siebert. Bill is a retired biology teacher equipped with a 600mm and macro lens. For more information about his photograph, get a free iNaturalist account and look here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171724937

In colder winters than we are currently experiencing in Vermont, small streams wear thick layers of ice. In the winter of 1997 I attempted to sample some streams year round. I was thwarted by ice so thick that a felling axe made little impression. But spring-fed streams with an endless supply of water at a constant temperature shrug off any ice that may form. These unique flowing-water habitats lack the minute bits of organic material that feed insects in other streams. And so many species simply cant live in springs, freeing up those habitats for spring water specialists found nowhere else. The art for this episode is a photo of the Well of Dee, the source of Scotland's River Dee. The river emerges from the ground as a large spring in Cairngorms National Park and flows west to the North Sea at Aberdeen. The art is from Wikimedia Commons and full details are here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Well_of_Dee_-_Source_of_River_Dee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_229032.jpg

With snow on the ground, you might not expect to find many invertebrates about, but there are some exceptions. Long-jawed spiders are among the most common invertebrates found clamoring about for food on Vermont's snow crusts. They come in two common colors and my bias is that the green ones are spectacular. So, grab your phone and perhaps a clip-on macro lens to get up close and personal with these amazing creatures making a living by eating snow fleas. The episode art this week is from Wikimedia Commons. Full details can be found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetragnatha_P1060796a.jpg

Calligraphy beetles have beautiful patterns that appear to be inked onto their elytra with a fine-tipped black pen. Their larvae specialize on particular plant species before dropping into the soil to pupate. I find them fascinating, and so when my daughters pointed out that my podcast lacked a proper logo, I suggested the willow calligrapha for inspiration. Lauren, my youngest is an artist and in short order she produced a new logo for the podcast. To see more of Lauren's art please visit her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren.mcc.photography/ And to hear why some beetles in the genus Calligrapha support the matriarchy, give the episode a listen. Episode art this week is a willow calligrapha beetle uploaded by user B. Schoenmakers to Wikimedia Commons. Full details here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calligrapha_multipunctata_(Chrysomelidae)_-_(imago),_Jefferson_(NY),_United_States.jpg

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - Shakespeare said it best. The subject of this week's episode has many names just in English, but whatever you choose to call them, they are important in processing leaves and decaying wood in the environment. Isopods are ubiquitous crustaceans that you doubtlessly have seen at home, in the woods, in a pond, or in weeds washed up on a beach somewhere. I dig a little into their biology here discuss a few of their very many names. I also am excited to announce that my first book, "Turning Stones: Discovering the Life of Fresh Water" will be coming out in June. I'm excited to see this project come to life and I look forward to scheduling some book events. You can take a peek or pre-order a copy here on the Down East Books site: http://downeastbooks.com/books/9781684751846 This week's cover art is from Wikimedia user Dat doris and found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kellerassel_001.jpg

If you have seen a freshly felled tree, you may well have noticed the rings in the cross section that mark the passage of the years. But felling trees just as an historical exercise seems extreme and so my students and I cored some trees on campus and nearby to explore succession, competition, and the deep history of organisms far older than ourselves. The pine trees we cored stood in what we now call "Colchester Vermont" when Thomas Edison's first viable light bulbs shed light on the world for about 14 hours before burning out. This podcast describes the process of tree coring and ways we can use this technique to test hypotheses. Update 12/29/2023: episode art is from a bald cypress found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_rings_in_Taxodium_distichum_wood_(bald_cypress)_4_(24518375307).jpg

Why do we fish and should we fish at all? When I fish, it is usually for recreation or education. I encourage others to fish because I believe that familiarity with the fascinating organisms in the natural world fosters appreciation for the environment. When a person catches a fish in a nondescript pond, dots are connected. A previously boring water body becomes a habitat. Certainly it was habitat before anyone caught a fish, but an appreciation for the pond as habitat is built. And when we appreciate organisms and habitats, we are more likely to value and protect that habitat. In this episode, several St. Michael's College Environmental Science tell us why they fish and what they caught. Update 12/29/2023: episode art is from Wikimedia Commons and found here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Lepomis_macrochirus_photo.jpg

I can't think of a better way to learn about the coastal biology of a country than to visit. And so we did! Thirteen Saint Michael's College students joined three professors and we crisscrossed the Dingle Peninsula for two weeks. We learned a lot of biology and also hiked to spectacular locations and even visited a pub or two. This episode gets into some of the cultural as well as biological details of our adventure.

Kingfishers are incredible fliers, divers, and of course fishers. A lamp mussel at first blush seem to present all of the complex behaviors .... of a rock. But there is far more fascinating biology happening than meets the eye. This episode documents the interactions between at least one individual each of these two species. Life is interesting, strange, and there is unimaginable complexity if we care to investigate even just a little bit. This essay and now podcast was inspired by a photograph posted on social media. Here's a link to Adelaide Tyrol Murphy's incredible art to go with the story. And the story I presented at a conference a while back inspired Chris Maynard to create more incredible art linked here. I'd like to give a shout out to J Drew Lanham's "Writers of Fox Run Veranda" ....you know who you are! Thank you for inspiration to keep putting words out there; please keep sharing your wonderful words on paper or in the ether! Update 12/30/2023: I'm back filling episode art because I just noticed how they present on various platforms. Wikimedia commons is my favorite source where people share art seeking only attribution. This image came from here.

In addition to flood impacts on humans there are human impacts on floods. And of course there are flood impacts on other organisms. Among other things, this impromptu episode will get into being safe around flood waters and the risks associated with flooded sewage plants. An earlier version of this had some audio issues that have been improved. Episode art is the Winooski River hydrograph downloaded from the USGS site

Imagine for a moment that a grey squirrel grabbed hold of your arm or even your tongue and refused to let go until you transported it to your home. That's roughly the experience that many bumble bees endure when accosted by certain beetle species. This episode describes the strange relationships between beetles and their involuntary Uber drivers. This will be the last episode of the current season...although I may record one or two from about 3,000 miles east of Vermont for summer release. In the mean time....have a great summer. Episode art is from my cell phone and shows a beetle clamped onto a bumble bee antenna,

Perhaps you are a teacher, a student in an entomology class, or just plain interested in cool things biological. Regardless of your particular motivations, some large, black and orange beetles may be of interest to you and this episode explains how to attract them. I also get into nature's recyclers large and small. Joni Mitchell hit the nail on the head when she wrote "we are billion-year-old carbon".....everything recycles! Episode art added 12/30/2023 is from here.

Biodiversity loss is not just a crisis in Borneo or some other tropical spot, it is happening in all localities. And because it is happening in our own towns and back yards, we have the power and responsibility to do something about it. We can plant native trees and vegetation to feed the base of our local food webs. You can learn more about this process by attending a set of St. Michael's college events happening about a week from the release data of this podcast. Other events will be live-streamed and recorded so there are multiple ways to attend. Please join me and the St. Mike's community to protect our planet's biological diversity.

Our largest native North American rodent dramatically improves habitats by eliminating the simple structure of streams and replacing that structure with a series of new habitats. Felled trees open canopy gaps allowing light to reach the forest floor. New beaver dams create ponds that favor standing water invertebrates, fish, and birds. Older ponds infill with silt and result in beaver meadows. And of course flowing water streams exist between these structures so the overall impact of beavers at the ecosystem scale is to diversify habitats. This episode focuses on the North American species but I briefly get into their European cousins also. I hope this brief chat helps foster an appreciation for these amazing animals.

Little wooden spheres attached to dry stalks in meadows are homes to the larvae of a certain fly. You can see them in patches of meadow where ever goldenrod grows. As the plant grows, a fly lays an egg into the growing tip. The hatchling larva releases chemicals that compel the plant to produce a golf-ball size growth called a "gall". If you lived in a house lined entirely with edible plant material, you'd have an approximation of a gall. This episode describes the biology of goldenrod galls and suggests ways to use them for educational purposes.

When a new invasive species sweeps across a region, it can leave destruction in its wake. Sometimes it's a matter of an occasional defoliation as is the case with the spongy moth. In other cases the new species can take out an entire species such as the American elm or the American chestnut. Unfortunately, the emerald ash borer is in the latter category, except that there are three species at risk. This saddens me for many reasons. Ash trees are beautiful and serve important biological roles at the base of forest food webs. They underpin important cultural traditions both for the Abenaki and for the Irish. Vermonters are well aware that black ash provides the raw materials for traditional Abenaki baskets. You may well wonder Irish tradition is fostered by Vermont ash? When I first moved to Vermont I learned at the Champlain Valley Fair, that ash root stock with a little trunk still attached was being shipped to Ireland to manufacture our traditional hurley sticks for one of our national sports: hurling (which has nothing to do with the after effects of beer consumption). The wood grain sweeping through the wood down into the root provides the necessary grain curvature to make these sticks. With our ash now infested, I sincerely hope we are not exporting it anywhere. As we lose our ash, I encourage people to plant a diverse selection of native tree species so that when the next invasive species comes, your plantings eill not be decimated.

Good afternoon. An earlier video version failed to launch. Those interested in the video can view it here. We are currently immersed in a biodiversity crisis. Extinction is happening at an alarming rate. While none of us expects to return to a time where passenger pigeons nested in trees over saber-toothed tiger dens, we can slow extinction rates and even improve biological diversity where we live and work. To bring back birds for example, we need to start at the base of the food web by planting the plants and trees that support diverse invertebrate communities. The “bugs” in turn support birds and other insectivores. Vickie Hird's book “Rebugging the Planet” advocates this approach, and Saint Michael's College students in their Biology Senior Seminar learned directly from the author how these approaches can be applied on campus and beyond. Please enjoy this presentation, the Q&A that follows, and by all means visit our spectacular campus and enjoy four miles of Natural Area Trails linked from this site.

Winter flying moths show up in November and sometimes later. This essay describes their unusual lack of flight abilities and the alternative ways that they disperse. I also explore insect collections and the scientific value of collecting specimens and how entomologists are trained. For good measure, I explain how these particular moths earned the moniker "flunker moths".

There are many caddisfly species feeding under the ice in our ponds, streams, and wetlands. Most aquatic insect growth happens in winter when the stream bed food supply is at its peak. The base of the stream food web is not provided by plants growing in the stream but instead drops in in the form of falling leaves. You might expect the peak to therefore happen in fall, but the leaves must first soak and steep. This process leaches out the chemicals that protected the leaves from herbivores during their productive lives. Next, fungi and bacteria colonize the leaves after which time, the leaves are edible to insects. But most of us notice aquatic insects including caddisflies, when they emerge as winged adults. One caddisfly in particular emerges in winter and is the subject of this first podcast of 2023. Welcome to season three and thanks for listening.

Western conifer seed bugs are among the many insect visitors that may make your home theirs for the winter. They seek hibernation spots in fall and even the best kept homes provides all sorts of prime real estate for six-legged critters. We tend to see them coming or going in fall and spring, but moving decoration boxes from attic or basement tends to wake sleeping guests at this time of year. So you may see a stray box elder bug, lady beetle, or even a Western conifer seed bug scrambling along your window sill in mid winter. None of the mini visitors I mentioned are cause for alarm and you will certainly be safe from seed bugs .... unless you happen to be a conifer seed. But conifer seed bugs are not pantry pests and so even your pine nuts will be safe. If you find a stray insect or several, a glass and an envelope is all you need to turn them loose. And if a much larger count disrupts your happy home, a quick pass with the long tube on your vacuum is a more than viable alternative to chemical warfare. Besides, after death by insecticide, you'll still have to suck up the remains. All of that said, I would make an exception for bed bugs; if you are unlucky enough to host these particularly unwelcome guests, it is time to call in the professionals.

Duckweed can entirely coat summer ponds, but have you ever wondered what happens to them in winter when the ponds ice over? This episode gets into exactly where duckweeds go when the snow flies, and how they make it back from their wintering grounds.

What can each of us do to reduce eutrophication and harmful algal blooms? Reducing runoff from our properties, neighborhoods, and campuses is an excellent first step. And picking up after your pet does no harm either. Reducing water flow from properties can reduce soil erosion and movement of phosphorus to our favorite water bodies. Simply redirecting your downspouts to the lawn instead of the driveway can be a good first step that also has the advantage of reducing ice buildup in winter. Episode image is cropped from a photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Dave Huth from Allegany County, NY, USA

Perhaps in your childhood, you may have made paper doilies? Folded paper with delicately cut holes that when unfolded revealed a symmetrical pattern? Imagine for moment that your skill level at this particular pass time was so great, that you could produce a spectacular piece of art in miniature - perhaps as small as a quarter inch long. If you have such fine motor skills, then you are well on your way to making your own fake lace bug. Real lace bugs are fantastically ornate true bugs (Hemiptera) in the family Tingidae. In retrospect, and on hearing my own audio as I edited out my "em"s and pauses, "Tingidae" sounds like something I made up; or perhaps mispronounced because I grew up in Athlone, where "th" is rarely pronounced. But Tingidae is a very real family of insects so small as to be easily overlooked. But if your azaleas are looking a little shabby this year, it is possible that lace bugs are the culprits. Rather than reaching for a toxic spray, grab a clip on macro lens for your cellphone camera, you may be rewarded with a view of a spectacular little fellow traveler. Episode art is from Wikimedia Commons uploaded by Louisa Howard of Dartmouth College.

For several years, Saint Michael's college students have used trail cameras to answer interesting research questions and to get amazing photographs of mammals right on campus in the process. So I thought I'd share some of my experiences in setting these up to get the best results. Click here for a sample of the photographs we get on cameras on campus. Episode art was photographed by student researchers at St. Michael's College.

Many of our garden plants have "perfect" unblemished leaves lacking any evidence of nibbles taken by hungry herbivores, or dwelling places of leaf miners and other native insects. This artificial state of perfection is because many of our garden plants are from other continents and our native insects have zero chance of eking out a living from their foliage. But native plants have co-evolved with a diverse community of insects that live in and on them and in turn form essential links in the food web that feeds native birds and mammals. Hackberry nipple galls are formed by tiny insects that emerge as adults in fall and are valuable foodstuff for migrating birds. And the hackberry trees do not seem even slightly the worse for the wear.

Who doesn't love a daddy long legs? But which one do you really love? The cellar spiders that some people call "daddy long legs", or the larger cranefly that may well crash into your porch lights, or what I call "daddy long legs": the spider-like harvestmen common in shaded woods, gardens, or sometimes in your house. These amazing arachnids are the subjects of an urban legend regarding venom toxicity. In reality these familiar organisms are beneficial in your garden and should be granted the space and respect that fellow travelers deserve.

As the name suggests, drain flies may well emerge from floor drains. They are not a sign of poor house keeping....rather they are a sign that you have drains. The larvae inhabit your plumbing in places like shower drains and floor drains. You may well see them at any time of year and so September is a perfect time to release this episode and kick off a new season.

Whirligig beetles are wonderful little creatures of the summer that zoom about on water surfaces. This episode get into some of their amazing adaptations to life on water surfaces.

Opossums are moving north in response to human-caused climate change, but the current journey builds upon a far longer and more ancient journey from South America. One advantage of having them about is their talent for eating ticks, many of which have also moved north. Finally we will get into their most famous behavior: playing possum.

Natural wetlands accumulate nutrient-rich sediment carried in by rising floods. The sediments feed the wetland foodweb and are not carried downstream where they can cause algal blooms in lakes. By providing places for flood water to go, wetlands reduce the potentially damaging impacts of floods.

Have you ever had the urge to send a potentially dangerous centipede through the mail? Suppress that urge! But at least one person has sent a fast-moving myriapod through the US Mail, and here is that story.

Spring flowers bloom before tree canopies fill out taking advantage of both accessible light, and early-year pollinators. This little beetle is one of the earliest and is well protected by a toxic payload.

The leaves that provide breath-taking views in New England Falls are far from ecologically finished when they drop from trees. Many leaves end up fueling food webs in freshwater habitats. This episode covers some of the complex processes that occur under water before a leaf ever feeds a trout.

Plankton are generally small plant-like and animal-like organisms that live in the water column of our oceans, lakes, and ponds. Ecologists have known that they plankton grow actively in lakes all summer and often produce blooms in warm weather. Until recently, ecologists considered that plankton died back in winter and were not an important source of food under ice. But recent research has made it clear that plankton grows under ice and is important in the winter food web. Dr. Jason Stockwell and Dr. Ariana Chiapella, the first guests on Nature Snippets, will explain their research on plankton under the ice of Shelburne Pond Vermont. An earlier version had some audio issues which have since been ironed out.

In winter, a small black caddisfly emerges from streams to complete its life cycle. The females don't bother with wings, unless, that is, they happen to emerge in summer. These beautiful little caddisflies spend their larval lives filtering minute particles of organic matter from the water and cleaning the water in the process.

A phenomenon called "the density anomaly of water" makes it possible for folks to drive trucks out on to Lake Champlain most years. This episode explains why ice is less dense than water and why this allowed life as we know it to evolve.

This special episode was recorded in a Saint Michael's College Senior Seminar. Seminar participants had read Nature's Best Hope and we were honored to have Dr. Douglas Tallamy join us on zoom. The episode consists of Doug's answers to students' questions regarding creating a Home Grown National Park. With the lion's share of land in the United States being in private hands, if each of us lives up to our responsibilities as stewards of the planet, we can go a long way toward enhancing biological diversity one yard or garden at a time. Please enjoy this episode and then go plant a tree native to your local area.

Because this podcast frequently discusses very small organisms, I thought an episode on magnification would be of interest. And because I know that some parents listen to this podcast, I decided to focus a little also on sharing the nature of small things with children. So tips and tricks about getting close views of tiny things are featured. The cover art for this episode is a Wild M5 Stereoscopic microscope. The image was clipped from a Wikimedia Commons image uploaded by Michael K. Oliver: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P_Humphry_Greenwood.jpg Follow this link to view the inexpensive hand lens I mentioned: https://us.vwr.com/stibo/bigweb/std.lang.all/20/35/10312035.jpg