Hello one and all!
This week we talked mostly about birds. I love birds though not as much as Thom. I’m hoping at some point in 2017 Thom and I can go bird watching mostly so I can identify a bird of prey from its silhouette alone. Bird watching can be a great way of getting involved in citizen science, by the way. If you are interested in citizen science projects specifically in Maine, here is a great list of projects conducted by the Maine Audubon Society.
In the introduction, which I try to mix up every episode, we hear some bird calls from the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, and we overhear Caroline Fox and Josh Silburg talk about the birds in At Sea with the Marine Birds of the Rain Coast. I saw the book, it’s beautiful and you should check it out.
Some of the topics we covered in our this week in science include the effects of domoic acid, a dog sensing hospital super bugs by smell, and the century-old annual bird census. I make some speculation about how long dogs have been known to smell out things like cancer, but I haven’t been able to find definitive evidence on the internet prior to the 1900s. However, dogs have been used for therapy as early as the 18th century (people started going nuts about dogs in that century). So there could be a real life basis for Outlander’s Bouton.
The rest of the episode is from Michelle LaRue’s plenary speech from IMCC4 in Newfoundland. I learned a lot about emperor penguins, Weddell seals, Antarctic ecology and tracking populations with satellite imagery. If you are interested in participating in citizen science projects, I highly recommend checking out what is needed from tomnod.com.
Next week we will do another IMCC episode. After that we may take a break for awhile to play other interviews. You should also keep an eye out for some ocean lovin’ interviews on Ocean Science Radio in February. I’m collaborating with the hosts to bring you all the information you did (and didn’t) want to know about sex in the ocean.
Episode 20
Music breaks: The Gammy Bird by Christopher Young, Jailbird by M. Ward, Antarctica by The Weepies, Sensing Owls by Jose Gonzalez
Filed under: Conservation, Data, Outreach, SFW Science Radio Hour, Tools Tagged: Antarctica, bird conservation, birds, emperor penguins, environment, IMCC4, Michelle LaRue, Ross Sea, science, tomnod, Weddell seals Image may be NSFW.
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