Season Watch

Exploring brumation during a birthday celebration

By Heidi Holtan,

Charlie Mitchell

Published December 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM CST

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John Latimer leads a phenology walk in the Long Lake Conservation Center bog during March of 2024.

In this episode, co-hosts Heidi Holtan and Charlie Mitchell discuss science vocabulary, eerie ice noises, and John Latimer's birthday. Featuring: Pam Perry and Long Lake Conservation Center.

When's the last time you learned a new word?

Co-hosts Heidi Holtan (Director of Public Affairs, appreciator of ice sounds) and Charlie Mitchell (Phenology Coordinator, appreciator of Heidi Holtan) delight in new words, the sounds of lake ice, and celebrate our beloved bearded birthday boy, John Latimer.

In addition, we hear from Pam Perry (non-game wildlife biologist) and students visiting Long Lake Conservation Center.

Love the podcast? Have a new vocabulary word to share? Let us know! Email us at seasonwatch@kaxe.org.

You can also send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

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Heidi Holtan

Heidi Holtan has been involved with KAXE since 2002. Now as Director of Content and Public Affairs she manages and is the host of the KAXE Morning Show, including a variety of local content like Phenology, What's for Breakfast, Area Voices, The Sports Page and much more, alongside Morning Edition from NPR. Her latest project is Ham Radio: Cooking with Amy Thielen.

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Charlie Mitchell

Charlie Mitchell (she/they) joined KAXE in February of 2022. Charlie creates the Season Watch Newsletter, produces the Phenology Talkbacks show, coordinates the Phenology in the Classroom program, and writes nature-related stories for KAXE's website. Essentailly, Charlie is John Latimer's faithful sidekick and makes sure all of KAXE's nature/phenology programs find a second life online and in podcast form.

With a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, Charlie enjoys learning a little bit about everything, whether it's plants, mushrooms, or the star-nosed mole. (Fun fact: Moles store fat in their tails, so they don't outgrow their tunnels every time conditions are good.)

See stories by Charlie Mitchell