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Why do red squirrels approach life with a fight-on-sight attitude?

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A one-eyed red squirrel forages for seed beneath a feeder in St. Louis County on Feb. 5, 2025.
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Courtney Celley/USFWS via Flickr
A one-eyed red squirrel forages for seed beneath a feeder in St. Louis County on Feb. 5, 2025.

In this episode, Charlie Mitchell and Heidi Holtan are inspired by the feisty nature of red squirrels and learn about woodpeckers.

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Red squirrels might be small, but they don't hesitate to take on heavyweights like grey squirrels or much larger pileated woodpeckers. This week, co-hosts Heidi Holtan (Director of public affairs, birthday-haver ) and Charlie Mitchell (Phenology coordinator, birthday-celebrator) get inspired by these cranky critters.

In addition, we hear from Mike North, a woodpecker expert, and our partnering student phenologists at Little Falls Middle School.

Attributions

  • Red-bellied Woodpecker recording by Michael Hurben, XC569471. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/569471.
  • John Latimer's phenology report, the Little Falls Middle School phenology report, and Mike North's interview originally aired on KAXE/KBXE.

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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.
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.)
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