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Nice-icles: Maples and boxelders provide a frozen sweet treat

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A Black-capped Chickadee drinks sweet sap from an icicle hanging from a maple tree in Finland on March 21, 2024.
Contributed
/
Joe Walewski via iNaturalist
A Black-capped Chickadee drinks sweet sap from an icicle hanging from a maple tree in Finland on March 21, 2024.

In this episode, co-hosts Charlie Mitchell and Heather Johnson discuss how ants and plants help each other, the joys of gardening, and nature's popsicles.

Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

Sweet-toothed nature nerds, rejoice! The forest confectionery is open.

Co-hosts Heather Johnson (member services coordinator, insect admirer) and Charlie Mitchell (phenology coordinator, outdoorsy doofus) look forward to spring gardening, geek out about insects, and learn to love chickadees even more.

In addition, we hear a phenology report from Little Falls Middle School, an update from Josh Leonard at Belwin Outdoor Science, and learn about Wood Ducks with Ed Zlonis, a DNR wildlife biologist.

Attributions

  1. Wood Duck recording by Michael Hurben, XC570949. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/570949.
  2. Red-winged Blackbird recording by Jonathon Jongsma, XC75497. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/75497.
  3. Josh Leonard's recording from Belwin Outdoor Science program was recieved via SpeakPipe.
  4. The Ed Zlonis interview, John's phenology report and the Little Falls Middle School phenology report originally aired on KAXE.
  5. This episode was produced by Heidi Holtan.

Love the podcast? How do you feel about ants? Let us know! Email us at seasonwatch@kaxe.org.

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

Stay Connected
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.<br/><br/><br/>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.)
Heather Johnson, a longtime KAXE / KBXE listener, is your point of contact for all things membership.
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