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Season Watch

You bittern watch out!

By Charlie Mitchell,
Heidi Holtan
Published May 2, 2026 at 3:13 AM CDT
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A heron-like bird with hilariously wide-set eyes and an upturned bill stares around its bill down at the camera.
Contributed
/
Courtney Celley/USFWS via Flickr
An American Bittern stares down the camera at Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge on August 8, 2023.

Co-hosts Heidi Holtan and Charlie Mitchell wonder at dragonflies, delight in bitterns, and look forward to seeing hummingbirds.

Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

Why be better-known when you can be bittern-known?

While their cousins the Great Blue Heron and the Green Heron win the fashion contest, the drab-colored American Bittern wins the talent portion. Their odd 'glug-glug' calls delight co-hosts Heidi Holtan (director of content and public affairs, dragonfly admirer) and Charlie Mitchell (phenology coordinator, fun fact collector).

In addition, we get the birding update from John Latimer and hear from Little Falls Middle School (dragonfly finders, bittern detectors).

Attributions

  1. American Bittern call by iNaturalist user theperfectbreeze.
  2. Wilson's Snipe call by Andrew Spencer, XC13808. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/13808.
  3. John Latimer's report and the Little Falls Middle School talkback originally aired on KAXE.
  4. This episode was produced by Charlie Mitchell and Heidi Holtan.

Love the podcast? Have you ever manifested a wildlife sighting? Let us know! Send us a voice memo through Speak Pipe!

Email us at seasonwatch@kaxe.org.

Tags
Season Watch Season Watch PodcastKAXENorthern MinnesotaPhenologySpring Phenology
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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.<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.)
See stories by Charlie Mitchell
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.
See stories by Heidi Holtan
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