Welcome to another episode of Spotlight on Natural Resources, where we shine some light on what's going on in your environment. I'm your host, Erin Garrett.
Abigail Garofalo: 00:13And I'm your cohost, Abigail Garofalo.
Erin Garrett: 00:15And today, we are here with Amy Lefringhouse, who is an Extension Educator in natural resources, environment, and energy. And we are gonna be talking about nature at night. So welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us. And welcome, Amy.
Erin Garrett: 00:29Oh, thank you.
Erin Garrett: 00:30So today, we're talking all about nature at night. So I know many of us like to be outside during the daytime, hike, experience nature, explore, but why should we experience nature at night?
Amy Lefringhouse: 00:42Great question. I love this question. Don't count out your nighttime when it comes to exploring. Every single season has a different, quote, night. It could be long winter nights where they're cold and clear, and it could be your late sunsets in summer where you're staying up late and looking for all different kinds of things. There's always something to discover. Most of our Illinois wildlife or Illinois mammals, over 60% of them are actually nocturnal. So there's lots of different things that you might see.
Amy Lefringhouse: 01:16Your senses are heightened at night. The sound is louder at night. The temperatures are cooler at night. And once your eyes adjust, you can actually see see further than what you what you think you can. The human eye actually adapts to the dark after a few minutes. But if you're out there for a half hour, you can actually see your your eye is 600 times more sensitive at that point in time than when you first turn off the light or if you first walk out into the dark. So we actually have better senses than we actually think we do when we're out there in the dark once you get used to it.
Abigail Garofalo: 01:58That's crazy. I feel like yeah. Like, right before I go to bed when I turn all of the lights, I'm like, oh, no. Like, I I haven't sat here. What am I looking at? But then, like, yeah, you wake up in the middle of the night, you're like, I can see here. This is the same. So, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Amy Lefringhouse: 02:13Exactly. Just patience with yourself and kind of, you know, just adjusting to that and giving yourself that time to adjust. You'll be able to see a lot more things.
Abigail Garofalo: 02:21Yeah. Well, what kinds of things are we looking for at night? What are the wildlife doing and that we're seeing?
Amy Lefringhouse: 02:27So there there are a lot of processes that are happening at night when it comes to wildlife and plants. So they're doing a lot of the same things that they do during the day. You know? They're finding their food. They're finding mates. They're hiding from predators. That difference in between animals that are using the day, which are diurnal animals, and those that are using the nighttime for activity, it allows them to occupy the same space, maybe even hunting some of the same things for food, that switchover actually allows them to live in the same areas.
Amy Lefringhouse: 03:09When it comes to migration, especially birds, migration is happening at night. When I was, you know, kind of looking up some information about this, the U of I researchers have actually used vocalizations to try to attract birds to wetland areas. And when they were setting up the study, they were thinking about that migration pattern, the nighttime migration pattern. So they used bird vocalizations to try to attract some wetland birds to these wetland restoration sites. So I thought that was really interesting. They were just thinking about those patterns that that birds use when they're migrating in the evening time. Obviously, we're talking about nocturnal animals. So they have these special features and adaptations. Of course, something that you learned, you know, way back in in early science, but they have large large eyes gathering more light. The moths even have special sensors that can sense the presence of bats and kind of avoid being prey. Bats, of course, we've heard those heard about bats a long time about how they can echolocate with that high pitched noise and finding their prey. So there's lots of different adaptations that these critters have evolved to to be better survivors at nighttime.
Erin Garrett: 04:40Awesome. I had never thought about birds migrating at night, which now sounds really obvious that they do, but that's really cool to to learn a little bit more about that because, you know, obviously, if we're not outside paying attention, you know, we don't know that that's happening. So
Amy Lefringhouse: 04:55Right. That's actually that's the thing most of them migrate at night. Right? Is that the standard?
Amy Lefringhouse: 05:01Yeah. And I know a lot of hunters and things like that, they they really look at the moon phases. If there's a full moon, they know that there could be a you know, a big migration that evening and hopefully, you know, looking for a good hunt, I guess, the next early morning. So, yeah.
Abigail Garofalo: 05:19Interesting.
Erin Garrett: 05:21All right. So we know a little bit more about what is happening at night, but if we are out experiencing nature at nighttime, what are some things that we could expect to see and especially sounds? What are some things that we could expect to hear?
Amy Lefringhouse: 05:35Yeah. The the sequence of sounds, depending on the season, I guess, typically follow a pattern. If you go out to a specific site over and over again, you're kind of, you know, get in tune with the pattern and the sequence that that is happening. I have a little bit of a observational story that I wanted to read just from some of my observations being outside. So I'll read this to you, and then I'll just kind of stop and talk about some of the of the critters that I'm talking about in this story. So I shall begin here.
Amy Lefringhouse: 06:13So a myriad of songbirds sound their final goodbyes to each and other and to the day. As I walk along the field edge, the chortle of a dominant gobbler bellows out from the top of a nearby creek sycamore tree. At 08:11PM, the barred owl announces the official beginning of night with its unmistakable questioning call. Upon hearing the massive bird's throaty voice, area coyotes yip, whine, and cackle to collect collectively pinpoint each other's locations and to make their plans for the night. For a full twenty seconds, the coyotes cry out and then turn abruptly silent as they become ghosts in the night. The dominant gobbler again bellows out its chortle. In the distance, a lonesome dove sounds off with its even more lonesome call.
Amy Lefringhouse: 07:02As I near the pond, the voices of the sleepy songbirds are drowned out by the songs of a handful of tree frogs and a pond full of cricket frogs. Cricket frogs, if you've ever heard, sound like marbles clacking together. A single bullfrog calls out from somewhere across the pond. The gobbler again chortles from his his lofty perch. Dusk has now finally arrived. Stars and a few planets have suddenly and magically appeared in the ever darkening sky. The persistence of the gobbler is apparently rewarded. Several turkey hens can be heard helicoptering into the sycamore tops along the creek. Their clumsy crash landings marked by nervous chirps and broken branches. As I walk away from the pond, the musical melodies from the orchestra of frogs fade away.
Amy Lefringhouse: 07:50A lone whippoorwill calls out for its mate. And I wanted to see I might I'm gonna try to play this whippoorwill song. Hopefully, you guys can hear this. But whippoorwills, you'll hear it. When you hear this, you'll know what I'm talking about, and you'll recognize what I'm hearing. But I wanna talk a little bit more about whippoorwills. Well, I did some research about whippoorwills, and, actually, they're part of the nightjar family of birds. We have three confirmed breeding species of nightjars in Illinois. This includes the whippoorwills. It includes the chuck-will's-widow, which is down in southern Illinois, Erin, where you're at, and the night the nighthawk.
Amy Lefringhouse: 08:45So these birds, these nightjars feed at dusk dawn and at night. They're aerial insectivores, which I thought was really cool. They and they're also sallying feed feeders, which sallying means they are catching the bugs in the air, but they're bringing them back to their perch and eating them on their perch versus hawking, which is hawking is when birds are flying around, and they'll catch the insect in the air, but they'll eat while they're still flying. And their favorite food are moths. So maybe because they're getting, like, larger insects or something like that.
Amy Lefringhouse: 09:20They're a medium sized bird, so a a a, you know, larger than a little a tiny songbird. So they're they're sallying. They go out, catch it, bring it back to their perch, and eat on their perch. They have large eyes, obviously adapted for that night hunting, but they are decreasing in in numbers. And U of I researchers are are trying to figure out why this might happen this might be happening. They're studying the life cycles, the diets. They know that their favorite food is are maw food are moths. They know that with a brighter moonlight and also with a higher moon up in the sky, like the altitude of the moon up in the sky, that's when they are the most active, which makes sense. They can see better. They like the forest edges, so they'll be within the forest area, but they hunt out there where it's kind of open. And they were hypothesizing that it was probably because the insects are backlit so they can see out into that, you know, open area.
Abigail Garofalo: 10:26Oh, that goes along with, like, the bigger, brighter moon as well. Like, having a brighter moon and having that open field, they're allowed to like, they that that gives that backlight effect even more strongly.
Amy Lefringhouse: 10:38Yeah.
Abigail Garofalo: 10:38Interesting.
Amy Lefringhouse: 10:38Isn't that cool? That's really
Abigail Garofalo: 10:40So cool. Yeah. Love that.
Amy Lefringhouse: 10:42Me too. They also they also found that so they love those forest edges, but even, like, low level human development, even, like, just a little bit of a development nearby really significantly decreases the abundance of birds in those areas. So these guys, you know, it really shows the importance of moth populations. And, you know, researching these birds really shows the importance of, you know, habitat protection and lower level human activity in certain areas where these where these whippoorwills are are existing and living. So I thought that was interesting. You know, I just take for granted that I've heard whippoorwills in the back of you know, in the background when I'm outside at night.
Amy Lefringhouse: 11:30So so back to my story. So we have the whippoorwills are calling out at 08:48PM. The the gobbler bellows out its final chortle of the day, and there's an exception of an occasional sound of a spring peeper. The farm is now silent. All around me, though unseen and unheard, the fur bearing creatures of the night must be taking their reign. Like phantoms, the foxes and bobcats begin their individual hunts for prey. The beaver, otter, and muskrat busy themselves in nest building or tree felling. The skunk, possum, and raccoons scurry about foraging for food and mischief, all silent at this point, mere phantoms of the night.
Amy Lefringhouse: 12:13So furbearing mammals, like your coyote, bobcat, everything that I just mentioned, they're another segment of critters that use the night, you know, for their hunting activities. The DNR, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, each year since 1981, so over forty years, they perform furbearing surveys, consist of about 40 routes, about a thousand miles. They run, biologists run. They note the species that they observe. It's interesting because the trends say that coyotes and the raccoon population are increasing. In fact, when they started the surveys, you could find one raccoon every two miles. And now it's actually over three. It's three and a half raccoons per two miles.
Abigail Garofalo: 13:06Don't forget that half raccoon.
Amy Lefringhouse: 13:07Exactly. 3.55.
Abigail Garofalo: 13:10Oh.
Amy Lefringhouse: 13:11But unfortunately, foxes, both the gray and the red box, are are in a decline. They haven't been seeing those as much since they began those surveys. So obviously, that data helps, you know, wildlife officials set harvest regulations, seasons, you know, and just keeping an eye on those populations.
Amy Lefringhouse: 13:31So here we go back to our story. So stationary now, the night silence is broken by a fluttering rustling sound. Is it perhaps a bat fluttering in its chaotic flight pattern above me, or perhaps a field mouse seeking and finding a morsel of food or simply a moth littering in the tall grass to my left? The answer, I shall never know. Silence is the dominant feature of this spring night. It is periodically broken by the hose and snorts of grazing white tailed deer, the padded hop of a cotton tailed rabbit, or the call or chatter of one of the previously mentioned creatures. A pair of great horned owls call to each other across the field in the three three o'clock hour. My question is not who, get it, but where?
Abigail Garofalo: 14:17Hey. We get it.
Amy Lefringhouse: 14:19Where are the sounds of your owl cousins on the farm? The barred owl, the screech owl. 04:30AM, and the songbirds yawn and begin their chatter and sing. Shortly thereafter, my old friend, the dominant gobbler, bellows out its first chortle of the day. Chirps and songs and hoots and chortles fill the final moments of night. With the first of the sun's rays, a pileated woodpecker machine guns a hollow tree, and the night hours officially end. So that's kind of my fun, like, little story about my experience outdoors.
Abigail Garofalo: 14:55Yeah. So where did you write that, or did that like, where did that come? It was so beautiful.
Amy Lefringhouse: 15:00It's just kind of like a journal of an outdoor experience. You know, just having the patience to just kinda sit around and listen and note and take down what you're hearing and what you're maybe feeling, smelling, you know, that sort of thing. And then going out really early, you know, in the early morning hours just to see what's what's happening in that the waking hours of the day. Just a really, really neat experience.
Abigail Garofalo: 15:30Yeah. I feel like we heard about so much, so so many really good descriptions. We heard owls, mammals, bats, bats are mammals, and other birds and insects. What about insects? We didn't really hear about those.
Amy Lefringhouse: 15:49So obviously, we're not I mean, maybe a buzz flying by your ear or a pesky little mosquito, but you can't hear a lot of your insects. But one of the most celebrated insects of the summertime is your fireflies. We do
Abigail Garofalo: 16:04Now wait. Do you say firefly or lightning bug?
Amy Lefringhouse: 16:07Well I don't know. I think I now that I've, you know, read and worked in the field, I say firefly, but growing up, lightning bug. Lightning.
Abigail Garofalo: 16:15What about you, Erin?
Erin Garrett: 16:18Firefly now used to be lightning bug.
Abigail Garofalo: 16:20There we go. There we go.
Amy Lefringhouse: 16:22We do have 20 species in Illinois. The most common commonly seen in Illinois is your big dipper. They have that j, you know, fight or fight flight pattern and flash pattern.
Amy Lefringhouse: 16:40But also insects like moths there. I mean, and Erin, you could have a a whole another podcast about moths. I know you celebrate moths in in festivals in southern Illinois.
Erin Garrett: 16:53Yes. We do. Yes. We do. I I was gonna say too, we have a cypress firefly in southern Illinois that is only found in cypress swamps, which is what we have. And they have a really cool blink pattern where they'll blink. I can't remember how many times, about five times, and then they do like a swoop at the end. And it's really fun to see. And I didn't know that fireflies have different colors too. Like, the different species blink different colors. So it's really interesting to learn more about them. I did, like, a deep dive last year on fireflies. It's really cool. It's definitely something to pay attention to and, like, look for different blink patterns, because you might find or in different colors too. But, yes, also, moths. So many moths in southern Illinois across the state, but, like, we are in I'm in a great place to see moths.
Amy Lefringhouse: 17:47So many moths. So many moths. We in Illinois, we have 2,000 species of butterflies and moths. Okay? So ton of species of butterflies and moths. Of that, only 150 are the butterfly are are are butterflies. The rest, 1,850 species are moths. So we have a ton of moths here in Illinois.
Abigail Garofalo: 18:14I was always a little confused about the difference between a butterfly and a moth. Is it purely just like body? Is there like behavioral shapes? Is there an official scientific difference? Like, what is the thought process? Do you know?
Amy Lefringhouse: 18:29Well, I have been taught that there's a few different there's a few different ways that you can tell a wing resting wing shape, I guess, is that how you call that? Erin? You might know.
Erin Garrett: 18:43Position, resting wing position, open or closed is what I would say.
Amy Lefringhouse: 18:46A lot of times your moth antennae have, like, feathered or, yeah, feathery type, oh, texture, I guess, on their antenna. Butterfly mostly has, like, a bulb at the end, long Those are a couple of the the main differences that I know. Erin, you might know more than I do.
Erin Garrett: 19:09I mean, there's more, but those are kind of like in general. And then typically, you know, butterflies are active in the day and moths are active at night. Although, you know, some moths are active in the day too. We see them out. So that's not, like, the hard and fast rule. But
Amy Lefringhouse: 19:26Cool.
Abigail Garofalo: 19:26Well, sorry for throwing you something out of left field. I just was like I was like, oh, what is different, so. Thank you for clarifying.
Amy Lefringhouse: 19:34I love the curiosity. So, yeah, moths can be moths can you can study moths till your heart's desire. We have lots of different color patterns, lots of different cool plant associations too. Our sphinx moths are pollinators of our evening primroses here in Illinois. So yeah, again, moths a great indicator species. If you don't have the plants that they pollinate or feed on, then you're not gonna have moths around. So definitely pay attention to those species. Yeah.
Erin Garrett: 20:13Moths are also something that if you because what I'm thinking about in the background, I love being outside, but at nighttime, I don't wanna get eaten by mosquitoes. So I will go outside at night, but moths, I like watching from inside my house with the lights on because we'll get the moths that come to the windows. Right? Or if we have a light outside, then we can watch them. But we've had, like, Luna moths come that are you hear a little tap on the window, it's a big thud.
Abigail Garofalo: 20:38Oh, I was just gonna say, little gentle tap of the chonky Luna moth.
Erin Garrett: 20:44And run and see the the beautiful green Luna moth, like, outside. It's amazing if you're just aware what you can see. Or I saw a moth when I went out to in the morning, it was on the garage and, like, right where I walked, and it just just paying attention. It's it's just amazing.
Amy Lefringhouse: 21:01Right. I think that's about that's, like, the key to all observation in nature, right, is that paying attention. And when you dive deep into a subject, they're there. Right? When you're trying to buy a new car and you want a specific car, you're like, I see those cars everywhere. You know? And when it's in nature, you're like, oh, I really wanna know or see more fireflies or see different types of fireflies than you're looking at or different types of moths you're looking and seeing a lot more when you're observing that closely. So so yeah.
Erin Garrett: 21:35So if you wanna take that a step further, you wanna get off your couch, unlike me, who's just watching the moths that come to the windows. What can we do to experience a night adventure? Are there places that we or, like, events that are happening or other activities that we can do to try to observe nature outside?
Amy Lefringhouse: 21:51Yeah. There I think I think one thing that you can do to experience nature, you know, all around our state, there are nature centers and nature areas that are having, you know, hosting events where they're going to lead you through a nighttime adventure. Look for, you know, night hikes, full moon hikes, owl prowls, stargazing. All of those activities are really neat for those, you know, first timers or beginners that wanna go out with someone that's gonna, you know, show them all the the magical things that are happening at night. Can also do some, you know, just in your backyard, do it yourself types of things. There are eye shine activities if you're going to, you know, walk out and kind of put your flashlight up on your head and look for spider eyes. Spider eyes will reflect back to you so you could see that in nature.
Abigail Garofalo: 22:44Sorry. All of us, we're on video right now for you podcast listeners, and both Erin and I's face was like, spider eyes. Interesting. Like, we did not know that about spiders. That was very cool.
Amy Lefringhouse: 22:58Yes. And all those little bitty little bitty sparkles can be spider eyes looking back at you. So that's a really, really kind of
Abigail Garofalo: 23:05I'm not going to be telling my partner that because he would be horrified. But I love it. So
Amy Lefringhouse: 23:15Yes. Well and obviously, you can stay inside, Erin.
Erin Garrett: 23:22I go outside too. I promise.
Abigail Garofalo: 23:26So, Erin's probably outside more than I am. So if y'all listening or like, Erin, she needs to get out more. Like, no. I'm the creature comfort person in in this podcast podcast today.
Amy Lefringhouse: 23:36So well, then I'll I'll say to you, Abigail, camera traps or trail cameras are a real cool way to see some things that you don't get to see outside, and you don't I mean, you're not outside the whole entire time, but you can kind of get a feel for what's out there and get pictures of things that, you know, you I mean, mammals will not we're not going walk through the woods and see, you know, bobcat, like, just chilling out right next to the trail. But with a camera trap or a trail camera, you might be able to see those things on your property or so that's kind of a neat thing to do. I had a group near me have a light sheeting event for moths where, you know, you could put a light up against a white sheet and attract moths. Sometimes they'll sit real still and you can get lots of pictures of different types of moths. So that's kind of some cool things.
Amy Lefringhouse: 24:31One thing I do want to talk about that the Illinois Natural History Survey has, if you're really into owls and nightjars like we were talking about the whippoorwill, they have a MOON program. It's a community science program where they are counting owls and counting night jars based on calls. It's a volunteer program. They realized in 2008 that the bird breeding survey, the Christmas bird count, the spring bird count didn't catch those nocturnal birds. So they implemented this MOON program. So you drive a short route. You get out. You listen for these birds. You kind of learn their calls, obviously, before you go out there. And there's some training websites. But it's called the MOON Program. The website is moon.inhs.illinois.edu. So if you're interested to do some more, you know, nighttime activities and and contribute to research that the U of I is doing, please check that out.
Abigail Garofalo: 25:40That's awesome. I'm really excited to see some some spider eyes. I do have a question though. So I live in Cook County near Chicago, big city, lots of street lights. You know you know even if you fly over Chicago you're like oh that's Chicago I can see the the grid pattern and everything And even in my neighborhood, I live in a suburb, there's still a lot of street lights. And so I see bats flying around and, you know, I hear about these special adaptations for low light for animals, but, you know, do these lights, the street lights and everything have an effect on these nocturnal animals?
Amy Lefringhouse: 26:16Good question. Good question. There are researchers that are looking at the effects of artificial light on nocturnal animals and nocturnal critters. So in the Chicago area where you are, Abigail, they did some field studies and they did some lab studies about what level of light affects the behavior of nocturnal animals. And what they found was that there is a level called six lux, which is like a measurement term of illumination. In comparison, your kitchen lighting typically is 500 lux. Okay? At six lux, though, that is what that is the level that they found that reduces nocturnal activity and nocturnal behavior. Once they
Abigail Garofalo: 27:07It's not very high.
Amy Lefringhouse: 27:09It's not very high. Just a little tiny bit of light. So once they figured that out, then they mapped it over Chicago, and they looked at Chicago's green spaces and what the level of lighting was at the within those green spaces. So they took out light meters and things like that. And they found that 30 per 36% of the green space in the Chicago area was above that lighting level. So it has so we are these are green spaces where we're trying to, you know, give refuge to some of these wildlife, but some of that green space is is too bright for some of our nocturnal friends our nocturnal critters. So just in your own, I guess, personal world, think or if you're a business owner, a homeowner, even if you're a community advocate, think about, you know, the lighting that you have at your home. There could be ways that you could reduce your outdoor lighting just in general. Just reduce the number of lights you have. Dim dimmer switches or timer switches can help too. So you're not lighting up all night long. You're only lighting up a specific period of time. Shields over the tops of your light. So we could go on and on and on about live light pollution, but the downward cast light doesn't spread out as much. So that helps too. So just thinking about, you know, your lighting around your home or your business can help those critters out, you know, in your day to day life.
Erin Garrett: 28:41I know I've also heard because obviously other insects will are attracted to the light. Right? And I've also heard that switching out your white light for a yellow light bulb can reduce the attraction that insects have to it they don't come to it the same way that a white light does. Right. So if you do really wanna have a light on all night or have a motion sensor light, if you replace it with a yellow bulb, it can be better for insects. And then you won't have a pile of dead bugs right outside your door too, which I don't know.
Abigail Garofalo: 29:13I don't know if anyone's a fan of that. I know I was like, like, naturalists, not naturalists, anti nature people. I don't think anyone wants a pile of dead bugs.
Amy Lefringhouse: 29:22Exactly. Exactly. Well, if you think about it too, your what? Your big bug blue light, you know, the blue lights that they or bug zappers. I don't know if they have those around anymore, but those are blue lights. And so they are attracting those bugs. So just thinking about your own just your own lights, changing that into that warm that warm color isn't going to attract as many. So
Erin Garrett: 29:48Well, thanks so much, Amy, for sharing your knowledge on nature at night. I learned a lot of new things. I hope everyone listening did today. Now it's time for our special spotlight, and this is the point in our show where we're gonna shine a spotlight on something cool that we saw in nature this month, and we encourage you to think about something cool that you've seen in nature too. So, Abigail, I'm gonna turn over and ask you what your special spotlight.
Abigail Garofalo: 30:16Thank you. I almost wasn't ready. I was I was this close. But I was thinking about this. So I have just a teeny tiny story to tell you. When I was in college, I took a class with a professor who we were doing restoration. I didn't know much about birds. I've never been a bird person. Never ever. I'm not a birder with a capital b, not even a lowercase b. Never been me. So I we were driving and we're driving through all these, like, for a for a field trip and we're driving and I see all these black birds with red wings. And I'm like, those birds are really numerous. What are those? And so I asked my professor, I'm like, what are those black birds with red wings? And he goes, they're called red winged blackbirds. And now every time I see red wing blackbirds when they come out this time of year, when you hear their distinct sound, when they're they're they tend to swoop as well. I always just think of that time when I was like naive enough to ask my my all knowing college professor about what the name of the blackbirds with red wings were. So I'm excited to see the red winged blackbirds out and and hanging out and being attracted to the the the spaces that we have in my yard. So
Erin Garrett: 31:28I love that. Sometimes things are named how they look and it's very
Abigail Garofalo: 31:33Yeah, very obvious. Sometimes they're not though. Like that red bellied woodpecker, I feel like they're not enough red belly to be called a red belly. I'm just gonna throw it out there.
Erin Garrett: 31:43Alright, Amy.
Amy Lefringhouse: 31:46Oh, my turn.
Erin Garrett: 31:47Mhmm.
Amy Lefringhouse: 31:48Okay. Well, I I was fortunate enough this week last week, I think. We had a Master Naturalist class, and we were at a really cool restoration place that had prairie. It had wetland, and she had a ton of wood duck boxes. And when we were there, she monitored these wood duck boxes, like, you know, every day. It was daily. And she knew exactly when the wood ducks laid their eggs and how many days they incubated, when they were supposed to hatch, and then when they were supposed to jump. So wood ducks, you know, use these cavities as their nesting places. And once those babies are born, they jump out of the box and then waddle down to the water. So we were there on the day that wood duck babies jumped out of the box, and we got to see them. It was the most amazing thing. I mean, that's a life wonderful.
Abigail Garofalo: 32:47That's magical.
Amy Lefringhouse: 32:48It's a once in a lifetime thing. It was so amazing. And my mess our Master Naturalists got to see them too, so it was just a really cool experience.
Erin Garrett: 32:57That's awesome. I love that so much.
Abigail Garofalo: 33:02You did tell us you had a good story off. So we're That's worth it. So good one. Alright, Erin. You're up.
Erin Garrett: 33:11Well, I'm gonna round out our special spotlight with another bird observation. We're really just rounding it out.
Amy Lefringhouse: 33:18Right.
Erin Garrett: 33:19So Amy, you mentioned the nighthawk earlier in the episode, and I was fortunate enough during our Master Naturalist training last week that my colleague Kim, she found she heard a nighthawk. She's a birder. She heard it, and she got her scope out, was able to find it sleeping because it was in the daytime. Right? It was sleeping in a tree, and we were all able to get a really a view through her scope of that nighthawk, and that was the first time she had ever seen one. Actually seen it, not just heard it. So to me, that means that that doesn't happen that often. So I thought it was pretty special that we were able to get a get a glance at that nighthawk. So
Amy Lefringhouse: 34:02Yeah. Lifelister.
Abigail Garofalo: 34:04Yeah. I was just gonna say lifer. It's like the what is that? She must be a birder with a capital b. Yeah.
Erin Garrett: 34:15Awesome. Well, this has been another episode of the Spotlight on Natural Resources podcast. Thanks for joining us today, and make sure to check out next month's podcast where we chat with Abigail all about biodiversity.