Tag: #field-reporting — 33 segments on Living on Earth
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March 27, 2026:
BirdNote®: Meet the Tiniest Owl in the World
At just six inches tall, the desert-dwelling Elf Owl is the smallest known species of owl in the world. As BirdNote®’s Michael Stein reports, despite its tiny stature the Elf Owl is a fierce predator of crickets, scorpions, and mice.
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March 06, 2026:
The Frozen Creek
Living on Earth’s Don Lyman has been finding reptiles and amphibians since boyhood. This long winter took him back to a childhood memory of finding a bull frog swimming under the ice in what he calls “The Frozen Creek.”
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September 12, 2025:
A Tale of Two Turtles
Living on Earth’s Don Lyman is back in classrooms teaching biology as a substitute and incorporating his passion for herpetology wherever he can. But one unusual classroom turtle presented an identification puzzle, and a teaching moment that he recounts in his essay “A Tale of Two Turtles.”
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August 22, 2025:
Listening on Earth
Living on Earth Producer Sophia Pandelidis is living and working remotely from Greece and sent in the sounds of church bells and festive bouzouki music in a café on the island of Paros, which is in the Aegean Sea between Santorini and Mykonos.
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July 04, 2025:
Sight": Caribbean Reef Shark
Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender has photographed animals all over the world, including under the sea. He shared this observation from a dive in the Bahamas where he was photographing Caribbean reef sharks.
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June 06, 2025:
Listening on Earth
Living on Earth Producer Sophia Pandelidis is living and working remotely from Greece and sent in the sounds of church bells and festive bouzouki music in a café on the island of Paros, which is in the Aegean Sea between Santorini and Mykonos.
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May 23, 2025:
Listening on Earth: Cenzontle and Zocalo
This week’s “Listening on Earth” sounds come from listener Flynn Wendling, who shared the call of a mockingbird (or Cenzontle in Spanish) in Mexico that became his morning wake-up call; and from Living on Earth Producer Paloma Beltran, who visited Mexico City’s Zocalo and captured the sounds of a celebration of 700 years since the founding of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City.
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May 16, 2025:
Countermeasures"- Dunlin
On the placid saltpans of Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in coastal Massachusetts, the shorebirds known as dunlin are feeding. Then, just like that, they rise and fly in almost perfect unison to evade an intruder, Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender reports.
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May 02, 2025:
Listener Postcards
We asked you, our listeners, to submit snippets of the sounds around you. Here are a couple more of your submissions.
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April 11, 2025:
Listening on Earth
At Living on Earth we encourage listeners to share glimpses of their world through audio recording. We feature a collage of different audio recordings from across the country.
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February 28, 2025:
Mother and Son: Sea Otter Bonding
Mother sea otters spend a lot of time grooming their young pups. It’s a bonding experience as well as a matter of survival. Clean and well-groomed fur keeps these sea otters afloat on the coastal waters where they spend their entire lives. Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender narrates a precious scene of an attentive otter mom and her young pup.
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February 14, 2025:
The Silence"- Lava Tubes of Iceland
Escaping the noise of the world can be hard these days, but not impossible. Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender has stumbled upon silent sanctuaries in Iceland and beyond.
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January 17, 2025:
BirdNote®: Waxwing Nightlight
Waxwings were once believed to glow in the dark, and Pliny the Elder reported that their feathers were said to “shine like flames” in the dark forests of central Europe. That is, until one sixteenth-century Italian birder decided to take a closer look, says BirdNote®’s Mary McCann.
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December 27, 2024:
FaceTime: Bumblebees
What’s going on inside the tiny, fuzzy head of a bumblebee? Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence, Mark Seth Lender, says there might be much more going on than you may think.
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November 29, 2024:
Seal Island
The rocky coast of Maine is an ecological hotspot but to see a lot of its wildlife, you’ll have to venture out to sea. And that’s where Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence, Mark Seth Lender found himself not long ago.
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November 22, 2024:
Growing Shiitake Mushrooms in Your Own Backyard
With a few tools and a fresh log, you can grow delicious mushrooms in your backyard that will come back year after year. Hosts Jenni Doering and Aynsley O’Neill team up to inoculate a log with shiitake mushroom spawn.
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November 15, 2024:
BirdNote®: Great Tinamou
The jungles of Colombia are home to a bird with a haunting call. BirdNote’s Mary McCann reports.
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October 18, 2024:
Eagle!
Rise early in the morning and head out to a nearby national wildlife refuge, and you’ve got a good shot of being rewarded with the sights and sounds of all kinds of birds. And on this birdwatching trip, you might be watched back, Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender reports.
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October 18, 2024:
Journey to a Melting Glacier in Antarctica
Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica holds enough ice that its melting could raise sea levels worldwide by 2 feet, but it’s so remote that until recently no one had ever approached where it meets the sea. Elizabeth Rush was a writer-in-residence on board the first research icebreaker to visit Thwaites and chronicles the journey in her book The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth. She joined Living on Earth Host Steve Curwood to share the experience of witnessing the glacier’s unraveling and the crucial data the scientists on board unearthed.
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September 27, 2024:
Tree Swallow Funnel
One of the smallest and most agile migrating birds is the tree swallow. Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender marvels at how these little fliers gather in huge airborne displays as they prepare for the fall migration.
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May 10, 2024:
Wake! Up!: Paper Wasp
Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender aids a paper wasp trying to get outdoors.
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January 26, 2024:
In Defense of Little Foxes
Living on Earth Explorer in Residence, Mark Seth Lender, describes his internal conflict when a red fox who’s a welcome visitor to his backyard pursues a familiar squirrel.
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January 19, 2024:
Joe Manchin, 3rd Party Candidate?
A potential third-party presidential run by West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin could influence the outcome of the 2024 election. Inside Climate News reporter Phil McKenna is back on the campaign trail in New Hampshire with this report about Senator Manchin’s support of fossil fuels and the climate concerns of New Hampshire voters.
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October 20, 2023:
The Impala Imperative
Prey species have evolved many ways to confuse their predators, from a zebra’s stripes to an impala’s back side. Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence, Mark Seth Lender explains.
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September 22, 2023:
Wolf Song on the Rebound
For years, wolves were missing from Yellowstone National Park, leaving an eerie silence in the air. But now that the wolf population is recovering, the Park’s acoustic landscape is reviving. Reporter-in-Residence Jennifer Jerrett’s audio postcard brings us a harmonious chorus of howling wolves.
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July 28, 2023:
Slip-Sliding Away
River otters tend to avoid human contact, but Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender shares a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with the elusive creatures.
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July 21, 2023:
Midnight in the Everglades
Alligators have such gaping jaws you might wonder what they eat. For one group of researchers looking into this, the answers so far point to snails and amphibians like the giant salamanders known as amphiumas, rather than fish or hapless mammals that walk too close to swampy waters. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman spent a night in Florida’s Everglades with a team investigating this and shares his story.
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June 30, 2023:
Oh, Say Can You See?": Kingfisher on Long Island Sound
The fourth of July is a time for Americans to feast on hot dogs, veggie burgers and corn on the cob. But as Living on Earth’s Explorer in Residence Mark Seth Lender observers, the kingfisher has its own version of an Independence Day picnic.
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March 03, 2023:
Cliff Hanger
Along the east coast of the Falklands, an agile cormorant soars and dives among the cliffs. Living on Earth's Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender, reflects on the empire of this majestic but much-maligned bird.
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February 17, 2023:
Note on Emerging Science: Electric Honeybees
A recent study from the University of Bristol reveals how large insect swarms may affect the electrical charge of the atmosphere. Living on Earth’s Fern Alling explains the phenomenon and the findings.
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January 27, 2023:
Science Note: Hurricanes, Lizards, and Leafblowers
Hurricanes may act as a force of natural selection for Caribbean lizards, according to a study in the journal Nature. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman explains how scientists used leaf blowers to simulate hurricane-force winds and learn how the hardiest lizards hang on.
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January 27, 2023:
Listening on Earth: Coquí Chirps
Coquí frogs were heavily affected by Hurricane Maria, but within months of the storm, they could once again be heard making their iconic calls across the island. Living on Earth's Bobby Bascomb recorded these coquí noises in the mountains of Puerto Rico.
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January 06, 2023:
Midnight in the Everglades
Alligators have such gaping jaws you might wonder what they eat. For one group of researchers looking into this, the answers so far point to snails and amphibians like the giant salamanders known as amphiumas, rather than fish or hapless mammals that walk too close to swampy waters. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman spent a night in Florida’s Everglades with a team investigating this and shares his story.
