News stories tagged with "nature"

(05/18/12) Dr. Alexander Schreiber studies change--the metamorphosis of amphibians and flatfish. His St. Lawrence University biology lab teems with frogs and fish in various stages of development.

His enthusiasm for his subject sends him off campus to local grade schools. And at SLU, it attracts even English majors like our intern, Roger Miller. Schreiber told Roger he just never stopped being a kid.

Roger Miller is a senior at St. Lawrence University. He's worked as an intern in our news and web departments for the last couple of years. We'll miss him, and wish him well after graduation this weekend. more

(05/17/12) During the last Ice Age North America was home to many varieties of "super-sized" mammals, megafauna. Giant beaver, 'possums, bear, sloths and other creatures joined the more familair wooly mammoth in the land bridge migration. Dr Curt Stager and Martha Foley look at the question, "Why so big?"

(05/10/12) Over the last several days, much of the North Country has been virtually blanketed with small orangey-red butterflies.

They look like monarchs, but they're not. They're a species called Red Admirals, or Vanessa Atalanta. Red Admirals are native to this area, and some will settle here for the summer. Their caterpillars eat nettles so they're not a danger to crops. But we don't usually see this many, and they don't usually pass through this early in the year. more

(05/09/12) The Adirondacks' largest environmental advocacy group is pushing for an overhaul of the rules that have guided development in the Park for 40 years. The Adirondack Council is calling for policy reform that would rehone the mission of the Adirondack Park Agency, and strengthen and clarify key portions of the law the agency works under.

John Sheehan is communications director of the Council, which has offices in Elizabethtown and Albany. He sat down with Martha Foley recently to talk in-depth about the effort and about the evolution of the environmental movement in the park.

(04/26/12) Join Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley for a discussion about foxes--their homes, their diets and other fox facts.

(04/19/12) Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss the varieties and habits of American robins. There are half a dozen different kinds, including albinos. How do they arrive so early in the spring? Sometimes it's because they never leave.

(04/05/12) The first warm, rainy night of spring is the best time to spot this amphibian, while they migrate to forest pools for mating. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss this northern forest native and its curious boreal nuptials.

(03/27/12) NCPR's Natural Selections team, Paul Smith's College naturalist Dr. Curt Stager and news director Martha Foley, talks with callers about the unusual weather this spring, what they have observed, and what it might mean for wildlife, crops, gardens and forests for the rest of the year.

(03/27/12) The mild winter and early spring are reflected in some of the most unusual reports in the 15-year history of the Great Backyard Bird Count -- a citizen science project that was conducted around North America for four days last month. Jeff Bolsinger is a bird biologist at Fort Drum. Todd Moe caught up with him by phone on his day off as he hiked through the Indian Creek Nature Center, near Canton, looking for early birds.

(03/22/12) How you react to tickling depends on who is doing the tickling. Martha Foley and Curt Stager return to their continuing conversation on this sensitive social topic.