I found some audio podcasts of interviews with Doug that you can listed to as a teaser to his talk.  You can listen to the first in the series here: Interview with Doug Tallamy, Part 1  The podcasts are short, about 1o minutes each and there are 5 in the series.

To listen to the others, visit the Timber Press page (scroll down towards the bottom of the page)

For more Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy programs and field trips, visit our website.

Nonetheless, Episode #17 is all about our most common toad here in Loudoun, the American Toad – some pretty cool facts to learn about these backyard visitors.

They breed through March and April so this time of year you can see them in shallow ponds and as long as you don’t plan to record them, you’ll likely hear them trill.

I’ll continue to try to get a recording but in the meantime, here are some recordings by others of our American Toad.

Source for much of the material for this podcast was found on The Animal Diversity Web – a great source of animal information!

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

Groundhogs play an important role in our environment. Their abandoned burrows serve as homes for other animals like raccoons, skunks, foxes and opossums; and their digging helps loosen up soils so water can be better absorbed into the earth. 

They also can help with weeding the garden as shown in this picture where our young groundhog is shown eating the dreaded Bindweed – good groundhog! 

Human conflicts with groundhogs often result from groundhogs getting into vegetable gardens. To help with that and other issues, here is a Groundhog Solutions tip sheet from the Fund for Animals that has a lot of great ideas.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

We’ve just completed a week long set of nature classes and workshops with Mike that took us from Ashburn to Leesburg to the Lost Corner of Lucketts and out to the Blue Ridge and in this interview Mike talks a bit about these interesting spots in nature. In the photo shown here, Mike and one of the participants of our Spring Pools Institute prepare to measure the length of one of the larger vernal pools we found in Ashburn.

If you’ve heard a lot of frogs calling in an area, or especially if you’ve come across a neat seasonal pool, please contact me, Nicole Hamilton, at nhamilton@loudounwildlife.org and we’ll see about checking it out. These pools can be large, like the one shown above, or as small as just a few feet in diameter.

For those interested in helping us identify and explore these great wetlands around Loudoun, you can contact me or check out our Loudoun Amphibian Monitoring Program. Large or small, we’re interested in finding more of these interesting wetlands across Loudoun and seeing which species are using them, and we could really use more volunteers around Loudoun helping with that. This is another great way to explore nature in Loudoun.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

January is the breeding season for foxes so in this podcast we talk about their breeding behaviors, use of dens, life cycle and foods that they enjoy as well as what to do if you are so lucky as to have a fox den in your neighborhood.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

The Eastern Screech Owl has taken to suburban and urban landscapes and if we don’t clean up our woods, there’s a good chance that screech owls will take up residence. As we head into January listen for their courtship calls.

The photo shown here is of a screech owl peering out of a nestbox hole. This is the original box that I built which was well used but has now been replaced since after about seven years, the floor rotted out. We’ll see how the store bought box measures up.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

Curious about what a Screech Owl sounds like? Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology has a sound recording that you can listen to….it’s simply trilling (heh heh): http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Eastern_Screech-Owl.html

Flying squirrels – yes they do exist!  In this episode we talk about their habits and habitats as well as how to attract them to a tree where you can watch them and enjoy the show!

The photo above was taken by Michele Morrow at one of her feeders.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).

In this episode we are joined by Spring Ligi and Joe Coleman to talk about the Loudoun Bird Atlas Project that we just launched.  This is a significant endeavor, collecting data on more than 295 bird species over the course of the next four years to find out where the birds are breeding and over wintering. Having this data will provide excellent insights into bird habitats and priorities for conservation.

You can read more about our Bird Atlas Project here. As project materials are produced over the coming months, we’ll add them to the web page so you can take a look at the map of Loudoun with the count blocks, download data collection sheets and more.

The Birds of Loudoun checklist, which was completed as a first step in this project, can be downloaded here. It’s a great tool to take into the field to keep track of the diversity of species that you come across.

To listen to this episode, click the play button at the top of this post and it will play now or Right Click Here to Download (select “Save as Target”).