All Things Natural with Ed Kanze

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Into the brew of "All Things Natural" naturalist and writer Ed Kanze throws in a kitchen sink's worth of topical matter. One week he might write about how your beloved pet dog is really a wolf (the DNA doesn't lie), and the next contemplate the sex lives of trees or the lonely life of the bobcat. He writes the pieces not just for nature lovers, but also with the idea of attracting even those readers and listeners who wouldn't touch an American toad, slime mold, or magnificent bear dropping with a ten-foot pole. Sometimes the humor in "All Things Natural" is overt. Sometimes it's subtle. Either way, it's always there to enliven the proceedings.

  • 4 minutes 3 seconds
    The Marten Chronicles
    In the beginning I saw neither hide nor hair of the animal known as the American marten. Then I found a suspicious dropping, and then I glimpsed the animal in a video in my own backyard. Still, it took years to set eyes on my first wild marten. Hear here my chronicle.
    4 June 2015, 7:28 am
  • 5 minutes 2 seconds
    Say G'day To Songbirds
    Human music may well have been inspired by the music of birds. But where did birds get the idea? Recent research findings suggest that songbirds, also known as perching birds or passerines, trace their ancestry to the land of kangaroos.
    28 May 2015, 7:24 am
  • 4 minutes 55 seconds
    A Stranger On The Lawn
    Life brings its humbling moments. For me, a leader of bird walks, one came recently when a sparrow turned up, and I had no idea what kind it was. What to do? I confessed my ignorance and invited my companions to peer through binoculars and join me in solving the mystery at hand.
    22 May 2015, 5:42 am
  • 3 minutes 41 seconds
    When Butterflies Fly Free
    Spring brings the eyes a feast of color, and after a long, black-and-white winter, they're hungry for it. Some of the finest color of the season comes to us on the wings of butterflies. Listen and meet the mourning cloak, the comma, and the spring azure.
    18 May 2015, 10:32 am
  • 5 minutes 1 second
    The Day I Got A Black Eye From A Blue Crab
    Have you ever injured yourself by accident, felt stupid afterward, and found yourself the brunt of jokes? I have. My story involves a crowd of kids and a very large and menacing blue crab. Hear it here.
    8 May 2015, 6:17 am
  • 4 minutes 4 seconds
    Bugged By Caddisflies
    Believe it or not, there are common insects that build armor around themselves like turtles grow shells. As larvae they live in streams, ponds, and lakes and are known as caddisflies.
    8 May 2015, 6:14 am
  • 4 minutes 15 seconds
    Bluebirds Shop Around
    Build a bird house for bluebirds and they will come, or not, depending on intangibles known only to the birds. In our yard in the Adirondacks we've created a virtual country club for bluebirds, yet still the birds tend to come, survey the real estate, and move on. Why? Listen and join me in wondering why.
    24 April 2015, 11:18 am
  • 4 minutes 51 seconds
    The Bursting of the Buds
    In the Adirondacks and throughout most of eastern North America, we know spring has arrived when the red maple buds pop. Did you know that some red maples are girls and some are boys, and that you can tell the two apart from a car speeding along the highway? Here hear the details.
    17 April 2015, 10:30 am
  • 4 minutes 8 seconds
    The Marsupial Habit
    Riddle: What makes a marsupial a marsupial? Hint: it has little or nothing to do whether the animal has a marsupium, or pouch, for carrying its young. In fact, two mammals that have pouches for carrying young are not considered marsupials. Confused? Listen and join in on the confusion.
    10 April 2015, 6:09 am
  • 5 minutes 32 seconds
    Buck Tooth, Pride of The Beavers
    'All Things Natural' Celebrates 100th Episode! Listen here as Mr. Buck Tooth, "Rodent of the Year," accepts his honor at a meeting of the American Association of Gnawing Rodents.
    3 April 2015, 6:37 am
  • 5 minutes 14 seconds
    Mite Versus Right
    Pets bring us joy and the pleasures of companionship. And sometimes they bring us pain. Listen to a horror story of a house---my house---invaded by hordes of hungry mites.
    25 March 2015, 10:40 am
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