Help power the National Parks Traveler’s coverage of national parks and protected areas.
This week’s show is going to the birds. Counting, birds, that is, what with the 121st Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count officially kicking off Monday and running through January 5.
We sat down with Geoff LeBaron, who long has overseen the annual count for the National Audubon Society, to discuss the program. Did you know, for instance, that the predecessor of this annual celebration of birds was actually a hunting competition to see how many birds could be killed?
:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:22 Sieur de Monts - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
1:55 WildTribute.com promotion
2:20 Western National Parks Association promotion
2:44 Washington’s National Park Fund promotion
3:23 Discussing the 121st Audubon Christmas Bird Count with Director Geoff LeBaron
21:48 Whispering Winds - Grant Geissman - Sounds of the Caribbean
22:06 National Parks Traveler promotion
22:19 Grand Teton National Park Foundation promotion
22:50 Friends of Acadia promotion
23:17 North Cascades Institute promotion
23:35 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation promotion
24:00 Our discussion with Geoff LeBaron about the Christmas Bird Count continues
42:53 Blue Mist - Randy Petersen - The Sounds of Shenandoah
43:53 Episode Closing
44:19 Orange Tree Productions promotion
44:55 Splitbeard Productions
45:07 National Parks Traveler footer
Have you ever closely inspected the landscape when you’re touring the National Park System, particularly in the West? You never know what you might find.
Back in 2010 a 7-year-old attending a Junior Ranger program at Badlands National Park spied a partially exposed fossil that turned out to be the skull of a 32-million-year-old saber-toothed cat.
If you’ve ever visited Petrified Forest National Park you’ve no doubt marveled over the colorful fossilized tree trunks. There are also fossilized trees on the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, but nowhere near as colorful.
Wolverines, the largest land-dwelling members of the weasel family, once roamed across the northern tier of the United States, and as far south as New Mexico in the Rockies and southern California in the Sierra Nevada range. But after more than a century of trapping and habitat loss, wolverines in the lower 48 today exist only as small, fragmented populations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and northeast Oregon.
Spur a discussion about traveling to a national park for a vacation and odds are that it will revolve around getting out into nature, looking for wildlife, perhaps honing your photography skills, or marveling at incredible vistas.
Will the discussion include destinations that portray aspects of the country’s history, or cultural melting pot?
Tens of millions of people in the United States will be able to witness a Total Solar Eclipse on Monday as the rare astronomical event cuts a path from Texas to Maine, up to 122 miles wide in some spots. This is a great opportunity to see the exact moment when the moon fully blocks the sun, creating a blazing corona visible to those observing from the center line of totality.
With March madness down to the Sweet 16, and Opening Day of Major League Baseball having arrived, we’re going to take a break this week and dive into our podcast archives for this week’s show.
This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. My NCAA bracket was busted the very first day, and while the Yankees won their opening day game against the Houston Astros, I don’t think they’ll go undefeated this year.
The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.
This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.
You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.
So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.
Comments
It was the 1976 bird count and we hiked TRR with a Colorado State University professor who was studying Ptarmagin. it was hard to stand in the wind but we did see Ptarmigan but got no picture. So 2 weeks later we drove to Guenella Pass where we saw Ptarmigans just outside the car.
Dear Kurt,
I am a fan of your podcasts. You do a great job covering the national parks and the issues concerning them. However, I am disappointed that you would post an image of a snowy owl that clearly has been baited. Baiting owls for photography is an abhorrent practice. It is obviously bad for the mice. It is also bad for the owls. They can become habituated and potentially sickened if the mouse happens to be diseased. There are thousands of snowy owl images available. I strongly encourage you to select another image and replace the one that is currently marring your website and standing in stark contrast to what you proclaim to support.
Sincerely,
Greg Lessard
[email protected]
Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Greg. Being a writer, not a wildlife photographer, I wasn't even aware of the practice. We'll work on getting another shot.