Natural History Stories

Mary Austin - The Land of Little Rain: The Land of Little Rain, Water Trails of the Ceriso, The Scavengers

Welcome to Natural History Stories - a podcast of classic writings on natural history and nature observation. Our second book is the Mary Austin collection, "The Land of Little Rain", published in 1903.  This episode contains the chapters, The Land of Little Rain, Water Trails of the Ceriso, and The Scavengers.  In these writings, there are outdated or regional common names used for birds. In this episode you will hear a bird described as Crested Quail. Today we recognize this bird as California Quail. The bird herein described as Clark’s Crow, is now commonly called Clark’s Nutcracker.

John Burroughs - Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers: A Taste of Maine Birch, Winter Neighbors, and Notes by the Way

Welcome to Natural History Stories - a podcast of classic writings on natural history and nature observation. Our first four episodes take us through the John Burroughs collection, "Bird and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers." Published in 1887, the works were written between 1875 and 1886. This episode contains - A Taste of Maine Birch, Winter Neighbors, and Notes by the Way Given the age of the writings, these stories contain outdated thoughts and ideas including the reckless killing of wildlife, human interference in nature systems and racist tropes about Native Americans, These are the thoughts and ideas of the writer and are presented only as such. We respect the Wabanaki People as the original stewards of the land where we stand today. In this episode, there is also an outdated or regional common name used for a bird, not explained in episode 1. Canada Sparrow = White-throated Sparrow

John Burroughs - Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers: Sharp Eyes, The Apple

Welcome to Natural History Stories - a podcast of classic writings on natural history and nature observation. Our first four episodes take us through the John Burroughs collection, "Bird and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers." Published in 1887, the works were written between 1875 and 1886. This episode contains Sharp Eyes, and, The Apple. In this episode a new outdated common bird name not explained in episode 1 is used. The name used in this episode is tit-lark. This bird is now known to us as American Pipit.

John Burroughs - Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers: Bees

Welcome to Natural History Stories - a podcast of classic writings on natural history and nature observation. Our first four episodes take us through the John Burroughs collection, "Bird and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers." Published in 1887, the works were written between 1875 and 1886. This episode contains the Bees section of this collection. There are two chapters, An Idyl of the Honey-Bee and The Pastoral Bees. Given the age of the writings, these stories contain outdated thoughts and ideas including the reckless killing of wildlife, human interference in nature systems and racist tropes about Native Americans, These are the thoughts and ideas of the writer and are presented only as such. We respect the Wabanaki People as the original stewards of the land where we stand today.

John Burroughs - Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers: Birds

Welcome to Natural History Stories - a podcast of classic writings on natural history and nature observation. Our first four episodes take us through the John Burroughs collection, "Bird and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other papers." Published in 1887, the works were written between 1875 and 1886. This episode contains the Birds section of this collection. There are two chapters, Bird Enemies and The Tragedies of the Nests. Given the age of the writings, these stories contain outdated thoughts and ideas including the reckless killing of wildlife, human interference in nature systems and racist tropes about Native Americans, These are the thoughts and ideas of the writer and are presented only as such. We respect the Wabanaki People as the original stewards of the land where we stand today. In this episode, there are also outdated or regional common names used for birds. Here are the names used along with their modern accepted common names. High Hole = Northern Flicker Cheewink = Eastern Towhee Social Sparrow = Chipping Sparrow Cedar Bird = Cedar Waxwing Snowbird = Dark-eyed Junco English Sparrow = House Sparrow Hair Bird - Chipping Sparrow Blue-back = Black-throated Blue Warbler Blue Yellow-back = Northern Parula