Media Madness

Today we released 30 Regal Fritillaries at Paintbrush Prairie in Markham. The story has been picked up in a bunch of spots on the media, including the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Tonight, airing this evening on Channel 11. More links to follow

Media Madness

I'm not happy withthe headline. Otherwise OK.

Media Madness

The Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune is running a story on our efforts to introduce Baltimore Checkerspots to a restored wet prairie at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia.

Media Madness (Gay Edition)

Woohoo, I've been profiled in the Windy City Times. It's part of their Earth Day coverage. It's an honor to be sharing the spotlight with Deb Shore, who is both someone who is doing really important work, and a personal friend.

Media Madness

I got up at 3:45 this morning to come into work and put in a brief appearance on the Channel 2 Morning News. Video clip here. Yep, I got up in the middle of the might to get upstaged by a rat.

Dissenting Daily

Woohoo, I'm a Dissent of the Day on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish.

Media Madness

There's a really nice story about the Butterfly Haven in today's Chicago Tribune. As is very typical of such stories, they don't get the chrysalis stage quite right. A butterfly does not "weave" its chrysalis. They chrysalis forms under the skin of the caterpillar. When the butterfly pupates, the skin splits open, revealing the chrysalis underneath.

Even better than the story is a really cool video that they shot of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. You are hearing Vincent on the voice over. Amusing story about the video. The reporter and photographer/videographer arrived in early afternoon a couple of weeks ago. The photographer said that their editor wanted him to get video of a butterfly actually emerging from the chrysalis. That can be a tough assignment, because it's really hard to tell exactly when the butterfly will emerge. We told him his best bet would be early in the morning, so he came back the next day.

The butterflies cooperated beautifully and we had great footage of 2 butterflies emerging and he was on his way in 45 minutes. While waiting for the butterflies to emerge, we were making small talk. He mentioned growing up in a really small town in New England that I wouldn't have heard of. I asked him which one, and he said Manchester-by-the -Sea in Massachusetts- my old home town (pop. around 6,000). We had gone to the same high school and even had a couple of the same teachers, albeit 21 years apart.

Media Madness

Usually, it's about my day job, but not this time. On Sunday, the Daily Herald ran a story about an upcoming event at Bluff Spring Fen.

Media Madness

The news that I mentioned yesterday has been picked up by the Chicago Tribune. Enjoy the Barry White reference.

Go ahead, Spo. You know you wanna say it.

Update: Now there's video, too.

Media Madness

We released more silver-bordered fritillaries at Glacial Park in McHenry County yesterday. The local media were on the story.

Media Madness

I'm quoted in a butterfly article in the Bloomington (IL) Pantagraph. Everybody seems to have problems describing the chrysalis.

Media Madness Update

The panel discussion on the emreald ash borer that aired yesterday evening on Chicago Tonight can be here.

Updated update: Apparently the availability of the video feed is time-limited. The link now goes to an unrelated story. I have disabled the link.

Media Madness

The Emerald Ash Borer has recently been trapped within Chicago city limits. The news has hit the press today. I will be appearing on a panel on Chicago Tonight either this evening or tomorrow evening to discuss this development. Chicago area readers can catch the broadcast on Channel 11. I'll try to post a link after it airs.

Media Madness

Chicago area readers can catch me on this evening's 5:00 news on Channel 7 (WLS). I'll be discussing the Blanding's turtle project with reporter Frank Mathie. I'll post a link tomorrow.

Update: You can see the clip of Celeste and I discussing the Blanding's turtle here.

Toilet Spiders -Take Deux

So I did the debunking of the toilet spider urban myth gig. Turns out, I was interviewed by host Don Wildman for the webcast portion of The History Channel's Cities of the Underworld. The piece will not be posted on The History Channel's website until January or February. I'll post a link when it becomes available. The interview was a lot of fun- very different than anything I've done before. We did multiple takes of things (a large number in some cases). Don was great to work with. He has a great self-deprecating sense of humor. At one point between filming, he was joking about the difficulty in maintaining his very deliberate unshaven look. My response: "nice scruff."

In addition to the debunking, we looked at some of the other creepier critters that we have. I hope that the stuff with the hissing cockroaches gets in because the host was definitely grossed out by them. It was pretty funny.

Some days I particularly love my job.

Toilet Spiders

This afternoon I will be talking with The History Channel, debunking the urban legend of toilet spiders for a (ha ha) webcast. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Media Madness - Update

Last night's broadcast on the Monarch migration went well. You can see a video of the broadcast here.

Media Madness

I will be on WGN Channel 9 news this evening talking about the Monarch butterfly migration. Chicago readers (and those elsewhere who get WGN) can see the broadcast at 9:00 PM CDT.

Media Madness

Chicago area readers can catch me on tonight's Channel 2 news at 10:00. I'll try to post a web link tomorrow. The premise of the interview was why we aren't seeing cicadas everywhere. What I did NOT say was that I have mentioned that their distribution would be patchy in every interview that I have given since March, and that tidbit of information has not actually appeared in any article or broadcast. Sigh.

Update: You can see the video clip of the interview here. Click on the link that says Cicadas.

Good Morning America

The Good Morning America piece on cicadas aired this morning. I say about 6 words- don't blink or you'll miss me. It's the Cicadas Come Alive clip.

Hat tip: Rodger Dodger
Correction: Rodger informs me that it was actually Mark who found the clip. So you should visit him instead. Oh, heck, visit both of them- they're great guys.