April 6, 2026 • 35 mins
After two weeks away, I sit down with Delaney Rannells to talk about the best parts of my trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland. We talk about the towns, the food, the castles, and plenty more.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yes, it's the Emery Songer podcast on your iHeartRadio app,
the radio, your earbuds, in your car, wherever you have
this particular feed. I appreciate it and thank you for
tuning in first time in a few weeks that you're
hearing a new episode and joining me. Is my friend
here in the office of iHeartRadio in Dundee, de Lady Rynolds.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Woo oh, gotta get the paparazzi way. People are so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Wow, this is amazing. M h. I hadn't seen you
in a while because I was on vacation. How are things?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We missed you so much? And honestly, I was getting
a lot of fomo from seeing your pictures.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
That's that's one good thing about having the pictures right. Yes,
you know, I can go back and relive that, but
it also makes people feel like I do things that
are interesting.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah. I was totally happy for you, not at all jealous, complete.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Happiness, not at all jealous.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I bet ninety happy, ten percent jealous you know.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Uh yeah, let's talk about my trip then? Yes? Is
that cool?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Into it?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Have you been to Ireland before?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
No, I wish I've only ever been to Mexico and
a couple islands, but never.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Been to Europe or I had my first European vacation
when I turned thirty four.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So okay, five times.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Don't feel like you're missing out yet because we didn't
actually go over there until I was thirty four years old.
All right, goodness, But we've gone to Europe three times
in the last eighteen months, which feels a little excessive,
but that's all right, you know like that? Yeah, yeah, yolo. Yeah.
Ireland was never on the list, not like in a
(01:48):
serious way. When I was a kid. My Ireland background,
I was in Church United Methodist Church. It's called Wesley
United Methodist Church for anybody wants to go and find
more information about that. In my hometown of Atumnel, Iowa,
Southeast Iowa. Inexplicably, when I was a child and we
(02:11):
started to attend this church, I have no idea why
my parents decided to go there. I don't think we
knew anybody that was there. I was like four or
five years old when I think we went the first time. Yeah,
I would have to like, I don't really know why
we went there because it was not close to our house.
It was on the other side of town. But It
was in a beautiful place right across the street from
(02:33):
the Atumbel High School, and the pastor was Irish and
in a twenty five thousand person town in southeast Iowa.
That's a bit of an exotic thing to have happen, right,
So I don't know if that had something to do
with getting our family activated, but many other families were
activated too. There were a lot of kids around my
(02:53):
age that were part of that church at that time,
so it made a lot of fun. One of the
fun things that they would do is this thing, this
like exchange program where this pastor would bring in like
seventeen year olds who want to get into ministry from Ireland.
They would do a year foreign exchange at our high
(03:15):
school in a Tumua. And they would also be like
ingrained in the church and helping out with the youth
as like kind of not youth pastors, but youth leaders
in the church for like a full year, which you know,
like I don't know, I what a great idea. So
(03:37):
I was immersed in kind of this weird Irish culture.
I had some of them buy me like ten whistles
and teach me different things that would be only related
to Ireland, and they were all from Belfast or the
Belfast area, which is northern Ireland. I did not I
did not really understand the implications of the product versus
(04:00):
Catholic thing and what they would call the troubles and
like the violence and the fighting that Ireland had basically
been dealing with for decades until like nineteen ninety nine,
and even now there's still like after being there, there's
still some kind of unrest under the surface between these sides.
(04:21):
So I don't know, like it wasn't on my list,
but there was a curiosity I had that I'd love
to see this place. And my friend Chris pub culture barications.
I'll probably have him onto debrief on this trip at
some point, but the concept of seeing northern Ireland was
very attractive to me, and so we did that and
(04:43):
it was it was amazing to actually get to see
it and live it in person. Like do you know
much about Ireland?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay, well, I know you guys got some great drinks,
but for some reason, I'm trying to think I obviously
know Irish foods, but like, is there a staple Irish dessert?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Maybe? But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, Well, what was the best meal you had.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, there are a couple like fish and chips is
obviously a big thing there too. You know, everybody associates
that with like England, but it's a big Irish thing too.
They had this cut of meat and I don't know
if this is everywhere or if it's just kind of
more of an Irish or this region, but feather blade.
It's like a cut of beef which was very, very
(05:30):
tender and good. Yeah, Irish whiskey is a much bigger
thing than beer is, I think in terms of you know,
Guinness has a brand on its own, right. I think
when people think of Irish beer that think of Guinness.
Guinness is wildly popular for what it does for Ireland.
(05:55):
But I like, it really is just kind of bud
light over there, you know. It's just like everybody drinks it.
It's everywhere, everybody drinks it. I am not a big
stout person, so I've had one Guinness in my life,
and I had it at the top of the Guinness
factory in Dublin. I put a video of my first
sip of a Guinness on my social media and go
(06:15):
find that it's just not for me. It's not for me.
Guinness makes like loggers and stuff like harp and they
made this brand called Rockshore which is actually really really
good and I like that too. But yeah, it's just
interesting because I think they take a lot more pride
in their Irish whiskey and the way that they make
(06:36):
their whiskey and distill their whiskey because it's quite unique
then their beer scene. So like Irish coffee, which is
coffee and whiskey and cream, that is an incredibly popular
kind of cocktail thing if you want to call it that.
(06:56):
But I like, yeah, I mean the standard words are
very different than I think I thought going in. You know,
I'm just like, oh, Guinness is like this huge thing
and it's a big thing. But it's not like they
don't take the pride in it like you think that
they would take pride in it. It is like they're
(07:16):
very proud of kind of their their whiskey scene.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
That's so interesting. I feel like a lot of people
that go are always like, oh, yeah, I split.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
The G and like, you know, splitting the G. I can't.
I still can't figure out if that's a rib or not?
What like a rib? Like, like nobody does that right?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
It feels like maybe it's like an American eyes thing
of like this is what we think the Irish should do.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, but I have seen Irish people do that, sure,
and talk about doing that. But I also think it's
kind of a joke on Americans, just like something that
Americans perceive that you do with Guinness. And for those
who don't know, splitting the g is you know on
the Guinness glass, they have Guinness written on the glass
and it's like twenty five percent of the way down,
(08:01):
maybe twenty twenty five percent of the way down, and
basically what you're doing is you're trying to chug enough
guinness to land in between, like in the middle of
the g of guinness and split the g. I obviously
am not tried to do that, but I saw many
(08:22):
people make the attempt. And I couldn't decide if the
Irish people were laughing because it's something we were trying
to do, or laughing because we were so bad at it.
But either way, I can't really get a vibe. They're
kind of a type of people in Ireland that you
know they like you if they're making fun of you,
you know, and if you're not prepared to have like
(08:43):
that kind of sense of humor. It can be you
can take you back a little bit, but if you
know that going in, I think it just lightens the
mood a bit, like nobody's really that serious, Like it's
really just we're making fun of each other because we
like each other.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Were you over there on Saint Patrick's Day?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I got this the day after. Oh okay, I guess
I landed there two days later Ireland time, but I
flew from here the day after Saint Patrick's lot of
a lot of cheaper flights starting on JT to go
to Ireland.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, I'm curious, Like obviously, people who aren't even Irish
participate and celebrate it, So I'm curious what it's like
over there.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I think it's I think it's still a thing I got.
I got the vibe that it it is a big thing.
But I think it's a big thing because it brings
a lot of tourists from a lot of different places there.
I don't I don't think they are that crazy about it. Like,
I don't think they're more crazy about it than we are.
(09:41):
I think we do as much day drinking on St
Patrick's Day as they do. Would be my guess. But
then again, I wasn't there on that day, so I
don't know that's the vibe that I get.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, are they as obsessed with shamrocks as we think
they are.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
There's shamrocks at a lot of places, but not not
like all over the place, like there's a shamrock. Maybe
like on a logo, there's a shamrock on like the
soccer shirts, you know, like that's kind of like their
their team logo or whatever for the national team. But
it's not like I was walking all over the place
(10:16):
and there were shamrocks everywhere. People were plucking shamrocks, like
I got a shamrock. It is not like that. No,
it's kind of like a representation of what people believe
Ireland to be. But I don't I never got the
vibe that, Yeah, that was a super important thing, except
the symbolism. It's kind of like the like what would
be that for us? Maybe the bald eagle, you know,
(10:39):
like sure you put the bald eagle somewhere that you
know you want people to be like, oh wow, I
feel like patriotic towards that. The shamrock kind of is
that for them? Yeah? Is my vibe.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
But it's funny because when I picture Shamrocks, obviously I
think of like, you know, like the bright, colorful Leprechaun.
But then anytime I've ever watched a TV show or
movie that's in Ireland, it's like very dull and like
rainy and not very colorful and vibrant, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's more like oh oh yeah, oh.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, muted browns and yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So there's a lot of green space because they get
so much rain, so the grass like never dies. They
have a ton of grazing space. It's perfect for sheep.
There's sheep everywhere. There are sheep everywhere. I mean, you like,
they are pretty opposed to human interaction, so even if
you really wanted to try to, like pet one, they're
(11:34):
not gonna let you. But they're like free roaming. In
some places, they're just like out and about, like they're
right in front of you, just kind of like on
the road. Most of them are in kind of areas
that are kind of fenced off. A lot of them
are not a lot of them are just out there
and then they have paint on their back so the
farmers know which ones are theirs, you know, because they're
(11:56):
all in shared space. A lot of them are in
shared space, and they only get they say, they get
the sheep in like three times a year, four times
a year to pinning for a lambing season when the
babies are being born. They need a sheer in the
summer because you know, the wool doesn't just fall off.
You know, somebody's got to clean that up. And then
the wool is a huge, you know, an industry in
(12:19):
and of itself. You know, the wool that we were using,
or that like my wife's coats made of, or the
wool that my hat that I got at hannah Hat's
is made from. That is stuff that comes from Ireland
because there's just so much wool because there's so many sheep.
But yeah, that like the sky first few days we
(12:42):
were there was gorgeous, beautiful sun was out, a lot
of blue sky pretty much like the last eight or
nine days we were there. I don't think I saw
the sun once, like it was kind of bright, oddly bright,
but it was really just like the sun illuminating the clouds,
and we were so you don't understand how far north
you are latitude wise. You know, like we look at
(13:04):
a map and we think it's kind of more of
a straight across a deal. But I mean where northern
Ireland was like at the very top point latitude wise.
I'd have to look this up, but I think Dairy
was the city that we were the most north, and
that is like middle of like Manitoba, Canada in terms
(13:26):
of like how far north you are. If you were
to go from Omaha straight up, like you would have
been in the thick of like Saskatchewan or Manitoba, whichever
one's like straight north of us. So it makes the
lighting different, it makes the temperature a bit different. But
(13:47):
a lot of the places up there that are really
the most beautiful places. We're talking Giants Causeway, We're talking
about Sleeve League, which is incredible, cliffs, Akeel Island, which
is this island off the way coast of Ireland on
like northwest Ireland. Absolutely gorgeous stuff over there. If you
get a good day, think you're lucky stars because it's
(14:09):
usually wet, it's usually rainy, it's usually cloudy, and it's
insanely windy. The wind is unbearable in some of those spots.
But if you're willing to handle all that, it's as
beautiful as anything I've ever seen in my life, to
be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, So where'd you go on the last trip again.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
My previous trip? Yes, the Netherlands, my previous trip with
Chris and to Europe. Yeah, the Netherlands.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Which one did you like better?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Oh gosh?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And do you think Carrie would say the same? Your wife?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
This was a good This was a question she kind
of brought up to, is like, which of these did
we like the best? And I think my feelings about this,
more so than anything else, has to do with the
activities we did. There was certainly more incredible geography that
(15:21):
we got to see in Ireland. And that's not really
even a contest. Nobody is going to the Netherlands, no
disrespect to see the geography. It's not about the natural landscape,
and Northern Ireland especially, a lot of what we enjoyed
was seeing the landscape. We took a bike ride and
(15:42):
saw a bunch of amazing things just while we were
riding a bike, while we were driving town to town,
you would see some incredible things. Akal Island itself is
just unbelievable. The beauty that you see with the rocks
and the waves and not real like they don't really
call the mountains. They call them large hills, you know,
(16:04):
if you talk to different people in Ireland, but they
look like mountains to us. When you live in a
place like Omaha or in Nebraska, it feels like mountains
that you're seeing. It's unspeakable. The beauty Amsterdam and the
surrounding cities in the Netherlands, which is a small place
by the way, like the Amsterdam is like the size
(16:24):
of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It is.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It is a small geographical space, but it doesn't have
that kind of and it just doesn't have the mountains,
doesn't have like the canals, which are man made by
the way they were made as part of, you know,
trying to maintain an ability to prevent flooding to the cities,
which is genius. Honestly, they came up with that hundreds
(16:47):
of years ago. But that's kind of the most notable
geographical feature of some of the cities in the Netherlands.
The thing about the Netherlands and that trip was the
high speed train. You could see all parts of the
Netherlands so easily, and everything was so close together. We
didn't really get to tiny places. We were mostly in
(17:09):
some of the bigger cities. On this Ireland trip, we
were in smaller places. We stopped at places like Westport,
which has a pretty contained city center. We stopped in
a place called Glassic, which is literally tiny. We were
staying in like the one hotel they have in town.
One of my favorite parts of the entire trip, just
because of how legitimately Ireland it felt when we were there,
(17:35):
and the Netherlands. It wasn't like that we were in
a lot of the major places, so they were completely
different trips. I think I would prefer the Ireland trip
if I had to pick, just because of some of
the scenery. It really kind of puts it over the top.
(17:57):
But I loved both for different reasons, and some of
the stuff that I got to see in Amsterdam from
the history, some of the like The big cultural shock
to me was how many people ride bikes there. There
are bikes everywhere. You could ride bikes all over the place. There,
there are protected bike lanes, bikes had to ride away
over cars. There are way more bikes than cars there,
(18:19):
and I found that super fascinating. They also seem to
have a little bit more of a very Dutch flavor
on their drinks and their food like beer, and they're
light years ahead on like beverages and beer than Ireland.
Like their craft brewing scene in the Netherlands is a
(18:41):
hundred times what it is right now in Ireland. So
that was great. It was great to try a lot
of different stuff there. But they were both great for
different reasons. You's kind of have to go in with
the appropriate attitude to what you're doing. If you like
to kind of just like pit up and just be
in the same place for five days and not repack
(19:01):
your bags every other night and have to be going
somewhere else, this Ireland trip would not have been for
you because we were We didn't stay in a spot
for more than two days. We were packing up and
going to the next place all the time. I didn't
mind that. I liked seeing all the stuff that we saw.
But if you were a heavy packer, heavy traveler and
you'd like to settle down in your hotel or resort
(19:23):
room for a while, this was not the trip for you.
But if you have the right attitude, I think everybody
probably would say it was an incredible trip. Chris put
together an amazing itinerary for it, and I would highly
recommend to anybody for next spring, assuming that he puts
the thing back out. If you want to see Ireland,
I like the Northern Ireland idea. Now I haven't been
(19:44):
a Southern Ireland, but that's where a lot of the
American tourists end up. In Southern Ireland. Northern Ireland. We
were the only American tourists in a lot of the
places we were stopped along the way Doublin and Belfast.
Obviously there were a lot of them, but a lot
of the small places there were there were not very many,
so you kind of didn't feel like such a tourist
(20:05):
when you were there. You felt like, we're actually in
the culture.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You're such an animal lover. It was cool to see
all the pictures on your Instagram with the different yeah creatures.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So this is another thing that I love is seeing
the different birds and animals that are in different spots.
Guess how many birds I logged in my bird app.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You have a bird app.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's called the Merlin App.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Okay, oh, you just like take a picture of.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
The bird, so so my bird app. It's how it works.
The Merlin App highly recommend by the way, if you
don't have it, get it. It'll make you a better person.
Trust me. The more we think about hearing and listening
to the birds, the better people we are. It is
a proven fact. That's the like listening to birds, and
just like hearing the birds elevates your mood.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So what would you just say to someone who's scared
of birds?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Which birds? Are you afraid of?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
All of them? Okay, they come flying around your head,
you know, if you're building nests in your territory, I
don't know. They just freak me out.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So the only bird that I would say can be
quite intimidating you're gonna run into is a nesting Canada goose.
That bird, it'll hiss at you, it'll squawk at you,
it will make its wings big. It will get as
close to you as any bird intentionally will get. If
(21:36):
it has a nest anywhere nearby. It really does not
want you to be near it. And yeah, that can
be a bit disconcerting, But they're not really gonna do much.
I haven't actually seen somebody get absolutely destroyed by Canada
goose unless they were intentionally messing with the eggs or
trying to move a nest or something. I like Canada geese,
I think they're pretty cool birds. This app that I have,
(22:01):
the Merlin app, which again everybody should get it. You
can use sound ID, so like if you're in a
place and there's a little microphone button, you can hit
that and it will listen and identify bird calls. So
if you're hearing bird sounds, you can identify them that
way and then know what you're looking for or and
(22:21):
this is something that I did quite a bit while
I was in Ireland was I'd see the bird and
then I take a picture of the bird and you
can identify through photo as well.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
That's crazy. That is pretty cool. It's a little.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's a little what to la.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Maybe I shouldn't finish the sun, but it is unique.
Like I think that grandparents would love that.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
No, it's it's not for grandparents, it's for everyone.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I'm intrigued though. On the science. Yeah, like birds because
it is true, like I do think there is a
peacefulness to them, but sometimes they just if you don't
see them coming, you're like, where'd you come from?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, I'm a I'm a big proponent of bird. The
more we learn about birds, the more we want to
be around birds, and the better we are as people.
And again, there are studies out that if you take
time and just listen to birds you don't have like
your TV on or you know, music in your ears,
or you're just like in a park, or you're somewhere
and you're just hearing bird sounds, it is scientifically proven
(23:20):
to elevate your mood. So remember that how many new
bird species did I log? Because you can log them.
Once you you positively identify a bird, it'll say new
lifer and it adds it to your list and it
tells you where you saw it for the first time.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So how many different bird species do you think?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I love for fourteen days?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Uh? Thirteen?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
But yeah, I'll see a bird a day thirteen.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Seventeen, okay, seventeen new birds. And there were some of
these where I was like, I just fell in love
with it. One of them is called a rook. A
rook is a giant, raven looking thing, and they build
houses called rookeries, and these rookeries, and apparently rookery is
(24:12):
like a term that is used across the animal kingdom
for animals that act like rooks. You look up at
some of these trees and you'll notice the rooks and
they sound like crows. They're up there and they're like
rock you know, so you know what they are. And
then they're giant, right, But they build at the very
top of these trees. They're just circling up at the
(24:34):
top of the trees and they have these gigantic nests
and there's like fifty of them. Everybody's building their nest
right next to each other. They basically build their own
rook apartment complex at the top of like a row
of trees. And you can see them all up there,
and they basically live as a flock all the time.
(24:54):
They are not territorial to one another. They literally are
just like we are one big thing family, and this
is our home and we've built and we've built these together,
and we'll raise our babies together and all that stuff.
So any animal that has similar like different species that
have similar like housing and habitat structure, those are also
(25:16):
called rookeries named after this bird. So that was a
cool one, and you won't see that in North America.
Another one that I got, which I was really happy
about is the Great Tit, sorry, the Great Tit no
way what it's cool bird.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I have confirmed it is called that. That's wild.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, it's a it's a cool bird and uh you
did you also not a North American bird. You can
only see this in Europe in Asia, the great tit?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Did you put it?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Did I pet it? No? No, I did not touch
the great tits. Okay, I observed the great tit. No,
in fact, I got the great tit the no, no, I.
I mean it probably would eat little bird seed if
you had a feeder, but obviously, as a tourist, didn't
(26:11):
have anything like that and they were never gonna approach me.
But if I had like a bird feeder. Yeah, but
they're up in the trees, you know them, the cold
tit stop it not a not a not a dissimilar bird.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
What is that? What does the root word of that mean?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Like, why, well, that's just type of bird. It is tit. Yeah,
there's a a tit here is like the tufted tit mouse.
Have you seen a toughted tit mouse?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Here it is? What a tough you've probably seen one?
Like they're around.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah I don't. I don't have the app so I
don't have the cool lingo on what they're called.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
But well, toughted tit mouse. That's part of the fun
of birding, is you you you learn. I saw the
Eurasian blue tit. Look at this guy. Look at Wow.
Look how blue and yellow he is.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
It's like a blue jay with a yellow bird kind
of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah, he does look like a little blue jay. Yeah,
the Eurasian bluetooth. I saw the Eurasian bluetoth at a
castle I was visiting in the Netherlands, and I saw
the great tit at the castle I was staying at
in Ireland. So I have encountered two different tits at
two different castles.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Wow, that's what you should tell people to recap your trip.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I usually lead with that. Yeah, but that is a
good one.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Oh okay, I just looked it up because I had
to know. Okay, the reason it's called the birds are
referred to as tits is because they're small or little.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, there you go, there go. Yeah, there's all sorts
of great bird names. Like, we've talked enough about Ireland.
Let's talk about bird names. What about the bananaquit. I
saw the bananaquit in Jamaica. These things were singing all
the time. Bananiquit.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I like that because of the yellow Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It's yellow. It looks kind of like a banana. Yeah.
What's another good one? The hairy woodpecker, Harry woodpecker.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I feel like I've seen those at the Henry door.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
They do they they are? Yeah, I mean they're in
our neighborhoods all the time. Yeah, they're a woodpecker though,
so you know you're gonna want to look up at
the trees.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
What about the rose breasted grossbeak. I've gotten those at
my feet are every once in a while. That's a
pretty cool looking.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Those are really interesting.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, three birds gross speak. How about the common chiff
chaff little chiffchaff.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
See, okay, it's like a beautiful creature, of course, but
it's just kind of boring to me. That's what I
would have pictured. In Ireland, you always see the birds flies.
Isn't it south for.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Winter from here? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So what the heck are they doing up in northern Ireland?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, so it's interesting. Migration patterns in that area of
the world is a little bit different. Of these birds
are not the same type of I need warm weather
birds like an oriole. You see an oriole here for
like four months out of the year, and then they're
back in the Caribbean for the rest of the year.
They want the warm weather. They love the warm weather.
(29:16):
And that's not every bird. Like I have cardinals at
my house, Like there's a cardinal nest in our tree
and they're there all the time. They don't leave, they're there,
they're they're they're all year as long as there's food
resources and they have a place to be. Uh yeah,
I mean they're pretty hardy. Birds in general are pretty hardy.
How about this the Eurasian jackdaw. This was one of
(29:39):
my favorites in Europe, the jackdaw.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
He's kind of he's a raven type. Yeah, he's black.
He's got this cool looking eye, like a yellow eye.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That bird's eyes do kind of creep me out.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, and his eyes like a jackdaw's eyes, Like he
looks like he's looking at you.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, I would not want to, but.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
His name is but he's a jackdaw. Jeck daw, jeckdaw.
What about the white breasted nuthatch, No, stop it, the
white breasted nuthatch. Those little guys will hang upside down,
so when you see them as much as like like
this is here's a picture I know my podcast listeners aren't, Yeah,
what the heck? So, so they walk around on trees
(30:20):
and stuff upside down. So if you see a bird
just on like bark looking like he's upside down, it's
a nuthatch. And even on my bird feeder when they'd
come and they don't always come to the bird feeder,
but when they get to the bird feeder, they just
have this habit of like turning upside down while they're
eating their seed. I have no idea why.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So on your bird app can you see where birds are?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
But then just logging them? So how many birds do
you need to see? Like how many are on your
bucket list?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Well, that's the thing and I would love to see,
uh as much as I would love to know. There's
thousands upon thousands of species, so essentially right, So like
I'll click on another one here, like the northern flicker,
beautiful bird. Have a couple of those in my neighborhood.
They sound very unique. You'll hear them before you see them,
(31:09):
beautiful birds. But here, like if you scroll down, it'll
show you the range and it'll show you like the
range year round and the range of migration, the breeding range,
like where they'll be. So they're in the north to breed,
and year round they're across boast of the United States,
so you theoretically would see northern flickers in Nebraska all
(31:30):
the time, all year long, twelve months out of the year.
This is the best tool of trying to figure out
or predict where you can see certain birds if you
haven't already found them. And that's a bit you know,
like if you look at the Baltimore Oriole which I
just mentioned, their map looks completely different, right because they
(31:53):
only really breed up in the north, and then they
are spending their non breeding time in Central America and
northern South America. It is fascinating and like I said,
it has become one of my favorite things that I do.
I go outside, I'm at the park. Even yesterday, just
walking my dogs, I found a pine siskin. The pine
(32:17):
siskin is another new bird I WoT not like pine ciscin.
There's a bunch of pine siskins in the pine trees
lining the UNO campus along sixty third Street. I was
walking by. I was like, what is that noise? What
does that sound? And it was a sound like this, Yeah,
(32:45):
so that little.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Does Chris share your interest in birds.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
He is a bee guy, he really, he works with honeybees. Okay, yeah,
so I think everybody gets a kick of how crazy
I am about the birds now, but everybody's got their
own thing. Like you asked. You asked Chris any question
about honey bees, he'd be this passionate about bees as
I am about the birds.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So when are we changing it from beer Casi to
Chris I'm around?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Could you imagine the people going on a beection? What
are they looking for?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Well? Would they be able to pack their suit? You know,
like the picture the big white.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Like yeah, like yeah, he says he usually wears the
helmet of that sure when he's dealing with his bees.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Y bees in the trap, bees.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
In the trap. Uh, the lady, this is fine, Thanks
for your curiosity. This is a good way for me
to kind of get back on my feet on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah it was. It was real tweet to be here.
Get it like sweet? That's all I got.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
You can find? The lady actually operates, I mean our
social media we're trying to grow those.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
We're trying. Please help us out, all right.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
So how you'll find us and where on all the things?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Just search kfab on Instagram, Facebook x go to kfab
dot com find all the links there and check out
all the great podcasts that have been archived. I know
that there's a big catalog of them, but a lot
of them are ever green. So a lot of our shows,
my show, nice to have it on demand. Yeah, if
(34:22):
you can't listen when they're regularly on air, or just
missed it the first week they came out, go revisit.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I love that. Yeah, thanks Delaney, You're great.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
All right, and you know what, I'm going to be
back tomorrow. My Tuesday guest is scheduled to be Alexis
bulos Is, general manager of Union Omaha great soccer club.
Here excited to have that conversation.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Guess wait, guess what their mascot is.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
It's now that's a bird. Yeah it is, Yeah, it is.
I need to do more bird like ours are tough
to log. You really have to be outside at the
right time to like AC one or b here one. Uh,
those are tricky. I'm only logged one owl. I need
more owls. I got a barred owl walks that was owl.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Let you know if I run into one.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
All right, we I think we've used up our quota
on puns. Anyway, we will catch you here tomorrow on
the Emvery Songer podcast feed on the free iHeartRadio. Thanks
for listening and to have great rest of your day.
Yes, it's the Emery Songer podcast on your iHeartRadio app,
the radio, your earbuds, in your car, wherever you have
this particular feed. I appreciate it and thank you for
tuning in first time in a few weeks that you're
hearing a new episode and joining me. Is my friend
here in the office of iHeartRadio in Dundee, de Lady Rynolds.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Woo oh, gotta get the paparazzi way. People are so excited.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Wow, this is amazing. M h. I hadn't seen you
in a while because I was on vacation. How are things?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We missed you so much? And honestly, I was getting
a lot of fomo from seeing your pictures.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
That's that's one good thing about having the pictures right. Yes,
you know, I can go back and relive that, but
it also makes people feel like I do things that
are interesting.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah. I was totally happy for you, not at all jealous, complete.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Happiness, not at all jealous.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I bet ninety happy, ten percent jealous you know.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Uh yeah, let's talk about my trip then? Yes? Is
that cool?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Into it?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Have you been to Ireland before?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
No, I wish I've only ever been to Mexico and
a couple islands, but never.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Been to Europe or I had my first European vacation
when I turned thirty four.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So okay, five times.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Don't feel like you're missing out yet because we didn't
actually go over there until I was thirty four years old.
All right, goodness, But we've gone to Europe three times
in the last eighteen months, which feels a little excessive,
but that's all right, you know like that? Yeah, yeah, yolo. Yeah.
Ireland was never on the list, not like in a
(01:48):
serious way. When I was a kid. My Ireland background,
I was in Church United Methodist Church. It's called Wesley
United Methodist Church for anybody wants to go and find
more information about that. In my hometown of Atumnel, Iowa,
Southeast Iowa. Inexplicably, when I was a child and we
(02:11):
started to attend this church, I have no idea why
my parents decided to go there. I don't think we
knew anybody that was there. I was like four or
five years old when I think we went the first time. Yeah,
I would have to like, I don't really know why
we went there because it was not close to our house.
It was on the other side of town. But It
was in a beautiful place right across the street from
(02:33):
the Atumbel High School, and the pastor was Irish and
in a twenty five thousand person town in southeast Iowa.
That's a bit of an exotic thing to have happen, right,
So I don't know if that had something to do
with getting our family activated, but many other families were
activated too. There were a lot of kids around my
(02:53):
age that were part of that church at that time,
so it made a lot of fun. One of the
fun things that they would do is this thing, this
like exchange program where this pastor would bring in like
seventeen year olds who want to get into ministry from Ireland.
They would do a year foreign exchange at our high
(03:15):
school in a Tumua. And they would also be like
ingrained in the church and helping out with the youth
as like kind of not youth pastors, but youth leaders
in the church for like a full year, which you know,
like I don't know, I what a great idea. So
(03:37):
I was immersed in kind of this weird Irish culture.
I had some of them buy me like ten whistles
and teach me different things that would be only related
to Ireland, and they were all from Belfast or the
Belfast area, which is northern Ireland. I did not I
did not really understand the implications of the product versus
(04:00):
Catholic thing and what they would call the troubles and
like the violence and the fighting that Ireland had basically
been dealing with for decades until like nineteen ninety nine,
and even now there's still like after being there, there's
still some kind of unrest under the surface between these sides.
(04:21):
So I don't know, like it wasn't on my list,
but there was a curiosity I had that I'd love
to see this place. And my friend Chris pub culture barications.
I'll probably have him onto debrief on this trip at
some point, but the concept of seeing northern Ireland was
very attractive to me, and so we did that and
(04:43):
it was it was amazing to actually get to see
it and live it in person. Like do you know
much about Ireland?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay, well, I know you guys got some great drinks,
but for some reason, I'm trying to think I obviously
know Irish foods, but like, is there a staple Irish dessert?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Maybe? But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Okay, Well, what was the best meal you had.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well, there are a couple like fish and chips is
obviously a big thing there too. You know, everybody associates
that with like England, but it's a big Irish thing too.
They had this cut of meat and I don't know
if this is everywhere or if it's just kind of
more of an Irish or this region, but feather blade.
It's like a cut of beef which was very, very
(05:30):
tender and good. Yeah, Irish whiskey is a much bigger
thing than beer is, I think in terms of you know,
Guinness has a brand on its own, right. I think
when people think of Irish beer that think of Guinness.
Guinness is wildly popular for what it does for Ireland.
(05:55):
But I like, it really is just kind of bud
light over there, you know. It's just like everybody drinks it.
It's everywhere, everybody drinks it. I am not a big
stout person, so I've had one Guinness in my life,
and I had it at the top of the Guinness
factory in Dublin. I put a video of my first
sip of a Guinness on my social media and go
(06:15):
find that it's just not for me. It's not for me.
Guinness makes like loggers and stuff like harp and they
made this brand called Rockshore which is actually really really
good and I like that too. But yeah, it's just
interesting because I think they take a lot more pride
in their Irish whiskey and the way that they make
(06:36):
their whiskey and distill their whiskey because it's quite unique
then their beer scene. So like Irish coffee, which is
coffee and whiskey and cream, that is an incredibly popular
kind of cocktail thing if you want to call it that.
(06:56):
But I like, yeah, I mean the standard words are
very different than I think I thought going in. You know,
I'm just like, oh, Guinness is like this huge thing
and it's a big thing. But it's not like they
don't take the pride in it like you think that
they would take pride in it. It is like they're
(07:16):
very proud of kind of their their whiskey scene.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
That's so interesting. I feel like a lot of people
that go are always like, oh, yeah, I split.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
The G and like, you know, splitting the G. I can't.
I still can't figure out if that's a rib or not?
What like a rib? Like, like nobody does that right?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
It feels like maybe it's like an American eyes thing
of like this is what we think the Irish should do.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, but I have seen Irish people do that, sure,
and talk about doing that. But I also think it's
kind of a joke on Americans, just like something that
Americans perceive that you do with Guinness. And for those
who don't know, splitting the g is you know on
the Guinness glass, they have Guinness written on the glass
and it's like twenty five percent of the way down,
(08:01):
maybe twenty twenty five percent of the way down, and
basically what you're doing is you're trying to chug enough
guinness to land in between, like in the middle of
the g of guinness and split the g. I obviously
am not tried to do that, but I saw many
(08:22):
people make the attempt. And I couldn't decide if the
Irish people were laughing because it's something we were trying
to do, or laughing because we were so bad at it.
But either way, I can't really get a vibe. They're
kind of a type of people in Ireland that you
know they like you if they're making fun of you,
you know, and if you're not prepared to have like
(08:43):
that kind of sense of humor. It can be you
can take you back a little bit, but if you
know that going in, I think it just lightens the
mood a bit, like nobody's really that serious, Like it's
really just we're making fun of each other because we
like each other.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Were you over there on Saint Patrick's Day?
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I got this the day after. Oh okay, I guess
I landed there two days later Ireland time, but I
flew from here the day after Saint Patrick's lot of
a lot of cheaper flights starting on JT to go
to Ireland.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, I'm curious, Like obviously, people who aren't even Irish
participate and celebrate it, So I'm curious what it's like
over there.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I think it's I think it's still a thing I got.
I got the vibe that it it is a big thing.
But I think it's a big thing because it brings
a lot of tourists from a lot of different places there.
I don't I don't think they are that crazy about it. Like,
I don't think they're more crazy about it than we are.
(09:41):
I think we do as much day drinking on St
Patrick's Day as they do. Would be my guess. But
then again, I wasn't there on that day, so I
don't know that's the vibe that I get.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, are they as obsessed with shamrocks as we think
they are.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
There's shamrocks at a lot of places, but not not
like all over the place, like there's a shamrock. Maybe
like on a logo, there's a shamrock on like the
soccer shirts, you know, like that's kind of like their
their team logo or whatever for the national team. But
it's not like I was walking all over the place
(10:16):
and there were shamrocks everywhere. People were plucking shamrocks, like
I got a shamrock. It is not like that. No,
it's kind of like a representation of what people believe
Ireland to be. But I don't I never got the
vibe that, Yeah, that was a super important thing, except
the symbolism. It's kind of like the like what would
be that for us? Maybe the bald eagle, you know,
(10:39):
like sure you put the bald eagle somewhere that you
know you want people to be like, oh wow, I
feel like patriotic towards that. The shamrock kind of is
that for them? Yeah? Is my vibe.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
But it's funny because when I picture Shamrocks, obviously I
think of like, you know, like the bright, colorful Leprechaun.
But then anytime I've ever watched a TV show or
movie that's in Ireland, it's like very dull and like
rainy and not very colorful and vibrant, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's more like oh oh yeah, oh.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, muted browns and yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So there's a lot of green space because they get
so much rain, so the grass like never dies. They
have a ton of grazing space. It's perfect for sheep.
There's sheep everywhere. There are sheep everywhere. I mean, you like,
they are pretty opposed to human interaction, so even if
you really wanted to try to, like pet one, they're
(11:34):
not gonna let you. But they're like free roaming. In
some places, they're just like out and about, like they're
right in front of you, just kind of like on
the road. Most of them are in kind of areas
that are kind of fenced off. A lot of them
are not a lot of them are just out there
and then they have paint on their back so the
farmers know which ones are theirs, you know, because they're
(11:56):
all in shared space. A lot of them are in
shared space, and they only get they say, they get
the sheep in like three times a year, four times
a year to pinning for a lambing season when the
babies are being born. They need a sheer in the
summer because you know, the wool doesn't just fall off.
You know, somebody's got to clean that up. And then
the wool is a huge, you know, an industry in
(12:19):
and of itself. You know, the wool that we were using,
or that like my wife's coats made of, or the
wool that my hat that I got at hannah Hat's
is made from. That is stuff that comes from Ireland
because there's just so much wool because there's so many sheep.
But yeah, that like the sky first few days we
(12:42):
were there was gorgeous, beautiful sun was out, a lot
of blue sky pretty much like the last eight or
nine days we were there. I don't think I saw
the sun once, like it was kind of bright, oddly bright,
but it was really just like the sun illuminating the clouds,
and we were so you don't understand how far north
you are latitude wise. You know, like we look at
(13:04):
a map and we think it's kind of more of
a straight across a deal. But I mean where northern
Ireland was like at the very top point latitude wise.
I'd have to look this up, but I think Dairy
was the city that we were the most north, and
that is like middle of like Manitoba, Canada in terms
(13:26):
of like how far north you are. If you were
to go from Omaha straight up, like you would have
been in the thick of like Saskatchewan or Manitoba, whichever
one's like straight north of us. So it makes the
lighting different, it makes the temperature a bit different. But
(13:47):
a lot of the places up there that are really
the most beautiful places. We're talking Giants Causeway, We're talking
about Sleeve League, which is incredible, cliffs, Akeel Island, which
is this island off the way coast of Ireland on
like northwest Ireland. Absolutely gorgeous stuff over there. If you
get a good day, think you're lucky stars because it's
(14:09):
usually wet, it's usually rainy, it's usually cloudy, and it's
insanely windy. The wind is unbearable in some of those spots.
But if you're willing to handle all that, it's as
beautiful as anything I've ever seen in my life, to
be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, So where'd you go on the last trip again.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
My previous trip? Yes, the Netherlands, my previous trip with
Chris and to Europe. Yeah, the Netherlands.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Which one did you like better?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Oh gosh?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And do you think Carrie would say the same? Your wife?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
This was a good This was a question she kind
of brought up to, is like, which of these did
we like the best? And I think my feelings about this,
more so than anything else, has to do with the
activities we did. There was certainly more incredible geography that
(15:21):
we got to see in Ireland. And that's not really
even a contest. Nobody is going to the Netherlands, no
disrespect to see the geography. It's not about the natural landscape,
and Northern Ireland especially, a lot of what we enjoyed
was seeing the landscape. We took a bike ride and
(15:42):
saw a bunch of amazing things just while we were
riding a bike, while we were driving town to town,
you would see some incredible things. Akal Island itself is
just unbelievable. The beauty that you see with the rocks
and the waves and not real like they don't really
call the mountains. They call them large hills, you know,
(16:04):
if you talk to different people in Ireland, but they
look like mountains to us. When you live in a
place like Omaha or in Nebraska, it feels like mountains
that you're seeing. It's unspeakable. The beauty Amsterdam and the
surrounding cities in the Netherlands, which is a small place
by the way, like the Amsterdam is like the size
(16:24):
of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It is.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It is a small geographical space, but it doesn't have
that kind of and it just doesn't have the mountains,
doesn't have like the canals, which are man made by
the way they were made as part of, you know,
trying to maintain an ability to prevent flooding to the cities,
which is genius. Honestly, they came up with that hundreds
(16:47):
of years ago. But that's kind of the most notable
geographical feature of some of the cities in the Netherlands.
The thing about the Netherlands and that trip was the
high speed train. You could see all parts of the
Netherlands so easily, and everything was so close together. We
didn't really get to tiny places. We were mostly in
(17:09):
some of the bigger cities. On this Ireland trip, we
were in smaller places. We stopped at places like Westport,
which has a pretty contained city center. We stopped in
a place called Glassic, which is literally tiny. We were
staying in like the one hotel they have in town.
One of my favorite parts of the entire trip, just
because of how legitimately Ireland it felt when we were there,
(17:35):
and the Netherlands. It wasn't like that we were in
a lot of the major places, so they were completely
different trips. I think I would prefer the Ireland trip
if I had to pick, just because of some of
the scenery. It really kind of puts it over the top.
(17:57):
But I loved both for different reasons, and some of
the stuff that I got to see in Amsterdam from
the history, some of the like The big cultural shock
to me was how many people ride bikes there. There
are bikes everywhere. You could ride bikes all over the place. There,
there are protected bike lanes, bikes had to ride away
over cars. There are way more bikes than cars there,
(18:19):
and I found that super fascinating. They also seem to
have a little bit more of a very Dutch flavor
on their drinks and their food like beer, and they're
light years ahead on like beverages and beer than Ireland.
Like their craft brewing scene in the Netherlands is a
(18:41):
hundred times what it is right now in Ireland. So
that was great. It was great to try a lot
of different stuff there. But they were both great for
different reasons. You's kind of have to go in with
the appropriate attitude to what you're doing. If you like
to kind of just like pit up and just be
in the same place for five days and not repack
(19:01):
your bags every other night and have to be going
somewhere else, this Ireland trip would not have been for
you because we were We didn't stay in a spot
for more than two days. We were packing up and
going to the next place all the time. I didn't
mind that. I liked seeing all the stuff that we saw.
But if you were a heavy packer, heavy traveler and
you'd like to settle down in your hotel or resort
(19:23):
room for a while, this was not the trip for you.
But if you have the right attitude, I think everybody
probably would say it was an incredible trip. Chris put
together an amazing itinerary for it, and I would highly
recommend to anybody for next spring, assuming that he puts
the thing back out. If you want to see Ireland,
I like the Northern Ireland idea. Now I haven't been
(19:44):
a Southern Ireland, but that's where a lot of the
American tourists end up. In Southern Ireland. Northern Ireland. We
were the only American tourists in a lot of the
places we were stopped along the way Doublin and Belfast.
Obviously there were a lot of them, but a lot
of the small places there were there were not very many,
so you kind of didn't feel like such a tourist
(20:05):
when you were there. You felt like, we're actually in
the culture.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You're such an animal lover. It was cool to see
all the pictures on your Instagram with the different yeah creatures.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So this is another thing that I love is seeing
the different birds and animals that are in different spots.
Guess how many birds I logged in my bird app.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You have a bird app.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's called the Merlin App.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Okay, oh, you just like take a picture of.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
The bird, so so my bird app. It's how it works.
The Merlin App highly recommend by the way, if you
don't have it, get it. It'll make you a better person.
Trust me. The more we think about hearing and listening
to the birds, the better people we are. It is
a proven fact. That's the like listening to birds, and
just like hearing the birds elevates your mood.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So what would you just say to someone who's scared
of birds?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Which birds? Are you afraid of?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
All of them? Okay, they come flying around your head,
you know, if you're building nests in your territory, I
don't know. They just freak me out.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So the only bird that I would say can be
quite intimidating you're gonna run into is a nesting Canada goose.
That bird, it'll hiss at you, it'll squawk at you,
it will make its wings big. It will get as
close to you as any bird intentionally will get. If
(21:36):
it has a nest anywhere nearby. It really does not
want you to be near it. And yeah, that can
be a bit disconcerting, But they're not really gonna do much.
I haven't actually seen somebody get absolutely destroyed by Canada
goose unless they were intentionally messing with the eggs or
trying to move a nest or something. I like Canada geese,
I think they're pretty cool birds. This app that I have,
(22:01):
the Merlin app, which again everybody should get it. You
can use sound ID, so like if you're in a
place and there's a little microphone button, you can hit
that and it will listen and identify bird calls. So
if you're hearing bird sounds, you can identify them that
way and then know what you're looking for or and
(22:21):
this is something that I did quite a bit while
I was in Ireland was I'd see the bird and
then I take a picture of the bird and you
can identify through photo as well.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
That's crazy. That is pretty cool. It's a little.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's a little what to la.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Maybe I shouldn't finish the sun, but it is unique.
Like I think that grandparents would love that.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
No, it's it's not for grandparents, it's for everyone.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I'm intrigued though. On the science. Yeah, like birds because
it is true, like I do think there is a
peacefulness to them, but sometimes they just if you don't
see them coming, you're like, where'd you come from?
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, I'm a I'm a big proponent of bird. The
more we learn about birds, the more we want to
be around birds, and the better we are as people.
And again, there are studies out that if you take
time and just listen to birds you don't have like
your TV on or you know, music in your ears,
or you're just like in a park, or you're somewhere
and you're just hearing bird sounds, it is scientifically proven
(23:20):
to elevate your mood. So remember that how many new
bird species did I log? Because you can log them.
Once you you positively identify a bird, it'll say new
lifer and it adds it to your list and it
tells you where you saw it for the first time.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
So how many different bird species do you think?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I love for fourteen days?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Uh? Thirteen?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
But yeah, I'll see a bird a day thirteen.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Seventeen, okay, seventeen new birds. And there were some of
these where I was like, I just fell in love
with it. One of them is called a rook. A
rook is a giant, raven looking thing, and they build
houses called rookeries, and these rookeries, and apparently rookery is
(24:12):
like a term that is used across the animal kingdom
for animals that act like rooks. You look up at
some of these trees and you'll notice the rooks and
they sound like crows. They're up there and they're like
rock you know, so you know what they are. And
then they're giant, right, But they build at the very
top of these trees. They're just circling up at the
(24:34):
top of the trees and they have these gigantic nests
and there's like fifty of them. Everybody's building their nest
right next to each other. They basically build their own
rook apartment complex at the top of like a row
of trees. And you can see them all up there,
and they basically live as a flock all the time.
(24:54):
They are not territorial to one another. They literally are
just like we are one big thing family, and this
is our home and we've built and we've built these together,
and we'll raise our babies together and all that stuff.
So any animal that has similar like different species that
have similar like housing and habitat structure, those are also
(25:16):
called rookeries named after this bird. So that was a
cool one, and you won't see that in North America.
Another one that I got, which I was really happy
about is the Great Tit, sorry, the Great Tit no
way what it's cool bird.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I have confirmed it is called that. That's wild.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, it's a it's a cool bird and uh you
did you also not a North American bird. You can
only see this in Europe in Asia, the great tit?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Did you put it?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Did I pet it? No? No, I did not touch
the great tits. Okay, I observed the great tit. No,
in fact, I got the great tit the no, no, I.
I mean it probably would eat little bird seed if
you had a feeder, but obviously, as a tourist, didn't
(26:11):
have anything like that and they were never gonna approach me.
But if I had like a bird feeder. Yeah, but
they're up in the trees, you know them, the cold
tit stop it not a not a not a dissimilar bird.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
What is that? What does the root word of that mean?
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Like, why, well, that's just type of bird. It is tit. Yeah,
there's a a tit here is like the tufted tit mouse.
Have you seen a toughted tit mouse?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Here it is? What a tough you've probably seen one?
Like they're around.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah I don't. I don't have the app so I
don't have the cool lingo on what they're called.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
But well, toughted tit mouse. That's part of the fun
of birding, is you you you learn. I saw the
Eurasian blue tit. Look at this guy. Look at Wow.
Look how blue and yellow he is.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
It's like a blue jay with a yellow bird kind
of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah, he does look like a little blue jay. Yeah,
the Eurasian bluetooth. I saw the Eurasian bluetoth at a
castle I was visiting in the Netherlands, and I saw
the great tit at the castle I was staying at
in Ireland. So I have encountered two different tits at
two different castles.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Wow, that's what you should tell people to recap your trip.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I usually lead with that. Yeah, but that is a
good one.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Oh okay, I just looked it up because I had
to know. Okay, the reason it's called the birds are
referred to as tits is because they're small or little.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, there you go, there go. Yeah, there's all sorts
of great bird names. Like, we've talked enough about Ireland.
Let's talk about bird names. What about the bananaquit. I
saw the bananaquit in Jamaica. These things were singing all
the time. Bananiquit.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I like that because of the yellow Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
It's yellow. It looks kind of like a banana. Yeah.
What's another good one? The hairy woodpecker, Harry woodpecker.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I feel like I've seen those at the Henry door.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
They do they they are? Yeah, I mean they're in
our neighborhoods all the time. Yeah, they're a woodpecker though,
so you know you're gonna want to look up at
the trees.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
What about the rose breasted grossbeak. I've gotten those at
my feet are every once in a while. That's a
pretty cool looking.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Those are really interesting.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, three birds gross speak. How about the common chiff
chaff little chiffchaff.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
See, okay, it's like a beautiful creature, of course, but
it's just kind of boring to me. That's what I
would have pictured. In Ireland, you always see the birds flies.
Isn't it south for.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Winter from here? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So what the heck are they doing up in northern Ireland?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, so it's interesting. Migration patterns in that area of
the world is a little bit different. Of these birds
are not the same type of I need warm weather
birds like an oriole. You see an oriole here for
like four months out of the year, and then they're
back in the Caribbean for the rest of the year.
They want the warm weather. They love the warm weather.
(29:16):
And that's not every bird. Like I have cardinals at
my house, Like there's a cardinal nest in our tree
and they're there all the time. They don't leave, they're there,
they're they're they're all year as long as there's food
resources and they have a place to be. Uh yeah,
I mean they're pretty hardy. Birds in general are pretty hardy.
How about this the Eurasian jackdaw. This was one of
(29:39):
my favorites in Europe, the jackdaw.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
He's kind of he's a raven type. Yeah, he's black.
He's got this cool looking eye, like a yellow eye.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
That bird's eyes do kind of creep me out.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, and his eyes like a jackdaw's eyes, Like he
looks like he's looking at you.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, I would not want to, but.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
His name is but he's a jackdaw. Jeck daw, jeckdaw.
What about the white breasted nuthatch, No, stop it, the
white breasted nuthatch. Those little guys will hang upside down,
so when you see them as much as like like
this is here's a picture I know my podcast listeners aren't, Yeah,
what the heck? So, so they walk around on trees
(30:20):
and stuff upside down. So if you see a bird
just on like bark looking like he's upside down, it's
a nuthatch. And even on my bird feeder when they'd
come and they don't always come to the bird feeder,
but when they get to the bird feeder, they just
have this habit of like turning upside down while they're
eating their seed. I have no idea why.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So on your bird app can you see where birds are?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
But then just logging them? So how many birds do
you need to see? Like how many are on your
bucket list?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Well, that's the thing and I would love to see,
uh as much as I would love to know. There's
thousands upon thousands of species, so essentially right, So like
I'll click on another one here, like the northern flicker,
beautiful bird. Have a couple of those in my neighborhood.
They sound very unique. You'll hear them before you see them,
(31:09):
beautiful birds. But here, like if you scroll down, it'll
show you the range and it'll show you like the
range year round and the range of migration, the breeding range,
like where they'll be. So they're in the north to breed,
and year round they're across boast of the United States,
so you theoretically would see northern flickers in Nebraska all
(31:30):
the time, all year long, twelve months out of the year.
This is the best tool of trying to figure out
or predict where you can see certain birds if you
haven't already found them. And that's a bit you know,
like if you look at the Baltimore Oriole which I
just mentioned, their map looks completely different, right because they
(31:53):
only really breed up in the north, and then they
are spending their non breeding time in Central America and
northern South America. It is fascinating and like I said,
it has become one of my favorite things that I do.
I go outside, I'm at the park. Even yesterday, just
walking my dogs, I found a pine siskin. The pine
(32:17):
siskin is another new bird I WoT not like pine ciscin.
There's a bunch of pine siskins in the pine trees
lining the UNO campus along sixty third Street. I was
walking by. I was like, what is that noise? What
does that sound? And it was a sound like this, Yeah,
(32:45):
so that little.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Does Chris share your interest in birds.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
He is a bee guy, he really, he works with honeybees. Okay, yeah,
so I think everybody gets a kick of how crazy
I am about the birds now, but everybody's got their
own thing. Like you asked. You asked Chris any question
about honey bees, he'd be this passionate about bees as
I am about the birds.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
So when are we changing it from beer Casi to
Chris I'm around?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Could you imagine the people going on a beection? What
are they looking for?
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Well? Would they be able to pack their suit? You know,
like the picture the big white.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Like yeah, like yeah, he says he usually wears the
helmet of that sure when he's dealing with his bees.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Y bees in the trap, bees.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
In the trap. Uh, the lady, this is fine, Thanks
for your curiosity. This is a good way for me
to kind of get back on my feet on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah it was. It was real tweet to be here.
Get it like sweet? That's all I got.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
You can find? The lady actually operates, I mean our
social media we're trying to grow those.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
We're trying. Please help us out, all right.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
So how you'll find us and where on all the things?
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Just search kfab on Instagram, Facebook x go to kfab
dot com find all the links there and check out
all the great podcasts that have been archived. I know
that there's a big catalog of them, but a lot
of them are ever green. So a lot of our shows,
my show, nice to have it on demand. Yeah, if
(34:22):
you can't listen when they're regularly on air, or just
missed it the first week they came out, go revisit.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
I love that. Yeah, thanks Delaney, You're great.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
All right, and you know what, I'm going to be
back tomorrow. My Tuesday guest is scheduled to be Alexis
bulos Is, general manager of Union Omaha great soccer club.
Here excited to have that conversation.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Guess wait, guess what their mascot is.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
It's now that's a bird. Yeah it is, Yeah, it is.
I need to do more bird like ours are tough
to log. You really have to be outside at the
right time to like AC one or b here one. Uh,
those are tricky. I'm only logged one owl. I need
more owls. I got a barred owl walks that was owl.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Let you know if I run into one.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
All right, we I think we've used up our quota
on puns. Anyway, we will catch you here tomorrow on
the Emvery Songer podcast feed on the free iHeartRadio. Thanks
for listening and to have great rest of your day.
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