Fan Outdoors: Denny Fletcher, Stan Tekiela

The Captain is back with Bob St Pierre and is joined by Denny Fletcher and Stan Tekiela!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
From the fish filled Midwest lakes to the deep woods
of the North upland prairies filled with pheasants, to the
whistling wings of duck ponds. This is Saturday Morning Fan Outdoors,
your show for hunting and fishing tips, topics and conversations.
You can also send us a question or opinion by
emailing us booth at kfean dot com. Here's your host,

(00:38):
the Fans, Captain Billy hildebrand.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Stee, Good morning Fan Outdoors, faithful. Yes, good morning to you.
It's dark. Well, I don't know if it could get
more dark, but this is a cabin cast, one of
the final ones of this season, and my executive producers

(01:07):
smiling broadly right now, but I am not. But it's okay.
The chuckling in the background, yeah, that is my co host,
mister Bob Saint Pierre. Good morning, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Good morning. So you've got closing up the cabin on
your brain.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Huh, Well, I do. I got here yesterday because I
was in the Cities for some family things and I
got here. It was forty degrees in here and just
a bit nippily.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Nippy, to say the very least. But we've got the
temperature corral that about seventy one degrees and it's forty
eight forty six outside right now.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
You have inslation in the cabin, I guess you have.
You don't have it in the walls, do you?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
In the newer part of this old cabin there was
insulation at one time. It was blown in when my
aunt built it, and it seems to now all be
in the eaves. Okay, it's moved and I've thought, I've
thought a lot about putting bad insulation up there, but

(02:32):
it sounds like a lot of work.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
So it's essentially a three season Oh, very definitely, Yeah,
very definitely, because the water pipes are not that far underground.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Although the septic is okay, but I've got a couple
issues with that and I'm dealing with it. But yeah,
the septic is good. That's been there for quite a
while too. But the water pipes are that's a concern.
I would try to stay here because i'd have to
do something to keep them from freezing. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
I just I think about how much you love that place,
and it'd probably be a pretty significant investment to get
it winterized.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
I think, so. I mean underneath the floor here is dirt.
It's honest to goodness. I'm not sure exactly how old
it is, but the fireplace is fieldstone, and from the
all accounts that I can deduct, it's about one hundred
years old on the small part. And a gentleman lived

(03:38):
here twelve months a year and he liked to drink wine.
And when I'll never forget when my aunt bought it,
there's a trapdoor that I have to go in twice
a year, and I just really dread it, but I've
got to shut a valve off underneath there, so I'm crawling.

(04:00):
But when she bought it, underneath that trap door, it
must have had well, it was filled with gallon bottles,
and I kept one in there for a long time
just as something that I could talk about. But I
have since gotten rid of that when the mice invaded
the place and they filled it with acorns. So that's

(04:24):
long gone too.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
When you say it was filled, are we talking a
dozens or one hundreds and hundreds hundreds? So it drink
a finish off the wine and just open the trap
door and drop the bottle in the basement.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Yeah, But here's the interesting thing. He, like I said,
he was here all year long. But there there is
an artesian well which runs, you know, twenty four to
seven all year long, and it has for years and
years and years. Well, he had the water that now
runs basically he just trickles into the lake, but he

(05:03):
had it running from a pipe from the well the
overflow underground through an ice box in this little small basement,
which if a tornado came, I think I just soon
get blown away. Then I have to spend a lot
of time down there because it's real tiny and it's
dirt open on one end. So he had the pipe

(05:25):
running underground through an ice box out the other side,
the north side of the cabin, and then threw a
stone pond and into the lake. Well that kept his
food from freezing in the winter, and it kept things
cold in the summertime because the water. As a kid,
we used to see how long we could hold our

(05:47):
hands in the water and to see who would win. Well,
I never won Lands good Lands. It cold here easily.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
What decads are we talking about this guy living here?
When did you're aunt by the well?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
She owned it for six sixty years, I believe, and
I have owned it for almost twenty. Okay, so it's
it's quite a while ago.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Yeah, like the forties is when the other guy would
have been in there, right, it.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Could have been could have been maybe it was doing
it during Prohibition too, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, maybe there was some bootleg in a line going
on in your head.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
There could have been Center Cabin.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
There is. There's a history out here too, which is
kind of fascinating because there is if you go out
by the road, you can see the old wagon trail
that would go to Diamond Point on the lake and
that's where some of the first settlers were. But then
there's a rock and Sock Center that marks the corner

(06:55):
of one stockade that they built and during the Sioux
Uprising that protected settlers and out in one of the
favorite places you like to start your dogs out in
that country.

Speaker 5 (07:12):
I'm picking up what you're putting down.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yes, well, the story goes because my aunt Ivy did
the a history of Sock Center and that's in the
library in town. But you can so she said with
her research, there's settlers out there at the beginning of

(07:39):
the Sioux Uprising. They said that no, they he was
okay out there and so, but they didn't hear from
him in town. And I've got all this documented and
some papers that she found at a library someplace. And
so local people went in a wagon horse drawn wagon

(08:01):
out that direction, pulled by horses, and it took them
a day to get out there. They were looking to
find him and bring him back. Well, what they found
out there was I believe a burned out building. Plus
they found his body in one place and this farmer's
head in another, and so that then they came back

(08:23):
to town and whatever. Yeah, there's quite a bit of history.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah, Sinclair Lewis is probably the most famous person from
Socks entity.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
Your family have any connections there?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, my aunt, my mom's mother lived in the Sinclair
Lewis house before it was a destination.

Speaker 5 (08:44):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
So I've spent a lot of time in that house
as a kid and it was nothing special then. I mean,
but you know, small towns look for acclaim to fame too.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, speaking of a claim to fame, have you ever
seen a pig on a leash inside?

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Yes? Yeah, me too.

Speaker 5 (09:07):
On the open.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Pient season, there was a ginormous hog a leash walking
down the steps of the Palmer House, which is also
a famous spot for.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
That'll be busy come Halloween.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Do you do you have any background as to why
there was a pig on a leash in socks Center?

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Are you kidding? No? I was the mast and one
of the one of the girls with us. She wasn't
amazed at all because they used to have one.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
When she was It's a sock center thing.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
You saw the pig.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
We're not too big into dogs around here. We just
like our pigs.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Goodness, Grace.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
I've told the great pets you know, I'm gonna pass.
I'm gonna pass this one.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
He was walking behind the person holding the lead, so
he was in no hurry to go anywhere. And I
kept thinking to myself as I drove through town, I
almost ran into somebody ahead of me too. I was
rubber necking pretty hard. But how did they get him
in the car?

Speaker 5 (10:26):
Well?

Speaker 3 (10:27):
So I have one other pet pig connection, which is
I didn't have this on our bingo card this morning.
But Nick Hoffman, who we've had on the show multiple times,
former fiddle player of Kenny Chesney's band and has a
TV show on Outdoor Channel called Nick Wild Ride. Nick

(10:49):
in his home in Last None Less Face, Nashville. He
lives in Nashville nowadays. Originally from now then Minnesota, but
he lives in Nashville. He had a pet pig for
a long time. I had him on the podcast at
Pheasant Fest I think two years ago, and I was

(11:10):
kind of, you know, joking around, like cause he's got
all these dogs and goats and all sorts of like
he had a pig and his pig had just passed,
and he's like that pig.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
I was closer to that pig than any dog. I mean,
he was. He was torn up.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
He was I was asking sort of jokingly and he was.
He was coming to tears, like, oh, I did not
know I was touching this chord, but apparently they are.
They have a tremendous amount of personality. I just don't
know how you keep a pet pig at a house.

(11:50):
It seems a little bit a little much.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
I've got some smoke pork chops out in the free well.
I guess flinckle that every time we have pork shops.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Now, in my previous job at the Saints, Saint Paul Saints,
you know, we have we had a pet pig mascot
with a saddle that would bring baseballs to the umpire
between innings in the saddle.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
How did we get on this pig talk so much?

Speaker 2 (12:17):
You started it?

Speaker 3 (12:18):
I didn't, But we would get a certain person that
would call every single morning after a game and asked
for proof that the pig was still alive and that
we had not roasted it that night.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Swear to God.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Uh yeah, So there's your pig story for the day,
or pig story.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
You know how to call. You know how they call pigs,
not me.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
They I have no idea. Come on, really, I'm waiting
for you to demonstrate.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Okay, well we will. We have to go to break,
so we'll leave this as ours our final side before
we go to break. Because what I have heard of this.

Speaker 5 (13:05):
For future drops.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
What I have heard is that when they do call pigs,
it'll go sue, sue. So there you go.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
We're off to a blazing start this morning.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Well, right now, coming around the corner is a sock center, right,
and he will join us, and he's going to talk
to us a little bit about fishing, because there is
no shortage of boats. Ei. There was a boat across
the lake yesterday when I arrived here. He was in
one place for five hours, going back and forth. Oh,

(13:40):
they must have been on something. But maybe he's trying
to get his motor started. I'm not sure, but we'll
take that pause and we'll be back right away with
mister Denny Fletcher, a Fletcher's Mate and Tackle.

Speaker 6 (13:54):
Yeah, we're back pan outdoors October twenty fifth, coming your way.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
In fact, this is appropriate because I see green lights
on the bow of a boat heading north right now,
and our guest is mister Denny Fletcher, the owner of
Fletcher's Bait and Tackle. Denny, some people are really really
dedicated because it's darker and dark and they're going up

(14:45):
the lake. Buddy.

Speaker 7 (14:47):
Yeah, good morning, Bill. I was just amazed yesterday morning.
I open up the shop at six o'clock. I have
four rigs parked in the bait shop and it's twenty
two degrees outside, and I'm thinking, how can you guys
stand the out there this morning? But these guys are
really after these walleyes out here.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Unbelievable. Like I said, before we got we went to break,
there was a boat right across the lake from me.
He was in the same place for about five hours,
and I don't if he moved. It wasn't further in
about twenty to thirty feet. They got to be biting, Daddy,

(15:26):
the while I.

Speaker 7 (15:26):
Bite on Sock Lake this fall has been incredible. That's
the only word I can think of that I mean
this is this has been as good as it gets folks.
And granted, you go out there on a good day
and good outing, you catch anywhere from fifteen to twenty
five thirty walleyes to keep maybe you know, three four
five fish if you want to take some home for supper.

(15:47):
But the bite itself has been just superb. And it's
not just SoC Lake Lake Osakis is as good as
it's been for the foreseeable as far as I can
think of. And then we got Lake Reno, Lake Lake Mary.
These walleys this this fall have been really really good bite.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Why do you think that is, Denny? Is it because
the summer was kind of crazy as far as weather goes?

Speaker 7 (16:15):
You know, I really don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (16:20):
I've been harvesting wild, wild, wild, wild mintals out out
of a couple of creeks here because our rivers are
so flooded and this time of year, the the chubs
and the Silver River signers can become a really popular
walley made. So I've been working a couple of small
creeks south here, and uh, when the water temperature hits
a certain degree, and granted a lot of these small

(16:42):
creeks are fed by by spring water and or drain
tile water, which is really really cold. So these when
when when these creeks get to the point coolness wise
to these mentals, and these creeks will all get together
and they'll they'll go downstream to wherever they came from,
being a mate being at a major river or a

(17:03):
lake systems such as Osakis or Suck. And that has
happened alreadiness. It's it's way early for that. So I
think that the water temperature, between the water temperature and
and what happened throughout the throughout the summer, with with
the with the temperature in the waters has has dictated
what's going on right now. That's the only thing I

(17:24):
can think of.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
What what percentage of anglers do you do you think
are still out there fishing right now?

Speaker 5 (17:32):
I mean, is it ten percent or is it even
less than that?

Speaker 7 (17:37):
Uh, it's probably less than ten percent. With the with
the exception of your dedicated Walley anglers, I'm seeing an
awful lot of my regular walle type customers still going fishing.
So with the avid walleye fishermen, they know how good
fishing is this time here, and there's a lot of

(17:57):
them still partaking. So I would say just that group
of fishermen, it's it's probably you know, a quarter or
half of the regular walleye guys.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Well and Danny. Yesterday right around it dark, I mean,
all of a sudden from the north came. It looked
like a tournament beginning in the morning because there was
just boat after boat after boat, and they were lined
up three to four across. I must have seen fifteen
to twenty boats coming down. It's amazing to me.

Speaker 7 (18:31):
We have had the busiest fall, and I'm talking like
the month of October specifically of mental sales in my
shop that I've maybe ever experienced. And these guys know
what they want, and they all want the same thing.
They either want shiners and chubs, and the fish are biting,
and these guys are going fishing. Unless they're working for

(18:53):
a living, they're going fishing just about every day. And
a lot of them don't keep a lot of fish,
that're just out there to enjoy the experience. So yeah,
it's been an awful lot of people fishing with a
furl awful lot of walleyes as well. It's been really
really nice to see all.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Right. Now, I've got to go this way before we
run out of time too, because have you got what
do you do when you're getting ready for the ice
season coming up? How do you have all those minerals
for people in stock? Where do you keep them? What
do you do with them?

Speaker 7 (19:27):
Okay, Sean and his two boys, Noah and Hunter, just
finish up our twelve sucker pond harvest and they put
all those minerals in my north farm within the big
pond that we have aeration, and that will be the
suckers for this winter and then next spring in summer.
They just started two days ago now on the golden

(19:50):
shiner harvest, and for us that's super important. And we
got to about a dozen twelve thirteen golden shiner ponds
to harvest. We'll catch as many of them as we
can out of all of thems grow up ponds, and
we'll put them in the two aerated man made ponds
over on our east farm with aeration. These are small ponds,

(20:11):
one acre ponds and you pour up to six seven
eight hundred gallons depending on how our harvest is in
these two small ponds, and to where in the wintertime
when you need each each week, when you need a
bunch of mintals, you just go out there and you
harvest what you need for that particular week. So it
makes it pretty pretty assured that you're going to have

(20:34):
a good supply of golden shiners through the wintertime.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Well, what about the brass season those danny aren't they
pretty popular in this winter time too?

Speaker 7 (20:43):
Very I've got mother nature threw us a wrinkle this year,
which is not unusual in this business. If you farm,
mother nature kind of dictates what you do. And I've
got a humongous population of brassy shinings this year, but
because we had such a cold spring and first half
of June with all the rain, we didn't get the

(21:07):
growth that we'd like. So even though I've got I've
got plenty, plenty of brassy shiners, they didn't get to
that three and a half to four inches we'd like.
They're more than that two and a half to three
in size. But having said that, in the wintertime it
does not seem to matter. You put a small brassi

(21:27):
on one of them fine wired blow in the dark
winter hooks, and these waleys just they just smacked the
tar out of them. So we'll be in good shape
with Brassy's the fathead middles statewide. Also, we didn't get
the growth in our fatheads where we got those nice
twenty one grade faththds. They are smaller, and I've talked

(21:48):
to several bait dealers that I know across the state,
and everybody's kind of in the same boat. Whereas generally speaking,
all the mindals in the state of Minnesota aren't going
to be smaller this fault than they generally are due
to the weather, and there's just nothing we can do
about that.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
I can't remember who I talked to Denny, but somebody
said that they wanted this. They are crappie meadows, real
tiny crappie middles, because that's what the fish were biting.
And I'm not sure if there are pin mindows, I'm
not sure what they are, but that's what he wanted that.

Speaker 7 (22:23):
We see that a lot in the winter time bill,
especially for a crappie fishermen, they want a crappy middle
that's like three quarters of an inch or an inch long.
And we try to accommodate that whenever we can. Sometimes
we can, sometimes we can't. But in the fall, the
size of the middle is that people want get smaller.

(22:43):
With the exception of some of these avid walleye fishermen,
they want a really big shiner or a really big
jub up to five five and a half six inches.
You know, we have that for those guys also. So
I don't know why person to want to use a
middle that big, but enough of guys do that we

(23:04):
bring them in and we sold sell a fair amount
of those.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
Interesting Now you were showing me a mineral that I
had never seen before, a racehorse something or whatever.

Speaker 7 (23:17):
Yeah, because our rivers here are so flooded from all
the rain this year, believe it or not, our rivers
here are still either up to or out of their banks.
I had to go south to a couple of small,
small creeks that that that go into some of the
major rivers. And because the because the Sock River and

(23:39):
the south branch of the of the of the Saint
Croix or the south branch of the Crowing are so flooded,
these minerals went up these these smaller tributaries and I
happened to find one that had a bunch of them,
and I haven't I haven't worked that river for over
twenty years, but it has a bunch of racehorse jubs
in it, and it's a it's the only place I

(24:00):
ever saw that chub. Talking to some fishermen they stay
down in the Rochester area, there's there's quite a few
of those middles, but anyway that take particular chub, they
named them appropriate because they are the fastest mental I've
ever tried to catch in my life. And here I
found out that some people, quite a few of my

(24:22):
fishermen and friends, have told me that they think that
that that's as good a wall I catching mindal as
the redtails and the creek jubs. So what we got
this year, it's because of that. I've got a tank
that's got both redtails, creek jobs and racehorse jobs. And
some people this is you know, it's funny at different

(24:43):
places that middals are called different things, But that particular
middle has been called a racehorse jub. It's been called
a rock socker, and so it's it's it has different names,
but it's really a good mental that is something that
hardly nym customers have ever seen before, and I don't
see it very often myself.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
I've got to agree with it. I hadn't never seen
one before you showed me, but they sure do goal.
I mean they jump and yeah, they I think those
are the something that you've got to screen over, don't you?

Speaker 7 (25:17):
In the in the bait we don't, Yes, sir, If
we don't keep a screen over them, they'll all be
on the floor in the morning.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
They are.

Speaker 7 (25:24):
They are the craziest jumping mintal I have ever seen.
You definitely got to keep your lid on your mental bucket.
I tell the guys that don't leave that lid in
that mental bucket or that cooler open, because you're gonna
lose all your mentals.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
I think that's awesome. Daddy, are you Are you seeing
lots of deer hunters coming into you know? I don't.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
I don't sell any any deer hunting equipment or shelves
or anything. And several years ago Kathy and I decided
we're just gonna have Fletcher's make being a bait shop.
So other than selling some license, which we do, I
don't see a lot of the hunting stuff because we're
not really in that game per se, so other than

(26:07):
talking to fisherman who happened to be out bull hunting
or hunting small game, and we just don't get a
lot of that information here anymore.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
All right, just to check and too, Denny, we're going
to be out of time, my friend, but I appreciate
your time, and we will talk again as the as
we get closer to hard water. And I'm going to
sob big tears in just a moment, but that's kind
of my issue. But anyway, Denny, thank you so much

(26:37):
for all that you've offered and all that you shared
with us and our listeners, my friend, and I'll see
you real soon.

Speaker 7 (26:44):
You bet been my pleasure, my folks.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
That's Denny Fletcher, Fletcher's Bait and Tackle. We'll take a
pause and we will be right back with the mister
Stan Tequila. Oh, by the way, he's got a new
book out, dude. We'll talk about that along with he's
got a new channel that you can watch.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
It's so cool.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
We'll be right back with Stan after this.

Speaker 8 (27:15):
Welcome back to Fan Outdoors, joined now by author, naturalist and.

Speaker 5 (27:20):
Photographer Stan Tequila.

Speaker 8 (27:22):
Whether it's in Minnesota, Alaska, or Africa, He's always in
search of all things wild and natural. He may even
know more about animals than they do themselves.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
And you thought the cat knew the outdoors.

Speaker 8 (27:38):
Here's fan favorite Stan Tequila on fan.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Outdoors, Stan, good morning. Are flying squirrels active? Are flying
squirrels active all night long?

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Didn't even give him time to say hello.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
No, I was just thinking that. I gotta.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
I want to get that in good grief, Captain. Let
the guy breath.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
No, there's no breathing when I'm around, because I have questions.

Speaker 5 (28:17):
Holy mackerel, Good morning, guys, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Stand Go ahead and ask it again, Captain, and get
it out there.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I've gone it. I want to forget. Sorry if
I have to ask it again. Are flying squirrels active
all night long?

Speaker 5 (28:34):
Absolutely without a doubt? And we can prove it. I
feel like I've been set up here, so uh, you
can what I started last week with a live stream
of my flying squirrels. So now people who've been hearing

(28:55):
me talk about them for years and years and hearing
Billy talk about them for years and years can actually
see them because a lot of people don't don't see
these flying squirrels. They are, you know, they come out
at night obviously, and they're you know, just hard to see.
So what I did was, I've set up a camera
that has night vision on it and it's video and
it's live, and I just put it on my feeder

(29:19):
and now I stream it. So you can go to
naturesmart dot com and then stroll down at the bottom
of the first page, the homepage, and you'll see there's
gonna be a link for a live feed there. Or
you can go to YouTube directly and go to nature
Smart Media and you'll find the link there also. And
I started, Yeah, I started right at sunset, so it's

(29:41):
not running now. I just turned it off. In fact,
it runs. I run it all night long. I'll probably
change that in the future to run maybe two three
hours or something like that. We'll see. And you can
tune in. The main thing to do is to tune
in right when it's getting dark because they are just
we get three, four, five at a time, who come,

(30:01):
you know, zipping in and there's always squabbles, and they're
always sitting together looking adorable and you know, having a
good time. So anyhow, like I said, you can go
to nature smart dot com and take a look at
that Hey, and while you're there. While you're there at
nature smart dot com, you can sign up for my
new newsletter. I just started this a couple of weeks

(30:22):
ago also, so now every two weeks you get an
email from me with a of my blog posting plus
any kind of trips and extra things that I'm you know,
working on and things like that. So people, and of
course it's free, and of course it's just me. I
don't you know, I don't work with anybody. I don't
sell it to anybody or anything like that. It's just me.
So people can go to nature smart dot com and

(30:44):
then sign up for the the newsletter. Also while they're
checking out the live feed for the flying squirrels and
by the way, and there's one, there's wait wait there's more.
Uh and then wait if all goes yeah, it all
goes well. I'm setting up a second camera this weekend
that we'll also watch the flying squirrels, but it'll see

(31:05):
them flying in. So you'll actually see them gliding in
because the current one just has the feeder. It's real
tight shot on the on the feeder. This one will
show this flying squirrels flying in. Hopefully I'm working on
it right now. I was building it yesterday and doing
some testing on the cameras and it's a newer four

(31:25):
K camera that hopefully is going to be able to
do and it's a what they call a PTZ camera
at pans it tiltsid zooms and things like that, so
we should be able to have some fun with it too,
and that'll all be on the live feed also.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Well, I watched it. I watched it for a while
yesterday last night, Stan and when I watched them come in,
I couldn't see them come in, but I knew what
they were doing because all of a sudden they show
up on the side of the feeder and it's so cool.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yeah, really see and that's what Yeah, that's my like
of it. I like what I have now, but it
doesn't show the full story. It doesn't show them, you know,
gliding in or flying in. And this new one is
going to be a new feeder. I'll run both of
them at the same time, so you'll be able to
see the close up of the feeder and then you'll
see a wider view to be able to see them

(32:14):
coming in. And this will probably be at two different locations,
so which is kind of fun. By the way, I'm
doing this at my house, so I got one feeder
in my front yard, one feeder in my backyard, and
we'll see how this goes. I could be in for trouble,
who knows. But anyhow, for those those interested in flying squirrels,

(32:35):
you're gonna love it.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Do people see flying squirrels and they miss in identify
them as like red squirrels or any or they just
are not seen because they're so nocturnal.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
They're just not seeing them unless you're like a campfire.
And now I believe, Bob, you've said that before, where
you've been like standing and I can't fire someone saw
one fly by or something like that. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly,
but any rate, that's how most people see them. They
don't really get to see them see them. Some people
get lucky because they're at their bird feeder and they

(33:18):
turn on the light outside and then they can see
them briefly before they all take off. But generally speaking,
most people don't see them. So and to answer you know,
more specifically Bill's question, there's been many times where five
six o'clock in the morning, like right now, they're still
coming into the feeder, there's no more peanuts left, you know,

(33:38):
they've cleaned them out, but they still stop in the
chack just in case. So they are active right up
until the time gets dark or excuse me, until the
time gets light. And lately mine are coming out, I
don't know, twenty minutes a half hour before it's dark.
So they're really they're they're showing up at the feeder looking,
you know, early while it's still light out. So and

(34:02):
they get conditioned to these things too. They get conditioned
to the food.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
So if the food isn't their stand for a few
days or something, do you lose them? Do they get
bored and look for other sources of food.

Speaker 5 (34:15):
Well, it's not so much as they get bored, is
that they need to find food every day in order
to survive, and so they go out looking for it.
And they have many places in which they go to
find food, and they are they will store some of
the food for the winter time. So they do take
a bunch of the peanuts back to their nest and
then they'll store those in the winter time. So there's

(34:39):
you know, it's like bird feeding. People say, well, I
can't go on vacation because you know, my birds it's like, no,
they'll they you know, they have wings and they know
how to use them. You know, they will fly to
the next feeder or to the next area. And your
flying squirrels will have like a circuit in which they
move around from place to place to place where they
know where the food's at, and they just kind of

(35:00):
move around from place to place looking for this food.
And so it's it's generally not a problem because there
will be plenty of nights where I'm not feeding them. Uh,
but you know, generally almost every night, I'm pretty good
about that. And then I usually send out something on
Instagram and Facebook to say that hey, we're streaming live

(35:21):
and for people to check in, so.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
You have a lot of nice new updates on your website.
Another one that's grabbed my attention is a wanted poster that.

Speaker 5 (35:35):
Do you have a question?

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Do you have any interesting wildlife in your backyard? Contact
Stan and you'll come photographic give us an idea of
what your what would trip your trigger?

Speaker 5 (35:49):
Stan, I have.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Another flying squirrel question before you change.

Speaker 9 (35:52):
Too much, Okay, I will I guess back away from
the microphone, all right, I guess this is I guess
this is Bill show.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
So it is.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
All right, good, all right. I just got a text
from Tommy George and who is listening. He always is,
and he wants to know if the full moon will
have any impact on the flying squirrel activity.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
Uh, generally not. They they're active every single night, whether
they want to be or not. This is life or
death for them. They have to find food, especially when
we start heading into the winter, They're out there, you know,
specifically looking for food. And so they have to do this.
So following cycles of the moon is not something that

(36:46):
they have the luxury of doing. They have to get
out there every single you know night and they're looking
for food. Now, having said that, there are times where
the weather is so bad that the flying squirrels don't
come out and they'll stay, you know, hold up for
about you know, a day or a night, I should say,
and then come out the following night, depending on how
bad it is, depending on how much food they have,

(37:08):
depending on how far away your feeder is from their home.
Those types of things will all determine whether or not
they are, you know, how active they are.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Do they store food like a chipmunk or some of
the other animals.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
Yeah, they do a certain amount of it, not a
huge amount. Chipmunks will do a large large amount, and
where the flying squirrels do a smaller amount, and they
typically these flying squirrels for the winter, so coming up here,
the winter housing is usually always a tree cavity, so
it's inside of a tree, and they don't you know,

(37:46):
so those are limited and they're often very valuable places
for protection. And unlike gray squirrels that make a leaf
nest called a dre those dray nests they use as
temporary housing and they can use them. The flying squirrels
don't have that, so they have to get you know,

(38:07):
go to a very specific tree cavity and that's where
they live, which also, by the way, makes it vulnerable.
There's so many things going on here too. Because these
tree cavities are so highly sought after. Raccoons oftentimes will
utilize the same cavities, and the raccoons are not very

(38:30):
i don't know, clean, and they oftentimes defecate inside their cavity.
And then when the flying squirrels use these cavities, they
pick up something called raccoon roundworm, and it really affects
the flying squirrels. It affects their balance and affects their
you know, they have a hard time sitting up, they

(38:51):
have a hard time, they tremble and think things like that.
So you have to be really and that's it just
goes to point out how valuable tree can cavities are.
So for people who have any kind of property and
have you know, large dying trees with cavities in them,
they shouldn't be cutting them down. These are really extremely

(39:13):
important for any kind of habitat. All sorts of things
use them. And you know, you'll probably never know how
how many will use it, but they really do, and
the should be something you should should consider because I
know a lot of people just routinely just cut down
everything instead, and really you should leave some of the
things standing so that you got you know, not just

(39:34):
woodpeckers either. I'm talking lots of different things that can
use these.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Well. With the Emerald ash war out here anyway, there's
going to be a lot of dead trees, just what
I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (39:45):
Yeah, yeah, however, you know with the ash trees, ash
trees typically don't get big cavities in them. Well, having
said that that, let me take that back, because I've
got a fairly decent ash tree that's got a couple
of small cap but he's in it. But typically we're
talking about maples and oaks that and not even so

(40:06):
much as elms. But the bass woods can have some
nice cavities in them too, So you know, you know,
be mindful when you're out there looking at these things.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Okay, Bob, you got two minutes, Kay.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
Wanted poster, what.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Sort of backyard wildlife would peak your interest?

Speaker 5 (40:33):
And well, you'd be surprised because I would be interested
in just about anything. Uh, this is Bob's referring to
on my website again, nature smart dot com. You can
I have a wanted poster there, and so I'm always
looking for opportunities in which to capture wildlife and it
could be something as basic as a you know, a
Robin nest On up to fox Stends and things like that,

(40:54):
and people oftentimes contact me about that. I come by,
we set up a time and if I'm able to
capture images, what I do is I make a really
nice print for them, and you know, leave a print
with them of the wildlife that they had in their
backyard from my adventure. They're trying to get things, so

(41:14):
it's really kind of a fun thing to do, and
people get to learn about the wildlife that they do
have and they get to get a nice print to
put on the wall afterwards too.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Go ahead, probably.

Speaker 5 (41:30):
Thirty seven seconds.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
I saw a spotted salamander well a couple about a
week ago on my dog walk. It was rainy out
and you know, the temperatures were cooling. It was moving
as fast as the salamander would move. I'm assuming it
was looking for a place to hibernate. Where amphibians like that?

(41:56):
Where do they hibernate? Are they looking for water to
go to the bottom of a you know, some silt,
or where's a salamon going to hibernate?

Speaker 5 (42:06):
That is exactly where salabators are going to hibernate. But
at this time of year they're moving. They're they're migrating
from their summering areas to their wintering areas. And these
migration areas are kind of well traveled, but they're only
traveled in you know, in the fall, in the spring,

(42:28):
and uh, this is the time you can see them
the most. Now, would you say spotted salamon or do
you mean a tiger?

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Yeah, yellow spot so black body yellow spots yep.

Speaker 5 (42:39):
Yellow spot. Okay, so tiger salamanic because there is a
spotted salamonar it's got blue dots on it. So I
was just trying to classify clarify there. But yeah, these
tiger salamanners used to be found everywhere. You can find
them all over the place. People had them in their
window wells, in their house, all over the place, and
they are truly an indicator species of the health of
the environment. And uh tip. What happens though, is that

(43:01):
you've got these ephemeral ponds, these ponds where the salamoners
go to, and they kind of migrate to and from,
and then you know, somebody builds a house and boom,
right in the middle of their migratory path, and then
all of a sudden, you have all these salamanders showing
up and you're you're trying to figure out why. It's
because they've been using it that these are historic routes
that are that are used for generation after generation really

(43:21):
and yeah, so yeah, there's so much going on out there,
you guys that I don't think as we people kind
of quite grasp the magnitude of it all. But we
hardly see salamanders anymore. They just the numbers of them
are going down so much. They reminder that these animals

(43:45):
kind of absorb water through their skin from the environment,
and so therefore they are absorbing the chemicals that are
in the environment, and this is what their downfall is.
So they don't they don't actually drink per se. They
bring in the moisture through their skin, and then when
they bring in that moisture, they're also bringing in the chemicals,
which causes all sorts of problems for them.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Stan I think that the whatever the common frog is,
I've only seen a couple of them this summer, and
now when I do notice them, I never used to
pay much attention, but they strike a chord and it's
a memory cord that that's pretty cool. I haven't seen
a frog for a long time. I've seen lots of

(44:27):
toads out here because they seem to hatch and they're
just eighty beatty things in the summer, just micers almost
well just a little because the grandkids they're picking them
up all the time and calling them frog. So I've
got to correct things.

Speaker 5 (44:42):
But I can help you with that one. Yeah, So
those are American toads. We have two species of toad.
We have the American toad, and then we have a
Canadian toad. And this Canadian toad is a species. It's
only found in the far northwestern portions of Minnesota and
then up into Canada. And uh, they look almost identical,

(45:05):
but they sound very different from each other. And the
h just to help out with with the grandkids. And
when they're calling it a frog, they're technically, uh, not wrong,
because are you ready for this? I gotta get I
gotta get this right. All toads are frogs, but not

(45:27):
all frogs are toads. I'll give you a second to
think about that. So, yeah, so all all toads are frogs,
but not all frogs are toads. M yeah, I know.
So the way this works is is that a toad
is a type of frog. It's just that we as people,

(45:47):
we try to, you know, categorize things. That's what we
like to do. And and so these toads are a
type of frog. But they they're terrestrial. They have usually
bumpy skin, usually dry skin, and they live on the
ground except for when they're mating, because they mate in
the water. And whereas frogs tend to have wet skin,

(46:09):
smooth skin, not bumpy and they live in the water.
But they're all basically doing the same type of thing.
It's all a type of amphibian.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
And they don't give you to wards.

Speaker 5 (46:22):
No, they do not. I still get that question asked
to be all the time, and it's like, no, they
do not give you words. Now, what they do do,
which is kind of cool, is that they have these
little do do. They've got glands that they secrete a
toxin that when toad is you know, like picked up

(46:44):
by a dog for example, it releases these It's called
a paranoid gland. This paranoid gland emits this kind of
I don't know, it's like a yellowish, viscous substance and
it really tastes bad and the dogs don't like it
and it causes him to folment the mouth and it's
a real problem. So don't let your dogs pick up

(47:06):
the toads.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah, Stan, we have to take a pause. You're okay, Stan,
Let's do it wonderful. Before we do, I've got her
wish a very happy birthday to and from Alec to
day happy ye And yeah we will sing later, but
right now, and and she wasn't gonna want me to

(47:27):
use her last name, but I'm going to anyway and
logan happy birthday. So we'll take a pause and we'll
be right back with more Stan after this five minutes

(47:57):
past the hour of seven a m. On this Saturday
morning edition of Fan Outdoors, Bob Saint Pierre in studio
in the big chair, and our guest is the mister
Stan Tequila, and you can find him and lots of
new things that he's told us about on nature smart

(48:19):
dot com. Stan, you have a new book out too,
do you not?

Speaker 5 (48:25):
Well, I've got I'm working on a bunch of new books.
I've got six new books coming out in spring of
twenty six, so not for another couple of months yet,
but they are they're on their way. I don't have
the list in front of me, but there's a several
new books for the Midwest. I have a redo of

(48:48):
a book I did close to forty years ago called
Nature Smart. It's the name of my company and kind
of redone that book from a long, long time ago,
and it's it's what an adventure this has been. So
this is a book I wrote, like I said, forty
some years ago, and so I'm working on it now.

(49:12):
The publishers wanting me to to redo it and kind
of update everything and then make it more regionalized and
make it for the Midwest. And so I'm like, okay,
this is great. So they said send me the send
me the file. So they sent me the file and
I'm going through it and I'm thinking, why are there

(49:33):
so many typos and errors? And here I just couldn't
couldn't figure the darn thing out. And I got halfway
through the manuscript. As I'm going through this thing, and
it finally dawned on me. I was like, oh, I
know why this is all got so many typos. I
wrote this on a typewriter. There was no computers back then,

(49:54):
you know, to spell check and all that stuff. And
so I looking scratching my head, going why is this terrible?
Look at look at that?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Look at it.

Speaker 5 (50:01):
And I'm like, oh my gosh. So anyhow, so that's uh,
computers really help. They really do. Uh that I'm that
smart to notice that it's just that there's a bunch
of red squiggly lines underneath everything saying that it's all wild.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
I remember stand in college, I'd have to type my papers.
When I'm trying to type on something like that to
turn in. It looked like it snowed in my room.
I mean, Damasus, a ripped mountain. Crumple them up and
throw them on the floor, and it took me a
long time, and I usually had to height somebody to

(50:40):
do them.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
Somebody type it up. I use a lot of white
out on those things. But then it's really hard to
type over. You had to really wait till it's try
and then you can type over it. And in fact,
I think the first four books, five books I did,
we're all on a typewriter, and I turned in paper manuscripts.
So that was literally what I turned in, just like
you know the old book. Just here you go, title

(51:02):
page and all. It's so things have changed dramatically.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
I bet they have, but I'll bet there's lots of
other things. Did you find anything on the on the
book that was that old stand that was you had
to change because it's no longer act? Yes?

Speaker 5 (51:20):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, there was. There was. I was reading
through and going, oh, this got a change. You know,
lots of lots of things. Here's a good example of it.
Throughout my career, we've always said that birds have very
little or no ability to smell. And now the latest
research is showing that, in fact, they probably do have

(51:41):
a fairly decent olfactory system, and they're basing this on
some uh you know, because you can't just ask them, here,
smell this, do you smell it?

Speaker 3 (51:49):
You know?

Speaker 5 (51:50):
Uh, So you end up having to look at the
brain of these birds and the olfactory lobe. There's just
this bulb, this little projection off the brain that is
really where all the scents are registered at, and they
look at that and see how large it is in
comparison to the bird, kind of like a comparison of size,

(52:13):
and then they're making their judgments from there. And then
there's been a researcher who did some great work on
dark eyed junkos. Dark eyed junkos are a small sparrow
type bird. They show up here in the wintertime, so
we don't have them in the summer, but they show
up in the Twin Cities area for the wintertime. They're
the ones that are just shown up now. They're kind
of gray and they come to your feeders and they're
probably one of the most common feederbirds in the wintertime.

(52:37):
And anyhow, they were doing studies with this with these
birds and discovered that they have the ability to differentiate
between different members of the family by their scent, by
how they smell. But what's more interesting about it is
that the smell that emanates from the birds comes from

(52:58):
the fact that they have a lot of birds, not all.
A lot of birds have an oil gland, as u
patrol gland that they squeeze and they can oil their
feathers with it, which, by the way, we always thought
was for waterproofing, turns out it's not. Anyhow. Bacteria, which
our microscopic feed on the oil, and as the bacteria

(53:21):
are feeding on the oil that's on the bird's feathers,
the bacteria gives off a smell and that's what the
birds are smelling. And that's in each one of them
is a little bit different because their oil is slightly different,
and that's how the birds are telling the difference between them.
So it's going back to what I said earlier, there's
so much going on in nature that we just have
no clue about. We just it's right there under our

(53:43):
noses pun intended. You know that it's right there and
we don't even know it.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Well. I always wonder too, because when a field is harvested,
you might see one or two, either ducks or geese
or just a small number. But the next day they
are just hordes of them coming in. That is, they'll
come in by the hundreds. And they've got to either
communicate in my eyes or they they rely on their

(54:14):
eyes and see it. But I don't understand how one
or two birds can impact a number so large in
twenty four hours.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
Oh yeah, they communication between individuals of bird individuals is
well documented and it's something that and they share this
information which is amazing, and they're able to communicate that,
you know, where the food sources are at. In addition

(54:46):
to that, they follow, like right now, what I see
a lot of In fact, I always stop the other night,
and I kind of kicked myself not doing it, is
that when they're farmers are their fields. What they're doing
is they're turning over the soil and it's exposing all
the grubs. And then you get these gulls behind them,

(55:08):
hundreds of them. Who has the you know, the tractors
going along the gulls. The ones in the back are
moving to the front, and the ones you know, and
then it kind of keeps they keep rotating over each
other and I was driving along and I was watching
this and I thought, oh, and the sun was on it,
and it was it was like late day. It was
absolutely perfect. I thought, I need to stop and do

(55:30):
some video of that because it's such a remarkable thing.
I didn't, and now I kicked myself for it. But it's, uh,
it's very common for them to do that, and they
find these grubs in the fields. So really those birds
as they're doing that, are helping the farmers a lot, uh,
and any kind of spilled grain. Also they're they're grabbing,
so it's a you know, it's kind of a reliable

(55:53):
food source for them and they're taking advantage of it.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Interesting. Yeah, and I'm it's always just a mez me.
Some of the things we don't know that now we
do after listening to you and some of the stories
and some of the wisdom that you impart on. Bob,
not me, but I'm.

Speaker 5 (56:11):
Bob am I am I allowed to talk again, Captain.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
I don't know if it depends what you're going to say.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
I was gonna correct stand and say seagulls, but I
probably get I was wondering, though, why is it just
the goals that are you know, Johnny on the spot
to get those grubs, because there's an awful lot of
different birds that you know, would take that meal if

(56:42):
they could.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
Just they're used to it.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
They've they've been conditioned to look for the tractor and
be ready to roll.

Speaker 5 (56:49):
I mean, what why why gulls for that, you know,
food source. It's something that they've they've learned and they're
taking advantage of and they're the ones who are in
the flocks. I mean other birds take advantage of it,
but they're just not in flocks.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
I know.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
Santial cranes take advantage of it too. They move in
after the you know, the equipment's gone, and they'll go
around and feed that way also, So that's very common.
So it's a it's just a matter of that's the
species that happens to, you know, be well suited to
do that. And they're moving through right now in very

(57:27):
large numbers, migrating through. We have two species that are
migrating through right now. We have the ring built gull.
The ring bill is probably our most common gull. But
then we have Franklin's skulls. And the Franklin skulls are
this prairie gull from north Dakota and northwest Minnesota up
into Canada. Who are they They don't go to the shore. Basically,

(57:49):
they go to lakes and they're moving through. Also, this
is in the springtime. When you see the Franklin skulls,
they're a black headed gull, so you can notice that
at this time of the year, they're no longer and
breeding conditions, so they don't have that black heads. They
have a partial black head, which unless you get a
really good look at them, you're not going to see.
So take a little closer look at your goals next

(58:10):
time you see him. You'll notice some differences between the.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Two stand Normally we'd have to go, but are you
willing to give us a little bonus segment?

Speaker 5 (58:22):
I'd love to. Let's do it, all right, as long
as we can talk about flying squirrels, we can do that.
We can do that.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
And okay, coming right up, we're going to take a pause.
But coming up and from Alec this is for you,
Happy birthday. We're gonna have a bonus segment for Stan Tequila.
And only if you promise to go to nature Smart
and check out the flying squirrel camera tonight. Okay, everybody,

(58:51):
put your hands in the air. If you're willing to
do that, We'll take a pause and be right back
with a bonus segment, a fan or a tequila man.

(59:13):
We're back Fan Outdoors that is until the eight o'clock hour,
but keep it right here in the zone follows us
and it's it's always really really fun to listen to.
That would be with Trent Tucker and Davey Sinecon, Bob
Saint Pierre is with me and Fan Outdoors this week.

(59:33):
Stan Tequila is it's a bonus stand tequila by the way,
and we're delighted he's agreed to stay with us too. Bob,
do you want to kick things off? I'll ask you
this first before I shut you off.

Speaker 5 (59:50):
Great, thank you.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
Well, we've covered we've covered amphibians, and it got me wondering,
are already lizards? Yeah, you snakes will stay away from
snakes because but I was thinking about reptiles and are
there any lizards in the state of Minnesota.

Speaker 5 (01:00:14):
Yes, yeah, there is. We have a couple of different
prairie skinks. Skinks are type of lizard that are typically smaller,
not as thin as what we might think of a
you know, like a lizard. But excuse me, there can
be very common in some areas that have hillsides and

(01:00:38):
with good sunning areas. And they they're kind of brownish
with thin tan stripes running down them. But yeah, we
have a couple of different types of skinks, and then
we have a seven lined race runner, which is really
hard to find. Generally, they're found more in the southern
part of the state and then or so into Iowa,

(01:01:01):
and then you've prefer your south from there. But yeah,
we do have several lizard species excluding the snakes, reptile
species excluding the snakes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
Yeah, also, and I have not seen one in quite
a while, but the glass lizard. Glass lizards are a
legless lizard. They look just like a snake, but they
are not a snake. They are a lizard. I mean
that they have eyes, eyes that blink. It's just if

(01:01:34):
they don't have any legs, so they look like a snake,
but they're not.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
What So if it's a lizard that looks like a
snake without any legs, what makes it a lizard, Like
I said, blinks Snakes can't blink.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
There's yeah, there's a lot of anatomy differences between them.
Did you know that captain snakesky.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
I did not. I probably if I've seen one, I've
mistaken it for a snake, and I don't go there.

Speaker 5 (01:02:05):
You never got kind of steering contest with a snake.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
No, no, you don't want to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
Yeah. So snakes have a have a scale over their eye,
so they they have no eye lids and they can't blink. Uh,
So they obviously they sleep with their eyes open and
they have a single scale that goes across their eye.
Then when they are shedding their skin, you know, to

(01:02:30):
grow larger, and they have to shed their outer skin
to be able to come larger because they've got this
you know, constricting skin on them, the eye turns blue,
so you get this milky bluish color across their eye,
and then you know that the scale is coming off
of the eye surface. And at that point the snake
is basically going around not being you know, like with

(01:02:53):
bad cataracts, is what it's like. And so it goes
around for a while for a day or two even
more sometimes three days where it really can't see very well.
And then when it sheds the skin, the skin comes off,
the scale across the eye comes off with it and boom,
they've got this clear vision again and they can continue on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
So interesting. Can they go quite a while? Can a
snake go quite a while stand without food?

Speaker 5 (01:03:23):
Oh? Gosh, Yes, snakes can go many months sometimes without eating. Well,
the first of all, they do that in the winter time,
but that's not voluntary. But then voluntarily speaking, they can
go many many months without eating. At the nature center,
I remember we had a redtail boa who just refused

(01:03:44):
to eat for oh, I was better part of eight
months or so for eight months nothing, didn't need to think.
But what was so crazy about it was that it's
still defecated on a regular basis, so all this was
still in there. The digestive system these reptiles is so
slow that things take forever to get through its system,

(01:04:06):
and it extracts every bit of nutrients out of it
or whatever they ate, and they're so they're highly efficient
and they do really well. So yes, they can go long,
long periods without eating.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Interesting. I didn't realize that is the migration winding down yet.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
Some of them migration is Yeah, most of the migration
is winding down. I hesitate because if I want to
jump back in just a second to the reptiles amphibians
coming off this spring in twenty six I've got a
new field guide for the reptiles and Amphibians of the
Midwest coming out. So that's another one of those six

(01:04:48):
books that I couldn't remember all of them, and it
just reminded me, Oh, yeah, I haven't ne reptil amphibian,
but coming out in the springtime. But so back to
the migration. So yeah, there's still plenty of birds who
were migrating through. I don't know if you guys have
had a chance to check out the birdcast dot org,
but there's still plenty of birds moving through. I'll try

(01:05:09):
to do it while we're talking here to see what
what we had for you know, migration over hang on
one second, here we go and one and forty five
million birds last night. What you what you got?

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Yeah, that's the entire country. Uh yeah, because I'm looking
at Carver County, which is where I'm at right now,
and uh, they're showing.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
Very very few, if if any. So a lot of
the nighttime migrators are you know, are moving through and
now what we're seeing in the daytime migrators. These tend
to be the bigger birds, like sandhill cranes, hawks, eagles. Uh,
these birds are later migrators and the where's the smaller
birds who migrate at night? Oh yeah, I'm looking at

(01:06:00):
the nationwide map and it's mostly to the east and
down to the south through Texas. So we're so most
a lot looks like a lot of our nighttime migration
with our small birds are done at least for now.
I'm sure there'll be some stragglers coming through, but they've
they've really shifted over to the daytime migrators, like the

(01:06:23):
hawks and eagles in the in the cranes swaps one's
another big one too. Yeah, I've still seeing a few,
but most of them are gone.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Okay, Now, they don't fly straight down, do they. I
mean they don't. They don't head that way by themselves individually. Don't.
They hit the currents and kind of circle when they're moving. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:06:48):
They are a flock migrator, so they'll go together in
big flocks, and they use these thermals, these rising columns
of warm air, to circle around up and up to
get a free ride. Basically, so they ride these thermals
up high. As the thermals rise up, the warm air
cools off and as it cools off, it loses its lyft,

(01:07:10):
loses its ability to go up, so then it peters
out and then they kind of peel off of that
one thermal and they go and find another thermal and
ride that one up, and then they'll just keep on
riding one thermal after another as they move continually further south.
These again, are daytime migrating birds because they need those
thermals in which to fly on. Now you've got some

(01:07:32):
birds like cranes and swans who they can take advantage,
and they do take advantage of these thermals, but they
also migrate at night. So there's no steadfast you know
rule that says, oh, they only do this or they
only do that. That's simply not true. There's lots of
these you know depends and maybes and you know type
of migrators in there too. I'll throw one more topic

(01:07:55):
out before we run out of time. There's a lot
of folks keenly interested. And when the white tail deer
rut is going to kick in, what will influence that?
Is it light? Is a wind? Is a temperature? Is
it all? Okay? I have not been out yet. I
was supposed to go out this past week to for

(01:08:18):
the white tail rut and start checking things out. But
I was too busy putting together the flying squirrel camp
the sea priorities. Yea, so I didn't make it out.
Otherwise I could have had a good report for you.
I'm gonna guess I'm gonna go on a limb here
that some of the males are already running only because

(01:08:38):
they're males and that's what they do. And but you
know it's going to be more into you know, into November.
But I mean, after all, we are what this twenty
twenty fifth of October that's getting We're right in the custom.
I would be shocked if they're not running. I will,
hopefully in a couple of weeks when we talk again,
I'll have some reports for you. But my whole was

(01:09:00):
to get out this past week, but I have been
obsessed with trying to get this whole live is live
streaming going, And now I got one more camera I'm
want to put up here, probably later today, depending on
how the web it is out there, and then then
there'll be a matter of running the waters for it.
There's so much involved, and by the way I make

(01:09:24):
it sound like it's just me out there doing it.
I'm working with a good friend of mine, Tom Lawrence,
who is kind of my computer guru, and my daughter Abby,
who runs my website and does all my stuff. Without them,
none of this would be possible. They are just absolutely
amazing and doing such a great job at helping me out.
I got these hair brain ideas, and they try to

(01:09:46):
make it happen for me. So it's good to have
family who knows things. It's really great.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Yes, it is, Stan. I'm looking out the window. We've
got a little bit of light now now on the lake.
I can see a bunch of probably one hundred to
two hundred coots and they kind of common goal they
should be. I can't believe there's many more left because
they they are big flocks out there, and all of
a sudden in the morning they're gone. But they suld

(01:10:14):
move up and down the lake feeding.

Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
Yeah, they are a later migrator too, and they will
come through in big flocks like that the rest overnight
on the lake and then you know, get moving again
during the daytime. So we expect to see that at
this time of year too. I have not checked the
numbers up at hawk Ridge lately, but I would imagine
they're doing pretty good up there too, because we've had
some pretty favorable weather to push the birds along, and

(01:10:41):
we are moving into November here, so we're going to
be seeing the eagles will be moving next so I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
And as a waterfowler, you always kind of hope that
there's going to be a storm up north to push
waterfowl down. And sometimes they stay a while. Sometimes they
just maybe they don't keep going out and then they're gone.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's there's a lot you could do
at this time of year too, if you're not out
hunting there. I was out repairing all my wood dot
boxes yesterday and uh, just because they kind of beat
up over the summertime, and so you can get out there.
If you're talking about waterfowl, you want to, you know,
try to do some things. It's good to repair the
existing ones you have right now. I would wait to

(01:11:30):
put up new ones till the spring or uh, you know,
depending on where you're gonna put them if you can
get them in the ground. But you get the pole
on the ground now and then maybe put the box
up come up springtime. But this is a time year
to be out there doing that type of stuff too.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
Stan, thank you for bonus time that you've given us
this morning. It's much appreciated. But we will chat again
in a couple of weeks. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 5 (01:11:53):
All Right, guys, talk to you next time. Thanks Stan,
have a great Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Yes, that is Stania, one of our favorite guests ever
on Fan Outdoors, and he is a wealth of information,
something I have learned a great deal from somebody. But
I have also learned a brighter and a greater appreciation
for the wild outdoors than I had as a younger man.

(01:12:20):
And now I find a lot of things pretty fascinating
as I'm wandering around the fields in search of the
wiley pheasant or just going for a walk, which I
seldom do. There's usually a gun in my hand when
I'm walking. But we'll take a pause our final one
and be back with yours truly and Bob Saint Pierre

(01:12:43):
after this. Well, it's the final segment of Fan Outdoors today.

(01:13:14):
It's been really fun coming to you this morning. But
let's ask Bob Saint Pierre your plans for the weekend
and coming up.

Speaker 5 (01:13:23):
My friend, I am gonna go to the woods.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
I think this weekend I'm gonna go chase rough grouse
and timberdoodles around Woodcock season ends. If you can believe that,
we're starting to talk about the end of hunting seasons already,
but Woodcock season ends on November third. So this is
my last opportunity this weekend to get out because I'm

(01:13:51):
going to Missouri. I will not be with you next weekend.
I'm gonna film episode three of the Opening Day series
next weekend in Missouri for the Bob Boye Quail opener
in the state of Missouri with a biologist that works
for us and his dad worked for the Missouri Department

(01:14:13):
of Conservation. Kind of the appled in Far Fall, Far
from the Tree, sort of story about Bob boy Quail
and biologists. So I'm pretty excited to go do that.
And there's a chance that I might see some timberdoodles
and maybe even a rooster in Missouri. I've never hunted
in Missouri before, so lots of news, lots of firsts

(01:14:34):
next weekend, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
And most of the time what you hear from Missouri
is there are the turkey hunting down there, and I
know when I've fished down there on Oh Truman reservoir.
From time to time, I'll see in the bays, the
number of bays that are down there, I'll see turkeys
flying from one side to the other, and it's it's

(01:15:00):
really an interesting and interesting place to it. It's just
far enough south that things really don't freeze up down
there either.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Yeah, it's it's a really a growth state for our organization.
It's kind of what to Quail Forever. Missouri has become
what Pheasants Forever is in Minnesota in terms of number
of members and the active habitat projects. So there's a
good quail story to tell in Missouri. It's not a

(01:15:28):
state on a lot of people's radar, But yeah, I'm
excited to get first hand experience down there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Excellent. I know that yours truly will be out chasing
the wily rooster today. I'm doing some walking. I walked
yesterday for a while, but I haven't seen much. Of course,
I haven't really gone to the back ends of some
of the units that I need to get to and

(01:15:56):
because well, because my legs were well.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
The birds are definitely getting chased around. Uh, there's there's
a lot a lot of folks out peasant hunting largely
pretty good success. But it's one of those things when
the forecast is this year was very positive. It generates
a lot of a lot of license sales, which is

(01:16:23):
overall a good thing. And people are getting out and
enjoying the outdoors, the fields and the forests. But the
birds are they're sharpening up their survival skills right now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
Yeah. What what I am saying though, Bob, is I
drove fair amount of miles yesterday and there's a lot
of hunters out. Yeah, and I'm thinking, don't.

Speaker 5 (01:16:45):
These guys work? I wonder I wonder that about you.
You get to you get to hunt all week.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
Log.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
What are you seeing in terms of corn coming out?
There's a lot of standing corn. Yeah, yeah, which is
gonna make for a very good late season, I think,
because that's my experience too. Everywhere I drive the beans
have come out pretty quickly. But I think I saw
a report only twenty five percent of the corn is out,
which means seventy five percent of the corn is in.

(01:17:18):
And there's a lot of places for those birds to hide.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Yeah, there really are, and they come out. Well, we
call it a golden hour. For me, I usually call it.
I'm really tired.

Speaker 5 (01:17:33):
You call it happy hour, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:41):
And we've had the antless season. I think that's wrapped
up now, the special season. But that being said, that's
one of the topics I wanted to chat just a
moment about. And I'm disappointed in people because so many
hunters are just out for antlers.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
And.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
I remind them that this is the tool. Shooting on
hunters are the tool the DNR has to manage the
resource and people that pass on dose because all they're
doing is hunting for antlers or hunting for horns and
so to speak, which is not accurate as stand would

(01:18:23):
tell me, but it's they're doing the whole population a
bit of a disservice. And that doesn't include yours truly
at all, because I have I am not hunting for antlers.
I am hunting for meat to put in my freezer,
and I really I will enjoy it and I will

(01:18:47):
take multiple dose if the season and tags allow it to.

Speaker 3 (01:18:53):
Well, clearly you know where my heart resides when it
comes to vedicon. I love Venicey above pretty much all
on their meat, and I was wondering with the skyrocketing
beef prices, I wonder if that will influence either the
number of people out deer hunting or their willingness to

(01:19:17):
harvested dough, because you know, the expensive a hunting license
and a you know, you know, one piece of ammo
is a heck of a lot more affordable than you know,
what beef is right now.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
Yeah, And also people have to realize that a lot
of guys, a lot of people will just take their
animal to someplace else, a meat market or someplace, drop
it off and be done with it. And that's not
the case in this family whatsoever. I mean, usually it
ends up in my garage and we end up cutting

(01:19:56):
it up.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
And unless you make unless you make sticks, they're bacon.

Speaker 2 (01:20:00):
Out of it.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
Oh yeah, you do take some of it to processor.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Yeah, no, I do. We take trim, and I don't
take any of the good stuff, but we take trim
in and I'll have that made. Last year we made
it into cheddar summer sausage, and we had about thirty
pounds of that maid it's gone.

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
So I got one of the last bites at the
tailgate of the pheasant opener.

Speaker 5 (01:20:30):
Huh, you did. It's very good.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
It is really good. Everybody has got their own favorite
processor and we found ours to the Garfields Smokehouse is
where we take.

Speaker 5 (01:20:45):
Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:47):
So you go that past Alexandria then, yeah, it's not
too far past.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
But a lot of the trim is made into different
things there and they do a really nice job. As
far as the bacon goes, Von Hanson's is really hard
to beat. I mean it really really is. That's awesome bacon.
But it's expensive when you have trim process. It's spending

(01:21:14):
and maybe that dissuades some people too. But if you've
got trim that you don't want, I'll take it.

Speaker 3 (01:21:20):
Yeah, I was just gonna say that I'll take any
trim you don't want.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
And you know, both Eric and Chad we will. We
shoot we shoot bucks. But recently there's a guy out
in front of my place with a net out.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
Dog got it. It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. What's
can you see what he's catching?

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
Both standing up? I saw the net come out, and
it had to be a good one. I'm guessing. Oh,
I can't tell. I haven't got my binoculars out, my
my long eyes. I forgot what I was saying. Anyway,
But we do, we do the three of us. Our

(01:22:09):
family does shoot antlers deer. Yeah, yeah, as you know,
because you get some of that time to time.

Speaker 3 (01:22:17):
Quite quite grateful for any antler list deer or or
antler deer that comes with venice in my direction.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
Yeah, I agree as stan is too. I mean, people
don't misunderstand that man because he loves wild game and
he just has He said he doesn't have the killing
gene in him, and when we'll ask him, but he
is not against hunting whatsoever. He really really is enjoys it.

(01:22:47):
Some of the stuff that he has been gifted he
will keep until Thanksgiving and that will be his meal.
So that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:22:54):
You said you're going pheasant hunting today. I am.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
I am. Chat is actually coming up this evening, and
he and I are going to hunt tomorrow for the
day and but I'll go out by myself and and
just kind of wander around and see if we can
put something up. I've only I have only shot four shells,
and that was on opening day. But I haven't missed yet,
so I guess my record is intact.

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
How about you, Bob, I've shot My shooting percentage is
not four for four.

Speaker 5 (01:23:30):
Yeah, I think I'm one.

Speaker 3 (01:23:32):
For four maybe right now, but we'll we'll increase that
percentage as the season goes.

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
Do you do you think, Bob, but by changing species
as often as you do, does that impact that you're
shooting at all?

Speaker 5 (01:23:49):
I think probably a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:23:50):
I think there's I think I'm slow right now catching
up to pheasants. You know, if you just look at
the flight speed of a woodcock or a grouse compared
to a pheasant, a pheasant can reach sixty miles an hour,
and if it's windy, which it often is, they go
a lot faster.

Speaker 5 (01:24:10):
So yeah, that's my excuse.

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
You're starting to do it, Archie.

Speaker 3 (01:24:13):
I've been swinging at softballs and when I go pheasant
and it's hard to catch up to those fastballs.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
Well, we do appreciate you coming in today, my friend. Hey,
I want to say thank you also to mister Danny
Fletcher of Fletcher's Peyton Tackle, and a huge thank you
to Stan Tequila for giving us some extra time today.
But thank you for allowing Bob and I and my
executive producer Brett Blakemore to come to accompany us and

(01:24:39):
us on this journey we have so for Brett for
Bob Saint Pierre. I am Billy Hildebrand, wishing you a
fantastic weekend. God, we can't go fishing. It's not bad,
it's everybody's out there.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
Ta