Fan Outdoors: Stan Tekiela, Tackle Terry

The Captain is back and he’s joined by Stan Tekiela and Tackle Terry!

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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 KFEN dot com. Here's your host,

(00:37):
the Fans, Captain Billy Hildebrand.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Good morning, Fan Outdoors. Faithful, Yes, good morning to you.
Congratulations you have made it to yet another Saturday morning.
But Katie bar the door is cold. It is I
think this is the coldest day we have had this year,

(01:06):
and it's been plenty cold. I was outside, goodness, I
was outside the other day. What I was doing. Oh,
we were getting Eric's fishouse out of the yard stuff
and snowblowing. It felt like it was below zero. Then,
well we have managed that right now. And that's all
I'm going to say about it. I'm not gonna whine,

(01:27):
I'm not gonna complain. I'm not going to talk about
how long it will be until spring. Nope. On this
the thirteenth day of December, we are about not quite
halfway through the month. Gosh, and it is. It is
the last weekend of the Minnesota Firearm muzzleloader deer season,

(01:56):
and I may be goinging sound a little trepidation in
my voice. I may I might be going. I know
that Eric and Chad are after me to go, but
I'm just saying I have hunted in the past in

(02:19):
below zero weather, way below zero. In fact, one time,
my father, my brother, and myself went up north in
a borrowed pickup camper and we were there for the weekend.
My father had no interest, zero interest in going along,

(02:40):
but my mother, bless her heart, she insisted that he
accompany us, so that I think she thought that he
would be able to keep us safe. My dad didn't
want anything to do with that kind of weather. And
I'll never forget when we came back into the camper,

(03:02):
furnace was going wide open, and the snow never melted Nope,
never melted off the floor, and it was so cold,
I didn't know that the truck would start, but evidently
it did.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
And vehicles are much better, but this guy, I don't
know if I'm much better, and I don't know if
I really want to, but I guess time will tell.
We'll see how it ends up. I think it's going
to be a little bit less cold. Of course, when
you get to a certain point, it makes no difference anyway,

(03:40):
it really doesn't. But that being said, you know I
cautioned you earlier in the year to be careful when
you go hunting, and this will probably be an indication
of somebody who didn't listen.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's time for this week span outdoors.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Do has aup Fance post. This is a good nominee also,
and you might think it has something to do with
my producer Brett Blakemore, But who is going to travel
to Duluth and in some zero temperature sub zero temperature

(04:28):
He's going to go all the way up just for
what they very fondly refer to as a bit And
it's a good one. But I don't know, man, I
don't know if that boy from Des Moines has ever
been up way up north into Duluth in the weather.
That will just kind of shake his fillings in his

(04:52):
teeth if he has any.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
That's say, you bring a winter coat in the car
just in case.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
You better bring more than a winter coat. You better
bring some really warm boots. Too. It doesn't take a
lot for things to go awry. I'm just saying that. Anyway,
this guy, this guy calls himself a deer hunter. All right, well,
let me give you the headline that was in the
Star Tribune a couple days ago. It says, deer hunter

(05:21):
accused of illegally bagging moose in northeastern Minnesota. All right, accused,
So he hasn't been convicted. However, however, so the story
went that I had read and you can find it yourself.
This guy went, and he's in his mid thirties. This

(05:45):
guy went and got on stand, and you know, I've
talked about being careful what you shoot and what's behind
it and things. This guy said that he saw antlers,
not horns. As stand Tequila would say, no, he wouldn't
say that. He'd be yeah, he'd be chastising me. He

(06:09):
saw antlers through the brush, and that's all I mean,
I'm saying, that's all. He said. He saw how he
had been drinking the night before, But he'd have to
be he'd have to be falling down drunk in the
stand for this to be legitimate. And nothing's legitimate. So

(06:32):
when he saw the antlers being a deer hunter. Being
a deer hunter, I'm not sure where he was from.
Being a deer hunter. He thought, well, my gosh, there's
gotta be a deer there, and my heart's bounding. I
better do something. I gotta shoot. So he put the
rifle up, aiming below the antlers. I assume it was below.

(06:57):
Just said saw antlers. Shot. It wasn't a deer, he
saw only the antlers. The idiot that he should have
his gun taken away from him forever. He has no
business calling himself a hunter. I don't care accident or not.

(07:19):
He could have killed somebody because when he got over there,
it was a moose. Now, there are some pretty stark
differences between a white tail deer and the moose population
in northeastern Minnesota. Pretty much difference. You would know it,

(07:40):
wouldn't you. If you're answering, No, you better find another
station to listen to because this one ain't for you.
Uh huh. They are. Well, he's going to go to trial,
I think in February. But there should be a trial.
I mean, just put that guy someplace where he can

(08:02):
never touch a firearm before call himself a hunter, because
he gives every bad every hunter a bad name everyone.
I'm just telling you that, and it's there's absolutely no
I'm seeing no excuse. Along with the fact that the
noose population up in northeastern Minnesota is declining. Anyway, you

(08:26):
take one out, well, yeah, that's gonna make a difference.
And it had to be a bull because of its
sport and antlers. I'm assuming it would be unless he
just shot at ears and wasn't whatever. But the moose
they have, the population of moose is a little over
four thousand animals. You take one out of four grand

(08:49):
and that's that's a fair number. But what can you say?
Would you want him hunting next to you? I'll just
leave it at that. Would you want that man hunting
not far away from you? And whatever happens, he has
earned it. I know he's gonna lose his gun. I
know he'll lose his license and it will cost him

(09:10):
a fair amount of money and then some. But for
that gentleman, take a firearm safety course, would you please?
If you took it, take it again and have somebody
teaching the course. That makes damn sure you know what
the heck you're doing when you go out there. Okay,

(09:33):
this morning, Stan Tequila is going to join us, and
he's going to join us well in about five minutes,
so we'll leave it at that. He just got back
from Costa Rica, so I'm anxious to talk with Stan
about that. And along with the holiday season, I have
bought and purchased a number of books for my grandkids

(09:53):
that are authored by Stan Tequila and for Jack, my
old grandchild, who is six years old. They are in
his favorite favorite. I walked in there and looked at
the books because he wanted me to read him one,
and that one was dog eared, some of the pages

(10:14):
were ripped a bit, and it was Yeah, that's definitely
his favorite. He's getting a memory game. We'll ask stand
about that too. So hold on to your horses, or
hold on to your moose as the case maybe, and
don't let him get shot by the knucklehead. All right,
We will be right back with more after this.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
Welcome back to Fan Outdoors, joined now by author, naturalist
and photographer Stan Tequila. Whether it's in Minnesota, Alaska, or Africa,
he's always in search of all things.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Wild and natural.

Speaker 4 (10:52):
He may even know more about animals than they do themselves.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
And you thought the cat knew the Outdoors.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Here's fan favorite Stan Tequila on Fan Outdoors.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Good morning, my friend, how are you?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Good morning? I'm good, Already at the desk, already working hard,
already got about fourteen things going all at the same time.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, and do any of them include the same clothing
you're going to wear this weekend for your trip last week?

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Isn't this nice?

Speaker 2 (11:26):
No?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
So so last week at this time, I was in
Costa Rica, and I think today I'll just stay inside
because yikes, huh.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
What was What were the temperatures when you were down there?
What typically are they?

Speaker 3 (11:43):
Well, that's an interesting question because Costa Rica is a
quite a kind of geographically varied country. And I had
a group just for people who don't know. I was
in Costa Rica leading a photo tour. So this is
twelve days of traveling around different locations within the country
of Costa Rica and photographing different wildlife and scenics and

(12:08):
things like that too. And there was times where we
were over we were close to nine thousand foot elevation,
so it was cold like in the forties and raining
and darn cold. And then it was other times where
we were down almost near sea level, very lowlands and

(12:31):
it was ninety five degrees plus about one hundred and
forty five thousand humidity. So to Minnesota, it was like,
so it's even worse than Minnesota. It was early so moist,
and it would just you know, you had these cloudy
days and then all of a sudden, it would just

(12:51):
suddenly just you just unleash on us with a torrent
of rain. It would pour hard for twenty minutes and
then and then the sun would kind of come out,
and this go on all day long, and so it
was like everything is fine, and then you know, tons
of rain and then nothing and you know, all like that.

(13:11):
So it's super moist.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
Well how does a person stand? How do you plan
for that?

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Well, you know, you, yes, you do. You plan. You
have a rain jacket with you at all times. There's
rain gear that we have for our cameras and lenses.
So there's a it's like a jacket for your camera
and lens. And then a lot of times where we're
at we're staying at very specific lodges, and these lodges
are set up specifically for photographers. So the photo area,

(13:42):
the area in which you have the most opportunities of
photograph things are covered so we're standing under and the
rain isn't like coming in sideways, it's coming straight down.
And so you're standing underneath these roofs and the birds
are still going around in the rain. Everything else is fine,
but and you're dry underneath the roof when you're hanging out.

(14:04):
And I got to tell you, we probably photograph close
to fifteen different hummingbird species. You know here, of course,
in the Midwest and Minnesota we have one species of hummingbird,
and we did at least fifteen. I think they have
sixty eight species of hummingbirds in Costa Rica alone, and

(14:26):
so quite a bit. And depending on what elevation you're at,
you get different species of hummingbirds. So the ones up
at eight five hundred feet elevation and there is like
five different species up there. Those five are completely different
than the ones that are found down in the lowlands,
and they don't mix either because they pretty much stick

(14:50):
to their habitats. So it's quite interesting, and many opportunities
to photograph things like two cans. There's three different species
of two cans, and and we also had a very
good opportunity twice to photograph the resplendent Catseell This is
a bird with a close to three foot long tail

(15:12):
green sometimes green, sometimes blue, depending which way the light
is shining on it. Tail feathers that are picture like
a pheasant feather, but make it, you know, four times
as long, and make it bright green and really amazing stuff.
I'll I'll text over some images to you. I know
you'll you'll see it. But no, unfortunately the listeners won't

(15:33):
see but people can. They can go to my social
media's and see some stuff there too. I was posting
a little bit on the social media. I'm not really
good at multitasking that way, you know, doing trips and
posting social media at the same time. So but I did.
I did do some and so people can see some
things there. And so Coasterika is one of those places

(15:53):
where it's there's you know, it's incredible, it really is.
It's just one of those places is that if you've
ever had the inkling I've ever thought, wow, that'd be cool,
you should do it because it's it's pretty amazing. And
I do have a trip that I'm offering again coming
up here in twenty twenty seven to go to back
to Costa Rica, same exact places. I just came from.

(16:15):
And so people can go to naturesmart dot com click
on the workshops and photo Tours tab and you'll see
it there and you can sign up right there.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Okay, Now, Eric and Chad and I were having a
conversation as we are often want to do and the
idea of you being over there and doing what you're
doing over there. One of the kids asked, or not
kids anymore? They are to me, but they're not anybody else.

(16:45):
Forty and thirty five. But anyway, with the political unrest
that's going on, was that a concern at all ever to.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
You our political unrest or thank you? Because Costa Rica
is fine, you know, neighboring countries. Uh, there's some a
little bit of unrest there is. Uh. But I mean
if you're talking about our political unrest, well then uh,
they they are uh you know, they follow this stuff.

(17:15):
It's uh, they don't live in a vacuum and they
follow this stuff and they understand. But also a big
part of their economy. Uh. In fact, I'm gonna go
out on a limb. I don't know for a fact,
but I'm gonna go on a limb and say the
majority of their economy is tourism. So they are they
literally are waiting for you there with open arms saying,

(17:39):
you know, come on in, Okay. And so it's really
a nice I don't know, uh welcoming atmosphere.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
And and the the foods that you were uh that
you okay.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Ask you cannot ask for better. I mean every day
it's fresh fruits, fresh vegetables. Every day there's fresh and
every day was a different type of juice. So whatever
they have in abundance, they juice it and that's.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
What you have.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
So I remember one day we had one that I
was particularly good. It was watermelon and lemon and it
was amazing. But we had mango juice, papia juice, several
fruits I've never heard of before. So passion fruit was
another big one. Lots and lots of different fruits. So
all the meals are very fresh, very I was just good.

(18:37):
And obviously a lot of the Latin America, you know,
influenced to it. And so there's always hot sauces and
you know, pepper sauces, which I love, and there's it's Yeah,
food is amazing. I'm sorry to say that I gained
a little over three pounds in two weeks. So that's

(19:00):
that's how good it is. Yeah, so it's not good.
So the first thing I did when I got back
is said, okay, enough of that and let's start getting
back on the bandwagon here and stuff.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Well, all right, now you had mentioned the two can.
I think I saw a picture that you must have
posted some people.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah. I did a video, just my cell phone, cell
phone video of the tucans and because they make this
almost sounds like a frog type noise where they creak
like you like that, and then they and they open
their bill and they're very animated birds, and they're big birds,
and so if they're big, they really kind of rule
the roost, if you will. They push around all the

(19:40):
littler birds because they're big and they got that gigantic
bill on them. So, I mean, and most people should
know what a tu can is obviously. And there's two
different major kinds and then one minor kind, so there's
they're pretty neat. There's some tucnettes which are smaller even
yet but aren't really totally related to the two cans.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, but they looked almost like a painting. It's still life.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Yeah, they're amazing. Yeah, I have thousands of pictures of
two cans. And so in this one lodge we're at
in the low country, they've got purchase uh there for
the birds to come in. And you know how we
feed birds seed, you know, to attract our birds, and uh,
they feed bananas to bring their birds in. Yeah, so

(20:27):
they'll hang up a bunch of bananas and that's what
brings in the birds. Anyhow, I have thousands of pictures
of two cans, unbelievable perfect images of them, and they're landing,
uh you know, on these purchases right in front of us,
and I can't even help myself. I'm still taking pictures
of them, even though it's like, oh my gosh, I've
taken so many pictures with two cans.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Is that is that their part of their natural diet
then too?

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Oh yeah, absolutely totally. They're a fruit eater. Yeah, and
so that's what they're doing, is they're going around finding
different fruits, and banana is a fruit, and so it's
one of the many, many things that they eat.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Interesting. Interesting, well, then what with the foods, Like a
lot of our birds will need insects in order to
eat them. Are they the same way, especially when our
birds get.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Down there right. There is no shortage of insects, okay,
in the tropics, in these jungles, I mean, the insects
are everywhere, and all sorts of different types of them.
We always see leafcutter ants, we always see there's lots
of different types of insects. Bullet ants. Bullet ants are

(21:40):
these very large, almost one inch long.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Ants, Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
And when they bite you, you feel like you've been
hit by a bullet, hence the name, and so you
definitely don't want one of them to bite you. There
are so many spiders, more spiders than you can shake
a stick at. And there's just lots and lots of insects,
as you can imagine. But then again there's lots of
other animal life too. There's a lot of different mammals also,

(22:09):
and so it's and flowers are off the charts, you know,
heliconias and orchids and everything is all over the place.
It's just like you were maybe imagine in your in
your mind, you know, of all these different types of
tropical things.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Are various fishes. Part of the menutube.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Oh. Fish is a huge part of the diet there
because they've got the both Atlantic and Pacific Coast, and
so fish is a huge part of their diet. All
seafood is really for them. So it it's really good. Again,
if somebody is interested in something like this, it's it's
one of those trips where you will never regret it

(22:47):
because it is such a well rehearsed lots of people
know about it and go there and they're well and
they're prepared for you when you get there, and and
the I go to four different lodges, and these lodges
are I mean they roll out the red carpet for
you literally. I mean this is to the point where

(23:07):
they take your luggage for you to your room. You
know that type of treatment that you get.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Do you have to be in condition, physical condition to
go like an all count or something like that, or
is it not that kind of No, No.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
It's not like that at all. There are some cases
in which when we're up at the high elevations, we
stay at a lodge where the rooms, some of the
rooms like mine, were a little bit of a walk
to get to your cabin because you have your own
cabin and percha on the side of a mountain in
the jungle, and so it's kind of cool that way,

(23:45):
but it's a little bit of a walk. But otherwise, no,
there's no real you know, we're driving around everywhere. There's
a few short walks here and there. The last day
we did do a four mile walk because last day
was an option to go see a bunch of waterfall
and these were massive, you know, one hundred and fifty
foot tall waterfalls, and we wanted to see as many

(24:05):
as we could, so we just kept hiking and kept
seeing more and more and more, and that was a
lot of fun too.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Wow. Wow, with the people that came along, are most
of your well the people from the EU again or
are they mostly from America?

Speaker 3 (24:21):
So this group that I just returned from is an
EU group. I think six of them from the UK,
two of them from South Africa, and one from Singapore.
But the one the trip, the same exact trip on
my website is going to be just for Americans and

(24:42):
so anybody here can sign up. But I have four
people signed up. I think I have eight spots, so
you know, I got four more that can that can
sign up for. It's in twenty twenty seven, I think
to no, I'll have to look March. I think it's
March or twenty twenty seven, and so that is a
you know, the United States thing, and it's an American thing.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Okay. With that, we talked about the two cans a
little bit and some of the other ones I can't
remember their names of. But which of all of them,
which was did you have a favorite or maybe all
of them are favorites?

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Well that's a tough one. Really. Hummingbirds have always been
one of my favorites, so that's kind of a given.
But there was other things that we did too. Now,
at night, we would go out in the jungle and
one night we went out and photographed bats. So there's
two species of bats that come into these nectar flowers,

(25:39):
and so we would set up with multiple flashes, and
as the bats came in to the flower, we were
able to capture images of these bats as that were
flying in and trying to get you know, they got
these great pictures of their tongue sticking out into the flower,
you know, trying to lap up the sap that's in
the or the nectar that's in the flowers. And so
that was pretty cool. And there were so many other

(26:01):
things that we did too, Like, for example, we photographed
a eyelash viper, a fertile ants, which is the most
venomous snake. And yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Then we also
had a hog nose viper. We had three species of
poison dart frog.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
These are the poison dart frogs. I don't know if
you know about these. These are little, little, little tiny frogs,
very brightly colored, and they have this toxin on their skin.
And this toxin has been used in the past by
indigenous people uh to Uh. They would wipe this toxin
on the tip of their dart, you know, like a

(26:44):
blow dart, and this is what they would use then
to subdue prey because they could shoot that dart what's
coated in this poison uh, and it would you know,
kill the animal that they that they hit with it.
That's these little, little, tiny, brightly colored frogs. I mean
we're talking like one inch you know, one and a
half inch frogs, and they're they're just so deadly poisonous.

(27:06):
It's absolutely amazing. Oh, nothing to be scared about. These
things are just so to look at these things and
be able to interact with them and see them and
learn about them, that's the big thing. So as soon
as you learn about these things, You're like, wow, isn't
nature amazing because here's these tiny little frogs that have
this amazing power, you know. And or these vipers too,

(27:30):
the pit vipers who who sense the world through these
heat seeking you know, pits on their face and they
can kind of sense what's around them. And learning about
this seeing these things in person up close, this is
this is really something?

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Are you the educator on these trips too?

Speaker 3 (27:48):
We always have a local guide with us, so it's
a combination of me and the local guide. So our
local guide and we generally speaking at each location we
have a different person and they will and then we
have a local driver who drives us everywhere. Because you
don't want to be driving in Costa Rica. It's really

(28:10):
I've done it. It's not fun. And so now now
it's like, nope, we're all in one bus and we're
all together, and we have one local driver who knows
his way around everywhere and takes us around and you know,
and he lives there, so any situation that you get into,
he's there to take care of it. And so these
are really great trips. They're well fought out and there

(28:33):
I've put a lot of time and effort into these
trips to make them work.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
And now you're talking, you talk about the thousands of
images you're taking. Now I know you come back and
edit them. Do you do your guests take as many
images and do they do some of their editing in
the evenings or do they just take all the picure
not maybe that not that many pictures and are more critical.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's a combination of that. Some are like some of
them will download to their laptops and then work up
a few of them and put them on their phones
and then show them the next day. So there's a
handful of us that do that every day. I did
the same thing. And then some people didn't even bring laptops.
They just you know, they just hang on to their
pictures and do it all when they get home. So

(29:19):
it's really a combination of things like that. And there's
really no rules to this stuff. You do whatever you
like to do, and you know, there's no expectations or
anything like that. Now, having said that, on this trip,
I was able to photograph two species of bird I've
never seen before, So that was pretty darn exciting. And
perhaps I can tell you a story about one.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Okay, hold on to the break. We'll take a break
and then we'll come back and look forward to that. Okay,
sounds good, wonderful. Our guest is mister Stan Tequila, if
you haven't figured that out, but we're talking about his
most recent trip to Costa Rica, and we will take
that pause and come back with two birds that even

(30:03):
stand doesn't know. And I'll tell you what I have
tried for years to ask that man a question and
him tell me that he's never seen that before and
it's never happened. So this will be good. Hold on,
we'll be right back after this. We're back, fan out

(30:35):
or is coming your way until the eight o'clock hour,
Your truly, Billy Hildebrand is in studio at KFA and
World had headquarters, my producer, my trustee producer, which I
really really lean on a lot, and he's done a
great job for us. Is Brett blakemore? Mister Brett blakemore

(30:57):
to me? So we will do. So we'll begin another
segment with mister Stan Tequila, who is just returned from
a trip to Costa Rica and we're talking about it. Stan,
you sent me some photographs that are absolutely stunning, just
oh my goodness, gracious. The waterfall that looks very very

(31:24):
appealing with below zero temperatures right now.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yes, I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
There's just no idea. And the critters that looks like
monkeys below that, yep, and they've got a ball spot
on the top of their head.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
No, it's just dark for oh okay, it's just dark
for on them like that. Those are white face capuchin
monkeys and they are a very small monkey. We saw both,
and we saw and photograph both howler monkeys and these
white face monkeys, and they're adorable. They're tiny little things
and there they you know, really don't have a whole

(32:02):
lot of fear of people, and so they were they
would come up to us and you know, but they
were also you can see I sent you some pictures
that have babies with them, and so they're all very adorable.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
How far are they as wild as some of the
animals that we come across now that you don't see
them very often.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
They're they you know, they move around a lot, So
sometimes you see them a lot and sometimes you don't,
depending on where they're at where the ripe fruit is at,
because they follow the trees around that have the ripe fruit.
On it, and so they'll go to these trees, find
the ripe fruit, and spend time there. At one of
the lodges we stayed at, the monkeys would show up
very specifically for early morning when it was you know,

(32:47):
dark and starting to get a little bit light, because
there was a fruit tree and for the life mean,
I can't remember the name of the fruit right now,
they told me, and I'd never even heard of it before,
but uh. And they would go and they would take
the fruit and they would eat it. They'd pop it
off the tree, they would open it up and they
would just eat the insides of it. But then as
soon as like the people started waking up and started

(33:07):
coming out and we're all like, oh cool, look at
the monkeys, they were all like, we're out of here,
you know, and they would they would head out because
you know, they're wary of people. Do they live in colonies, Yes, yeah, absolutely.
They're all together and they have you know, adults with babies,
and they're usually ten twenty at the most, you know,

(33:30):
in one troop.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
So with a pair bond a male and female monkey together,
are they bonded for just that particular season or do
they look for different mates.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
It's a combination depending on what species he are looking at,
and they are kind of switch it up and move around.
And there's one male with several females, so it's a
polgamous type situation. He gets in trouble a lot, I'll bet.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
And then I see a black hummingbird.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well it's not black, it's it's a deep violet. This
is a This is called the violet saber wing. This
is a very large hummingbird, maybe twice the size of
what you know we normally see in our ruby throats.
It's a very large thing. It's called a saber wing
because it has a wing that's kind of sharp pointed
like a saber, and has a slightly curved bill, and

(34:31):
it goes to different flowers, and it's very large hummingbird,
as I mentioned, And so it's when you see it,
it's like, oh wow, that really catches your eye. You know,
the males are all that violet color, and then the
females are kind of a lighter version version of that.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
So when with like the red and I recall wearing
one of the first times hummingbirds came to the lake
with the feeder walking down the lake with a bright
red hat on and I had one over again hovering
and I almost fell off the I mean, I had
no idea what was going on. Out of the wise, it
is going to be dead pretty quick.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, but yeah, these guys do the same exact thing
all the kind of thing. Even if you don't, they
just want to come over and check you out. These
hummingbirds are like they're so tiny, but they've got enormous
attitudes and enormous curiosity and they're always looking around for
different things.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Wow. Do people feed those over there?

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Oh gosh, hummingbird feeding there is massive. You know, they
put out ten fifteen feeders at one location all the time,
and they'll they'll drain those those feeders in one day's time.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Well they do. They eat the same like a sugar.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Watery same exact yep, you know, one quarter sugar to
water ratio and they yeah, they really go at it.
It's the same. It's the same, you know, basic thing
that they do here.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Huh. Okay, Now below that is a little yellow with
black shoulders and white.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
So this is again I think I put this on
social media so people can see this. This is a
white collared mannequin. These mannequins are small little birds about
the size of a wren, maybe a little bit bigger,
maybe about a chickenee size, And so you're familiar with
things like sharp tail grouse and greater prairie chickens. Right where,

(36:18):
the males all get together and on what's called a
lek elie k, and they display, they dance for females.
These little mannequins clear a small spot about three foot
by three foot on the jungle floor. They clear it
all themselves. They have small little sapling trees coming up.

(36:39):
And then these males display on a lek for the females.
And these little guys here, when they fly, they click
their wings together, so you hear this snap this little
and then it goes and then it flies to the
next perch, which is about three feet away, and then
snap again. It goes to the next one, and snap
again and goes the next one. And it does it
very quickly, and they play and they dance for females

(37:02):
to come and watch them on their lek. So so
this lecking behavior is not just for our big grouse.
It's you know, also found in other species of birds too.
So this this is a white collared mannequin, and these
mannequins are so neat when they do this a lot.
Most of the mannequins are brightly colored. They all will
clear the males will clear out a small leck in

(37:24):
the jungle on the on the jungle floor, and it's
it's really something to see. And that is the first
of the two species that I had never seen before
that I got a chance to not only see, but
to photograph this year.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Are they popular.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yes, they're very popular. They're very not very common though.
They're only found at certain elevations about four thousand foot elevation,
and so they've got to find them very specific habitats,
very specific elevations, and then you have to get into
the jungle to find them, because these leks are set up,
you know, wherever the ma wants to set them up,
so then you have to kind of discover them, find them.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
So they live right in that location. They won't migrate
or anything.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Why I don't know right exactly. Yeah, why would you leave?
You're in the you're in paradise basically, yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Okay, And then I got underneath that one. There are
some more hummingbirds, but they they've got a much different
of bright green.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Yeah, these are yeah, these are the violet eared hummingbirds
and these are the high altitude over eight thousand foot
elevation hummingbirds. So these birds are hardy, they're big, and
they you know, they're they have to feed constantly because
the temperatures are always cold. Rarely does it ever warm up.

(38:48):
It rains often, it's it's cold in these higher elevations,
and so it's it's pretty pretty unique hummingbirds for sure.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Why wouldn't they go lower where.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
It's warmer, Well, because they all evolved to be in
specific regions and they kind of there's less competition there.
There's you know, that's where they find there, you know,
the food that they want, those types of things. So
and it's all it's all based in evolution.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Well, but the flowers, the flowers they live up at
that temperature and that height too.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Huh m, yep, there's lots of flowers at that temperature too.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah. Just below that, I'm looking at a green frog.
Is that the nasty guy?

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Depending on which green frog it is. Red, that's the
red eyed tree frog. That's the ultimate species that you
want to see when you're in Costa Rica. The red
eyed tree frog is a large tree frog. Obviously it
has red eyes, excuse me, and this is a super

(39:54):
cool They stick to just about anything, so they'll jump
and they grab a hold of leaves. They crawl around there.
They're arboreal. They're found up in trees. And then what
they do is they get over the top of ponds,
small little wetland areas. Males and females will make together.
It's a external fertilization. Those fertilized eggs will drop down

(40:19):
into the water down below. So though very specifically, excuse me,
set up just over this water, drop their eggs down
in the water. Those eggs will then go into tadpoles.
Tadpoles will transform into the frogs. Frogs come out of
the water, and we have more red eye tree frogs.
So they're the they're kind of like the ones that
everybody wants to see. So sorry about that.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Are those quite? That's fine? Are they quite an infamous frog?
Or is that desire?

Speaker 3 (40:49):
No? No, that's everybody. It's like everybody wants to see
red eye tree frogs. It's kind of like the thing
that everybody wants to see when they're there.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Okay, then below it is a looks like a kind
of a light green, a white green and black spotted frog.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
That is a black and green poisoned dart frog. This
this again, this frog is only about one inch in length,
so about it maybe as long as a little bit
longer than your thumbnail. And it is a tiny little
little frogs. But thecings. Again, you know, you handle them
and then touch your mouth or something like that with them,
or you're get injected somehow with the with the poison

(41:28):
on their skin, and you will. It'll be a problem
for you. We will kill an individual. Yes, if you
get enough of it. Yeah, I can. Huh, what the heck?
I guess I'm all excited. My voice is getting on
a goofy.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
I understand, that's okay. It looks like a robin next
and yeah, but I doubt whether it is unless I'm wrong.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah, you were definitely wrong. This is the second species
I'd never seen before. This is called an scaled ant pitta.
Oh a n T p I T T A ant pitta.
So one night I'm walking across this bridge. We're staying
at a lodge, and we're walking across this bridge, and

(42:16):
a gentleman that works at this lodge, who I've known
for years because I go back to the same lodge
all the time. His name is Mario. Mario comes out
of the dark. It's it's almost five pm, so it's
getting dark, comes out of the dark, grabs me by
the arm and says he has very little English. I
have basically no Spanish. And he's like, come on, come on,

(42:39):
and he's telling me aunt pitta. I said, an ant
pitta and he's like, yeah, aunt pitta. And I was like, oh,
I know what these birds are. I've never seen one,
but I know what they are. They are a nocturnal
bird that is kind of a tear drop shape without
much of a tail at all, and they feed on ants.

(43:00):
And so he's like, when we go into this deep
jungle part where they grow orchids at this lodge and
he comes in and he's like, you know, real quiet,
real quiet. And he comes in and he squats down
to the ground, kind of drags me down with him,
you know, and it gives me the quite, you know.

(43:21):
And we're sitting there and he's like giving me hand signals.
He's given me the finger up for us to stand up.
As we're walking along ever so slowly, like one step,
very slowly in front of the others. We don't make
no noise at all, and all of a sudden he'd
clench a fist, mean, freeze, you know, right there, and
we'd freeze and then gotta get down. So we'd get

(43:43):
down again. And this goes on for like twenty minutes.
I'm following him through the jungle and we're and he's like,
all right, back up, you know. We take a couple
of steps, freeze, you know, down again. We look and
it's dark, you know, and so we're looking and looking,
looking and look, couldn't find the darn thing. So I said,
I kind of I have an app on my phone

(44:05):
where I can translate English to Spanish and all that.
I said, I'm going to go around the backside over here.
I'll see you out out, you know, out front at
some point and he's like, okay, So I'm now going
along by myself, trying to find this thing. Very dim light,
very very dim light, and all of a sudden, again
he pops out of the darkness. I never even saw

(44:26):
him coming, stan Stan, come on, you know. So we
literally go kind of half running across this you know,
jungle floor to this area and he stops and he's
pointing to the general area where it's at. I'm like,
you know, where is this? Where is this? And I'm looking,
I'm looking and looking at and finally it runs. These
birds are terrestrial. It runs out into the clearing in

(44:49):
front of us, and I get my first look at it,
lnt Pito. I was like, ho, Lee mackerel, this is amazing.
I tried to get some pictures of it. Did not
work because I wasn't prepared for this. He I was
coming back in from a hike and he just grabbed
me and you know, dragged me into the jungle there.
So I wasn't ready for that at all. But I
got a good look at it. I got a blurry
picture of it, and I thought, well, okay, I got

(45:10):
a blurry picture. That's better than nothing at all. So
then the next night I decided I'm going to go out.
So I said to my group, who wants to go
look for this crazy, unusual bird and you know, and
of course nobody wanted to come. Really yeah, except for
one woman. She's the one from South Africa, and she's like,

(45:30):
I'll go. I said, great. So we went, same thing,
except now this time I'm in the lead kind of
trying to find this thing. We get to the far
end of this this orchid growing area, and I look
and I go, what is that? I can't see it.
This time, I've got a flashlight. This time, I have
a flash on my camera. I've mounted a flash onto

(45:52):
my camera. And I'm like, I see a shape over there.
It looks like the shape of a bird, but it's not.
But let's look at it anyhouse. I look, No, I
don't think, so turn off a light. I thought. I
looked at it in the dark again. I said, well,
you know, that's the same shape. That's that's the shape
I need to have, you know. And so then I
clicked on the light again, stepped up by another five

(46:13):
feet closer, and went, oh, my gosh, that's it. That's
the bird. So I'm having this gal hold my flashlight
while I'm trying in the dark to get focused. And
then was able to get off a couple images with
my flash going off, and you're seeing one of them there,
and I got a picture of the scaled ant pitta.

(46:34):
I was so thrilled with that that I got nice sharp,
clear images of this, you know, highly nocturnal bird that's
very secretive, and so I was pretty excited about that.
The very next day, I took one of those images,
worked it up, and I sent it to my good
friend who lives in Arizona, who has been a lifelong burder.
And he's the one guy that when I'm around him,

(46:59):
I feel like I know nothing about nature, absolutely nothing. Okay,
I send it to him. His name is Rick. I said, Rick,
look look at this. I didn't say what it was.
And he text back to me immediately, which he never does,
text back to me immediately, and says, is that a
scaled aunt pitta? I said, yep. And the next one

(47:20):
is I've been looking for that bird for over fifty years,
Oh my god. And I was like wow. He's like,
where did you see this? Where I must go? So
that was that was kind of like the icing on
the cake. I was like my good friend who again,
like I say, he makes me feel like I don't
know anything about nature, and he and there he was like,

(47:42):
I've been looking for one of them for over fifty years.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
Did stand takuila Puffi's chest out and said I got it.
I got it.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
It was more like I'll tell you exactly where it's at.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Well, we have to take a pause. Stand. Can you
stay with me yet?

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Excellent, We'll take that pause. And if you've got an
aunt Petta in your life, you better share it with Stan. Okay,
we'll be right back. We are back Fan outdoors, coming

(48:32):
your way, Billy Hildebrand Here, My guest is mister Stan Tequila.
We're talking. Oh, this is so fun. We're talking about
his most recent trip to Costa Rica with some absolutely
incredible animals that I had never ant Petta. If you

(48:53):
heard of an aunt Peta, you're a better person than
I because I never have. But it looks pretty cool.
And the next image that I'd say picture, but I
know you refer to them as images, so I'm just
trying to sack like I'm smart, but I'm really not. Anyway,
The next one looks like an owl to me.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Yeah, so this is a striped owl. It's about the size,
shape and coloring of a great horned owl, but it's
a different species, and it's a jungle species. There are
so many. There's like twelve or fifteen different owl species
found in the tropics there too, which you know, you
don't think of the tropics and owls you know, they don't.
They don't seem to go together, but they do, and

(49:38):
so that's kind of that's kind of a cool thing
to see.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Are they that they have the same behavior as owls
in America?

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Absolutely identical. You know. They do all the same exact
types of.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Things, hooing too or hooting. Yep.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
They have different types of hoots, different types of calls,
you know. So they're very very simple.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Huh interesting The next one, oh, the great horn owl.
They'll be nesting in not too distant future, won't they.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Oh my gosh, I'm glad you've said that, because about
a month or so ago, I set up a camera
on my great horn owl nest. And so right now
I'm live streaming each evening that I'm home, I'm live
streaming my flying squirrels. So people can go to nature
smart dot com scroll down to the bottom. You'll see
a link and it'll take you to my live stream
of flying squirrels in the evening. So right at sunset

(50:29):
is the best time. Soon as it gets start, that's
the best time to log in. You can see it.
I have two cameras set up and two things are
going starting soon hopefully whenever these my great horn owls
start to nest, I'm going to have a live feed
the buttons there. You can see it when you go
to nature smart dot com. And so hopefully sometime in
January February, when my great horn owl start to nest,

(50:51):
I will have a streaming service. Live streaming service. I'll
run that one probably twenty four hours a day and
so people can watch the great horn owl nest there.
So I got my fingers crossed. I saw that the
great horn owl before this latest snowfall here last week,
I saw the owl was checking out the nest. So
I've got high hopes that this will happen this year.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Do you have someplace on your live stream or on
your website that people can leave questions? You'd probably be
inundated with questions.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
There's there's comments on when you when you click on
live streams, it will go to YouTube and then you
can leave comments there. And now and then I do
look at those all right.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Okay, the next image image then down below that, I
can't tell exactly what it is, but it looks like
a critter.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Yeah, a bunch of critters. It's like four or five
of them, six of them. These are white nose kuwati,
the white nose kawati are in them. Yeah, they're in
the raccoon family there. They hold their tails straight up
in the air like a like a doom buggy flag,
you know, and they're they're fluffy, and they got long
pointed noses. They climb trees, they go on the ground whatever.

(52:10):
You see groups of them together. They're always females with babies,
and males are always loners on their own, and so
these are they're think of a raccoon that's even more
fuzzy with a long monkey like tail. And that's what
you got for white nose kuwadi. They're pretty they're pretty
cool animals. We see them often on this type of trip.
We also had an opportunity we did see a tyra.

(52:34):
Tyras are a large, large weasel like the size of
a small dog weasel, so big and and they're jet black.
Everything on them is jet black, and they are impressive
looking animal, especially a black animal in the jungle. It's
really you know, kind of like because they come right
out of the shadows, so you don't even notice them
and all of a sudden, boom, they're there. And so

(52:56):
that's the second time I've actually come across tyras and
in the jungles of Costa Rica. Pretty cool, yeah, very cool.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
All right, just below that one, they're green with super
long tails. If we talked about that.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Yeah, yeah, that's the resplendent katsel. The ketsells are these
unbelievable birds. I mean they are, I mean, just look
at them, about three feet long. Most of that is tail,
big long, gorgeous green and blue tails. Depending on which
way the light is shining, they're iridescent tail feathers. And

(53:31):
then they have a big the males have a big
red chest on them, and they're just it's the thing
you would go to Costa Rica for period. I mean
that and the red eyed tree frogs. Those are what
Costa Rica's kind of known for.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Do people have to do The locals worry about either
poachers or somebody stealing some of these birds and then
selling them.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
I would say, I've not heard of anything like that.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
These people make a living bringing you know, photographers to
these birds, so they will do just about anything to
protect them, do you know what I mean. They're they're like,
I'm gonna protect these things because it's their living, it's
their livelihoods, So they're telling Without them, you know, people
won't go. Yeah, so they're very they're very and they

(54:21):
take very good care of the environment. They do a
pretty n good job with things like that.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Interesting, that's good to know. I mean, yeah, the respect shown,
if for all the right reasons, is pretty incredible too,
especially for and.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
I gotta tell you just on a personal note, when
you get out and go to different parts of the
world and you look around, I think it helps give
you the perspective you need to see things more clearly
when you get back home, because when you get there,
you see people are just like us there and they're

(54:59):
doing their they're making a living, they're working, they're you know,
having families. They have modern technology and a lot of
cases they have better technology. They've got Like just looking
at all the different vehicles. All the vehicles are different
than what we have here, every single one of them,
even though they're Chevies, they're Fords there. You know, there's

(55:20):
a Kyas and all the other name brands out there,
but they're all different and they're all doing something a
little different and they're all kind of designed differently to
work in that type of environment and all that and
It's just it gives you a better perspective of things,
and it kind of gets you out of your America
headspace and gets you into a more international headspace where
you think about things differently, and that's always a good thing.

(55:41):
And I noticed that when I was in Keto, Ecuador,
that it is a you know, they're super high end,
you know, technologically advanced and all that stuff, and we
oftentimes think of, well, these other places like that, you know,
how could they possibly have what we have and leave me?
They got it? And then I'll and then some.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
Interesting interesting That's yeah, I like that, And that's that's
crucial too. I believe for a lot of reasons, a
lot of obvious reasons that yeah, we can respect, at
least most people can respect. Mm hmm. Well that looks.
Are you going to have this do you ever display,

(56:23):
like have a show or something, and or do you
use some of these images and some of the places
you've been or topics for your speaking engagements?

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Some of them I do. In fact, let's see, I'll
be today later today, I'll be in so people can
join me today. Uh in socks Center, Oh really, Socks
Center Library.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
My part of the world, Buddy.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
Yes, yes, and then later a couple of four or
five four hours later at that I'll be an Uppsala, Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
I knew a girl from up.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
One, didn't we all and it's all be at the
I'll be at the Upsilla Library giving a talk there too.
So just checking with those two libraries as the times,
and you can come see me today. I'm giving a
couple of different talks.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Huh okay with topics. You don't know where we pick
one out her?

Speaker 3 (57:21):
No, okay, never mind, I just can't remember here here
I'll look for you though.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
Here.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
Let's see, I'm talking about what am I talking about?
Fox Center, I'm talking about uh wolves, coyotes and foxes,
and in Uppsala, I'm talking about elk, moose and deer.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
All right, holiday season right around the corner. I looked
on my U my Amazon feed. I have purchased an
awful lot of your books, buddy, and it's they are.
They're just so awesome and so fantastic. My grandkids absolutely
love them and tell us.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
People should Yeah, people should remember. I also have books
for adults. So if you're interested in things like dear,
if you're interested in things like dear, elka, moose. I
have a book, a book just on deer, elk and moose,
which is pretty arm cool for adults. And I wrote
it in a way in which you're going to learn
all the biology of these things, but in a non
scientific way, in a way that you can understand. Same

(58:20):
thing with wolves, coyotes and foxes, same thing with eagles, owls.
Let's see what else I've got. I just got a
bunch of different things like that. Again. You can go
to nature smart dot com uh and go to the
bookstore and you can see things there, or go to Amazon,
doesn't matter, and you can just type in my name
and you'll and you'll see the lots of books for

(58:41):
adults too.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
All right, So you're telling me to start thinking like
an adult for a change, Is that what you're telling me?

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Yeah, treat yourself. Treat yourself to something more of you know,
less kids and.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
More adults you know. And I respect that a great deal.
But I also stand one of my im the important
things that I want to happen. I want my grandkids
to appreciate nature and not and have that at their disposal.
And it's beginning to happen. Yeah, And I congratulate you,

(59:16):
because you're the one that's really making it happen. And
it's really fun because I think they have fun having
a conversation, yeah, with somebody that cares about it too.
And at first they're just intrigued by the photographs, but
then they start to ask pictures, ask questions, and I'm

(59:38):
so thankful for that. And your memory game coming up.
I know I'm going to be playing that a whole
bunch come Christmas morning.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
And you know what, considering the age of some of us,
a memory game is not so bad.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
You know what's your name again?

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Thanks Frank, No, I understand that, believe me. Yes. And
but anyway, we are just about are we going to
be out of time or just break? Okay, thank you
very much. We have to break. Stan. We'll be right back. Okay,

(01:00:19):
sounds good, wonderful Stan Tequila, that's his name. Nature smart
dot com is where you find a lot of his
work and his images and the memory game too. We'll
be right back. We will be back with a bonus

(01:00:47):
bonus segment with stand Tequila, and right up front, I
want to say thank you so very very much. I
appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
We Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Same to you. It's gonna be white. I'm predicting that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
I think you got a pretty good, pretty good chance
you're gonna win that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
One, much to my chagrin. And I think there's more
storms coming in. Well anyway, that's another story. But uh,
my train okay, my train of thought just took off.
You mentioned the the great horned owls and your cameras

(01:01:27):
other other critters that. Well, I guess bald eagles will
nest in the in the cold, don't they or not?

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
Yes, yeah, this is so. Starting in January is the
beginning of the great horn owl nesting season. They're the
very first birds that start nesting. By the way, they're
like the first birds that start nesting, even in the
Southern States. So January or so, they will start looking,
they'll find mates, and they will start finding a territory,

(01:01:55):
exploring nesting options. Now, keep in mind that great horn
owls do not build a nest. They take They simply
take over an existing nest. And so what I did
was five years ago, for whatever it was, four or five,
five years ago, coming up on the fifth year. Now,
I built a three foot by three foot box basically

(01:02:18):
that I made it out of two by sixes, pressure
treated two by sixes, put a some like chicken wire
underneath it, actually hardware cloth, heavy duty, and then filled
it with some grasses and sticks and things like that,
screwed it all in place, so like that, and I
put it up in a tree because I saw great

(01:02:40):
horn owls hanging around, and I put it up in
a tree. It's right at thirty feet high, so it's
up fairly high. Yeah, and I and then I put
it up in the fall, and that very first winter, Bam,
I had great horn owls testing in it, just like that,
And they've been nesting in it every winter since then,
and hopefully they will nest there again this year again.

(01:03:01):
I'll this past October, I got up there and installed
a kind of a high tech camera. It's a PTZ camera,
so I can you know, pan, tilt and zoom with it.
And so if she chooses that nest again this year,
then we're going to have that live feed going and
people can watch, you know, real time what's going on

(01:03:24):
with the nesting great horn.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
Now, do they add anything to the nest on an
annual basis?

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
Nothing?

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
So do you have to go up there and be
sure everything is copasetic.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
I do go up there and I clean it out.
The only thing that they really add are like things
like leftover bones of critters that they've eaten, or feathers
or that type of thing. They don't intentionally bring anything
in at all. Sometimes they'll have, for example, if they're
really abundant in their hunting, they'll have extra prey sitting

(01:03:56):
in their nest waiting for the babies to you know,
pick it up and eat it. And so there's you know,
things like that. But I haven't really had much of
a problem with that at all.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
So do do you have to clean the nest out
as far as.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Okay, no, I don't. This year, since I was up
there installing the camera, I added more grasses to the
nest to make it you know, because they break down
over time. And it's been five years that's been up there,
so it's I added some more grasses in there, kind
of fluffed it up and made it nice. And so hopefully,
keep my fingers crossed that'll happen. By the way, when people,

(01:04:28):
if they go to naturesmart dot com, they can sign
up for my newsletter, which is free. It's just me.
I don't sell emails. Or anything like that. It's just me,
And every two weeks I send out a blog posting
with announcements trips, new books, whatever things like that, so
people can sign up for that at naturesmart dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Don't sell the email addresses or anyhing.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
No, it's just me. Like I said, it's just I
don't I don't work with anybody or any corporation or
anything like that. It's just me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
So that tells you a little something too. Is as
far as easy to work with, I guess.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
Yeah, it's simple. Yeah, well I'm partially I'm partially lying
because it's actually my daughter that puts it together and
sends it out. I provide her all the information, uh,
and I provided with the blog posting. I provide her
with the pictures and all the information. She gathers it
all up from me, puts it all together, and then

(01:05:23):
she sends it out on my emailing list. Cool. Yeah,
it's cool. I'm just thrilled to have such a wonderful
daughter to be able to do that for me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Yes, as you should, and that's pretty important too, but
father daughters, those relationships are crucial. Yeah, all right, Well,
we talked an awful lot about that as far as
the Costa Rica animals that you've seen, but also back
home in Minnesota, the like the eagles are still around

(01:05:55):
because I saw one just the other day.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
Some of them don't go too far, do they, or
do they stay near water because thee is that far
from me.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
They look for open water. So their migration is basically
from wherever they're at to wherever there's open water, and
so a lot of times they don't go very fire,
I mean something. They can go several hundred miles like that,
but generally speaking, they're going just to find open water
where they can fish hunt, you know, and catch something
to eat. That's their main thing. Now again, when the

(01:06:24):
winters get tough, though, the bald eagles are big time
scavengers and they will you know, scavenged roadkill and they'll
you know, find things on the road, pick it up
and carry it off somewhere and eat it somewhere else too.
So they're not above scavenging, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
I saw some post this last week about a bald
eagle dropping a cat that they had taken in somebody's yard. Inadvertently,
I guess I didn't realize that they would take something
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Yeah, they will pull things off of roads. It's funny,
I thought you were going to say, because I heard
something similar to this week also, and that was somebody
said that a baldi was carrying a cat. I mean,
it's a common It's like it's like the setup to
any joke. And they were carrying the bald egle was
carrying a cat and dropped it and went through somebody's windshield,
is what I heard. There's so many of these things.

(01:07:15):
I only believe about the small percentage of.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
I don't believe any of them. Those.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Yeah, there you go, and so, but it's certainly possible.
But you got to think about it. Average bald eagles
about ten pounds for a male, females about twelve. They
could live about a quarter of their weight. So if
you got a three or four pound cat, it's possible.
If it's a twenty pound cat like mine, it's not possible.

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
You know, I re told the story you did because
I at one point that I ask you my family
was so worried because I had a new little Brittany,
a new puppy, about leaving the dog in the yard.
And he chastised me, saying, how big do you think
these things are Yeah, yeah, because I had to retell

(01:08:03):
that just to save me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:05):
Now, technically speaking, they could you know, try and maybe
puncture or you know, get some talons into but they
can't carry it off, that's for sure, because they are
It's physics, you know. It's the amount. Yeah, how much
do they weigh and how much power they have and
how much lift they have when they take off to
be able to do that, And generally speaking they could

(01:08:26):
lift about you know, half of almost half, not quite
of what their total weight is. So so if your
dog's above four pounds, which most dogs are, unless you
got when those little teacup dogs, and you're you're fine
in those situations. Now, having said that, you know, there's coyotes,
you know, there's there's foxes, you know, or if you

(01:08:48):
live in northern Minnesota, there's wolves, and all of them
like to pick on dogs.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
There are some feral cats that run loose in our
neighborhood that I would like to be carried off to
there you go, or somebody leaving their cat out overnight
that just totally frosts my bucket.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Yeah, just a reminder that cats don't belong outdoors. They
should be indoors. They're a pet, they're not a they
shouldn't be out running around there. It's just it's not good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
I had. I can't tell you, Stan, I had number
of arguments with a tech support gal who let her
cat out every night and thought nothing was wrong with that,
and we would go round and round and round. But
that's just an old memory that is making no difference

(01:09:36):
anymore with a lot of the migration that's completed, hasn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Yes, migration is done, you know, for this year, and
so we're going to see things, you know, starting to
return though soon at some point things will start to change.
December twenty first, as you know, is our winter solstice,
and then from a day or two after that days
start getting longer, and then you know, we're going to
see that switch. So we're almost there. We're almost to
that halfway point where it's going to start to improve.

(01:10:06):
Of course, then we do have January February though, so
and I'll be as always January February. I'll be in
Yellowstone for a good portion of that too. So yes,
I'm looking forward. It should be a good year.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Well when you are out there, will we still be
able to connect.

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
Should be able to. Yeah, there's a time difference, so
it means i'd be up a little an hour earlier
than usual. But yeah, we can. We can connect again,
and hopefully we'll have another good year with wolves like
we had last year, with lots and lots of wolves.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Yeah, I h there was there. There was concern about
the wolves in Aisle Royal, wasn't there, and they imported
some wolves. But now I haven't seen anything about that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Or I haven't either. And I just got notification of
the annual wolf Symposium. Every four years they have a
wolf symposium, and I look forward to that so much
every year. And I saw the notice of it and
I thought, oh my gosh, I can't wait to go.
And then I looked and I will be in Ecuador.

(01:11:08):
So it's like, no, I can. So I'll be leading
a trip to Ecuador, and so I'll be I'm not
gonna be able to attend the wolf symposium this year, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Okay, Ecuador is that a lot the same as Costa Rica.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
Only ten times larger and a lot more diverse. Where
there's like sixty eight species of hummingbirds in Costa Rica,
there's like one hundred and thirty in Ecuador. So lots
and lots of stuff going on there.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Interesting, all right. So are some of the species the same.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
Some Yeah, some are the same, but there's many, many,
many that are not.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Do some of our birds go to Ecuador for the
winter and come back absolutely?

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
In fact, when I was just in Costa Rica, I
was seeing lots of warblers, Baltimore orioles. Saw. I'm all
over the place down there, you know. Did they come
from here and they go down there?

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Oh? Interesting? Well, sir, I appreciate your time. Gosh, it's
fun talking to you, my friend. I really really do
enjoy it, and I know our listeners do too, because
there's there I get a number of comments on that too,
So I thank you well.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
I enjoy it too, and you know, it's always it's
always a good time. And hey, happy holidays, Merry Christmas
and happy New Year to everybody out there, and everyone
have a safe and great holiday.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Safe and great are awesome too, I echo echo that
for everybody, yourself included. Stand but all right, also, thank you.
We'll talk again a couple of weeks, buddy, all right,
calculator at stand tequila, don't forget nature, smart dot com
and if you're an adult, if you are adulting a
little bit, which I really really try not to do

(01:12:48):
a lot, but you might check out some of Stan's
adult aimed books. But that will be me too. We'll
take that pause and be back with one more segment
with Ackle Terry, or right after this, we're back one

(01:13:19):
last time for this Saturday morning, and Brett is waiting
for me to say, well, so well, last segment. How's
that much better? Thank you? Sometimes I try to fix
it up a little bit, but I'll learn. You'll get
me trained yet, buddy. I'm just saying we'll bring our

(01:13:42):
next guest in because he is every other week guest
on Fan Outdoors and we appreciate his time to mister tackle.
Terry Tuma joins us fresh off the ice fishing all,
not the Maybe it's the ice, but I'm guessing it's
the ice fishing show. Terry.

Speaker 5 (01:14:00):
Good morning, sir, Good morning to you, and good morning
to all of our listeners. Yes, the ice. This show
was a huge success bill. In fact, Saturday was a
record breaker and the whole show totally was up twenty
percent in attendance.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Wow, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:14:16):
That's a lot. Yes, it is that's a lot. What
really impressed me bill to a lot of teenagers. There
a lot of families, a lot of youngsters. Basically all
ages were at the show and some of them have
never been a issue.

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
Well, Terry, I've been to the show a number. Well,
it wasn't for a few years ago, or until a
few years ago. It was packed. Then how did anybody
move around in the show floor.

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
I think part of a bill was they had a
VIP hours both Saturday and Friday, and that was opening
two hours earlier. It cost a little extra dollars and tickets,
but that really helped relieve that, sir people. But it
was crowd It was crowded during the main fire those days,
and Someday was good. Also.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
It reminded when I when I did go, Terry reminded
me of salmon swimming upstream because if you saw something
you wanted to look at, you just couldn't do it
because you were going to get swept right along with
the current.

Speaker 5 (01:15:23):
Well, there's no question, but that's why they decided to
do the VIP, which really helped a lot. But the
buying bill was I watched the buying I was in
the vessel booth, and it was just amazing. Like I
seen one gentleman carring at least six rods that he purchased.
So but I seen so many people buying almost any

(01:15:45):
everything and anything wow wow, which was great. You know,
it was really great. It's good for the fishing industry,
and it's good for the fishing industry also.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Yes, Now, did you come across anything that surprised you
or that you haven't seen much of or did you
not have a lot of time to move around.

Speaker 5 (01:16:03):
I didn't have a lot of time to move around.
We've done the panel discussion on Friday and that was
standing room only, so that was very very good with
a lot of good questions. But no, I've seen a
couple of items. I think the chance to look at
everything by no means. But one item that I did
see was where they had an ice almost like an
ice anchor or you drill a hole in the ice prober,

(01:16:26):
I don't know, something like a six inch hole, maybe
eight inch, and you dropped this sort of tube down
there and then you were able to attach it to
a very strong so we say, sort of a rope
if you will, or if you got stuck and you
had a winch on a say a truck or side

(01:16:48):
by side or whatever, you could actually winch yourself out.
I like that, Terry, Yeah, it really. It was like
one hundred dollars. And he said they've been selling a
ton of them. They were, They've been in business for
five years, he said, all across the ice belt that
they've been selling them. But this was really a good idea,
very simple, to be honest with you. Uh, and it

(01:17:12):
the strength of this strap was I thought, he said,
five thousand pounds.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
Well, you know it's one of those deals, Terry, that
you think I should have thought of that.

Speaker 5 (01:17:23):
I hope you never need it, but if you needed,
you have it, right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Well, yeah, better to have it not needed.

Speaker 5 (01:17:30):
Yeah, especially if you around the lake and you got stuck,
you know, with a side by side or with your truck,
and you got a winch. You know what a great
way to get free or get out stuck.

Speaker 2 (01:17:41):
Terry used to I'd go with the perch patrol. But
that was their whole concept too. They would go with
a buddy. So if they did get stuck and just
give somebody a call on the on the radio or
probably on the radio now still, but they just come
and yankee out and that just saved everybody's boy.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
Well, sure, yeah, in this little too, you know. But
here again you have to have a winch, of course,
but still, you know, I think a lot of side
by sides and I do have winches. Many forwarders have
linches winches, and the trucks have winches too on them.
So you have a lot of opportunity here. And he
said they really sell, and I'm sure that they do.

Speaker 2 (01:18:21):
Yeah, I've got a winch at home. I used to
hoist up electric winch, but you to plug it into
the back end by Chevy, and it's got power right
back there. I use it to lift up deer carcasses
and hang them and stuff. But it also works for
taking trees down. But it would work for pulling out
pulling you out.

Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
Of the snow too, Oh yes it would. And especially,
you know, especially if you get really hung up in
some of that icy, wet snow, you can really bury
yourself in and I that has happened to me. And
this would be really a way to save a lot
of time and many times a lot of dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Yeah, I totally agree, Harry. So with the show was
going on, had anybody talked about having been on the
ice already.

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
Yes, somewhat. I did talk to a River Bend resort
and they, as of yesterday did that eight to ten
inches of ice on the leak. And here here I'm
hearing a lot of reports four to five inches, some
two inches, some three inches, and I think it really good.
I talked to a bait Chop vocalist today and this

(01:19:31):
morning early and he said to me, he said that
there's approximately two inches of ice, two inches of snow,
and then two inches of ice. So we got that
layering system due to this weather that we've had. But
with the forecast that's taking place now, which is cool weather,
that should really firm up everything. And I think everything

(01:19:53):
should really shape up to be a very good ice visue.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Well I hope so. But I have like six or
seven inches of snow at home top of the snow
we already got. We just got that one the other day.
But when you put snow on ice, that snow acts
like an insulation too. Plus you can't really see ahead
of you other than the assumption that everything is good. Terry,

(01:20:17):
I remember two years ago on our lake that the
geese cap kept a big section of water open long
after the rest of the lake had frozen. You drive
over that with all that snow, and you're going to
find yourself in a deep doodo.

Speaker 5 (01:20:36):
Oh you are, And you're exactly right, even while walking
and so forth. You know, if and that's exactly or
a spring something worse spring is active. You know, we
have a couple of active springs on our lake. It's
always we can see the water seeping up through and
that's also negative too. But here we've had that brain
sweet snow mixture. But I think it really is going

(01:20:58):
to be just fine with these temperatures, you know, really
going to reform the ice itself. But here again too,
as you mentioned, and with this change in weather, Pat,
it's constantly we need to be a little bit careful.

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
Well, yes, and you know people want to take off
and go on their own. And the guy used to
tell me when I was at school that you want
to be on the edge, but you don't want to
be on the bloody edgectly.

Speaker 5 (01:21:27):
Right, Bill, You are right. You know here too, if
you're venturing on a brand new lake, nobody's out there.
Use cought, you know, if you can take a buddy
with you, please do that carry a rope of some sort.
But you know here too, again just use common sense,
and you know, if there's nobody on the lake, you
have to sort of ask yourself why, because you know,

(01:21:49):
if nobody's fishing that specific body of wh not good
fishing or it's not safe.

Speaker 2 (01:21:54):
Yeah, either way, I don't think I want to go,
and I'm not going to be the first one out
on anything us.

Speaker 5 (01:22:01):
No, and I have I don't think I've ever mentioned
to your triad of our listeners, but I have fallen
through three times up to my waist only at that
shot on your body, Bill is literally unbelievable. Describe it,
you know, it's just it's it's something that and I
can't even then think about going all the way through
getting submerged.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
You know, it takes the honest to gosh, Terry, It
takes the breath steals it instantly out of your body.
You got you just.

Speaker 5 (01:22:30):
Can't breathe exactly right, Yes, And it's that kind of
a shock. And I know I got into the truck
and took out my boots and warmed up and hit
it home. I was done for the day.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
Yeah. So now when you first do get out on
the ice, h what are you going to be doing well?

Speaker 5 (01:22:51):
Generally speaking, first of all, pick out a good leg
that after the specie that I'm going to pursue bill,
and then I look for some sort of structure, you know,
maybe it's a point or existing we did inside turn
of the flat. Some of those are rock piles. Those
are going to be something I'll be looking for. And
I can do that by past experiences of watching the

(01:23:13):
shoreline or and dropping the XR down to see the
depth and see if I can mark anything.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:23:19):
One of the things I noticed Terry was I was
in I was shooting the breeze of Denny Fletcher not
too long ago up there, and I can't believe the
number of calls this his bait shop got from people
wondering what was going on? How much ice is there? Dyada, YadA, yadia,
What different lakes that you're going to? And he was

(01:23:40):
more than welcoming those kinds of calls, and he would
He actually took a guy over and showed him a
lake map and pointed it out to him, pointed out
the places he could go. They're more generic places, but
it's a good starting.

Speaker 5 (01:23:55):
Spot, it really is, especially if it's a good day
chop that really takes pride in, you know, selling tackle
and visiting with UH their customers. It is a great
starting point in the wintertime. I think it's really something
to take a look at. You know, most of these
people will try to find out, you know, what kind
of ice conditions there are, what kind of species are biting,

(01:24:16):
what are they biting on. It's just a big, big factory.
That's a good place to start always, and especially in
the winter time.

Speaker 2 (01:24:23):
Do people like yourself even use bobbers anymore?

Speaker 5 (01:24:27):
Terry as not a whole I will in a second hole,
Like if we're going, you know, fishing for walleys, you know,
then I'll use a barber system and a tool, you know,
permanent house or some sorts get out the wheelhouse. Then
I'll use a bobber system. But otherwise I don't know.
Basically I'll use for some fishing crappies, and even for walleys,

(01:24:52):
I'll use either a depth stick and digging some sort
you know, jig or digging round or whatever it may be.
And then the other one would be a death stick
without a bobber most of the time, but not always.
Here again too, it really depends, I think on the

(01:25:12):
specie I'm pursuing and what I'm fishing for and where
and how.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
When you're talking about let's say, panfish fishing in the
wintertime or early ice like it is right now, maybe
it's not early anymore, I don't even know time of day.
Does that make a difference, And does barometer make a difference,
And does cloudy versus sunny make a difference?

Speaker 5 (01:25:35):
Yes, it sure does that. That was some of the
questions we had at the Pannel discussion too, Bill, and
thank you for asking for those. Yes. First of all, yes,
the brombo makes a big, big difference in catching fish.
Many anger as they can it's cold out, It really does.
I think it makes more difference in the winter time

(01:25:57):
than in the summertime. In fact, talking to some of
the guys in a winter time they agree one hundred percent.
And generally speaking, you know, a rising barometer is really
a tough bite. A stong bromer is okay, by a
steady brommer is excellent. And so therefore what you need
to do, and that's what ties in with fishing pressure too,

(01:26:17):
is you know, fishing pressure, the noise factor another major
ingredient in being successful. So what we really need to
do is take a look at you know, exactly where
we are going to be fishing on, what body of water,
and then just according to the weather condition. To go
out and say that you can't catch fish during the coldfront,

(01:26:38):
that's totally fault. But what you need to do is,
you know, generally speaking, what I personal will do startles
go to the contact a small scow and subtle. If
I don't catch any fish, and I go just the opposite,
hopefully to get a reaction bite. And the best time
a day, especially for sunfish is early morning and late evening.
If it's a cloudy day or really cloudy out of snowcover,

(01:27:01):
then you can have a pretty good mid day bite.
But here again it you know, there's that at fun
timeframe of about a half hour before daybreak two about
eight thirty in the morning, a reason being that these
fish are feeding on dash It's a small zoo plankton.
It's about the size of the head of a stickpin.
And if you can capitalize on that time frame of

(01:27:22):
a bite, you're going to have some great, great success
for sunfish, especially Terry.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
I've been on some panel discussions too, not on fishing
or on ice fishing, but on other things. I always fought,
and when I'm attending one too, I always find it
interesting that sometimes people don't agree. They arrive at the
same conclusion, but they have different ways of arriving. Did

(01:27:46):
you have that or notice it at all in your group?

Speaker 5 (01:27:49):
Yes, I did, Yes, very much so. And and you're right,
you know, you know, and everybody has the same actually
the same goal as to catch fish, of course, but
also too there are different approaches of doing that and
if it's successful by all means, do it. But here
are too, you know. It's just I think most of
the time is just paying attention to your fishing pressure,

(01:28:12):
your weather conditions, what the fish are eating, when are
they eating, and you know, like fishing pressure is a
big factor, Bill. I've seen it so many times fishing crappies,
or it's in a terrible crappy bite in the evening
and when all the people got off, I was fishing
a reef. When all the people got off, about a

(01:28:32):
half hour eadar, here comes the crappies. And I've seen
it so many, many many times. Or you know, fishing pressure,
which relates the noise is really something of a fact
that you are thing too. I should mention is that
we have some questions too about the drilling holes. And
I generally speak, I'll drill you know, two three holes,
and I'll let that noise factor settle down, and then

(01:28:54):
I'll pop the transducer in to see if I'm marking
fit and move to one spot into the next nixt
So then if I don't market you fit within you know,
temis per hole, then I'll definitely move. But we have
this tendency to move so much. I think it's costing
us face Bill. And the other thing too that came up,
especially in the panel, was you know, work to do

(01:29:15):
your host Jerry speaking, I will personally drive a who
on snow. It's up to that question of the noise
and stop and then diminishes the sunlight.

Speaker 3 (01:29:23):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:29:24):
And then also right at the edge of that, so
that becomes an edge to hold some of the fishes.

Speaker 2 (01:29:29):
Terry, We're gonna let you go, buddy, but thank you,
my friend. Have a fabulous weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:29:33):
Okay, well you too, and everybody go fishing, but you
little cross, as.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
Bill says, that's tackle. Terry joins us every other week
on Fan Outdoors. We're almost not a time, but I
want to do say thank you special thanks to stand
Tequila for joining us, Thank you for allowing us to
travel with you for Brett blakemore my producer, executive producer.
I'm Billy Hildebrand, trying to stay warm. See you next week, everybody.
Until then,