Fan Outdoors: Tommy George, Stan Tekiela

The Captain is back and he’s joined by Tommy George 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 (00:46):
Heard Morning Fan Outdoors, faithful, Yes, good morning to you. Well,
getting here today was a whole lot easier than it
was last week because last week there's a road tore
up on the way to the studio from the North
Metro and it caught me by surprise in the dark,

(01:10):
and I kind of panicked. And actually that was two
weeks ago, and last week I had forgotten about it,
and then the panic set in. But this week, piece
of cake, Piece of cake, even in the dark, I
could tell which roads I needed to take to get
around it and get here and join you on this

(01:30):
fine morning, the twenty second day of November today when
it lightens up, which it's not right now, but as
I did my weekly peer out the garage as I
opened the door. It's partly cloudy and about thirty seven

(01:51):
degrees right now. We're shooting for a high of forty
five degrees in the North Metro. I'm not sure it
is what it'll be where you are, but you can
kind of throw this out the window if you'd like
and see what happens in your world. But they're predicting
a west southwest wind five to ten miles an hour.

(02:15):
Yesterday it was quite balmy for this time of year
in November, and I actually cleaned my yard for the
next last time.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I've cleaned it for the last time like three times now.
But that's I guess. There's a lot of people that
don't do anything with their yard. They just leaves collect,
and when I get a west wind, they all collect
looking up at me and it's not a big deal,
but it irritates me a little bit. And we'll just

(02:48):
let that fly to today. Sun will arrive at seven
twenty and set at four thirty eight. And if you're
a Sisconsin night that likes to hunt deer, this is
your white tail opener. But Minnesota's has come and for

(03:11):
the most part gone. But it was a good opener
from all the records and everything that I have looked
at and seen a few more deer. They predict at
the end of our seasons, which includes muzzleloading and muzzleloading
and muzzleloading, we will have either gotten close to last

(03:37):
year or pretty much not bad, not bad at all.
Difference in Minnesota and Wisconsin a lot of them. And
I'll choose to stay here. I guess that's kind of
where I'm at, but that's okay too. And I we'll

(04:00):
probably be hunting deer with Eric and Chad, and that
will be for muzzle loading coming up right after Thanksgiving,
Thanksgiving around the corner. That brings me to one of
the things, one of the topics that we'll broach a
little bit later in the program, and that is, well,

(04:22):
if you listen to a lot of the TV news,
they're going to have videos and they're going to have
horror stories about deep frying your turkey. Listen, it ain't
that big a deal. If it's intimidated you the end

(04:44):
of the By any end of the show, you should
be a lot less intimidated. I have cooked probably twenty
to thirty or more turkeys in a deep fryer, and
I have yet I have yet to burn my house
down or any place else that I have been, so

(05:07):
just the kind of a heads up that's going to
come a little bit later. It's going to be a
lot of stand day, a lot of stand day. And
I thank him for joining because there's a lot of
mother Nature to keep talking about. And when our time
together with stand seems to come up way too fast,

(05:30):
I've still got things I want to talk to the
man about a lot of them and find he's more
often than not that man is right on the money.
So I hope it will be entertaining for you as
it is for me.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
Now.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
A couple of other things going on in the world
around you and around me. Well, we have gotten first
ice in a lot of places, and it's not a
thick ice, but we go through this every year, and
I am I'm going to tell moms and dads if

(06:11):
you've got youngsters, sit them down and tell them and
scare the hell out of them. If you can stay
off of the ice. I don't care where. If it's
a pond in the neighborhood, if it's a you're out
in the country and there's a slew that has a

(06:34):
little bit of ice, on it. Stay they heck off it.
It's not safe yet. A couple of youngsters uh and
north of the Twin Cities, decided they wanted to go
ice fishing. Yep, so they took one of the one
of the otter sleds, the plastic sled that's usually underneath

(06:59):
a portable ice house. Well, they pushed that out on
the ice and that was their boat, their security. They're
sitting in this and guess what it went through. Have
you ever been in one of those things when it's
floating on its own. They were twelve and thirteen years old.

(07:22):
By the way, it's about the most tippy thing. It's
even more tippy than a kayak. And I have a
heck of a time or a paddle board. I can't
stand on that. To save my soul, I can't. I
get a water ski like crazy, but I can't stand

(07:42):
in a paddle board and tip the kayak over right away. Well,
these things are worse than a kayak. The kids went
in the water. The water's cold, and they had to
be rescued. Thank goodness, they were okay. But there's one
more story with a man from Champlain, Minnesota, a young

(08:04):
man of thirty years old who lost his life. And
the more I read about it, it's a very sad thing,
and think to yourself, what would you do in this situation.
The man, from everything I have read, was an incredible
human being. Hunting was no stranger to him. He's hunted

(08:26):
in a lot of states, hunted Waterfall a lot of
states for a really long time. And he was an
incredible individual. He would do pretty much anything for his
friends or really anybody that needed something. An extremely selfless individual.

(08:46):
And it turns out that he and his best friend
were hunting ducks in North Dakota on a wildlife area,
public hunting area, and they must have been in some
kind of a boat or something. His buddy had a
new young yellow lab, and if you know anything about

(09:09):
hunting dogs, you know the young dogs are not They're
pretty anxious and real eager to go. It's really hard
to stop him, it is. So they're out there and
they're hunting and having a good time. Well, they drop
a duck. Dog takes off on his own. So it

(09:30):
sees the duck goes down and takes off, gets about
one hundred yards away and he runs into some ice
and he's the dog is struggling. Chris, who is the
man from Champlain, sees the dog, strips down, hops in

(09:51):
the water, and swims out to help the dog. Not
his dog, his buddy's dog. He gets out. The water's very,
very cold, and if you've ever been in this kind
of cold water, you'll know it doesn't take long. It
SAPs a lot of your strength out. He got out
there and his buddy could see he started to struggle.

(10:14):
Hypothermia was setting in, so he too went out, and
before he got out of there, out to him the
dog had freed gotten free and was heading back. Chris
slipped under the surface and his buddy couldn't get him.
He struggled to get back to shore himself, and Chris drowned.

(10:40):
So I asked you to think about what you would do.
And I know people will say you're just supposed to
it's a dog. Let the dog go. I can't tell
you with all sincerity that I wouldn't do this thing,

(11:01):
honest to goodness. There's something about a dog, a hunting dog,
that makes it different than a feral cat you see
in the ditch or you run across in the field.
Something about hunting dogs that make them at least in

(11:23):
my world, pretty special species. When I lost one of
my last dogs, my bell dog, who is just a
couple of years old, I cried harder than I have
cried for a relative when she crawled over to me

(11:43):
and put her head on my thigh and died. It
still hurts, and that was four years ago. I don't know.
It's a very very sad situation. But from everything that
I have read about this man, he was one of

(12:06):
the most selfless individuals that there was that anybody knew.
And it's a terrible, terrible tragedy that didn't really have
to happen, but it did. And there's no blame to
place anywhere. I told you too, And it's almost time
to take a pause. But it's the Wisconsin deer opener.

(12:30):
Minnesota probably made a great call this year because they
hit the rut, the white tail rut dead on in
my opinion anyway, because a lot of things I have
heard were Eric shot a big but big buck, nice buck,
big body deer, and it was behew. He was following

(12:53):
three dos, obviously in rout and wanting to breed. And
I asked, did you see him coming? Where'd he come from?
Out on land, that they have permission, that are they lease,
that they have permission to hunt? They pay for it,
but they do have permission, he said, I don't know.

(13:13):
He came out of nowhere. I never did see. We
just showed up. So if you're in Wisconsin, I wish
you success. I hope you do well. I hope you're safe.
And if you do shoot a deer, I would recommend
that you haven't tested for CWD because the prevalence of

(13:33):
CWD in Wisconsin the whitetail herd is high, much much
higher than in Minnesota. We will take that first pause,
and on our return we'll be joined and talk a
little bit of fission. Either from shore or still in
a boat. Maybe Tommy George is looking waiting for the

(13:57):
mermaid to show up too. We'll ask him about that.
So grab yourself another cup of coffee, fill it up again,
come on back, and we'll be here. Short pause and
we'll be back right after this eighteen minutes after the

(14:21):
hour of six am. I a fan out of our
Saturday morning yep, coming at you until the eight o'clock hour.
In fact, one of our favorite guests is patiently waiting
for me to quit the appen and just bring him
on the air. So how do I do that? Tommy?
George joins us right now. Good morning, my friend.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Good morning Billy and Brett. And where where he's at?
Good morning to Pop.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
He doesn't know where he's at.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
You've said that before. It's going to be a good day.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Ay, that's good, I hope. So Tommy, are you still angling?

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Oh? Yes, I am. I put the boat away. Well,
I shouldn't say that because, like I've told you before,
my boat is always ready to go. And I had
to put away a couple of weeks ago because the
weather has been just so windy and nasty. That's one
thing that in the falls, it's kind of dangerous to her.
Like you said about cold water and stuff. Always oiler

(15:28):
life jacket and just to go slow with everything. You know,
you don't have to scream to your hot spots or anything.
But anyways, my boat's always ready. But I have been
fishing from shore lately now. The last time I was
in the boat was just a few days ago, but
it was windyar and Heck and my son Ben and

(15:51):
I went out to our lake Cedar like overn in Wisconsin,
and it was white caps on there and the lake
is early big and it was pretty rough. So I
did what I did the time before we had such
good success. I actually anchored on this fish crib and

(16:16):
it was very easy and we just ran on top
of it. Okay, and that's where the that's where the
fish have been lately. Now, when when you get out
on the water, first thing I do is check the
water temperature. First thing I do is I touched the
water and I make the sign of the Cross for
safety and good luck. Anyways, we go over to the

(16:41):
spot and there's guys out there with a GP with
live scopes, and uh, they're sitting around us because we're
in an area where a bunch of different fish cribs dropped.
I dropped my anchor, I moved and we stayed right
on top and we're catching fish. I mean it was

(17:03):
almost instant, just right over the side of the boat.
Just with winter fishing jakes and you know lightline. I
always liked three four pound tests in the summer always,
and my son Ben and I started catching fish and
these guys they were struggling with their live scopes. They

(17:27):
saw him catch a few crappies and anyways, make a
long story short, we sat and in two hours we
had our limit and picked up and left. Now, when
we were there, we checked the water temperature. It was
forty It was forty two degrees. This was last week

(17:47):
and so it was plenty cold. And the wow, it's
it's not going to be long. Like you said, the
lakes are going to freeze up, and that's going to
be you know, a while before you get out there
to make it say. Anyways, so I went over to
Wisconsin again, over to Glen Lake and fish off the
shore and I caught those trout. I sent you a

(18:10):
picture of those brook trouts and they're beautiful. But again,
so today, well, actually we're going to have decent weather
for the next couple of days and then after that
it's going to be it's gonna get real nasty. So
I'll go out at least I'll see what happens today,

(18:31):
tell you the truth. But a wind is a big
factor this time of the year. But I know the
water temperature is really cold, so I don't know if
I'll have any luck with trout, but I know the sunfish.
I should still be able to catch some sunnies because
I'm fishing right out in front of some cribs that
the dn r's put out, and so I'm open to

(18:54):
do something now. I had a big fish try last
week and it's fabulous and have some good fresh panfish.
It's there's nothing like it. So it's it's even better
than turkey dinner.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Well, speaking of nothing like it, Tommy, have you seen
your mermaid lately?

Speaker 4 (19:15):
You know, Billy, I kind of laughed when I heard
you talk about that. I just forgot. I've been over
to the lake, Perch Lake where I saw her and
I haven't seen her again. Oh, it was, it was.
I know, it was so cold, Billy. I was in
my winter fishing gear because it was cold, and you're
standing on shore and she went in the water with

(19:38):
basically a Bikinian and she went up to her neck
and I was, I was just in awe. I didn't
I could move.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
I bet you were.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
And she walked out of there. I'd be.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Some some shows up in a good swimming I'm in
awe too, man.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
You know, I sent you involved that little video, I
mean a video order, and I was talking to her
and she does it all the time, because you know,
they sit in the sauna until they can't breathe, and
then everybody goes in the water tips. I know some
of my own in laws are doing that, and they
live on a small little lake. They do that, and

(20:18):
now nowadays they're making parties of it. So he has
a bunch of people there and they go to sauna
and then they all go take a dip and link. Billy,
I couldn't do that if I think, I would die
in the box my heart and stop it.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
There's no way. Tell me, there's no way on God's
earth I'm going to do that. Hell, I'm trying to
stay up warm. Why would I call?

Speaker 4 (20:43):
Right? But you know I've gone over there to see
if she's there again. He was a beautiful lady, and anyways,
it was. It's something, so I'm glad I saw it
one time, and I think about it often when.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
I think about it often too, Buddy, I really would
that only happens in my dreams, man, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah, have you been fishing at all? I know you're
not up the lake anymore, but no, I haven't.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Well, one of the things I'm wondering. You said that
the wind is pretty nasty. It's kind of and it
makes it difficult. But in the summertime, I mean, I
know that people, including yourself, always talk about fishing the
windy side. Well yeah, yeah, that's wonderful until you get
cold and there's cold wind. In the spring, we're always

(21:40):
talking about you know, the wind may blow in warmer water,
but it also blows cold air too.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Absolutely, whatever. Usually the water temperature is what you're feeling
because that's the wind. Like you said, it's the wind
is blowing that temperature and it's blowing you know, across you.
So whatever it is, and that's it was cold. But
you know, I always dress for the weather. That's one
of the first things I do before I go fishing.

(22:10):
I check what it's going to be for the week.
I'll try and pick more than more than temperature. I
try and pick a low day of wind. You know,
if the wind's going to be like said today, it's
gonna be like five to ten. Yeah, it's not bad,
but when you get in the twenties or more, it's nasty.
And right now, it's not very smart to go out

(22:31):
if it's going to be too windy. I've got a
big boat and I can handle some good wind, but
it's still it's not fun, then it's always a challenge,
but it's still do you want to you want to
make it fun.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
And if it's not fun, and I don't care what
you're doing, Tommy, I said to Greg, who is here
over in Wisconsin for the deer opener, it's got half fun.
Just make sure. And I've stole that the dads that
are taking their kids out worried about not getting something.
I said, it doesn't make any difference in the long run.
Have fun, make a memory that you can enjoy.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
You're right, hundred percentage of it's let the kids enjoy
something that you know, it's not miserable for them. I
know my dad when I was younger, or my dad
used to take us out. There's eight kids in the
family and there's there's my brothers and I would go
out and it was it was terrible. I mean, I

(23:29):
wasn't dressed for it, and my dad thought it was nice.
And We're sitting out in the ice and I'm freezing.
I can't feel my hands, i can't feel my toes,
and I'm just crouched out on the ice and like
a little snowball and trying to stay warm. But he
was my dad was if we were cold. He wasn't

(23:50):
mean he'd start the car up. This is when you
could drive out and we would sit in the car
when it's in the you know, nice and warm in
the car. And I just I think, I'm God, I
can't wait to get out of here. But if you
make it, if you make it miserable for the kids,
they're never gonna want to go. Don't always think about
them first, and you'll have a much better time.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Well, and that's what I told Eric too. And he's
getting my grandson Jack out and wanting to do it.
I said, if if you don't make it fun, he's
not going to learn to love it. And he's also
going to find I'm telling he's going to find something
to occupy his time. He will find that, right, And

(24:35):
in my world, I wanted it to be the outdoors
and it's got to be fun. And that means you've
got to give something up. But in the long run,
you're going to benefit. And now Tommy, it's just he
asked me if I want to go along, He asked me,
if I want to go fishing or hunting, And yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
It is that. It doesn't get any better than that,
you know, my kids were little, even a little younger
than Jack, I would take them in a boat because
I had to get off fishing. I was it's almost
like an illness or sickness. I had to go out fishing.
And but I would always bring them on nice days
and and I'd say bring your toys. I always let

(25:19):
them bring any of their favorite toys, and they would
love it. They would go in the live well and
they were floating their boats and playing with their little
Star Wars figures and stuff like that. But I saw
that picture that you sent, what was it air or
that thing? It was Chad with the little guy and

(25:40):
Jack and they were walking down a road when you
guys are going hunting. That was absolutely it was a
hard drop picture with the little boy with his hand
holding his dad's hand walking down this looked like an
old lumber road or whatever. It was just the most

(26:00):
beautiful picture. And that's what it's all about. It thought,
God bless him, he knows what he's doing with this
little guy, and and those are He taught you well.
And you taught the guys, the kids well, and now
they're teaching their young ones.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
And that's got that's how you promote the sport, Tommy,
I'm and I don't care if it's hunting, fishing, camping,
whatever it is, right, if it's something that you enjoy doing,
if you just send them with a neighbor. And I
have taken a number as you have too, taken a
lot of kids hunting and fishing. But they don't have

(26:37):
a vehicle to do it over and over again. It's
not going to become the addiction that you want it
to be. They have to be able to repeat it.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Yeah, you got a lifelong partner now, Billy with little
Jack now and like you said, he asked you to go,
which is fantastic. That's going every can even if you're tired.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
Yeah, but you but you have.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
To change the way you approach it too. You have
to change the fact that you're not going to be
able to fish, or you're not going to be able
to hunt the way you're used to doing it. Short
legs for hunting, and they just don't have the same interest.

(27:26):
You've got to I remember the kids used to tell
me we'd stop somewhere and start fishing, and they wouldn't
catch anything a little bit, and all of a sudden
they wanted to go for boat rides. So they'd say,
new spot, Dad, new spot, And that was my key.
We're going to fire up the engine and we're going
to find a new spot.

Speaker 5 (27:46):
But yeah, if you don't do it one.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
Thing, the kids still they still remember to this day.
I would always stop at a grocery start where I'd
get some bait yep, and I always told the kids,
I says, each twenty eight can go and get three treats.
And they I says, do you want to go fishing?
That's first thing I asked. They say, oh, we're going

(28:10):
to stop at the store. I sug yes, and that
they all wanted to get a treat more than to
go fishing sometimes, but that brought them out, and once
we did get out, they had the ball and we
usually caught fish. And now they'll they love going. Now
I've got my grandkids doing the safe thing, and I
do the same thing, and I let them all get

(28:31):
a treat and it's just something fun that even if
they're the fish are and biting or whatever, you never know.
But they've got their little favorite candy bars or whatever
it is. And sometimes the mothers don't like it because
of feeding them too much sugar. But it's just fine.
But I love taking the kids. I do, so I'll

(28:55):
always I always ask them sometimes if they like to go,
and nine of the time they do a billy unless
I've got some other commitments.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, I was just looking. I can't find it right away,
but I've got a video that I'll play for you
in the audience the one time when I can find it.
But it's it's kind of in my opinion anyway, is
kind of the epitome of a young man catching a

(29:25):
fish and the excitement that they have and captured it
on video. But I will I'll try to do that
maybe later in the program if I can during break,
I'll find it. But of course, when you're looking for something,
you can't find it right away.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
But anyway, I got another one, you bet, Tommy.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
I thank you for your time, buddy, and be sure
you'll let me know take a picture of the mermaid
if she shows up. Okay, I definitely will maybe get
an autograph.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
And everybody, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving this year,
and I hope you're dumpling Steward soup turns on again.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
Thanks Tommy, you take care, buddy. Happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
That's Tommy George, pro angler Tommy George, and he is
a pretty special guy. I really really enjoy talking to him,
and I enjoy fishing with him a great deal too.
We will take a pause and mister Stan Tequila will
join us next Well, naturesmart dot com you can find

(30:30):
him and don't tell my grandkids, but we got him
something from Stan for Christmas. Uh huh, I'm thinking that way,
but you may want to too. It's pretty special. I've
already looked at the books by Stand that I've given
my kids, and they my grandkids. They are their favorites.

(30:53):
They're out laying on the floors or reading it. One
of them comes up and says, Papa, read to me,
read this, read this, so you'll enjoy it. We'll talk
a little bit about that with Stand too, but I'll
tell you what they're going to get if you promise
to keep it to yourself. Okay, All right after.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
This, 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 wild
and natural. He may even know more about animals than

(31:36):
they do. Themselves, and you thought the cat knew the outdoors.
Here's fan favorite Stan Tequila on Fan Outdoors.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Good morning, Stan, how are you sir?

Speaker 5 (31:51):
Good morning? How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (31:53):
That intro has got to be the classicist the most.
I love it. I love it is just stay at
It makes me smile every time it comes on. It's
so cool.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (32:05):
Yeah, as you know, that was sprung on me.

Speaker 6 (32:08):
I had no idea, but I sure like it.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I still I still think it'd be a great intro
when you go out and speak to a lot of
people and just come in with a a hawire and
just settle down there. There's like a bird coming back in.

Speaker 6 (32:25):
Anyway, speak speaking of it, speaking of intros while while
giving presentations, I recently gave a presentation down in Florida
and yeah, last week and they I was at one
of it was an Audubond group down there, and they

(32:47):
had a eight year old, a third grader who was
a super fan of mine, who introduced me.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
And it was one of the best introductions I've ever had.
It was absolutely one.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
That's incredible. Stand that's awesome.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
Yeah, Yeah, it really was was. I've had quite a
bit of experiences. I do quite a bit of speaking
engagements all over the country and just uh, you know,
so you can imagine every time it's different, and this
is one of those times where.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
It was like, wow, well that's never happened before.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Oh, good for you, man, that's cool. That's very cool.
So have you been out and about with uh, with
my nature lately.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
Yeah, I've been.

Speaker 6 (33:35):
Trying to get out as much as possible for the
white tail deer rut and it's it's been it's been good.
I've spending a lot of time trying to film doing
a video of white tails and their natural behaviors that
they do. So these are the males, you know, scraping
and rubbing and you know, just basically running about. And

(33:59):
so that's what I've been spending a lot of time
with it. And I got to tell you that every
single time that I get within you know, uh, nose
distance of these big males that are running, the smell
is just such a it's such a unique smell. So
what's happening is the males are putting out a a

(34:20):
sent uh usually on their hind legs and this this
scent is it's like a musky, sweet smell that you
can smell from quite a distance, and that strikes me
every single time I'm out there and I uh, you know,
I'm creeping through the woods trying to be as quiet
as possible and you know, trying to remain undercover and

(34:42):
all that, carrying about a gazillion pounds of camera gear
and so then I just you know, it's not easy.
But that that smell, then it's like it's almost satisfying.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
That it's like, Okay, you got a good one.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
You got to you know, you're you're near You're near
a male who's you know, really advertising for the girl,
and that's that's kind of fun.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Well, I've I do know the smell stand very well
because there's a gland in the back of the male's
leg when I have grabbed them to move them while hunting.
I only have done this once. I grabbed in the
wrong Yeah, that's a bad thing. Man. It stays with

(35:24):
you for a long time.

Speaker 6 (35:27):
It's called the tarsisk gland. In this gland on the
males who are not really breeding much, h you don't
notice it as much. But when the males are, you know,
the real dominant males, it kind of leaks down its
leg and which technically it's it's foot, but let's we
don't have to get into that. And it stains it

(35:49):
really dark, almost black, and so that you know, when
you see that, you know, okay, this is a does
a hot mail. He's really he's really working for it.
And it's it's real satisfying when you find one like that.
Is the rut winding down now a.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Bit, do you think?

Speaker 5 (36:07):
Well?

Speaker 6 (36:08):
Which is an interesting thing that because so the females
are available for breeding only a matter of hours, you know,
so it's a very short narrow window of time. Uh,
And so for the females, the the rut, the you know,

(36:30):
the breeding time is definitely winding down. Males, on the
other hand, and that usually is sometime in November, early November.
The males back in October a full month before, are
already starting to rut, you know, starting to rut and
starting to really uh build up. You know, their nexts
are swollen, they're they're you know, not feeding as much,

(36:52):
and they're following their nose and they're going around. This
goes for quite a long period of time and it
goes through the first rut, and then any female that
doesn't get bred in that narrow window of time during
the original rut. Time will come back into estrus about
twenty eight thirty days later, and so the males have

(37:13):
to be still ready to go, you know, for that
second round, which usually happens in December, and so they are.
The males really don't drop out of it very quickly.
In fact, they're they're they're you know, hopped up and
still going and still still looking around. They may not
be encountering the females because they're you know, they're wandering
around following their noses. And it's an amazing thing to

(37:35):
watch because they just they go around and if there's
a female you know, bedded down somewhere, he'll come up
and kind of approach, and as he approaches, the females
all get scared and you know, I can identify with that,
and they jump up and they go away, and then
he'll go over and smell where they were laying to

(37:55):
determine this case it you know, is this a viable
option or not. And then that when he smells like that,
that will determine if he moves on or starts hanging
around that female for a while. And so this goes
on for quite a long time, you know, well into December,
so while the major breeding activity has peaked and come,

(38:16):
you know, come and gone, but the males are still
in that breeding condition.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
With when you're trying. Hey, I've got this mental picture
of you loaded up with gear trying to sneak through
the woods, and that's that. Can't be hardy, can't be
a pretty thing. I'm just saying anyway, No, yeah, kN
are you really concerned about your scent? And does that

(38:44):
mean that you are going to be aware of the
wind and everything else or do you try to eliminate
your own scent if that's even possible.

Speaker 6 (38:53):
I don't try to eliminate it, but I try to
stay downwind of, you know, where where the action is happening.
And as as I do that, then it kind of
gives me a little bit of an of an advantage.

Speaker 5 (39:10):
Uh that way.

Speaker 6 (39:11):
I also use a fairly long lens, and these are
large animals, so a five hundred millimeter lens can allow
me to be quite a ways away. That's why I
prefer areas where the deer are out in the open,
because if you're in the forest in the woods, the
further away you are, the more branches are between you
and the subject, and it becomes more difficult to capture

(39:34):
any video of that.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Interesting. Yeah, that's what I was because that's what I
was wondering about, because it's it's got to be a
difficult thing to do because their their nose is so
acute and they're so good at it and that's how
they live.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
Well, it is, but it's also what's getting them in
trouble at this time of year because the males are
so yeah, they're so unifocused and you know, trying to
get the to accomplish what they're what they're trying to do,
and so they're really a little bit more easily approachable.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Then when those fonds come in the spring stand and mom.
The does are are aware of it because they're taking
care of their they're young. Are they more wary than
the bucks are?

Speaker 6 (40:28):
I think the dose are always wary. They're always trying
to to be safe. And it seems to me, at
least my impression, and you know, of course, my human
mammalian impression of it is that is that there the
spring is an easier time for them. Food is abundant,

(40:51):
cover is abundant. They're busy trying to reproduce you know,
you know, give birth and uh and and you know,
and one of the things that a lot of people
don't understand is the amount of time that the females
spent away from their from their newly born you know,
doze uh they it is a you know, it almost

(41:16):
seems unnatural that they're that apart for that long because
like all day long, the babies are just laying there
by themselves, and the females know where to be found.
And then later on, you know, when it gets starts
to get dark, then she'll come around and call to
the to the young, and the fauns and the fawns
will come out and they'll uh, you know, kind of
get back together for the evening and for the night.

(41:38):
And we we look at that as abandonment, you know,
it's like, oh, my gosh, left this poor baby all
alone and ill, and when in fact, that's just that's
it's that's their survival technique, that's how they do this.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well then oh my mind, I lost track.

Speaker 6 (41:57):
Yeah, yeah, I'm all, I'm all about that. Well, I
feel it, I feel you, I really do it all important.
I'm yeah, I'm I'm I'm right now. I'm packing to
get ready, I'm leading a photo to it down in
Costa Rica, and so I'm gonna be heading out here soon.

(42:20):
And man, I've been there several times, and I'm trying
to remember all the things I need to bring, and
I'm like, now, what the heck do I know? It's
been a challenge lately trying to figure out things and
get things going in the right direction. Yeah, sure, I
go mess things up and forget things.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
I'll always forget things, and I remember things I should
have remembered before I'm planning. But with that, with the doze, oh,
I remember with the doze and birth because I've had
I haven't had, but my dogs have had litters of puppies,
and it seems there's there's sometimes there's one born that's

(43:03):
not very healthy, and I can't recall I think a
couple of times. No, I've done had a lot of it.
But I think that that once in a while there's
still still born too. But do animals like a white tail,
do they ever have difficulty giving birth or do well
they are that you're aware of that they will give

(43:28):
have problems with that with a young.

Speaker 6 (43:32):
I think there's definitely that possibility of it, and those
would be uh, you know, when they when they have
complications during birth. That is all part of the survival
of the fittest, right uh, you know scenario that goes
on with these animals. And in the fact that it
is if they you know, if they can't reproduce readily

(43:57):
and with ease, uh, this is not going to you know,
bode well for their future.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
So those are called out of the.

Speaker 6 (44:07):
Herd right away, and it also opens them up to
more predators and such. And this is what keeps and
this is why we we need to get back to
understanding that the predator prey relationship is extremely important to
keeping right uh, these you know, these animals healthy and
keeping them you know, the breeding stock to be in

(44:27):
good shape and to weed out those types of errors
or malfunctions or whatever it may be, you know, during
during that those natural processes.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
I just yeah, I just thought maybe and all of
your travels and things, you you would perhaps come across
something either in process or shortly thereafter. That's what I
was wondering about.

Speaker 6 (44:53):
Yes, I've seen that plenty of times where the fawn
has still have the umbilicous hang from it, So it's
been you know, it's probably only twelve to twenty four
hours old or so, or forty eight hours old, and
you know those you know, that's what's so good about
nature is that in order for that individual to survive,

(45:15):
it has to have a certain set of skills and
be able to be strong enough to be able to
get up and move or hide or whatever it takes
to survive. And if it doesn't, then it doesn't survive.
And those genes are not passed on. The ones who've
got those skills are the ones that pass on the
genes and are you know, in triumph.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
And I think that as humans, there aren't a lot
of people that keep that in mind as far as
the natural evolution and keeping the herd strong, that there's
they should be just like humans, or we should do
everything we can keep them alive and and such that

(45:57):
it just seems like we and I'll put myself in
there too. The empathy that we feel is not realistic
at times.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
Yeah, but yeah, I've been. I've been.

Speaker 6 (46:13):
Yeah, yeah, well it's normal to have that empathy, and
thank goodness we do because it would be a pretty harsh,
cold world without it, and.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
At least the human existence would be so. But I've
been uh.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
You know, I I've been known to say things like,
for example, now and then every couple of years, we
have somebody has a hummingbird who doesn't migrate and is
trying to eke out a living at somebody's feeder. And
somebody sees this, and you know, the compassion goes out
to them and they they you know, well into November,

(46:51):
they're heating up you know, bird nectar solution and providing
it to them, putting out heat lamps and you know,
you know, protecting this bird in order to trying to
catch it so that they could put it on an
airplane and you know, fly it down south and release it.
So that and my biological brain is saying to me
that there's clearly something wrong with this bird and it

(47:13):
shouldn't be it shouldn't be contributing to the genetics of
the future in the case that you know what I'm saying.
So it's like, well, I understand the heroics. I understand
that that that our desire to do that that makes
perfect sense to me. But on the other hand, I
also think, well, I mean, technically, if this bird didn't

(47:35):
have any human intervention, nature would take its course, and
you know, all would be right with the world.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
Still.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, no, I get it. I do understand, Stan, we
have to take a pause. You're okay staying with us, Yes, sir, wonderful.
I have a question again when we come back that
just came to mind, but I wrote this one down
so I won't forget. So we'll we'll make that pause
and we'll be back with part two of our conversation

(48:05):
with mister Stan Tequila. Find him at naturesmart dot com.
We'll be right back and four minutes after the hour
of seven o'clock on a fan outdoors Saturday morning, Billy

(48:26):
Hildebrand here our guest, mister Stan Tequila, and I want
to send a good morning shout out to and from Alec.
She is one of one of a very a group
of very ardent listeners listens every single Saturday morning. So

(48:47):
good morning, Anne, Stan. I said that I had something
I wanted to ask you. Well, I'm going to give
it up to one thing first, and that is my
grandkids are getting something new from Stand Tequila for this winter,
the Christmas holiday under the tree, and it is your

(49:10):
brand new game.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
I hope I made a good decision. Oh yeah, oh
you'll like it and it's not annoying either.

Speaker 6 (49:20):
You know, sometimes those things can be you know, And
this is a just as what you're talking about is
the Who's Butt.

Speaker 5 (49:30):
Memory game card or card game, excuse me.

Speaker 6 (49:33):
And it is a just a fun little thing for
young kids to be able to play a game with
an adult or with other kids. And it's just trying
to memorize the cards and which is really easy and
fun for kids to.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
Do, really it is.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
And yeah, and they just have a good time with it.
So this is available. You can go to my website
that Nature Smart Calm and then click in the bookstore.
You can find it there, and you have a choice,
by the way, when you get there, you can you
can either purchase from Amazon or you could purchase directly
from the publisher, and either one of them will take

(50:14):
care of you. I don't sell them directly myself. It's
just passes through my website.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
I got I got mine from Amazon. And one of
the nice things I like about it because I've gotten
the kids so many of your books there. But there
will have be a list of what I have bought
because I at times I funny.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
Yeah, yeah, I can't believe how many times I hear
that from people when I'm at you know, different events
and things.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
They said, you can't remember which books I have of yours. Yeah,
it's just it's a common thing.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
But if they only had I think they only had
four or five lap that said there, and I don't
know if that's accurate either. I'm sure they can get more.

Speaker 6 (50:56):
Oh yeah, there was a time that they uh ran out.
They sold out of the first, uh first or second
printing of it, and so that I know they do.
They did get a new uh print batch. I don't
know what you would call it, but a new shipment
of them. So everything should be back in stock.

Speaker 5 (51:14):
And ready to go.

Speaker 6 (51:14):
But I didn't. They don't let me know that stuff.
I just happened to hear about it. So well, again,
I'm just the author and creator of these things. I
don't understand. Thank god, I'm glad you do that. But
anything about the rest of it, Yeah, but the publisher
takes care about everything else.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
So is there anything else in the works that are
similar to that?

Speaker 6 (51:35):
Well not for not for the holiday season coming up.
If people like the Who's Butt book, I do have
the Whose Baby Butt, which is a smaller version and
has baby animal butts, in it. Uh, And people seem
to really like that, and then I do have.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (51:53):
One of my personal favorites is A Hidden Critter, and
it's a it's a book with large pictures of animals
kind of hidden inside the picture. I didn't they're not
photoshopped there, you know, there are actual pictures that I
took just the way they are, and we didn't you know,
alter the pictures or anything like that.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
And so that's one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Also, I'm and then I'm chuckling stand because you're telling
I'm thinking to myself, I've got that. I got that.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
Oh good, Yeah, And for you know what, for adults
who are interested in, you know, like an adult gift.

Speaker 5 (52:30):
I always liked my Through the Seasons. It's it's it's
a book without pictures. It's a book all of my
writings of through an entire years, starting in the winter,
going through to the spring, summer, and fall, of different
adventures and different stories, highlighting different animals and things like that.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
I think it's called a Year in Nature, and that's
one of my one of my favorites also. And it's
a quick and easy read, a couple hundred pages. And
I think people would like that. It's just a uh
you know, it's it's not a picture book, so don't.

Speaker 5 (53:09):
Don't think it is. Yeah, I kind of disappointed.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
I kind of like looking at pictures too, but yeah,
that's I wasn't aware of that, so I need to
look at that. I will look at that. But anyway,
I just I wanted to share that, but I uh,
they came yesterday and opened it up, and for some reason,
I was expecting a bigger box. I have no idea why,
but I think the other card memory things they come

(53:36):
in a box. Yeah, this is much more handy too.
I like that, well done.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Yeah, kind of stocking stuffer size.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Yeah, yeah, it was very nice. All right, back to
my question, Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 6 (53:49):
Yeah, I was gonna say, while people, if people do
stop by nature smart dot com, reminder that I've got
my new biweekly newsletter that people can sign up for.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
It's free. It's just me, you just I don't sell
emails or anything like that, so it's just me. You'll
get an email once every two weeks which has my
blog and then has.

Speaker 6 (54:07):
Some advertisement for different trips or announcements of new books
and things like that. So when you're there at nature
smart dot com. Go ahead and sign up for the newsletter.
And then also I've got just a reminder every night
when it gets dark, I've got my flying squirrels on
on my live stream.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
So you go to naturesmart dot.

Speaker 6 (54:28):
Com and then go to the bottom of of the
opening page and you'll see the link there. And like
I said, every night at that time, the best time
to see the flying squirrels is right away, right at sunset,
because they come in and they hit those peanuts hard
and it goes for about two two and a half
hours and usually by nine o'clock or so, activities died down,

(54:51):
most of the peanuts are gone. I usually stop the
stream at that point. And so anyhow, something to check out.
And I did get installed my a camera on my
great horn owl nest, so keeping fingers crossed that this
winter because they great horn owls nest in January February March,
so this winter, if they start nesting, I will go

(55:14):
live with the stream to watch the nesting of the
great horn owls and that'll be a fun interesting thing.
So the camera's all installed, ready to ready to stream,
and we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
How much work is that to put that together? Stand
quite a bit?

Speaker 6 (55:29):
Oh my gosh, well, crazy amount of work. Really, well,
the technology is, you know, a little bit beyond me.
So I have my very good friend Tom helped me
out with all this stuff. He's a genius when it
comes to this stuff. And then the physical part. So
this nest is thirty feet up in a tree. I

(55:50):
had to put the camera at thirty five feet so,
and I'm not a young man. Climbing trees is not
my forte anymore. And so I rented a I rented
a lift to get up in there and install this
camera above the nest. And so that's not easy. And

(56:11):
I had to run about three hundred feet of Cat
five cabling, put it inside of a protective tube, and
then bury that underground. And yes, it's a lot of work.
So it's not easy. Believe me, it's not easy at all.
And I do I don't obviously, this is free. I

(56:32):
don't charge for anything like that. I just do it
because I love it. I love doing it.

Speaker 5 (56:35):
I love sharing the nature, I love showing the you know,
cool things. You know. I love my flying squirrels.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
And so it's one of those things where I just
enjoy this, and so that's why I do it.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Well, is it as difficult to install a camera in
a wood duck house?

Speaker 6 (56:54):
Totally different type of camera. The cameras I'm dealing with
are large, very large, but size of a football maybe,
And they they tend to be a bit they're you know,
they're uh high high quality, weather proof, all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
You know.

Speaker 6 (57:11):
They can be outside think of a like a think
of like a security camera for a large building or
something like that. You know, sometimes you see those types
of cameras hanging off of buildings all around. It's similar type,
similar type of thing like that. Now inside, when I'm
doing things like just monitoring myself, then I can use
the smaller camera like that can fit inside of a

(57:33):
duck box to use Wi Fi uh to uh you know,
move that image back to uh a computer. But when
you're doing livestream like this, you need things need to
be hardwired. They need to be uh, you know, pretty
rock solid so that they're not you know, dropping off
all the time. So there's a lot too. They stuff

(57:54):
a lot more than what you might think, a lot
more than I thought when I first started down this road.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Yeah, is it if I'm thinking about putting a camera
in the wood duck house that I have that's occupied
pretty much every year now, because I see, yeah, I
think it would be fascinating for the grandkids to come
and just be able to look inside the house and
see what's happening.

Speaker 6 (58:20):
And and well, you definitely want to do that. Yeah,
that that is definitely something you're going to want to do.
And that shouldn't be hard at all, depending on what
you do. Uh, there's a lot of small, very small
Wi Fi based cameras that the only issue there would
be getting power to it. So if you like, this
is in your backyard or something like that, and you

(58:40):
can reach an extension cord to it, because it doesn't
have to be there permanently, it can be there just
you know, for a month when the ducks are are nesting,
So you just run an extension court out there and
plug in that and then if your wife, hopefully your
WiFi reaches that far, then then you also have to
go and you can have you can watch this now.

(59:02):
I personally use the Wise cameras wysee, I think it
is And you can purchase these at online or Amazon
or even home Depot has these things and they're really
inexpensive Wi Fi cameras that are well run about thirty
eight dollars or something like that. They used to be
a lot cheaper, but everything's going up in price, I

(59:24):
mean everything, And honestly, I just picked one up the
other day that is kind of blown my mind because
it was seventy dollars and it is solar powered, so
you don't have to worry about power. And it's a
PTZ camera, meaning that it will track and follow anything

(59:46):
that moves around, so it's just like and it's Wi Fi,
so then as long as your WiFi reaches to that area,
you're all set to go. So there's many many different
options out there in which you can do to you know,
kind of watch your wildlife in your own yard. And
people can email me if they want, and I can

(01:00:07):
give more information about that, uh you know, of which camera.
But this newest one is just kind of mind blowing,
and that it's I have another one that's also solar power,
and it has a battery on it, and you they
say you need to charge the battery once a year
and and then the solar power kind of keeps you
going the rest time. This new one I got, they

(01:00:27):
say just one hour of daylight a day is enough
to keep the camera going all year, no problem. So
and I'm thinking, wow, So I've got that and set
up right now, and I'm just starting to play with it,
trying to figure things out with it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
So it's it's just kind of a fun avenue.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
And okay, I'm I'm pastime to take a break. Stand Okay,
I know we've got to do that. I don't I'll well,
I do want to, but I don't want to house that. Uh,
let's take a break and we'll come back, and you're
going to give us one more segment. You said today
so it was good to be wonderful. We will take
that pause and come back, and I've got a kind

(01:01:06):
of a pheasant question for stand next after this, man,
we're back pantoforas coming your way. But keep it right
here on the fan because Davey Sinecon follows us with

(01:01:29):
a one hour presentation before we jump into the Gophers
pregame shows right here on the fan, and the game
is at eleven o'clock. Correct, Yeah, wonderful. All right, Stan
Tequila is our guest. Find him at naturesmart dot com

(01:01:51):
and you can also go down to the bookstore, click
that and find who's but matching a may up you
can order or right there and kind of be like
me that way, because I think the kids are gonna
love it. I know I am. I'm really looking forward.
Jack beats me. That beats the pants on me all
the time. So anyway, when it comes to this, Stan,

(01:02:13):
I said, I had a kind of a pheasant question.
I heard from my oldest son yesterday, who's out at
their least land hunting, and I said, I just texted
him and said, did you get any did you get
any birds today? And he says, I saw all kinds
of birds, but they all got up wild way ahead

(01:02:36):
of me and the dog. And how come, Well you
won't probably know how come, but we recognize that sometimes
the pheasants anyway, I don't know about other birds, but
there's something going on that has some very spooky getting
up and flushing wild wilder than other days. And I

(01:03:00):
wonder why that would be the case.

Speaker 6 (01:03:05):
Which you think it's kind of a sometimes the pheasants
win and sometimes the hunters win.

Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Well, I mean, just that game, mate, if it was,
if it was that easy, you know, to get them.
I think the a lot of the allure would be out.

Speaker 6 (01:03:21):
Of uh, you know, activities like hunting and things like that,
if it was just so darn easy all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Do you ever do you ever notice that they have
different attitudes depending on a day.

Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (01:03:32):
Conditions are different every day too, you know everything, everything
is different every time. And that's why whenever I hear
people start, you know, lamenting about the good old days,
you know, how it used to be and things like that.
First of all, as people, we always you know, glorify
those those those types those times, and when in fact

(01:03:54):
they're probably not as good as we remember them.

Speaker 5 (01:03:57):
And then, uh, also, it always changed, is It's nature.
Its nature is dynamic. Nature is always changing. Nature needs
to change all the time, because if it doesn't, then
you know, it'd be too. It wouldn't evolve, it wouldn't
you know, become better over time.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
I do that though, stand when I'm I'm out in
the field that I've been around all my life, and
I will say to the boys when we're together, reminding
them about what it used to look like and how
the landscape has changed, and how the habitat is that
it used to be there, it's no longer existing. And

(01:04:39):
how it's so black where it used to have cattail
slews and all kinds of other things. But I do
lament about that they're good old days.

Speaker 6 (01:04:47):
I agree with you on that one, that the landscape
is changing dramatically and it is not like how we
remember it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
And that is.

Speaker 6 (01:04:58):
You know, obviously due to human activity, and it's as
long as we're as people are here doing things, that's
going to continue. Yeah, So yeah, we just have to
sort of work at trying to come up with some
better solutions.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Yeah. I hope Mother Nature survives degradation, but yeah, I
don't know what to do. I also got another text
from Tommy George who asked. He said, his backyard he
has just a couple of gray schools squirrels, but he's
got an abundance of black squirrels. Now, oh nice. Yeah,

(01:05:35):
I was thinking I don't have any kind of like
we share. But the black squirrels is that genetic?

Speaker 5 (01:05:46):
Yeah, that's an interesting thing. If you follow.

Speaker 6 (01:05:49):
My, uh my blog or my newspaper column. I just
wrote about this about two weeks ago, and it is
a genetic thing that occurs in So they're all Eastern
gray squirrels, but they come in different colors, and one
of the colors is a black morph or. I don't

(01:06:09):
like the word morph because morph makes it sounds like
it's changing, but it's not. These squirrels are born black
and they stay black with their entire lives. But it
comes from the adults. So let's back up just really
quickly here and hopefully we have enough time for this.
I'll say the eastern gray squirrel. They looked at the genetics,
and they looked at the gene that causes the black

(01:06:31):
or the melanin that is produced to darken the fur
of these squirrels. And it is the same gene that
came that is found in the fox squirrel. The fox squirrel,
are you familiar with this species. It's a large orangish
species is found out in farmlands and such like that. Apparently,
at some point thousands of years ago, a fox squirrel

(01:06:53):
made it with a gray squirrel, and this genetic, this
darker gene, was passed on and now it's moved through
the uh, you know, over thousands of years, it's moved
through the population of squirrels and things, and so now
it's found in the eastern gray squirrel. If the if
the Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
One of the adults has the black gene and the
other one doesn't. The offspring tend to be light light
gray or dark gray light black uh and are kind
of a not totally jet black. If both parents have
this gene, then uh you get these jet black uh

(01:07:32):
offspring that have sometimes have auburn colored tails to them.
So you have the variation in the amounts too. So
these squirrels, uh, they did studies on this and they
found some really interesting things. These squirrels are the black
ones have a slight advantage when in uh conor for

(01:07:53):
forests large conor for forests, the dark coloring helps them
to blend in and they are prey upon less pond
than the gray ones are. However, in the deciduous forests,
the trees with the leaves, it's just the opposite too.
So technically this all began in the northern forests where

(01:08:14):
northern confer forests. Now, if you look at the populations
of these black squirrels, they're found all over down to
Kansas and Missouri and things like that, and you got
to wonder, or not, how to heck did they get
down there. Turns out in eighteen hundreds, these black squirrels
were kind of a cool thing, and people were trapping
them and translocating them to different areas. Different universities wanted

(01:08:38):
them on their campuses and things like that, and so
they were brought all over the country, introduced all over
the country. And now we have populations of these black.

Speaker 6 (01:08:45):
Squirrels all over the place, and you can see them,
just like I said, all over different places.

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
But they tend to be in pockets.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Okay, Yeah, The only place I've really seen a bunch
of them are up around the Niswa area, and sure,
sure I don't I saw one around the cabin this
last summer on somebody else's yard south of me, but
they never they don't make it up to my place.

Speaker 5 (01:09:11):
I don't know how anyway, interesting, yeah, again, depending on
what type of habitat you're in, and you know, the
squirrels that have moved around. The up of Michigan is
an area that has a lot of black squirrels, and
that is an area with a lot of conferent trees
and and so you see a lot of those dark
squirrels up there too. If anybody's in Minneapolis, last time

(01:09:32):
I checked, it's been a few years, But last time
I checked. Loring Park was a great location for lots
of to see these black squirrels, and they come in
all sorts of different colors and color phases. And by
the way, if anybody does have these things in their
yard and uh sees them or feeds them on a
regular basis, I'm always looking for opportunities to capture different
colorations of these squirrels. So if some you know, some

(01:09:55):
of them have a whitehead or some different coloring to them,
I'm always looking to be able to capture these things,
document these different color phases of these of these eastern
gray squirrels. Nature smart dot com. You'll find it there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
You go, come on, Tommy, give stand a call. You'll
find out if you've got a bunch. But anyway, yeah,
well well then is it possible then for a gray
squirrel and a fox squirrel to breed.

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
It is, but it's not. It's not very common. They
say it happened.

Speaker 6 (01:10:32):
Uh, it's happened in the past, you know, obviously could
possibly happen in the future.

Speaker 5 (01:10:37):
So uh, but they're they're different.

Speaker 6 (01:10:39):
Species, and so uh that that hybridization of them uh
sometimes and oftentimes does not produce viable offspring. Offspring that
have the ability to reproduce themselves too. So nature is
a very interesting thing, and we've talked about this in
the past to like, for example, the in Yellowstone, over

(01:11:01):
sixty percent of the wolves in Yellowstone are black, and
they've again been able to isolate these genes and figure
out where it came from. And this actually came from
the dark coloring came from a wolf interbreeding with a
dog thousands and thousands of years ago. So people, obviously

(01:11:24):
dogs came from wolves, People's and bread, all these things,
different types of breeds of dogs with different colorings to them,
and then at some point it went back the dog
went back to the wolf. There was an interbreeding introduced
that black gene, and now it is found in different
pockets throughout the United States. Here in Minnesota, by the way,

(01:11:45):
I think it's less than five percent of our wolves
are black, so we don't have a lot like that,
unlike Yellowstone, where you know, sixty percent of them are black.
It's an interesting thing to see. Some studies show that
the black coloring gives the wolves an advantage when it
comes to things like uh mites, these little you know,

(01:12:06):
it's called mange that and it helps them that way.
So there's all sorts of different things you can uh,
you know, kind of read into these things once you
start getting the bigger picture.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
When you're talking about bigger picture, when do you leave
for your next travels?

Speaker 5 (01:12:26):
Heading out this week, heading to Costa Rica. I've got
a group of photographers taken. We're going to be photographing
birds and you know, just about anywhile. If of course,
Costa Rica is a wonderful place to uh see of
you know, huge diversity and the you know, the rainforest
is always a uh, you know, such a hot spot
for all sorts of different animals. But I'm really looking

(01:12:49):
forward to it, looking forward to being able to you know,
it's so green and lush and be able to see
that again. And it's always it's something I'm always happy
to uh to see and and uh and and go to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:13:05):
I recently went to Ecuador, and Ecuador is now quickly
becoming one of my favorite places to Costa Rica used
to be like one of my top places. Now I'm like, wow,
this Ecuador is pretty amazing too, So uh, get out
there and see a few things.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
People does the uh that area does it afford an
opportunity for any of the North American birds to winter.

Speaker 5 (01:13:30):
Oh absolutely, yeah, without a doubt. And uh yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:13:33):
When you go down there, you see all sorts of
things like, for example, you see Baltimore orioles, You see
all the warbler species that we have here too. And
by the way, when they're there, they call them their birds, yeah,
and when they're here, we call them our birds. And
the big difference there though, is that when they're down
in the tropics for the winter time, they're not breeding again.

(01:13:54):
They are they're you know, wintering, They're they're resting and
feeding and getting ready for the breeding seas and again
in the spring. So that should tell you that our
habitats in our own backyards is extremely important to all
of these birds. Whether your yard is a stopover area
on the way north, or if it's a place where
the orioles or the warblers are hummingbirds are nesting, that

(01:14:17):
is critical habitat for them because they have no other place.
They don't turn around, go down south, breed again, and
everything's fine and dandy in the world.

Speaker 5 (01:14:25):
It's not. They only have the one shot at it
when they come back up here to the Northern States
to be able to breed.

Speaker 2 (01:14:31):
Is the plumage the same as when they left here
and the breeding plumage is much more, much brighter and
more distinct or is it?

Speaker 5 (01:14:42):
Depending depends on the species. It depends on the species.

Speaker 6 (01:14:46):
Some of them have are in winter plumage when they are,
you know, in the tropics for the wintertime. But later on,
you know, storage February and March, they're going to be
back in their breeding plumage and the be heading out
and moving north, and so you can see them in
their full breeding plume too. Other species look just like
they normally would. So it's uh, you know that all

(01:15:10):
depends on the species.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
And you have when you get down there, you're going
to have some unique species of birds too, correct.

Speaker 6 (01:15:17):
Oh, gosh, hundreds thousands species, hundreds of there's so many
different species that are unique to the tropics. That are
all the two cans, you know, the you can imagine
when the two cannon is with those big long bills
on them, different colored bills. You got all the parrots,
the macaws, You've got a million tannagers. Oh, so many

(01:15:38):
tannager species. It's just crazy how many there are. And
there's we have one species of hummingbird, I think there's
eighty species in uh just in Costa Rica alone, So
there's It's yeah, it's a bit mind spinning. Mind like that.
If people are interested in doing a photo tour with me,

(01:16:00):
but again nature smart dot com, go to the a
photo tour tab and you can see I've got trips
coming up. I got a trip coming up to Ecuador
and a trip to Costa Rica that you can sign
up for.

Speaker 5 (01:16:12):
Plus I've got a lot of local things.

Speaker 6 (01:16:13):
You could do too, so you can check out your
you know, have an adventure, go out and do this.
And by the way, I think I'm putting together, it's happening.
I've got it on the website. It's slowly coming together.
I'm going to be doing another trip to the Glopagos
in twenty twenty eight. This is a trip where if
you've ever won, if it's been a bucket list trip
of yours that you've always wanted to go to glocost
you don't need to be a big time photographer or

(01:16:35):
anything like that. You can just go and and join.
In fact, I'd say about half the people went on
my last trip to the Glopicos that they weren't a
photographer at all, but it's a bucket list trip for them,
and that is that is a trip that people absolutely love.
It is such a first class We're on a boat
for eight days in the Glopagos. It is stunning and

(01:16:56):
it's one of those if it's like I said, if
it's always been on your bucket list trip, this would
be this would be the trip for you to sign
up for because it is so good. Gourmet meals every night,
you know, just everything is unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
Yeah, and I'm so hungry right now. I got just
threw on my finger.

Speaker 5 (01:17:16):
I'm how is it just throwing that out there for
people to consider it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
And I've got a number of comments I'm looking at
about black squirrels, but one of them kind of sticks
out and we do have to go to break in
a moment. But how important somebody wants to know? How
important is a squirrel's tale to what they do and

(01:17:40):
how they live?

Speaker 6 (01:17:42):
The squirrels tale is extremely important to it overall health.

Speaker 5 (01:17:47):
It uses it. By the way, the species the.

Speaker 6 (01:17:49):
Genus name, no the species name because it's squirrets anyhow,
the translation for its genus and species names means lives
in the shadow of a tail, and that's exactly what
it is, because the tail does curl up over the
squirrel and you know, kind of provides its shade, if
you will, not not for anything biological that we can

(01:18:12):
think of, but it's just an observation. And that's how
it's got its name. Uh, it's a it's a genus
and species name. And and so the tail is extremely
important to it. They use it for warmth, they use
it for balance because look at these guys are acrobats
when they're jumping and running along branches, and they don't
occasionally they do fall, but they don't usually fall off branches.

(01:18:32):
They jump, you know, great distances, and the tail is
does everything for them. So the tail is extremely important.
You wouldn't have a big fluffy tail like that if
it wasn't extremely important, you know, to the to your
overall survival.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
And he also says that or she and he has
a they have a tailless squirrel running around uh for
way longer he says, than I ever thought possible.

Speaker 6 (01:18:59):
Yeah, oh, it definitely happens. And also albino squirrels too,
the all white ones with pink eyes. That's another condition
that occurs. And you can see that in these squirrels.
I would love to be able to someday do a
book just on squirrels, because I think they're absolutely amazing.
We have so many species of tree squirrel and so
many species of ground squirrels that it would be it

(01:19:22):
would be so cool to, you know, kind of be
able to compile everything into one area where you can
learn all about the different types of squirrels that we
have in the United States.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Stan, I thank you, my friend, and safe travels to
you and enjoy your trip. I'll look forward to chatting
with you on your return, my friend.

Speaker 5 (01:19:37):
All right, sounds good. Talk to you.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
That's the Stan Tequila naturesmart dot com. We'll take a
pause and it'll be me that's back right after this,
and I'll probably start our conversation with what it's like
for a youngster to catch one of his first fish.
I'll give you the audio of it on my return
right after this. We're back. Last segment, yepe before in

(01:20:11):
the zone, so keep it here, okay. You know I
said earlier we were talking with Tommy George, and I
said that I was looking for the audio or the
video of my camera of my grandson and granddaughter and
some first fish from last summer and how excited kids
are when they do catch that. Well, this is a

(01:20:34):
very short snippet of audio only, and I have the
video which is classic. It's so awesome, but I will
share it with you and then we'll talk a little
bit more about deep frying eeyore a turkey. Right after this,
Jack and Ava Hildebrand out fishing. That's good, isn't it.

(01:21:06):
I don't know what happened. Well, yeah, huh, I've done
something to it. Well, we'll see if I can get
that at a later date. It must be something because
I just listened to it earlier anyway, So you're going
to describe it. And he just really he's really excited,

(01:21:30):
and he says, oh yeah, baby, yeah, baby, get the net.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
Get the net.

Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
And uh, it's just a little sunfish. But that's how
Ava is being encouraged to keep real and keep realing,
keep realing. Jack gets this little sunfish and day slaps
it on the side of the pontoon and we get
it in the boat. He drops his rod and comes over.
He wants to hold it. So that's kind of where
it is. But I will see what happened to it

(01:21:58):
and hopefully and give you the excitement that they hear,
that they feel, and you can feel it too. We
talked about defrying a turkey. You are going to see
here tales of wool on TV coming up, and I
can tell you it's not like that. It isn't, not
at all. The only thing I would stick to a

(01:22:19):
fourteen yeah, around fourteen maybe give or take a pound
size turkey. And it's my turkey is out in the
fridge right now, falling for Thursday. So you want it
to be well thought out, and you want it to
be dried out. Now you can brain it if you want,

(01:22:40):
but be sure it's dry because you're going to put
it in boiling oil. And so let's say you've got
a thought out turkey. You've dried it best you can.
And I always inject mine with a Cajun creole butter
and inject it with a syringe. And it's usually a

(01:23:04):
couple times in the thigh and the leg, and then
a couple times, probably three or four times across up
on the breast, and that's about it. So you've got
a deep fryer, a pot, and a source of heat,
and usually it's a propane source of heat, so you

(01:23:25):
heat the oil up first, and you know, just heat
it up, and you need a thermometer that's going to
go in the oil to tell you the temperature because
you want to maintain it. And usually I'll use a
three gallon box of deep fry oil and I get
mined at Fleet Farm and it's about thirty nine bucks,

(01:23:47):
but you can use it a few times to just
have to take it out and leave the junk when
it dries on the bottom of the pot and discard that.
So you're going to turn your pot on and heat
the oil up to three hundred and fifty degrees and
take the weight of your turkey times three and one

(01:24:11):
half minutes, and that's how long it's going to take
to deep fry your bird, and it's usually around forty
to fifty minutes, depending on the size. Three and a
half minutes a pound. Get your oil to three point
fifty and when you put the bird in, it's going

(01:24:31):
to drop, but it'll come back okay, So just leave it.
Don't panic if the oil the temperature drops way out.
So oil is heated and I always put some some
cardboard down underneath it. I do mine in my driveway
and the biggest thing about this. Where people really screw

(01:24:52):
up is they put the bird of the oil and
walk away and they're going to come back in forty
one minutes. Check it. No, stay with your bird. Okay,
stay with it. If you're not sure how much oil
before you get it in there at all, put water

(01:25:12):
in it. Take three gallons of water and put it
in the pot. Drop your bird in it to be
sure there's enough oil to cover it, or get close
to covering your bird and not spilling over all. Right,
Be sure you do that, and then you just have
to dry the bird out, dump the water out, dry

(01:25:35):
it out, and you're ready to go for the oil
to go in that way, when you put your bird in,
you're going to have a carrier that comes with the pot.
Usually I've got a bucket with holes in it. I
put the bird in, take a crook or a hook,
and put it in the oil slowly, really really slowly,

(01:25:58):
so to wear a mit because it's going to be
hot right there. Not going to put your hand in
the oil, but just drop it in slowly. Once you
get it down, it should boil and boil and boil,
and it's going to be cooking your bird. When the
time is up. Whatever it is three and a half

(01:26:18):
minutes a pound, and that time is up. Take the
bird out, Lift the bird out slowly, Let it drain.
Turn the heat off of your oil. Don't forget that.
Turn the heat off of the oil. Let it drain.
And I take mine inside on a cookie sheet. Leave
it right on. If it's in a pot, or if

(01:26:40):
it's just on a hangar, put it on a cookie sheet.
Take it in and let it rest. Let everything rests
for a while. Then carve your turkey. And for me
and our family, it is the best turkey I have had.
It's incredible tasting, it's moist, and it's wonderful. In fact,

(01:27:06):
my youngest son is deep frying a turkey today for
his neighbor who just can't believe how good it is.
And Chad is going to show him and they'll be
doing it on their own this afternoon. So that's easy.
It's not a stress, and it's not a strain. Your

(01:27:27):
bird will be awesome, promise. I did it once for
my mother in law when she was still alive, and
it was so good I was crowned king of doing
it every year from then on. Plus it was easy
and she didn't have to worry about it either, which
is the other thing too. But it is easy, and

(01:27:49):
then I'll put it away kind of a mess, not
a mess. Kind of something I hate is pouring the
oil back once it cools off, leaving the junk in
the bottom, cleaning it up. But honest to gosh, the
taste of the bird is so good. I guarantee if
you try it, you will enjoy it. And it's not

(01:28:12):
doom and gloom like they're going to tell you on television.
Be sure you stay with a bird, don't leave it,
And if you don't know how much to put in it,
do the water thing with your particular bird first and
then you'll have an idea. Just be sure it doesn't
boil over, might spit a little bit, but be sure

(01:28:35):
it doesn't come flowing out of the pot. That's crucial
and important. Okay, Well, it is Thanksgiving and it is
the weekend, and for a lot of people it's going
to be some hunting later that weekend, perhaps the next day,
maybe Saturday. But one of the things we found Chad

(01:28:57):
found out last week just because you see a wildlife area,
public hunting area, waterfall production area near a tired road.
I've always thought, but somebody here on this program once said,
and he remo remembered it. Oftentimes people drive right bay
that they think everybody is hunting it. He stopped last

(01:29:18):
week last Sunday, fifteen minutes and he got his two
bird limit and a stranger went on the other side
of it. He shot his two bird limit too. So
the music playing, which means we're out of here. Keep
that in mind if you're looking for a place to

(01:29:39):
hunt over the weekend too. Okay, I want to say
thank you to Tommy George for joining us, Thanks to
Stan Tequila. I want to say a hearty thanks to
my producer, extraordinary mister Brett Blakemore. I'm Billy Hildebrand. Have
a fantastic weekend and a great Thanksgiving. We'll see you

(01:30:01):
next Saturday. Till then in the zone, Tata m HM.