Well heck, what do you think National Public Radio would talk to me about, frogs?! As past readers know, I have been building small computers, BirdNET-Pi’s, which combine my techie knowledge with my love of birds. I donate both my time and the cost of the computers / birdsong listening devices to Northeastern Minnesota Nature Centers. I then combine that effort with my birding knowledge to help with research.

The NPR show, Here and Now, decided to interview a number of us (not just me) about our efforts to perform bird research, preserve habitat and help with the fight against global warming. The Here and Now episode is titled, “This Fairyland Bog is a Beacon for Winter Birding, and a Sponge for the Climate”. You may listen to the piece, or read the transcript! The correspondent, even focused upon how I became interested in birds as a young child. Quoting Chris Bentley interviewing me: “I’m a retired techie, and I had always been intrigued with birds here in northern Minnesota,” Hoeg said. “When I was a young child, I lived next to a forest, and I was allowed to go traipsing around the forest by myself and just had to be home by suppertime.”

Anyhow … your options:

• Read the NPR Story (via WBUR.org)
• Listen to the NPR Story / Podcast

As an aside, I could myself not listen when the episode first broadcast nationwide last week. Minnesota Public Radio has a program, Minnesota Now, which plays on my local MPR station instead of the NPR feed. Uff dah. So much for telling friends and family to “tune in”.