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  • BuzzFeed media editor Craig Silverman analyzes recent allegations against Facebook.
  • How one woman is rethinking how hungry children are fed around the world
  • Sudan's famine worsens as civil war intensifies: 'We have nothing to eat but animal feed'
  • Hurricanes can be disastrous and Florida sticks out like a sore thumb directly in the path of many hurricanes. It’s the heat of the sun and curvature and spinning of the Earth on its axis that initiate the movement of air over ocean and land. And its summer heat that warms surface water that creates the humid air and water-laden clouds that come with a hurricane. The juxtaposition of Florida’s land mass and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico – the northern end of which is in a subtropical climate – makes us a target for hurricanes – many of which move north through the Gulf of Mexico, feeding on the warm waters there.
  • The Loggerhead Shrike is a songbird whose vocalizations are often not musical. It is also a predator that feeds on creatures ranging from small caterpillars to mice, lizards, small snakes, and birds. This is a bird of more open areas, but its nests are typically in a dense tangle of small branches of a tree or shrub. It hunts in open areas, often from a fence or utility wire. Its flight is typically low, direct, and fast. Shrikes often take advantage of insects, birds, and other small animals injured by traffic on our roads and – as a result of their typical low flight, are often highway victims themselves. Pruning of trees and shrubs to “open them up” is a major threat to shrikes (and other songbirds) because it opens their nests to predators. As a result of such pruning, highway traffic, and pesticides, Loggerhead Shrike populations have declined greatly.
  • The Northern Flicker is a commonly seen bird across North America – and it is a woodpecker – although one more often seen on bare or mowed ground where it feeds extensively on insects and other ground- or rotted-wood-dwelling insects. Flickers in the East have yellow-tinged wing and tail feathers – those in the west have red-tinged feathers. The two color-morphs meet at the edge of the Great Plains and often interbreed – hence they are considered a single species. This is a woodpecker that is often seen in mowed and bare areas of our towns and cities as well as in the countryside. It is a poor cavity excavator, requiring nest sites with well-rotted wood – or such modern materials as Styrofoam used in trim on our homes. Occasionally it will even nest in a hole in the ground – where it may find “bed and breakfast”. Males are easily identified by their black “moustache”; females lack it.
  • Hurricanes can be disastrous and Florida sticks out like a sore thumb directly in the path of many hurricanes. It’s the heat of the sun and curvature and spinning of the Earth on its axis that initiate the movement of air over ocean and land. And its summer heat that warms surface water that creates the humid air and water-laden clouds that come with a hurricane. The juxtaposition of Florida’s land mass and the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico – the northern end of which is in a subtropical climate – makes us a target for hurricanes – many of which move north through the Gulf of Mexico, feeding on the warm waters there.
  • The White Ibis is a year-round resident of south Florida, but its population swells with winter migrants and shifts locations with availability of food in grasslands or shallow wetlands. While we think of it as a wetland bird, the White Ibis is also a grassland bird that is regularly seen along highways and even in our yards -- where it feeds on a diversity of insects and other small creatures. This ibis is a social bird, often seen foraging in small to large groups that are typically composed of birds of the same plumage – adults that are white, or juveniles that are gray-brown above and white below with a streaked neck. Adults and juveniles may be in the same group for a while, but a bird that is of a different color than others in the group makes it more vulnerable to a predator.
  • The Lastinger Center for Learning at University of Florida uses data-driven approaches to create programs and systems that can help teachers across Florida be more effective in their jobs. It’s basically an education innovation incubator whose work primarily focuses on impacting achievement across three educational milestones: kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, and algebra. We talk to its director, Dr. Phillip Poekert.
  • Dangerous temperatures, Al-Qaeda in Fallujah and music education for inner-city children.
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