Hello, and welcome to Kentucky Aield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Tonight, you have tuned into our annual Kentucky Wild question and answer show.

Joining me, I have three biologists that are going to tell you a little bit about their programs that they're working on.

And then later in the show we're going to answer all of your questions.

Hopefully when you hear some of these programs, it will inspire you to think of some questions and submit them to us.

If one of your questions is asked in the first four questions, we're going to mail you one of these really cool looking new Kentucky Wild hats.

So make sure you're listening and getting your questions ready.

Now let's meet our panelists.

First off, we have a very familiar face.

Our state herpetologist, John McGregor.

How are you doing?

I'm doing okay.

Good.

Very good.

Next up, we have Courtney Hayes, who's a wildlife biologist.

How are you doing?

I'm good.

And then down there on the end, wearing that fancy Kentucky Wild t shirt, we have Michael Patton, our avian biologist.

How are you doing?

Doing well.

I know you guys have been out in the field.

We've actually sent some camera people out with you guys looking at some of the project that you're working on, and we're going to discuss some of those first.

We're going to get a couple of questions that we've already gotten regarding snake species.

That's that's one of your favorites, right.

This time of year it's pretty much all snakes.

It's all snakes.

Well, the very first question, pertains to copperheads.

And they want to, want to know what you look for to distinguish a copperhead from other snakes.

Well, I look for a, the copperheads are found all over the state.

We still have a few bluegrass counties with no records, but copperhead is a thick bodied snake with a copper colored head and a really skinny neck.

The head is much wider than the neck, and it has broad brown cross bands, so it blends in perfectly with leaf litter.

And then if you have a little baby copperhead less than a year old, it'll have a bright greenish yellow tail tip.

So those are the things you look for.

Okay.

And tell me what snakes are commonly mistaken for copperheads, because I'm sure you get a bunch of snakes there.

They send you a picture.

You see a picture, they go, look at this copperhead and you go, that's not a copperhead.

Well, yeah.

To to a lot of people.

If if it's not in the water, it's a copperhead.

And if it's in the water, it's a water moccasin.

Everything's venomous.

If it shakes its tail it's a rattlesnake.

It just doesn't have its rattles yet.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So, so all of them can be confused.

So all snakes are venomous.

So, this, also, I want to know, are all bites deadly?

I mean, if you get bitten by a copperhead, what are the chances that, that you're going to be okay?

You know, I have looked into snake bite data statistics in Kentucky.

There have been, like, six fatal snake bites in the state since the 1950s.

All six were timber rattlesnakes, and so they probably did not seek treatment, I'm guessing.

Right.

If you seek treatment, you have basically a 100% chance to survive even a rattlesnake bite.

Copperhead bites, we've never had a fatality in Kentucky.

So, I mean, there have been a few around the country, but it's probably, that people were either really sensitive to the venom or may have had a reaction to the antivenom.

I gotcha.

So you guys are out in the state, out and about all the time.

Have you ever had a close encounter with a venomous snake, either one of you?

We see them, but, I've never I don't see them.

I'm actively looking for them, and I don't see them nearly as much as I want to.

You█re probably closer to them than than you think.

But if you know not to handle them, give them their distance, don't step on them.

Then you know, you being around them is, I said, close encounter, really being close to ones, not a close encounter.

You got to pretty much be trying to handle one or step on one.

I'm thinking, right?

Even when you step on them, they kind of go in shock too.

I feel like they're like, whoa!

Michael, have you ever had a close encounter?

I'm often looking up in the trees, so I'm not.

I probably have stepped over a few and not realized it.

Oh, yeah.

I've gotten lucky so far.

Yeah.

As an avian biologist.

Yeah.

You're not normally on the ground.

Yeah.

Only for ground nesting species, you know.

All right, next question.

Do all snakes with triangular heads or shaking tails mean they're venomous?

We just talked about this a little bit.

We did.

And just about all of the harmless snakes.

When they're threatened they try to look imposing and they will flatten out that head and they'll puff up with air.

And, a lot of the road leading snakes shake their tails, probably to draw attention away from the the rest of the snake.

So.

So the hog goes for the wiggling tail and gives the snake a chance to get away.

Gotcha.

So what is the best way?

I mean, I know there's no sure way, but what's the best way to tell the difference between, in Kentucky, a venomous versus non venomous snake.

If it has a rattle on its tail, it's a rattlesnake.

Cottonmouth are only in western Kentucky.

They're really heavy bodied when they swim.

They're so heavy that they're buoyant.

And so they kind of float on the surface.

And regular water snakes normally just have the tip of their head on the surface.

So you can kind of tell by the way they swim.

And if you come up on a cottonmouth, it will usually just stand its ground and throw its head back and show you that open mouth.

And you can walk around the the cottonmouth and it will follow you with its mouth.

It's saying, stay away from me.

Now you could probably put your foot on one and roll around.

It still wouldn't bite.

Don't try, but you don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean they are venomous and they have a lot of venom.

Yeah, yeah.

But so besides getting out of the way or just kind of holding their ground and just kind of watching you and hoping that you don't step on them.

What other ways do snakes defend themselves?

Well, the rat snakes are really good.

They will rear up and and open their mouth and strike.

And it's very imposing.

A four foot rat snake and rear up that high off the ground.

And I get a lot of photos of those.

Oh, yeah.

And, and of course, they're in houses a lot, too.

So you walk into Johnny's bedroom and all of a sudden there's a a snake.

That's reared up looking at you.

Interestingly enough, I ask about this way on how do they protect themselves other than fleeing or a couple years ago we were on the show.

We found out how one of those snakes defends themselves, and it was the release of musk.

We had a snake out here that this the scent started to hit us, so all the panelists were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's that?

And, that's another way they can defend themselves.

Yeah, and the musk smells really distinctive.

You can tell what kind of snake it is just by the way the musk smells.

Oh, right.

If you're if you're good.

Yeah.

I'm, I have not had I've not been musked by a snake enough to know the difference, but I know that I can█t remember what snake we had out, but, I remember it, it it had the musk.

I think it was, What was it, a garter snake?

Garter snakes are real pungent.

Yeah, yeah.

And it I could smell it.

And it was.

It stays on you for a while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The champion defender of itself is the is the hog nosed snake.

Oh, yeah.

And, it will flatten out its neck like a cobra.

Puff up with air and hiss really loud.

Puts on a really good show.

And if that doesn't frighten you off, then it goes into contortions and it Looks like it's been struck by lightning or is bit by the devil.

And it rolls around, turns upside down, opens its mouth.

Its tongue hangs out, you know, it poops and it flips over on its back and, it and it'll just stay there and you can pick up a hog nose snake that's playing, playing dead like that and hang it in the bush, and it just hangs there.

But eventually, if you go away, the hog nose snake will, you know, look around.

Nobody here, rolls over and crawls off.

But apparently that's all automatic.

It's nothing the snake does on purpose, like fainting goats or, or... Yeah.

Possum playing possum or something.

Yeah, it's a it's just built into the nervous system.

You know, I have seen the hog nose snakes out there.

I wish they were more common because it's such a cool snake.

But I've only encountered them once or twice in the wild.

But if you're looking for them, I guess, and you know where to find one, they're probably not as hard to find.

They're really hard to find.

Oh.

Are they?

Yeah, I've only seen one.

And I'm lucky to see 1 or 2 a year.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That, in mind my encounter with one was open the barn door to walk in and this snake started hissing like no other.

And then I was like, what in the world flattened out its head.

And then, of course, it it it's lesson was given to me.

I backed up like, what is that?

And then I realized what I was looking at, but, it was pretty, pretty interesting encounter.

Unfortunately, when you keep one in captivity, it stops doing that almost immediately.

So they're good for 2 or 3 performances and then they're done, you know.

And your chances of seeing one really go up if you're in an area that has a whole bunch of toads.

Oh, really?

So are they primarily a toad eater?

They're eating mostly toads.

Okay.

Next, a next next question.

We're kind of talking a little bit about some of the venomous snakes.

First.

The coral snake.

A coral snake is a snake that can be found in other parts of the country.

And we have a snake that looks a little bit like a coral snake that sometimes can be confused.

Tell me the differences there.

Coral snakes are in the deep South and red and yellow color bands touch and Kentucky we have three kinds of snakes that that are red, black and cream or red, black and white or red, black and yellow.

The scarlet king snake, the scarlet snake and the reddish colored milk snakes.

Okay.

And all of those.

The red is separated from, from the cream by black.

So red touch yellow.

Kill a fellow.

Red touch black.

Venom lack.

That's the old.

I heard friend of Jack.

Well, you know, I heard that first, but I thought venom black.

Yeah, I like that too.

So if you see a snake that has that, that color pattern here in Kentucky, there's.

Coral snakes don't live in Kentucky anyway, right?

No, they don't never been found here.

And, and if it's a scarlet snake or a scarlet kingsnake, it's a SGCN species, and we're really interested.

Okay, take a picture of it and send it to us.

So you said take a picture and and, you know, email it or whatever.

Anyone can go on our website and find any of our biologists if you to FW.KY.GOV.

What information do you want when someone submits a photo for any of these three biologists?

Obviously you're working with herpetology snakes and salamanders and frogs and all that.

Avian for you.

Different.

We'll hear a little more about some of your projects.

I'm sure you all what the same information.

If someone submits a photo.

What information do you want on there?

I want the date, the county, and the exact location.

G.P.S.

coordinates are best, but I'll settle for a road name or an address.

And the name of the observer.

Okay, so that's the information.

That the basic.

Okay, the basic stuff, and I'm sure.

Is that the same for birds?

Same thing.

Locational data is definitely the most important because you guys are tracking how many of these species are out there and then their range.

And this gives you the ability to know when and exactly where so that you know where this where you can document the species is at least currently at, at that point in time.

Yeah, we have species that have totally disappeared from parts of the state.

Yeah.

Oh really?

You know, like the pine snake, the last one in southeast Kentucky was 1972.

The last one of the Mammoth Cave area was 2006.

Wow.

And we've only had one pine snake observation that we know of since 20, since 2018, in the whole state of Kentucky.

And that was in 2024, one animal in a guy's yard.

Wow.

In Calloway County.

Wow.

So that's a we're really interested in that kind of stuff.

Well, the next question here is about there are people that sometimes, sometimes there are people that actually want more snakes in their yard.

And you might be one of these individuals I've seen you put tins out, maybe not in your yard, but I've seen you put tins out to try to attact snakes.

I've got stuff in my yard for snakes.

So what what can a person do?

First off, if a person does not want snakes around their house, what do they need to do?

And then what does a person want to do if they actually want to learn a little more about snakes?

Want to observe snakes?

How can you attract them?

Well, you know, people call and say, I have a snake problem.

And I say, well, I can get you snakes.

How many do you want?

You can do things like you could have a pond in your yard.

You could use, landscaping timber like old railroad ties, and you could build, a fountain with rocks.

Anything that provides cover.

You can have, a plant, a lot of native plants or, even a lot of non-native plants.

And if you if you want to actually see the snakes, it's pretty important to lay out stuff that the snakes will get under, like, you know, don't throw that old license plate away.

You you can put it in the corner of your garden and then look under it every once in a while.

Okay.

So, you know, shingles are really good.

The old roofing tin boards, those are things I layout to look for a snake.

The old basketball goal from our house is right.

It's in the backyard now, leaning up against the edge of the deck.

And when I turn it over there, usually a garter snake under it.

Okay.

All right.

When you go in your garden in the springtime and you're getting the old.

Well, if you do it the best way for the wildlife you'll like, leave the old dead stems.

They'll stay all winter for the insects that are inside.

And then when you break them off to clean up your garden in the spring, if you like, leave a little pile of that brush around.

It's good for so many things.

Every time I do it, I see garter snakes.

Oh.

They have a whole little family right there, and they always are under those brush piles.

So we always talk with wildlife biologist about how to get more wildlife.

And it includes don't mow as much.

Quit trimming.

You know, leave more brushy areas.

Same thing for your garden at the end of the year when you're done with it, instead of mowing it down to nothing, let it, let it grow up a little bit, and then till all that into the soil the next year, and it'll be more beneficial for the soil, I'm thinking, as well.

So very good.

Very good point.

Courtney, let's talk a little bit about some of your projects.

And if you have any more questions about snakes, we're going to get to those so you can submit your questions online.

And we'd love we'd love to have those for the end of the show.

Any more questions for John.

So let's talk to let's talk about some of the projects you're working on.

And, I know that you've been involved with our hellbender project here in the state of Kentucky, which is a fascinating project.

Tell me a little bit about what's going on with that.

Yeah.

Hellbenders, this is an especially timely project that we're doing right now.

So Hellbenders have, recently been proposed for listing as endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

So they're extremely rare.

They're really hard to find.

They used to be found pretty much all across Kentucky.

We really don't know where they still exist these days.

So a lot of what we're doing is going out and trying to find them.

Still, we we follow up on historical records.

Or if a fisherman sends us a picture, we'll go check out the area, see if we can find it or find other ones.

We are out looking for those.

We've put these artificial nest boxes out that, hopefully will give them some good habitat.

But these animals are really picky.

They need really cold, really clean water that moves swiftly.

They breathe through their skin.

I actually have a little hellbender model that's life size.

So these guys are huge.

They are North America's largest salamander.

And, they breathe completely through their skin.

And so if this was real, it would be flopping around a little bit more.

It's very hard.

But these little side flaps that they have, they breathe completely through their skin.

They almost never come out of the water.

They have lungs, but they don't really use them unless they like an emergency happens.

They use it mostly to stay on the bottom.

So they're on the bottom of these streams and they are really flat.

They live under rocks.

You almost never see them.

You shouldn't see them if you're if the things are all there for them.

But, they're really hard to find because they live under these huge rocks, like the size of a car hood.

And so they build these dens in there.

And we go searching in their breeding season, which is around the fall because they're very defensive.

So they will be at the front if they have eggs and they will fight anything that tries to come in there and get their eggs.

They are wonderful defenders of their young.

They use these big tails, they swish them around to oxygenate in there.

They keep it clean.

They keep all the predators out.

It's really amazing.

And so because they are lacking so much, so these are a really long live species.

They're they can get really old like up to 30 years we think maybe even longer.

But what we're seeing now is that we can find adult hellbender sometimes not as much as we used to be able to, but we really can't find any more breeding populations.

So we're really looking for them.

We start by trying to find the adults at first, which is hard enough, but to kind of help with that, we have been captive rearing eggs that we've collected from the wild at our center for Mollusk Conservation.

And when they get big enough to be, released, there's been studies that show what size they need to be to have their best chance and not just get slurped up by some fish, but, we will release them back into streams.

So we've already done two releases of Hellbenders throughout the past few years that we've been working on this project.

So we really are asking people, if you find a hellbender and you can really tell a hellbender.

So something that it gets confused with a lot is a mud puppy.

But these guys don't have any gills on the outside of them.

They're and they're bigger if you find a full size adult one.

So you were talking about they're a long lived species.

So a hellbender, if you rear them and they get to whatever length or size that they have to get to put them out in the wild.

How long does it take for a hellbender to become mature enough to start having their own eggs?

Oh, that's a great question.

So because they're such long lived species, they need to be a little bit older.

It's about eight years old before they can start mating.

And that's pretty young.

They're not usually very successful at it that early, but they can so yeah, about eight years old is when they can start breeding.

And we've had a couple of releases, but we need to be out ten years out to see if we're actually releasing animals that are successfully repopulating streams.

Yeah, exactly.

And we work with a lot of partners on this.

No conservation can be done without partners these days.

Just not possible.

But, they have just started getting to the age where their first releases are of breeding age.

So it's also really important that we do follow up studies and not just throw the baby hellbenders out there, but go and check and see if we can refind them.

And then through the years, we check and see if they're reproducing, if we can find the young ones around, and they're all inserted with these little things called pit tags.

And we have scanners, it looks like a metal detector.

And we go out every year and we scan the whole entire stream where we know we release them, where we know they are, and we write down everybody that we find again.

How far away can you detect the hellbender with that scanner?

Not very far.

So sometimes we think that we can't find some of them because they're under really thick rock.

So it's like maybe about this wide of a radius, like, you got to be to be like, right on the hellbender.

But you've been successful in going out and relocating hellbenders that you released with pit tags.

Yeah.

So out of we've released 50 officially now.

The past few years we've we've found about ten of them still, they're there, they move.

They just they're out there.

Oh, yeah.

They're hard to find.

They could be anywhere out in those little rock spaces.

Very cool.

What other species are you working with now?

And I see that you're using some other techniques and some technologies to to kind of monitor for evidence of certain species.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah.

I love to study the animals that are impossible to find.

I'm realizing.

This is a tool that we really use to help find other critters that are really hard to find and really don't want to be around people.

So we use trail cameras a lot to look for things, mostly that are awake at night time that really avoid people.

So we're looking for Allegheny Wood rats.

We're looking for eastern spotted skunks.

We are looking for snakes that are avoiding people too.

Pine snakes.

We've used trail cameras to do that.

All kinds of different.

It's especially like carnivores, in the winter time when they're moving around looking for food.

Still, they can get a lot of good behavior and different locations for these animals.

And over the years, the technology has been crazy.

Oh, it's amazing how many how many cameras you can a biologist, physically go out and check?

I mean, you can and that's 24-7.

You've got eyes on whatever comes through there.

Yeah.

And some of them can, like, text you.

Even so, you can get real time what you're seeing.

I haven't done any of that because a lot of the places I'm working don't have cell phone service, but, it's just crazy, like, even if you.

So this camera and this camera are built to do the same thing right now.

So this camera is just it's the most average, like, trail camera you could go look for, but you can modify it with a glass lens to, like, look for closer focus.

If you're trying to look for like little animals too.

But now they're even making cameras that are specifically already done.

Like, you don't have to modify it.

It's already close focus.

So you can really depending on what animals you're looking for, you can use different trail cameras now.

And then I see that you're using some type of different, like almost bucket traps or other other ways to try to encourage an animal to go right in front of the camera.

A little bit about that.

So we use a lot of different methods for this, but one that's really common to use is called it's called a drift fence.

So drift fence is basically what it sounds like.

It is just two like boards that you put up and it funnels animals out there walking around.

So you go into a certain habitat for the animal you're looking for.

So for example, we've been really looking for least weasels with some of our partners lately.

And so we'll go into a grassland in the bluegrass region, and we'll put this drift fence up and at the ends of the fence are two buckets.

And these buckets have cameras facing down at the bottom of the buckets.

And they have little holes in them.

So an animal has to walk through and it catches the picture of the animal right there as it walks through.

And we've just seen lots of crazy cool behaviors.

Even if you just see pretty common animals, it's cool to like, see them eating.

Or like I saw some grabbing a cicada one time this past couple weeks ago when they were crazy.

It's yeah, it's just amazing with those buckets.

But sometimes, even if you're not using trail cameras, you can use that same design to do stuff like live trapping animals, catching them that way.

So you can actually, like, confirm and actually see the animal.

The use of technology is so amazing.

And I know that, Michael, you and I are going to talk about a little bit about technologies that are you're using right now to for migrating birds.

And, so there's all kinds of different technologies that are being put in place to be a biologist.

It's kind of changing nowadays.

Yes.

You got to be out there, boots on the ground.

But when you have ways that can monitor and be there 24-7, that's that's really cool.

Tell me about some of the technologies that you're using to monitor birds.

Yes, we're using a lot of different things.

We actually do use trail cams some we put them in nest boxes so that we can get, like recites, things like these leg bands so we can identify individuals, like peregrine falcons in this circumstance.

We're also putting out radio transmitters.

So I have a very small radio transmitter.

We are currently deploying these on two different species in Kentucky, field sparrows and with thrushes, they're both, you know, species that are declining pretty rapidly.

And we're these are really interesting because these are kind of key into the Motus network.

So all throughout the world right now, people are installing these Motus stations, and they're essentially automated telemetry receivers.

So they're constantly listening for these tags in the landscape.

And then they essentially store that birds information as it passes through, and it notifies the researchers that this bird that you tagged a few thousand miles away just flew right by our station, you know, so we can get these really kind of intricate maps of how these birds are traveling.

We're learning a lot about, you know, their survival and the routes that they're taking during their migration and their return to back to their breeding territories.

Wow.

So, so a this is a massive database then that all these partners throughout other states and maybe even countries are all loading these tags with individual numbers.

And when they put it in, they can get notified if that bird flies by any of the motus stations in Kentucky and any bird that you tag, you get notified if it flies by any motus station outside of the state.

That's right.

So like we had wood thrushes that we tagged last year during their fall migration, we had, detections down in Belize, down in Mexico, down in Costa Rica.

And on the way back they went through Texas along the coast.

We're actually able to see these pathways that these birds are taking.

We're learning a lot about these species.

So these motus stations how many do we have in the state of Kentucky?

Right now, The department has put out seven of them.

And then a few partners are actually putting them out right now, I believe are up to 13 statewide.

There are plans to put more on the landscape every single year.

Are they spread out across the state?

Are they really focused in an area?

So right now they're pretty spread out.

We typically are trying to put them in places where we know we want to do work.

So we're deploying these tags in the vicinity of Motus Stations so that we can learn when these birds are leaving, and then when they're returning.

So it saves us a lot of time going out, like you said, boots on the ground with these old fashioned antennas, trying to locate them.

If these are listening for us, it saves us a lot of staff time that we can use in other projects.

Oh, wow.

So you obviously to put one of those on, species of bird or whatever you're putting it on, you have to capture it first.

We do.

So tell me a little bit about how you would capture and target a particular species of bird to put that on.

And how many are you putting out on a yearly basis?

It kind of depends on the project.

So, last year we deployed 26 of these tags out on wood thrushes, and we put out, I believe, 16 on field sparrows.

This year, we had a slightly diminished effort we put out 16 wood thrush tags and then, ten Field Sparrow tags.

But what we do is we try to find the, the individuals, we're often keen on them singing.

And then we'll try to stealthily get up to them and we'll, we'll set these mist nets.

They're really fine mesh nets.

And we'll put speakers on either sides of the nets, and we'll lure them in with their songs.

And as soon as it flies over my net, I start playing speaker to the other side and it█ll fly over the net again, and it'll keep going back and forth until eventually it'll hit the net.

And then we'll take the bird out.

We'll get a lot of measurements we█ll you know, sex the bird, we█ll age the bird.

We'll band the bird with those little bands just so we can see them.

And if they're ever recaptured somewhere else, we know that individual is.

And then we really delicately, we put on that little backpack transmitter.

And how long is one of the transmitters last for the battery goes dead.

Or it quits sending signal.

It depends on the size.

Generally anywhere from 400 days to 700 days.

We get a lot of information, we get a few migrations out of it hopefully.

Very, very cool.

So it's amazing because all of you guys are now using new technologies that are happening, and we still haven't found Bigfoot.

So somethings telling me that with all this technology, we're using all these cameras that still haven't found Bigfoot.

I'd love to throw a transmitter on Bigfoot if we can make it happen.

What size would a backpack be for Bigfoot?

It's amazing.

Some of the other interesting, things that I know you're working on is also some birds of prey.

Tell me a little bit about, some of those, birds and species that, you have interested in knowing more about from the public and why you need more information.

Yeah.

So, there's three main species right now that we're working on.

It's the, bald eagle, peregrine falcon, and then barn owls.

So bald eagles, we just really do surveys right now for nests.

So we go out every year, we survey one third of the state with a helicopter.

We go out, we check up on nests that people have called in or email us about.

So if you find a bald eagle nest, please get a point.

An email or call us so we can add it to our inventory and we can add it to, our survey efforts.

And we also do a mid-winter mid-winter eagle survey where biologists are going out and they're counting every single eagle that they can see.

And all this is just to kind of keep tabs on the population.

You know, bald eagles were functionally extinct in Kentucky in the 60s, right, with the banning of DDT and then reintroduction programs like Kentucky Fish and Wildlife did back in the day, the populations really come back, to the point where they're to be delisted back in 2007.

But we're just trying to make sure that that population stays on an upward trajectory and doesn't start dipping again.

We're also working with peregrine falcons.

They're still an incredibly rare species in Kentucky.

Had a similar issues with DDT, like the bald eagle.

But right now we only have 20 nesting pairs that we know about in the whole entire state.

So that's the species we're actively looking at.

We're actively monitoring them, trying to find new birds.

And just making sure that that population continues to stay steady because it's only 20 nesting individuals, you know, that could blink out, unfortunately, if we're not careful.

So a paragon falcon, if someone were to see a bird that they think, man, that might be a peregrine falcon.

First of all, it's not going to be really easy to get a great identifying photo, but how can they identify a peregrine falcon versus one of the other birds of prey that you may may confuse it with?

Yeah.

So as far as you've seeing them, peregrine falcons are generally not going to be in your backyard.

They're going to be in habitats.

You know we find them in power plants, underneath bridges, on top of large skyscrapers.

They're birds that, you know, historically likes to live on cliff lines.

So they really like that tall, steep drop.

If you see some that looks like a peregrine falcon in your backyard, more than likely it's a Cooper's hawk.

But this is one of the circumstances.

If you can get a picture, sent it to me.

I will identify it to you.

And I'll get very excited if it is peregrine falcon.

Very cool.

So it's really, you guys all have your passions.

You've got your your areas of expertise.

And for whatever reason, you guys have decided to study what?

What you've decided to study.

I'm gonna go through and talk to each of you.

John, what would be the ultimate day for you tomorrow?

What species in Kentucky would you go out and find tomorrow?

And you go, man, this this capped it off.

This was the best day possible.

Well, I have never in my life found a live scarlet snake.

And I have found a couple of dead ones.

Okay.

Run over.

But yeah.

Tomorrow, if you went out in the field and and found that, you'd be like, well, that was, that was my best day in the field for a while.

Yeah.

I'd I'd be ready for my wings.

So, so hopefully someone can send you some pictures and see them out in the wild, give you an idea of where to locate.

A couple years ago, someone sent a picture, one that was in a swimming pool in Christian County.

Oh, wow.

So that was pretty exciting.

I was I was ready to grab my beach towl.

And hang out in Christian County for a while.

Courtney, what species would be like your ultimate tomorrow if you were out in the field and you saw there you go.

Wow, this was a great day.

Well, I have two, but only because one scenario I know will happen one day and one might not ever happen to me.

And I would be just over the moon if it did.

But the first one I'll say is an eastern spotted skunk.

I would love one day to be able to have one in my hand and actually see him out there.

There.

That's the most amazing little critters and they're so hard to find.

But the other one that might not happen to me, that I would just pass away is the, glass lizards that we have here in Kentucky.

So these lizards don't have any legs.

Some people, most people would probably confuse them for a snake.

But they live almost completely underground all the time.

It's so rare to ever see one out and about.

I would just.

It would just be amazing if I saw a glass lizard one day.

See that's so cool.

These these passions that you guys have that, however, you guys got this passion to go out and look for these particular species.

I've never seen a glass lizard.

I don't know if I've ever heard of a glass lizard.

To know that you that passionate about it is really cool.

All right, Michael, what is what is the, species tomorrow that would be on your number one hit list to find.

Well, Courtney set a precedent of two so I'm going to say two as well.

Okay.

The first one is going to be loggerhead shrike.

Songbird.

They used to be very common.

They're declining very, very rapidly, and they're just not on the landscape anymore.

They're still around, but they're extremely hard to find.

And if I can capture one and, you know, put leg bands on it so we can learn more about it, I would just be over the moon.

They're extremely difficult to capture as well.

So and then the second one is going to be, the Goldwing warbler, very, very small songbird.

Really only found in the southeastern Kentucky down in the Cumberland Mountain area.

It's extremely rare.

I've been putting miles on the ground trying to find these birds.

And, you know, we come across a few of them.

So if we could find some more, I would love that.

Very cool.

So I would I could have never guessed these these three answers.

I would have thought they'd been something totally different.

You know, some big bird of prey.

I would have thought you said.

But now you're looking for these little songbirds that big birds are easier to find.

Yeah.

What about you, Chad?

Non-game animals only.

Yeah.

So you know that that is a good question.

You know, it would probably be some of these snake species.

Just because I get so many questions about snakes.

I mean, I get questions on snakes almost every single day.

People people are asking about.

Hey, I saw this snake.

What do you think this is?

And I'm like, I'm not your guy, but I give you my best guess.

I know if we have a book for that, don't we have a book that, that people can and I've referenced pages of that book all the time.

They can download it for free.

Download it for free.

And I have that saved on my phone because of all the snake species I get.

But, you know, I don't I have seen a water moccasin, but it was at Reel Foot Lake, I don't think I was in Kentucky.

I don't think I've ever seen a water moccasin in Kentucky.

I saw one in Reel Foot Lake but I think I was in Tennessee, so that would be something that would be pretty cool.

And then I've had that one encounter with the hog nose snake.

I would love to run upon another hog nose snake, because they're just such crazy snakes.

The way they go through all the I've seen videos of people out encountering them, the way they roll over and play dead, and you try to flip them back over right side up, and they flip back up upside down and throw their tongue out.

The whole the whole parade is just really cool.

That and, you know, a 11 pound, 15.5oz smallmouth bass, which would be a world record.

That would have to be.

I know that's a game species.

Fair enough.

I got two.

Michael got two.

And I think that one will never be seen, not by me or anybody else either.

So.

Well, hey, we've we've, we've kind of went over some of your projects you're working on.

So let's see if we're getting some questions start to come through because, today we want to do this show slightly different.

Later on let us know what you think.

We always open the floor up at the beginning for questions.

And this time we wanted to let our biologist kind of talk about some things that you may not have known something about these projects, you may have never heard of these projects, and just kind of gives their viewers out there a little bit of insight into what our biologists are interested in and what you're working on.

You guys have named a lot of species that we would love to get more information on.

If you have a trail camera, if you have a phone, then you see a species that you think might be one of these species or any other species you want to know more about, this is your opportunity to submit those photos and, and engage with, with our biologists.

So question one, is about pygmy rattlesnakes.

So I guess this is you John.

Are they, confirmed only in the land Between the Lakes region?

I'm quite confident that they observed one in Henderson County.

Tell me a little bit about pygmy rattle snakes.

Probably not.

Okay, but take a picture of it.

We know them from Trigg County, LBL, and Calloway County, which that's where Murray is.

Okay.

In fact, we have those bucket traps set up right now through Murray State University.

And I just got an email today with a picture of a pygmy rattlesnake that was crawling underneath one of those buckets.

Oh, wow.

So you got a picture today of someone, a picture to somebody submitted a picture and it was a recent photo.

Yeah.

So how how common are the pygmy rattlesnakes down there in that area?

Extremely rare.

Okay.

The last one I saw in Kentucky was like 1976.

Wow.

So that is rare.

But if I lived in Calloway County, I probably would have seen a couple since then.

Wow.

Okay.

Next question.

What are some endangered bird species, that they should be looking for in the Daniel Boone National Forest area?

So tell me, some bird species that if you if you like.

Hey, I'd.

I'd love to know if you find one of these, especially in the Daniel Boone area.

Yeah.

So as far as federally listed endangered, we really do not have any in the Daniel Boone anymore.

Back in the day, there would have been red cockaded woodpeckers.

But they have been extirpated, or they're now extinct in Kentucky.

But there are a lot of birds that we would call species of species of greatest conservation need that occurred in Daniel Boone things like, eastern whippoorwill.

Chuck Will's widows.

We have, like, Swainson's warblers.

So there's there's a lot of rare birds that are declining, but none that are federally endangered.

So how many different species of whippoorwill are there?

You just mentioned you said eastern whippoorwill.

So in the in the eastern United States.

So in Kentucky, we have just the eastern whippoorwill.

If you hear a whippoorwill.

It's that particular species.

It's just that one only I thought when you said that, I thought, man, I might not be aware.

There may actually be more than one species.

In Kentucky, we have just the eastern whippoorwill.

Okay.

Or a Chuck Wills.

Chuck Wills sounds real similar.

So it does.

But there's an extra note there.

You just got to listen for it.

Oh, so there█s another.

There's another bird that makes a sound very similar.

Very similar.

Yes.

It's a little bit different.

But if you play them, you know, kind of one after another, you know, like on your phone or on the computer, you can, you can pick up the they are distinct.

So I'm assuming that you just maybe think that when I'm out at Lake Cumberland nighttime fishing and I hear a whippoorwill and they am I hearing whippoorwill, or is it potentially something different?

It could potentially be a chuck wills widow.

So whatever these birds are, they're the most persistent because when they start, they'll they'll make that sound like really are you going to do this all night long nonstop?

It's like, what what are they making the sound for.

Are they attracting a mate?

Is that what they're doing?

Yeah.

So what they're doing, especially if you look out on like a full moon on the lake, that's when they're going to be singing.

They're defending their territories.

And it's also letting their mates or potential mates know that I am really good.

You should come mate with me.

Okay.

So they█re, are they pretty defensive of their territories.

Yes.

Am I hearing males or females or both.

You're mostly hearing males.

Females will make sounds, but they're not nearly as vocal as the males.

But this is how up like we're talking about the transmitters.

We're actually partnering with the University of Kentucky right now to deploy, satellite tags on eastern whipporwils.

And that's how we're actually capturing them.

We're using that defensive, behavior to lure them into these mist nests that we're using for wood thrushes and for field sparrows, by playing those songs, getting them kind of riled up.

And then we capture them, put a transmitter on, and release them.

That's very cool.

Wow.

I'm shocked that they're on decline because they're persistent.

They are persistent, but they are declining pretty rapidly.

When they start their mating song.

Man, it goes on, like for hours.

Well, they know you're trying to sleep or something like oh yeah, yeah man I love hearing them.

It's one of those things you're like, that is going on and on and on.

So that was our first two questions.

We got two more to go.

Our first four questions that we asked tonight and get answers.

You're going to receive one of these new Kentucky wild caps.

So if your question has been asked you're going to be getting this cap.

And we're going to reach out to you later on after the show.

And then the next two questions that that are ask whoever submitted that question is going to get one of these cap.

So that next question number three, why have Hellbenders disappeared.

And what can Kentuckians do to help keep Hellbenders safe?

Are they more common in other states?

So this is a 2 or 3 part question, a little bit more about Hellbend Well, there's not any one reason.

There's a whole big bad storm of things that really worked against them.

So, water quality being a big one, sedimentation.

So a lot of, farming, when like, the runoff from the chemicals of the farming aren't being captured anymore because we've cut the trees that are around the stream and cut the plants that are there that really absorb those nutrients and keep them out of the water.

So that stuff goes in the water.

The sediment runs down more because there's plant, not plants there to capture it.

And it fills up their dens, the sediment, and they have to work much harder to keep it out.

So eventually it just isn't worth it anymore or they can't keep up.

There's still gravel mining that occurs in Kentucky, so that directly rips up their habitat.

There's of course modifying the habitat, getting like, modifying streams or anything like that.

What was the the next part of the question?

They wanted to know what what they can do.

And then how common are they in other states?

So, what you can do is really make a good riparian area if you have, especially if you have stream access on your property, that is the biggest benefit you can have to hellbenders is to really restore that riparian area and keep cattle and all that sedimentation out of the water that will dig up the habitat.

So really what?

Oh.

If they're common in other states?

That was the last question.

North Carolina had/has a very good population, but range wide, they've declined by, we think, at least 80%.

But North Carolina had a stronghold.

It's still in the air how it is after the hurricane came through there.

But, the other states around it.

So this is a largely Appalachian species and they call it the canary in the coal mine.

Because they're so sensitive, so range wide.

And, like, just across the United States, we've altered habitat so much, and we can really see it with the hellbenders disappearing.

They█re one of the first things that will disappear.

So.

Wow, that's that's amazing because they are such a cool species.

But, you'd like for more people to have more interaction, but at this point in time, because they are so close to bring potentially listed as endangered, you want to make sure that, you're not down there disturbing a hellbenders nest.

So, you know, if you see one, really cool.

Send us some information on it.

But just make sure you're not disturbing it.

Right.

They could also join Kentucky Wild and support those efforts.

Oh yeah.

Because we've taken people with Kentucky Wild out and, for some of the release of these hellbenders when we did a release.

So there's a whole lot different things you can do.

Kentucky Wild is a great program that really works with species that we don't hunt and fish for here in the state of Kentucky.

If you're an outdoors enthusiast, you want to know more about other programs that some of these biologists are working on.

May want to participate in field days.

There's all kinds of different reasons to join Kentucky Wild.

So, if someone wanted to join Kentucky Wild, how would they do that?

You can join Kentucky Wild at one of our in-person events that we have.

So, for instance, will be at the state fair.

You can stop by the Kentucky Wild booth and sign up to be a member there.

A $35 membership gets you these fancy little T-shirts this year.

As well as supporting conservation and the chances to come out and join us on these member experiences.

You can also go to our website, fw.ky.gov/kywild.

And you can sign up there and we will mail you your t-shirt.

Question number four.

Please talk about Kentucky Wild, how it is and how it works.

We just talked a little bit about that, so I didn't realize that was going to be the next question.

I jumped the gun a little bit.

So, tell me a little bit about what programs that you, each of you have had where people could go out with you in the field, that you drew off the list of Kentucky Wild participants.

So have you had a program like that?

Every year we have a, it's it's a herp hike, down at green River Wildlife Management Area.

And we'll have, maybe ten people with their family members, and we go down and spend, a whole day, turning over logs and in the woods.

And mostly it's for salamanders.

Okay, so we find snakes and frogs and, Brian Gray, who used to be a biologist.

And in that area, sets turtle traps.

And so we catch painted turtles and snapping turtles, and it's it's a whole day of pretty neat stuff.

Oh, cool.

And so and you guys put that out there to Kentucky Wild members to join that, okay.

All right, Courtney, tell me a little bit about what you have in the field that, Kentucky Wild members may get a chance to participate with.

I've done a couple different events in my time here at Fish and Wildlife with Kentucky Wild.

So two that are really popular that we really enjoy doing.

Is monarch tagging every year in September when the monarchs are migrating down New Mexico, we bring members out, usually with their family members will and we will help teach them how to do it.

And then we just set people loose and they run through the fields and catch butterflies, put their little stickers on them and let them go to Mexico.

And then we recently did one that we don't do very often, but it is really amazing.

And the the look on everybody's face getting to do it is we had a bat capture event, so we went out and we had them do an emergence count where they were counting the bats leaving their roost tree.

And then we put up a mist nett, much like with the birds, almost exactly like with the birds, except for catching bats at night time.

And so we put them up and we were able to show them bats up close and how small they are, and not really terrifying.

So very cool.

And you were talking about putting a sticker on there.

The little stickers are they have a identifying number or are they also a way they can be tracked, much like the, backpacks?

Can you track that?

That is a great question.

So the stickers we use are literally just a sticker, but they do have a unique number.

And letter code on it.

So when the animal is found in Mexico, people can turn it in and they actually get some cash in exchange for it.

Oh, wow.

And then that money, that code will be reported back to us knowing where we tagged it from.

We have had some from Kentucky be found down in Mexico before, so that's really cool.

But actually Motus, is starting to make little tags that are very small.

We haven't used them yet, but you can also put them on monarchs, and that's an effort that people are trying to do right now is to, passively capture where the monarchs are, Yeah, MOTUS is neat because it can be literally any type of animal.

It doesn't have to be a bird.

It can be bats.

It can be butterflies, can be, you know, dragonflies, the wow, anything that flies and how close you got to get one of these towers for to pick up?

It depends on kind of setup you have, but generally it's a little bit under ten miles.

Oh.

So that's, that's got a pretty wild range there.

Okay.

Very cool.

What what programs have you had that have been, open to Kentucky Wild?

Well, we do a few different things.

I've taken folks out to band Peregrine falcon chicks at one of the LG and E power plants.

We check, American kestrel nesting success at Clay WMA.

So we take a group out and we look in these kestrel boxes that are up on power poles, and we hoist a camera up there and folks you know, help us do that, and they can help us age the birds and see what their, productivity is like.

And then we also, have a songbird, banding day where folks can come out, we put up a bunch of mist nets, catch a bunch of songbirds.

We talk about how to identify them and how we work them up, and all of the recapture science that goes along with that.

Very, very interesting.

All right.

Next question here is about, one of you mentioned a long tail weasel.

Tell me a little bit about a long tail weasel and why, why what's cool about them amd unique, and why we're interested in them?

So long tailed weasels are actually pretty common.

Those ones can be found pretty much all over the the state.

A weasel that we're really interested.

That is not the long tailed weasel is called the least weasel.

So they're really related, except for the least weasel, as you can infer from the name is much smaller than them, and they're found in quite different habitats.

They can, a long tailed weasel can be pretty much anywhere.

So you can still find them in grassland areas, but you can also find them in the woods.

But these are, like, this big.

They're tiny.

What are each of those species?

What do they mainly feed on?

So they are carnivores and they are mostly going to feed on small rodents, bugs, whatever they can fit in their mouth.

But a lot of rodents, and they are vicious for their size.

They can take down things that are much bigger than them.

Wow.

So it's a good thing they're small huh?

Yeah.

It would be like a honey badger.

And when I say they're vicious, they're not dangerous to you.

I just mean they can take down big prey.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, they're going to they're going to defend themselves against other like sized animals.

and it's amazing what the least weasels because we just can't find them.

We don't have records of them.

Most of our records come from cats, people's cats who have caught them while they're out, or ones that have been found in people's pools.

We often try to trap for them.

We can't.

They're just too smart.

Really?

Oh very interesting.

So that's at least weasel and that that's something that we are trying to monitor.

So if you see one you want to you want documentation of that, right.

Yeah.

They're mostly in the bluegrass region.

And I've gone to people's houses and picked one up that they've sent me a picture.

And I'm like, yes, that is one I'm going to come get it.

So, yeah, we were really looking for records of those.

Very cool.

The next question is about a species I know we're interested in as well.

And it's about owls.

Tell me about the species of owls that we have in Kentucky, what we're doing to kind of monitor their populations, and what information that if a viewer out there sees one of these owls, what information you might be looking for?

Yeah.

So, most of our owl species are doing fairly well.

Like barred owls, great horned owls, eastern screech owls.

The populations are very stable.

The barn owl, the American barn owl.

Now is renamed recently.

That's that's a that's a species that we're actively looking for.

You know, not too long ago, you could almost not find one in Kentucky.

Through various efforts about installing, nest boxes throughout the state as well as, you know, improving habitats in the areas where they should be.

The population is starting to come back.

But that's something.

If folks have barn owl sightings, or they have a barn owl in their barn or in their grain silo, we would love to know about it.

And that's we've we've had this conversation several years ago on, when we were actually actively going out and trying to find some of these, barn owls that, there's a really unique way to know if you have a barn owl.

And that is by finding something they leave behind, right?

Yeah.

So if you go into, like, your tobacco barn or things like that, and you find little, black football shaped objects on the ground, and like a lot of them, they're called pellets.

Essentially, it's regurgitated, material from rodents, their prey that they can't digest.

So instead of, you know, that just kind of split them up, essentially.

They eat a they eat a rodent, they pull it apart, they eat it when they get it down their body.

Then their stomachs will take all the non digestible materials, wad it up in the small pellet.

Yep.

And then yeah.

So they don't actually tear them apart.

They eat everything.

They eat it whole.

So they have all that bone all that fur.

That's they can't pull nutrients out of that.

So it's put right back on the ground.

Wow.

That's that's a pretty effective way to to eat and digest your materials.

Yes.

And it's really nice for trying to find these owls.

I can walk into a bar and be like, yeah, they're here.

Yeah.

You know for sure if they're there, if you're seeing those pellets, right?

Yes.

And I should say all owls do this, but only inside of buildings.

Generally it's can be barn owls.

Okay.

Very cool.

So that's a very unique way to, to be able to locate one of those.

Do you, have you guys have any other items that you brought that you wanted to showcase before we, before we ask our last question, did you get to all of your show and tell items?

Okay, our last question what type of water do Hellbenders live in?

Cold streams are warmer still, or small moving river style streams.

They are going to be in cold water.

It's going to be cold and it's going to be.

It can range from a size of a river to a creek.

So the size isn't really that important.

It's more the habitat within that creek or stream.

So they need large boulders.

The adults do.

But not just that.

They also need small little cobble areas.

Because the young don't live under these big rocks.

They live in the little areas between all the cobble rocks.

So it's got to have a good mix of different habitat.

But it it does need to be cold because it holds more oxygen if it's cold.

And what do they primarily eat both in a, in a, youth state as, as well as an adult hellbender?

Hellbenders largely eat crayfish.

When they're young, they mostly eat like worms or bugs that they can catch or small crayfish.

But, adult hellbenders largely eat crayfish or small, like shiners or minnows or something like that.

And they can also eat each other sometimes.

Oh, wow.

You said they were, during the.

They█ll defend.

Certain time of year they█re very defensive.

Don█t touch my eggs.

That's pretty.

That's pretty cool.

Well hey, this has been a very, informative show for me.

I feel like I learned a few things.

Hopefully your viewers out there, they also learned a few things.

If you want to know more, we're actually going to be at the state fair.

On the 14th of August.

Is Kentucky Afield day at the state Fair.

So come out and, and check us out, and then are you guys any of you guys working the state fair this year?

I will be there along with my coworkers.

We're doing a bat themed for Kentucky Wild Day, so we'll be there talking about bats.

All right.

Fantastic.

So which day are you going to be there?

I believe it's the 19th.

Okay, so August the 19th.

So if you have any more questions, for these panelists, you can reach out to us, call our info center.

And if you want to know more about Kentucky Wild, you can go to fw.ky.gov/kywild and get more information about Kentucky Wild.

It might be for you, $35 membership comes with a t shirt, and you can also sign up at the state Fair.

So it's been a great show.

Hopefully you're getting outdoors.

This heat needs to pass so that we can be more comfortable outdoors.

But get out and enjoy yourselves.

And remember hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next time, I'm your host, Chad Miles, and hope to see you in the woods or on the water.