UP habitat work, barred owls and deer season

Eric Hilliard (0:03)

You know what that sound means. It's time for the Michigan DNR's Wild Talk Podcast. Welcome to the Wild Talk Podcast, where representatives from the DNR's Wildlife Division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, feathers, and fur.

With insights, interviews, and your questions answered on the air, you'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here in the great state of Michigan.

Kelsey Beatty (0:30)

Welcome to the Wild Talk Podcast. This is your host, Kelsey Beattie, and I'm here with my co-host, Eric Hilliard. You know, Eric, this is one of my favorite times of the year.

Eric Hilliard (0:40)

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Kelsey Beatty (0:46)

Not quite. No. You need a little bit more of a spooky vibe.

Eric Hilliard (0:51)

Woo! It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Kelsey Beatty (0:58)

Like that? Yes. Yep. Yes. I enjoy this time of year very much. Michigan's deer seasons are starting up, and probably find me out in a tree somewhere soon.

Eric Hilliard (1:11)

Do you have a you put out Halloween decorations?

Kelsey Beatty (1:13)

We do. They are already up. Mostly just your spooky little ghosts and pumpkins, nothing too gruesome.

Eric Hilliard (1:21)

So you're more Casper the friendly ghost versus poltergeist. Right. All right. So yeah, so we're in the spooky season.

Kelsey Beatty (1:28)

We are. And we have a great show lined up. We're going to talk to one of our wildlife biologists, Christy Sitar from the UP, and she's going to chat with us about some habitat work going on up there. And then we're going to shift to a little bit of a spooky season vibe with all things feathers. We're going to talk about one of Michigan's owl species, the barred owl. And then we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics, the white-tailed deer. And we have some of our deer team coming on the show today to talk the deer population and some regulations that people should know before they hit the woods.

Eric Hilliard (2:12)

Sounds like it should be quite an interesting show.

Kelsey Beatty (2:14)

And of course, somewhere in the episode, there will be a chance to win the one and only Wild Talk.

Eric Hilliard (2:22)

The coveted.

Kelsey Beatty (2:23)

Yes.

The coveted Wild Talk podcast mug that you could put your Halloween candy in. But before we get to all that, here's a word from our warblers.

Eric Hilliard (2:33)

Hey, Michigan drivers, the little bird told me your license plate can do more than just tag your car. The wildlife habitat plate featuring the iconic Kirtlands warbler helps protect Michigan's non-game fish and wildlife through the Non-Game Fish and Wildlife Trust Fund. But hurry, this plate is changing soon. Want to keep the warbler flying? You can even get one as a collector's item, no car required. Support Michigan's Wildlife and get your plate before this bird flies away. Visit Michigan.gov slash SOS.

Kelsey Beatty (3:12)

Today on the podcast, we have Christy Sitar joining us on the phone from the Newberry Customer Service Center. Thank you for joining us today, Christy. No problem. Happy to be here. So you've been on the podcast before, but it's been a while.

Can you give our listeners some background on what it's like to be a wildlife biologist in the Eastern UP region?

Kristie Sitar (3:32)

Oh boy.

Kelsey Beatty (3:33)

It's busy.

Kristie Sitar (3:35)

It's uh we're we're busy here all year long. We have work that we do in the winter, uh, checking on deer and deer yards.

Uh we typically have had work doing wolf census, and that's changing up a little bit for us. We have elk and moose flights every other year, those alternate, and then spring is surveys and prepping for field work. Field work is varied and substantial, and we go pretty hard at it right until winter happens, and that's really not too far away up here.

Eric Hilliard (4:13)

So, Christy, when you say deer yards, it sounds uh you're not checking to make sure that the deer are cutting the grass or anything like that, right?

Kristie Sitar (4:20)

It's yeah, thank you for saying that. Deer yards is the term that we have used for decades, and so that's what's stuck in my brain because I am adding decades onto my life every year as we go here. So they are also called deer winter complexes. And yeah, deer are not mowing grass. They would be thankful to have some grass to mow in a deer yard or a deer winter complex.

We are looking at their, we're looking at how they're surviving in those wintering areas. We'll talk about those a tiny bit for habitat stuff here today as well. But um we're kind of keeping an eye on them. We like to know what's happening with those deer during the winter because of course those are our that's our pool of deer for the next year.