Show Notes
Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.
Episode #7 | Mark Ray | Among Snow Geese
Bio
Although I share a surname with Mark Ray, we haven’t figured out a kinship other than our love of nature. Ray is a natural resources consultant who has managed over 500 environmental projects in 30 states. His jam is habitat restoration, but he also does endangered species surveys, mitigation banking, and much more. Both his paying job & his passion for nature combine to ensure that he’s outside a lot. He’s also a gardener and a photographer.
Highlights of the Story
2:08—Mark reveals how wild he is.
2:45—When he turned 30, he headed to the American West.
3:55—Near Big Bend National Park, he passes one other car in a 100-mile stretch of highway. Big Bend is mostly located in the Chihuahuan Desert.
4:30—He found the West very different from the Midwest, where he was from.
5:05—He finds himself at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
5:15—He’d heard that thousands of snow geese were there.
5:45—“A beam of light came flying over these hills.”
6:00—What 140,000 wings sound like.
7:27—The Copper Mountains of New Mexico are also known as the Bridger Mountains.
7:30—Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
7:50—The temperature lowers to 12 degrees.
8:00—“A sound environment.”
9:00—Only the legs of the cranes are showing, beneath a blanket of fog.
10:00—He estimates the numbers of cranes in the hundreds.
12:30—Three coyotes sing to the moon.
13:15—He tells where he finds small amazements.
14:15—Mark tells how he teaches his students to use their senses.
15:00—He describes a wonderful exercise for environmental educators.
16:05—A true scientist, Mark keeps phenology notes.
16:25—He birds at Kennesaw Mountain: why he visits during the summer.
17:10—“You have a superpower.”
17:30—Practice the art of using all of our senses.
“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”
-Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire
My Thanks
Thank you for listening.
If you like this episode, give this show a thumbs-up (below), leave a comment, and/or forward this to friends. If you post on socials, please tag me (#wildspectacle, #janisseray.)
Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order a signed copy here.
Find Janisse on Facebook and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.
Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.
We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch.
Go See Some Nature
If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!
Snow Geese
Thanks to David Murray and the Great Falls (MT) Tribune for this photo, taken from an article about snow geese migration at Montana’s Freezeout Lake.
Ep #7 | Mark Ray | Among Snow Geese