WGCU

Many are finding themselves perplexed by new Covid-19 booster shot regulations from the Food and Drug Administration. After health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified that “it’s not recommended for healthy people” to the Senate Finance Committee, Florida implemented restrictions on vaccine access.

Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall’s recommendation to include the Ten Commandments in historical displays on county property passed four to one.

Independence Day and summer storms in Florida can bring a series of annoyances for pets. Fireworks and thunder can put your furry companion into a panic and cause plenty of stress.

As part of Governor Ron DeSantis’ vetoes to the Florida Budget, he eliminated nearly $6 million in state funding for public radio and television stations.

A New WGCU Documentary, Rising: Surviving The Surge, captures the previous unheard stories from individuals who were stuck in the destruction that surrounded the area following Hurricane Ian.

When the lights go out, WGCU Public Media remains committed to bringing you important, up-to-date information no matter what’s happening outside.

Of course you can recognize a Northern Cardinal when you see one. They are among the most common of backyard birds. But you may be overlooking their tremendous seasonal and age diversity. Unlike many birds, they do not molt into bright breeding plumage – they come into it by wearing away of gray-brown edges of feathers attained by their fall molt – leaving them with frayed, but brighter colors just in time for attracting a mate.

The Monarch Butterfly with its orange and black wings, and look-alike mimic the Viceroy Butterfly are well entrenched in our educational system from grade school through graduate school. But details of the Monarch’s life and its mimic relationship with the Viceroy Butterfly are not so well known. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed and caterpillars that emerge feed on milkweed leaves. These leaves often provide toxins that protect the butterfly – often, not always. That protective toxin – gained during the caterpillar stage -- can disappear from the butterfly over time because the adult butterfly feeds on the nectar of many different flowers. Milkweeds are popular plants as ornamentals that attract Monarchs. One most prominently for sale is Tropical Milkweed, an exotic species with beautiful red and orange flowers. Tropical Milkweed has become an invasive and lives through Florida winters, building up populations of a parasite of Monarchs that can impair the butterflies. Unlike Tropical Milkweed, most of our native milkweeds die in winter and the monarch parasites die with them.

The Northern Flicker is a woodpecker that is often seen feeding on ants living in the ground or in very rotted wood. Like other woodpeckers, it excavates a nest cavity, but its bill is more adapted for digging for ants than it is for excavating in wood – it is relatively longer and more curved than that of other woodpeckers – to accommodate the long tongue that it uses to secure ants. It may excavate its cavities in very rotted wood, but will also excavate a nest cavity in the ground or in Styrofoam -- such as sometimes used in roof edging.

Fridays are when we enjoy a new weekly series that's part history, part trivia, and ALL music. The series features selections from former News-Press editor Sheldon Zoldan's 'Song of the Day." The initiative began as a daily lockdown project on Facebook at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, through which Zoldan highlights how every aspect of life has a connection through music. This week's Song of the Day, for April 4th, is "Lions" by Skip Marley.