WeWow on the Weekend

Hey, Bowser fams! Mindy year! And before we start the show! Oh! Hey, Reg! What's that? A new pigeon dropping? Isn't that the postcard you send out to members of the world organization of Wowsers every quarter? Can I see it? What? You need to see if I'm a member of the WOW first? But Reg, come on! It's me, Mindy! Huh? You're not seeing a Mindy on the list? Okay, uh, try a Mandy. I think Thomas Finkirling signed me up. Yes! Can I get my pigeon dropping now? What? I gotta wait for it in the mail? But it's right there! Okay, fine. Guess I'll go wait out by the mailbox. In the meantime, to get the next quarterly mailing from Reggie, runups, you can sign your Wowser up to be a member of the World Organization of Wowsers by Monday March 16th. It's so top secret I haven't even seen it yet. Now, where'd I put my mailbox? Runups, when you sign your Wowser up to be a member of the World Organization of Wowsers, you also get birthday cards in the mail from me and Guy Ross, access to over a thousand online activities inspired by our podcast, and a welcome kit from me and Guy Ross, including our autographs and a special t-shirt. Plus, you get to help support all the work that goes into powering the WOW at TinkerCast. Runups, visit TinkerCast.com, slash membership to sign up today. That's TinkerCast.com slash membership. That's it! And now, let's get back to the show. We WOW on the weekend. We WOW on the weekend. We WOW on the weekend. Cause this is what we do on the weekend. Talking, laughing, me and Reggie, singing, laughing. And then we, oh wait, no, I said laughing twice. Whatever. We WOW on the weekend. We WOW on the weekend. We WOW on the weekend. Cause this is what we do on the weekend. Hello and welcome to We WOW on the weekend. I'm your host, Dennis. And Reggie's here too also. Hey Reggie, I was just wondering what's your favorite dinosaur? What? Regions? Reggie, those aren't dinosaurs. I know birds are basically dinosaurs, but I wanted you to say something fun like Stegosaurus or Spinosaurus or Dimetradon. No, Reggie, not the T-Rex. That's everyone's favorite. Do another one. Ooh, the Archaeopteryx. Good one. See now, that's how you pick a favorite dinosaur. My favorite dinosaur is the Dylophosaurus. But not the Dylophosaurus from the Dylophosaurus book mother gave me. I like the Dylophosaurus from the movies. Big hugs, Reggie. In the movies, they have neck frills. And I want neck frills. I also like the Dennis Adon. Now, the Dennis Adon isn't real yet, but it will be once I discover it. Yeah, huh? Oh, you're right. We better move on with the show. Let's get started with a Kiw and Egg Sackman! Ah, ah, ah, ah! The Kiw and Egg Sackman! Ta! Alright, let's just get the old answering machine pulled up here. Okay, here we go. Hi, you've reached Dennis from We Wow on the Weekend. That's me. Do you have a question? Well, I do too. Lots of them! And who's gonna answer all my questions? You? Probably not. But I guess I can answer yours. Leave me a message! Hi, Dennis and Reggie. My name is Thomas from Water Robin's Georgia. And I have a question for Dennis. Okay, Thomas. What you got? What is the craziest thing you've seen Grandma G-Force do while snooping on her? Huh, what's the craziest thing I've seen Grandma G-Force do? Well, honestly, Grandma G-Force is really boring. She's really boring to snoop on because she does the same thing every day. Yeah, first she plays guitar in a rock band. Then she practices mixed martial arts. Then comes her afternoon skydiving appointment, followed by monster truck jumping over a pit of robot crocodiles and then an afternoon nap. I know! It's just boring old regular grandma stuff. Next question. Hi, Dennis. My name is Caleb. I'm 11 years old and I'm from Mount Laurel, New Jersey. I'm just wondering what the fastest computer ever made was. Thanks. Ooh, the fastest computer ever made. Yeah, I agree. I'm pretty sure the fastest computer was that laptop Mindy strapped to a rocket ship and shot into outer space. How fast do you think that computer went, Reggie? What? 26,000 miles per hour? Oh, yeah, that has to be the fastest computer ever made. Next question. Hi, Dennis. My name is Eman. I am eight years old. I live in Cornwall, New York. And my question is, why do humans have two legs instead of four? Oh, wow! Why do humans have two legs instead of four? I don't know, but I would love to have four legs. Because, Reggie, then I could wear two pairs of pants. And then I could mix and match pants for two times the fashion fun. Yeah, then I'd get to wear four shoes. Can you imagine? And four ice gates and four roller blades and four cowboy boots and four flip flops? Yeah, two sets of pedals on my bicycle. I'd go so fast. Oh, you're right. With four legs, I'd have to clip 20 toenails instead of just 10. And think of all the sock laundry. Yeah, that would be really time consuming. I have much better things to do than spend all my time clipping toenails and washing socks. And that's why we have two legs instead of four. Thanks for all your calls, everyone. If you've got a question for me, call and leave me a message. The number is 1-888-7-1-1-1-8-8-7-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 And today, we're listening to Wow in the World Season 2 episode 29 called Do Birds of a Feather Fluck Together? Well Reggie, do they? Kind of? Reggie, what do you mean? In this episode, aren't you friends with a plover or something? Right, and a bar tailed godwit. Okay fine, let's just listen to the episode. Alright, here we go, and play. We will be right back. Grown-ups, this message is for you. Hey Grown-ups, Spring is right around the corner, and as schedules fill up with activities and travel, let IXL help you stay on top of your child's learning. IXL is an award-winning online learning platform that fits seamlessly into homeschooling. It offers interactive practice in math, language arts, science, and social studies for grades pre-K through 12th. IXL offers personalized learning for every child and gives parents clear insight into their progress. At Tinkercast, making learning fun is our bread and butter, so we love that IXL has games, awards, and celebrations to keep students motivated and engaged. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now, and wow-in-the-world listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at IXL.com slash wow. Visit IXL.com slash wow to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Now back to the show. My antique marbles and banana peels collection run run run run Hold on I'm so coming. All all good. Mark wait what is this? No. Sorry we missed you. Your package was undeliverable. As nobody was home. Not again. You're not getting away with it this time buddy. Hey. Gotcha. Mindy why are you doing I was coming over to help you organize your bandaid collection not to be your human tackling dummy. Oh sorry guys Ross I thought you were the delivery guy. Here let me help you up. One, two, skip jimaloo and Thanks. Wait why were you trying to tackle the delivery guy? Well my last was in the shop and I'm still working out the kings on the old trap door mat. What? Nothing. What in the- See what I mean I didn't even push the button. Mindy that's dangerous. Only if you're standing on it. So did you still want to do that bandaid sorting? I was thinking we could start by organizing them by- Not right now Guy Ross. I got a head down to the post office to get Reggie's package. Reggie still gets his male delivered here. I thought he had a PO box. Oh not a package for Reggie Guy Ross. A package from Reggie. A package from Reggie. Why where is he? Oh man it's been so hard to keep up. I think he's in Mexico now maybe here. Maybe he was Kosovo or was it Monaco? I don't know it's definitely one of those O countries. Wait Riches on vacation? Yeah he does it every year. Come inside I'll show you. Okay. Just make sure to take your shoes off. I just refrauded the floor. Okay sure thing. One and two. Uh Mindy. I'm in the kitchen. Okay. Whoa Mindy. Why are there so many jars of uh are those? Pickles? Yeah. I'm experimenting with a bunch of new flavors. I've got raspberry, mango, tropical, tropical fruit pickles. The perfect summer snack. Okay. This is what I wanted to show you. Ta-da. Your fridge? No look what's on the fridge Guy Ross. Sticky fingerprints? No these. Oh are those postcards from Reggie? Yep and those are all just from this past month. Reggie's really been clocking in the fly miles if you know what I mean. Wow look at this. Hawaii. The Great Wall of China. Hokkaido Japan. Ah Hokkaido that's what it was. I knew it ended in a no. And you said he does this every year? Yeah it says migration vacation. His migration vacation? Yeah so here's the deal. Pigeons like Reggie are nesting birds right? Which means that they like to stay in one spot their whole lives. Yeah but Reggie is also a very popular bird. You can say that again. But Reggie is also a very popular. Mindy. So he has a lot of inner species friends. Some golden plovers, a few Canadian geese. I think his roommate in bird college might have been a bald eagle. And they are all migratory birds. Migratory meaning on the move. So he just joins up with them and goes along for a ride? Yeah pretty much. It's like one big road trip in the sky. Nice and let me just check to make sure I've got my bird fax straight here. Okay hang on just gonna get my level. Your level. Yeah so you can see if you got your fax straight. No Mindy when I said I wanted to get my bird fax straight. I just meant I wanted to double check the meaning of migration. Oh well why didn't you just say so? Okay migration is when birds move from one area to another for either the winter or the summer. Ah yes and they usually head south to warmer weather in winter and then back up north when it heats up again right? Exactly. So for example most birds in North America move south for the winter to get away from the cold and to raise their babies. That makes sense. And then in the spring time just before summer they pack their bags and fly up north for the all you can eat the fae of insects and bugs that have been hiding all winter. Ah so not only do birds migrate south in the winter to avoid the cold but also to find more food. Yep and according to Reggie's postcards some of these birds are extreme endurance athletes. Just check out this postcard he sent me from Hawaii after traveling with his golden plover pals. Huh interesting but Mindy I can't read this it just looks like a bunch of bird footprints. Oh you don't read pigeon scratch do you? Huh that's cold I'll read it to you. Let's see here um having a great time took a ukulele lesson did some whale watching some surfing and oh here we go it's a very nice way to relax after a 3000 mile one-way flight. 3000 miles Mindy that's farther than New York to Los Angeles. I know and that's not even the crazy part. Don't tell me they ran out of the Mediterranean tap us snack boxes. What no the crazy part is that they did it all in one trip. All in one trip? Yep four days straight. Humane without stopping with no rest breaks and no food. Nope. Wow that's incredible. I mean don't you remember that one time you stayed up for one whole night embroidering your grandma G-forces wrestling robe you fell asleep in your cereal the next day. Ah nothing beats a nice breakfast in the sunshine. Don't you think Mindy? Mindy? Hmm that's funny I don't remember that brunch. So how do these birds not sleep or eat for four whole days? Well that's actually super fascinating so in terms of food these birds basically have one big meal before they take off. Kind of like how you have six balls of spaghetti before you ride a roller coaster. You know a guy Ross and I do that for two reasons. Number one they never let me bring my spaghetti on the ride and number two I won't be able to eat again until after the roller coaster ride is over. That's not anyway so these birds basically do the same thing. Yeah so it's an animal behavior known as hyperfasia. I say it that way to help me remember. Hyperfasia? Hyperfasia. Look I know that it might sound like a super classy word but really it's just a fancy pants way of saying shoving a whole bunch of food in your mouth which is really just a fancy pants way of saying eat like I do. Here want me to demonstrate? No no no no I think I got it. So these birds binge eat enough insects and food to keep them going for the four days it takes to fly from say Alaska where they spend the summer to Hawaii where they spend the winter. Yep and they do this for almost three weeks before taking off. But how do they go without sleep? I mean everyone has to sleep Mindy. Well Gairaz that is a question that has baffled scientists for a long time. How do birds sleep while they fly? Right because most birds who travel over land can just swoop down make a nest bed catch up on a little sleep and then head off again in the morning. But if you're traveling over water like the golden plover is no such luck. No such luck. So how do they do it? Well migratory birds like the golden plover can do something called unahemospheric sleep. Unahemospheric sleep? Yep. Okay so let me see if I got this. So our brains and animals brains are made up of two different parts right? Right. The right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. You got it. And these two parts of the brain work together to help us function. Yes. And you need means one. You're getting it. So unahemospheric sleep probably means that one hemisphere sleeps which means that these migratory birds put half of their brain to sleep while the other one stays awake to you know flap its wings and stuff. Yes. Winter, winter, plover, dinner. Gairaz times I forget how many brains are under that pike helmet of yours. They need that's not a helmet. That's my head. But you're exactly right Gairaz. Research from the Max Planck Institute in Germany has shown migratory birds like the plover are able to shut down and rest most of their bodies while still using enough of their brains to avoid crashing into other birds. I bet they're also able to keep track of where they're flying so they can soar on the air currents. You know it. That's so cool. Exactly. And Steve. Steve? Oh yeah. Steve is the name of Reggie's plover friend. Oh okay. And believe it or not, Steve isn't even the longest distance flyer that Reggie rolls with. Really? Yeah. Take a look at some of these other postcards. Just last month, Reggie flew for eight days straight with his bar tailed godwit friend. It says here he traveled more than 7,200 miles. Yeah. Oh that's like Los Angeles to New York back to LA and then halfway to New York again. I know and again all without a single break. Wow. Reggie sure leads one incredible life as I say. Yeah. Do you know when he's coming back? You know what? I'm not sure but we can always find out. Really? Yeah. Well how? By going out and visiting him we can just ask him in person when he plans in coming back. But Mindy without Reggie. How are we going to visit him at where was he again? Let me check the postcard here. It says Lake Kamukiko Hokkaido, Japan. Right. Well how are we going to get to Lake Kamukiko in Japan without Reggie? Well I guess we're just going to have to take the time machine. But Mindy according to the manual the time machine is only supposed to be used for traveling to the past or to the future. Okay well number one I made the manual and number two considering that Japan is 17 hours ahead of our time zone then technically we are going to the future. Now come on we just got it back from the dry cleaners. The dry cleaners? Well yeah of course he didn't expect me to machine wash it did you? I guess not. So we'll just take the time machine for a quick trip out to Japan ask Reggie when he'll be back and then we'll hop back here. We'll be back before you can even save Higgin Scratch. Higgin Scratch. Come on. Here we are. Alright let me just get my garage door opener here. Alright guys come on in just follow me. I'm just going to squeeze past the motor pickle here and over Reggie's saddle. Oh look there are those emu spacesuits we only wore one. Careful careful you almost stepped in my crab wrestling arena. Oh sorry what happened to the crabs? Ah here we go the time machine and let me just open the hatch here. And you really should replace this door. Yeah I know but you would not believe how hard it is to get spare parts for this model. Yeah it does look pretty unusual what model year is it? Hmm let me see here um 21 45. Oh man well those future models are super rare in the present. Anywho hop on in we've got a plover pit stop to ponder. Okay let me just like Mookeco Hokkaido Japan modern day modern day. There we go I'll set hope you got your bar bag ready. Because here we made it. Nice water landing Mindy. Thanks Guy Ross I've been practicing. Now grab your floaties and head it outside. Ah nothing like a wet land wet landing. All right come on follow me Guy Ross. Mindy wait you don't know how deep it is. It's really really shallow. Hey you okay Mindy? Mindy you should never ever jump into water without knowing how deep it is that's how you hurt yourself. That information would have been useful like five minutes ago. Oh check this place out Mindy there must be thousands of birds here. Yeah that's why I wanted to bring you here Guy Ross. This is a migratory pit stop. Check it out they've got a seed shack right over there. They've got some little stalls for birds to do their business. Wait a minute Mindy did you say a migratory pit stop? Yeah well the technical term is migratory link but they basically work the same way that pit stops do for us humans. Oh you mean like on a long road trip? Exactly just like how on a long road trip you might pull over into a pit stop on the side of the road to grab a snack or go to the bathroom or even maybe spend the night. These migratory birds have to do the same exact thing. Oh now I'm getting it so these marshy swampy wetlands are perfect pit stops because there's plenty of insect life to snack on and well that mud does look kind of cozy for a bird. Maybe I'll just sit down right. But Mindy I've heard that a lot of these wetlands are in danger. Really what from? Well from habitat destruction for one when humans build buildings and cities too close to them huh but also from things like climate change which is changing the entire ecosystems of wetland areas like this. Man that's terrible news Guy Ross. I know because if migratory birds can no longer live in these wetlands then they'll run out of places to stop over and rest their wings for their long trips. Exactly and without that these birds could start to die off and even become in danger. But Mindy there is something that you and I can do to help. There is? Yes there is but first we have to get a shore so let me just help you back up here. It's buddy. Now we just need to get this thing ashore. I've got just the thing wait right here while I grab it from downstairs okay. I keep forgetting this time machine has a basement. And the laundry. What? Mindy what on earth are those? These are the time machines rowing oars. Why are you swinging those things Mindy? It's okay it's okay. All right Guy Ross you take the port I'll take the starboard. Okay got it. Let me just set up the boom box here. Boom box Mindy why do we need a boom box? For rowing huh? Let's roll this time machine together. We made it to shore Guy Ross nice teamwork buddy. All right I'm ready to start protecting these wetlands for some birds. Where do we start? Well let me just have a look around here. There we are found some. Those are feathers. Exactly now I just need to put them in this envelope here. And put an address on it. Let's see here. Dr. Kate Brandis Australian nuclear science and technology organization Sydney Australia. I got to stamp on it and let's see yeah there there we go there's a mailbox. Wait what? Why did you just send those clover feathers off to Australia? Well it's the way we can help protect these wetlands Mindy. By mailing off some must-eal bird feathers halfway around the world. Exactly Dr. Brandis and her researchers from the University of New South Wales and Australia are using feathers just like these. For what? Well for starters to try and map out where these wetlands are. And is that it? Well the feathers can also tell them how healthy the birds are in these places. Interesting. And not just that Mindy by studying feathers these scientists can also know whether these wetlands are adequately protected by the humans around them. That's so wow but how do they get all of this information just by studying the birds feathers like they can tell how healthy it is? Well what Dr. Brandis and her team do is they look for a protein in the feather called keratin. Oh I know what keratin is it's also found in human hair right? That's right and just like how human hair can tell us a lot about the person it came from the keratin in a bird's feather can tell us a lot about the bird that it came from. Wow that's a lot of information in one feather. In fact Mindy the keratin in the birds feathers also keeps a record of all the food the bird ate. And so the scientists can get a really good idea of how much food was in the environment they were in at certain times. So kind of like how the rings on a tree can tell us a lot about what the environment was like when the tree was younger? Yup exactly. So the more feathers that Dr. Brandis gets from a certain habitat can give us a better and clearer understanding of how healthy that ecosystem is and if it needs any help from conservationists or people who want to help protect it. Well that's the plan. Anyway I don't see Reggie anywhere here. Do you Mindy? No I don't see any either. Let me ask around real quick hang on. Excuse me Mr. Clover. Sorry my Clover is a little rusty. Let me try this again. What do you say Mindy? I said Reggie took off last week. He's probably flying somewhere over New Zealand by now. Mindy you dragged me all the way here. Guy Ross stay calm as usual. I've got everything out of control. Now we just need to hop back into the time machine, head back to the neighborhood in case he's trying to contact us there okay. Let's go. All right Eel let me just scoot over and make some room for me. We really needed two Cedar. You ready Mindy? Okay just plugging in the coordinates and here we go. What was that? I think I just squished the motor pickle. Oops come on get back inside. Run run run run. Oh sweet hey what's this? I think it's another postcard from Reggie. Yeah I must have arrived while we were away. Let's see here. Loving Auckland. Haven't seen any hobbits yet. What? I'll be back next week. There was. This is a disaster. What's a disaster? Reggie's back next week and I have nothing ready for his welcome home party. Well that's okay Mindy. We've got some time and I can help. What do you need? Well I'm gonna need some bird seed. Of course. Couple of pinata. 400 luke steel washers. A dump truck. A liability insurance policy up to a million dollars. What? And some pixie dust because I want to fly too. Wow that was so cool. Oh wow. And the golden plover sounds so cute. Reggie your migration vacation sounds amazing. What did you do in Hokkaido? You had ramen? You went to a hot spring? You went snowboarding? Reggie I want to go on a migration vacation too. Can we can we can we can we can we can we can we Hooray! Okay let's wrap up the show and get packing. Thanks to all you listeners out there for tuning into We Wow on The Weekend. If you have a question for me call and leave me a message at 1-888-7- Wow-wow that's 1-888-7- Wow-wow. I just might answer your question on We Wow on The Weekend. Alright let's make a list. I need to pack my pajamas and my pants and my socks and my shoes. My I'm asking my I creams and my Thanks for joining us for this edition of We Wow on The Weekend. Our show is written by Ruth Morrison and Jed Anderson. The role of baby Dennis is played by Jed Anderson. Oh well dad who plays the role of big Dennis. Never you mind. Tee. Original sound design and production is done by Henry Moskull with contributions from Jed Anderson and Tyler Thol. Original music for We Wow is composed and performed by Tyler Thol. Special thanks to Jessica Bodie, Rebecca Kaban, Dr. Natasha Krandel, Kenny Curtis, Lizzie Freilich, Kristen Yang, Meredith Helpen-Ranzer, Tweet Mac, Erica Medina, Henry Moskull, Jody Nussbaum, Ali Paxima, Guy Razz, Linda Rothenberg, Steph Sosa, Mindy Thomas, Joanna Weber, Anna Zagorski, and all of the other Tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ. Be sure to visit tinkercast.com where you can become an official member of the world organization of Wozars. Learn about upcoming events. Shop our Wozshop, find our best selling books, and learn about all the other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast. Thanks again for hanging out in the basement this weekend. Be sure to check out episodes of Wozars in the world every Monday. And remember, Who Woz? Oh no! No, Baby Dennis, We Wow! Oh right! We Wow! Wozars in the world was made by Tinkercast and set to you by Lundry.