Outdoors with Coggin Heeringa
Every Wednesday on Classical IPR, Coggin Heeringa takes us into the great outdoors. She is the program director and naturalist at Crossroads at Big Creek Learning Center/Nature Preserve in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. And she's taught environmental studies at the Interlochen Arts Camp since 1971.
Latest Episodes
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Coggin Heeringa recalls a serendipitous moment at Interlochen's Kresge Auditorium when a sudden downpour mirrored the final movement titled "Cloudburst" in Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite." -
Explore the evolution of American apples from bitter cider varieties to flavorful fruits all while weaving in the myth (and music!) about Johnny Appleseed. -
Explore how birds' respond to low pressure and why you notice them flocking before a storm. -
It turns out that the moonlight's influence extends beyond folklore, subtly shaping wildlife behavior and even stirring a bit of romance in people. -
Muskrats are solitary creatures that mainly eat cattails and court through scent marking. It's a different courtship than in the song "Muskrat love" made popular by Captain and Tennille. -
A bumblebee’s buzz creates an electrical interaction with flowers, vital for ecosystems and agriculture. This distinctive buzzing also inspired Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s composition, "Flight of the bumblebee." -
Franz Liszt’s piano etude “Forest Murmurs” evokes the rustling of forest leaves, a natural phenomenon of aspen trees in the Great Lakes Region. -
The merganser duck leads a parade of baby chicks along the lakeshore, embodying the spirit of Jerry Herman's "Hello, Dolly!" as she raises her brood. -
Trees in a forest are connected and protected by a network of fungus, a phenomenon playfully called the “Wood Wide Web.” -
Just as hundreds of Michigan bird species head home and migrate, so do Interlochen summer students, finding a sense of purpose and renewal in their recently developed artistic endeavors.
