Salamanders To Cicadas,

Focusing On Nature

By Dottie Evans

Who knows? The next Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) or Jeff Corwin (The Jeff Corwin Experience) of Discovery Channel fame may be carving out his niche right now, and his laboratory may be the fields, woods, and wetlands of Connecticut.

Whether his subjects are salamanders mating in local vernal pools or tree frogs trilling to attract mates, Will Michaels wants to be outside videotaping the action.

After previewing the footage, he will write explanatory script and compose and perform any accompanying music for the sound track.

His purpose is the production of a videotape program that brings the natural world into Connecticut living rooms through community access cable TV. The name of his monthly show is Connecticut Naturalist.

Will Michaels, 21, is a Bethel resident and a Western Connecticut State University junior majoring in communications and biology. This summer he is working as an intern at Charter Communications Cable on Commerce Road in Newtown.

He began producing his cable show in October 2003, and he continues to work on it independently of his internship job. He uses his own videotaping equipment for all shots taken outdoors in the field.

Connecticut Naturalist is broadcast at least once a month on Charter Cable Channel 21, on Wednesdays at 8:30 pm, and on Thursdays at 3 pm. Towns served by Charter’s community access channel include Newtown, New Fairfield, Brookfield, Kent, and New Milford. Eventually, Mr Michaels hopes to expand his broadcast range to include seven cable franchises.

“My goal is to have the whole state covered.”

In preparation for a recent program about the spring mating rituals of spotted salamanders, Mr Michaels donned rain gear and hip boots and carried his flashlight into the woods one evening in late March. This is the time when the secretive amphibians crawl out from beneath the leaf litter and forest logs to mate. It is always on a rainy night, and always in early spring.

The salamanders gather in certain shallow woodland pools where their ancestors bred, and that is where they lay their eggs that are fertilized during the courtship rituals.

To produce the salamander program as well as his other nature shows, Mr Michaels usually heads for one of his favorite nature preserves, the Old Quarry Nature Center in Danbury.

To observe natural phenomena taking place farther away, such as the recent emergence of the 17-year cicadas in the Mid-Atlantic region, Mr Michaels is not averse to traveling. Even though the title of his program is Connecticut Naturalist, he does not confine himself solely to local events.

When he realized the emergence of the 17-year periodic cicadas would not occur in Connecticut, he went south to Washington, D.C., and brought along his video camera.

“I’m hoping to air that show in three weeks,” he said on Monday, June 14.

Where Trees Are Cicada Loudspeakers

As soon as Will Michaels and a friend arrived in downtown Washington, the cicadas made an immediate impression.

“We heard them before we saw them. There was a humming in the background, as though an air conditioner or a lawn mower was running in the distance. As we left our hotel, sure enough, we saw them flying around.

“There were hundreds of thousands of these cicadas. This was special because they only come out once every 17 years. The volume of their singing –– the males trying to attract the females –– was amazing. They were in all the trees, which acted like loudspeakers for their calls.”

When he visited the Lincoln Memorial, he noticed cicadas everywhere “on the marble statue of Lincoln, on the floor, and on the columns.”

Later, driving out to the DC suburbs, “there were a lot more. You could see the holes in the ground where the nymphs had emerged.”

Not only did he videotape the cicadas buzzing around, he was able to film one in its larval state coming out of its shell. He mentioned that the ground was littered with empty casings.

“The birds –– catbirds, cowbirds, sparrows –– were having a feast eating all the cicadas. A squirrel came over and chased away a bird to pick up a cicada. Then he dropped it and the bird came back and finished it off.”

In addition to videotaping natural events for his cable TV program, Mr Michaels has produced a CD titled the Connecticut Naturalist Sound Track. It includes original songs about animals such as frogs and turtles and is geared for children’s enjoyment.

On Monday, June 21, he will be speaking to Maura Drabik’s sixth grade at the Reed Intermediate School on animal skeletons.