Buzz Blossom & Squeak — Be a Neighborhood Naturalist

Jill McKinley
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Nature
  • Weekly

Buzz, Blossom & Squeak is a quiet, curious walk into the natural world right outside your door. You don’t need to be a scientist, a hardcore birder, or someone who hikes miles into the wilderness. This podcast is for anyone who has ever paused to notice a bird call, wondered about a plant growing along a sidewalk, watched insects move through a garden, or felt the seasons shifting without quite knowing why. Each episode focuses on small, approachable pieces of nature—birds, bugs, plants, weather, ecosystems, and natural patterns—explained in a way that’s calm, curious, and grounded in observation. Instead of rushing toward big conclusions, Buzz, Blossom & Squeak invites you to slow down and really notice what’s happening in the living world around you. You’ll hear about things like: How birds use different layers of trees and sky Why certain plants grow where they do What insects are actually doing when they buzz past How seasons quietly reshape landscapes The hidden systems that connect soil, water, plants, and animals The goal isn’t mastery—it’s familiarity. Nature becomes less overwhelming when you take it one small step at a time. This podcast is especially for people who: Want to understand nature without feeling intimidated Enjoy learning through real-world observation Prefer gentle explanations over fast facts Like noticing patterns, habits, and rhythms Find peace and wonder in everyday outdoor moments Episodes are designed to be thoughtful, practical, and reflective. You might walk away with a new question to watch for, a detail you’ve never noticed before, or simply a deeper appreciation for the ordinary wild things that share your space. Buzz, Blossom & Squeak isn’t about traveling far to find nature. It’s about realizing you’ve been standing in it all along.

  1. 2d ago

    Where Do Insects Go in Winter?

    Where Do Insects Go in Winter? A Northwoods yard can be buzzing with mosquitoes, butterflies, bees, and beetles in summer and look completely empty by January. But winter does not erase the insect world. We explore how different insects survive as eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults; how diapause differs from simply slowing down; and how natural antifreeze, protected hiding places, and even snow help insects survive. You may look at your autumn leaf piles and garden stems a little differently after this episode. IN THIS EPISODE• The mystery of the disappearing insects• Diapause and winter survival• Eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises, and adults• Natural antifreeze and freeze tolerance• How mosquitoes survive winter• Shelter in leaves, stems, and snow• What to leave in your garden for spring CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction: Where Do Insects Go in Winter?02:12 Diapause and winter survival04:24 Eggs, caterpillars, chrysalises, and adults06:39 Natural antifreeze and freeze tolerance08:53 How mosquitoes survive winter11:08 Shelter in leaves, stems, and snow13:22 What to leave in your garden for spring15:31 Putting the ideas together17:47 Practical lessons and reflections19:58 Final thoughts and next steps REFERENCES AND RESOURCESNature notes: diapause; quiescence; woolly bear caterpillars; praying mantis egg cases; swallowtail chrysalises; freeze avoidance and freeze tolerance Jill From the Northwoodshttps://jillfromthenorthwoods.com

  2. Oct 22

    When Nature Looks Helpless

    A fledgling misses a branch, a butterfly emerges with crumpled wings, and a young eagle wanders far from home. These moments can make us want to rush in and help. I look at the different processes behind nature's difficult transitions and why understanding what we are seeing matters before we intervene. Butterflies and Hatching ChicksThe familiar butterfly story makes a powerful metaphor, but emergence and wing expansion involve a delicate developmental process. A chick also needs time to complete hatching. Something that looks slow or awkward to us may be normal, and premature intervention can cause harm. Fledglings Learn by DoingYoung birds are not miniature experts. Flying, landing, finding food, and avoiding danger involve practice as well as instinct. I share what the house sparrows around my home have taught me about this awkward stage and why a healthy fledgling on the ground is not automatically abandoned. First Migrations and Wandering EaglesSome birds learn migration routes socially, while others begin their first journeys with inherited guidance. Experience still matters when weather and unfamiliar landscapes complicate the trip. Young bald eagles offer another picture of learning, with years of wandering before their familiar adult appearance and breeding life. Surviving Currents, Predators, and WinterSalmon migrations, predator and prey interactions, and winter survival are different kinds of challenges. They involve ecology, inherited adaptations, and experience rather than one universal rule that struggle makes every individual stronger. Fire also shows how a disturbance can play a role in some ecosystems. When Helping Really HelpsA healthy fledgling differs from an injured bird or an animal tangled in fishing line. Observation can help us recognize the distinction, but licensed wildlife rehabilitators and wildlife authorities are the right contacts for emergencies. Sometimes leaving room for normal development helps; sometimes prompt expert intervention is needed. Your small step is to watch carefully and keep contact information for a local licensed wildlife rehabilitator handy. Learn to recognize normal development while taking real injuries seriously. jill@startwithsmallsteps.com and jillfromthenorthwoods.com A note on this podcast: I’m a birder and backyard naturalist, not a licensed biologist or ecologist. What you hear here comes from personal observation, published research, and conversations with people who study this professionally. For serious fieldwork, conservation planning, or species identification questions that matter, please consult a professional in the field. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 When nature looks helpless02:28 Butterflies and the struggle story05:00 Hatching chicks07:05 Fledglings learning to fly09:58 A bird’s first migration12:09 Young eagles and experience15:27 Salmon and ecological challenges17:29 Predators, prey, and winter21:32 Fire and plant adaptations23:38 When to call a wildlife rehabilitator

  3. Oct 15

    Hidden Animal Highways in Your Backyard

    Fresh snow has a way of telling on everybody. Rabbit tracks, squirrel routes, deer crossings, and tiny paths along shrubs suddenly reveal that the animals in our yards are not wandering randomly. They have roads, and once you learn to look for them, your backyard starts looking less like a lawn and more like a map. Why Animals Build Familiar RoutesRepeated routes save energy, improve safety, and make travel more efficient. When food, water, shelter, and sleeping places stay in predictable locations, familiar paths become the easiest way to move between them. Deer Trails, Edges, and Backyard CorridorsWhite-tailed deer make some of the most obvious animal trails, but smaller animals use fence lines, shrubs, wooded edges, and spaces around buildings too. These edges can connect feeding places with safer cover.a Snow Makes the Map VisibleFresh snow is one of the easiest ways to see wildlife routes because every traveler leaves evidence. Instead of only asking which animal made a track, you can follow the direction and ask where it came from, where it went, and why. A Hidden World Under the SnowVoles, mice, and shrews can travel in the subnivean zone between the ground and insulating snow. When spring arrives, melting snow can reveal channels and runs that were hidden all winter. Roads Above Us and Through the WaterSquirrels reuse branches, trunks, and even utility lines, while flying squirrels develop familiar gliding routes. Beavers, muskrats, otters, raccoons, mink, and other animals also use waterways and shorelines as efficient transportation corridors. The Biggest Highways Are in the SkyBird migration scales the same principle up enormously. Flyways, shorelines, river valleys, ridgelines, stopover habitat, and rising air can help birds move long distances while finding food, rest, and efficient travel conditions. You do not need to identify every footprint to start reading the wildlife map around you. Look along edges, underneath shrubs, through openings in fences, up into connected branches, and across fresh snow. Once you begin noticing routes instead of isolated animals, a whole transportation network appears right outside your back door. Contact: jill@startwithsmallsteps.com | jillfromthenorthwoods.com A note on this podcast: I'm a birder and backyard naturalist, not a licensed biologist or ecologist. What you hear here comes from personal observation, published research, and conversations with people who study this professionally. For serious fieldwork, conservation planning, or species identification questions that matter, please consult a professional in the field. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Fresh snow reveals hidden highways03:11 Why animals reuse the same routes05:37 Deer trails and generations of travel07:56 Why edges make good animal roads10:04 Foxes, coyotes, and backyard routes12:51 Reading tracks after fresh snow14:53 The subnivean world under the snow16:40 Highways in the trees19:28 Waterways and animal travel20:45 Bird flyways and migration routes

  4. Oct 1

    Look Closer, Not Farther: See More on Every Walk

    A few weeks ago, my friend Em and I were scanning the far side of a lake for migrating ducks and shorebirds. When I finally got tired of squinting through binoculars and turned around, there were a dozen American bullfrogs in the little pond right behind us, eyes above the water, watching us. That moment made me admit something: I'm a horizon scanner. And a lot of the best nature is happening within arm's reach. **The Horizon-Scanner Habit** Our attention goes to distance and drama: a soaring hawk, movement at a tree line, the big find. That's not a character flaw, it's how attention works. But it means we walk whole trails and miss most of what's living right beside us. **The Frog on the Leaf** On a birding walk, Em and I looked down only to avoid tripping, and found a tiny frog sitting on a large leaf. We watched it for ten or fifteen minutes while other hikers passed by, never once looking at the ground around them. **A Fly on the Steering Wheel** Waiting in the car at our favorite marsh, a small bug landed on my steering wheel. The Seek app identified it as a maize calligrapher, a hover fly I'd never heard of, sitting right in front of me while I looked out the windshield for birds. **What Lives Within Arm's Reach** Lichen on bark (a living air-quality indicator), mushrooms on a tree you've passed a hundred times, bright berries you never looked up, chickadees, wrens, and kinglets working the brush eight feet away. Up close is where much of the variety lives. **The Spider on the Ring Camera** Something kept triggering my Ring camera. It turned out to be an orb weaver disguised as a little leaf, sitting in a web with an egg sac, right outside my back door. **Tools for Looking Closer** A hand lens (loupe) on a lanyard, a simple magnifying glass, a handheld digital microscope, or your phone's macro mode can open up a world you can't see at arm's length. Take a photo, then identify it at home. The practice is simple: before you scan the horizon, scan near first. Give yourself sixty seconds to look at the ground, the low branches, and the base of the nearest tree, and then stay still and watch whatever you find. Tell me what turns up. You can find everything I do at jillfromthenorthwoods.com, and you can reach me directly at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com. --- **A note on this podcast:** I'm a birder and backyard naturalist, not a licensed biologist or ecologist. What you hear here comes from personal observation, published research, and conversations with people who study this professionally. For serious fieldwork, conservation planning, or species identification questions that matter, please consult a professional in the field. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Bullfrogs behind us 01:07 Confessions of a horizon scanner 03:06 The frog on the leaf 04:48 A fly on the steering wheel 05:58 Lichen, mushrooms, and small birds 06:50 The practice: scan near first 07:51 Be still and watch 08:16 The spider on the Ring camera 09:12 Tools for looking closer 10:40 Your 60-second challenge

  5. Oct 1

    No Bird Can Do It All: Some Can't Walk, Fly, Swim or Stand

    There's an old joke about a loon, a warbler, an emu, and a duck standing around, each one wishing it had a skill it didn't have, except the duck, who can do all four. I ran across that joke and realized it wasn't a joke at all. It's just basic bird biology wearing a silly hat, and it's a perfect excuse to talk about the birds that got left out on one or more basic skills, and the one that somehow didn't. **Loons Can't Stand** A loon's legs are set way back near its tail instead of in the middle of its body, which makes it a torpedo underwater and a disaster on land. They can't walk, they can't balance, and if you ever see one stranded away from water, that's a genuine emergency for the bird. It's an extreme trade for extreme swimming. **Warblers and Most Songbirds Can't Swim** No webbed feet, no waterproof oil on their feathers, nothing about their bodies built for water. Songbirds optimize for quick bursts through dense cover and precise landings on branches instead, which is exactly what lets a bird like the black-and-white warbler pull off a 3,000-mile migration. **Emus Traded Flight for Speed** Emus have big, heavy bodies and small, vestigial wings that can't generate lift. What they got in return is the ability to run thirty miles an hour on powerful legs built for distance. Ostriches, rheas, and kiwis, the ratite family, made the same trade. **Chimney Swifts Can't Walk at All** This is the bird that started the whole rabbit hole. Their tiny feet and forward-pointed toes are built only for clinging, not walking, and their stiff tail acts as a pivot to hold them upright in a chimney or hollow tree. They eat, drink, and bathe on the wing, and some research suggests they may even sleep while flying. **The Duck Gets to Be the Generalist** Ducks can walk, fly, swim, and dive all reasonably well because wetland habitats reward balance instead of extremes. No single skill gets pushed to the max, so ducks never specialize the way loons, emus, and chimney swifts do. **The Pattern Underneath All Five** Every bird is making a trade-off, just with different numbers. A body only has so many muscles, bones, and so much energy to spend, so whatever skill helps that bird survive and find food is the one it invests in. None of these birds are broken, and the duck isn't the "correct" bird either. It's just the one whose environment doesn't force a choice. Next time you spot a loon, a songbird, or a chimney swift overhead, notice that you're looking at a specialist doing something amazing. This podcast is for entertainment and educational purposes only. I'm not a licensed biologist or ecologist, just someone who loves paying attention to the natural world right outside my front door. Find all of Jill's podcasts and videos at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. Questions or topic requests? Email jill@startwithsmallsteps.com. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The Joke That Started It All 00:32 Every Bird Trades Something Away 01:29 Loons: Built for Water, Not Land 02:45 Warblers: Masters of the Air, Strangers to Water 04:08 Emus: Trading Flight for Ground Speed 04:52 The Duck's Secret Advantage 06:11 Chimney Swifts: The Bird That Can't Walk at All 07:48 What the Pattern Teaches Us

  6. Sep 24

    How to Layer Clothes for Winter (Base, Mid, Outer)

    Winter doesn't have to be a season you disappear from. Most of the time, being cold outside isn't the weather's fault, it's a clothing problem, and it's a solvable one. This episode breaks down the three-layer system that actually works and why it works. THREE PROBLEMS, THREE JOBS Every layer you wear in winter solves one of three problems: warmth (keeping heat in), wind (keeping it from getting stripped away), and wet (keeping moisture out, whether it's snow or your own sweat). BASE LAYER: FIGHTING WET Snug against the skin, pulling sweat away from your body. Merino wool or synthetics like Cuddl Duds work. Cotton does not, cotton holds moisture right against your skin and pulls heat away faster than a dry fabric, which is where "cotton kills" comes from. MID LAYER: TRAPPING WARMTH Looser fitting, built to trap pockets of air. Fleece, wool sweaters, and down all work well here, the goal is keeping the heat your body already makes instead of letting it drift away. OUTER LAYER: BLOCKING WIND AND WET Roomy enough to not compress your mid layer, ideally waterproof and windproof while still breathable, so sweat has somewhere to go instead of building up inside. EXTREMITIES MATTER MOST Wool socks, a hat and something around your neck, and windproof waterproof gloves or mitts. Heat escapes fastest through your extremities, and for babies specifically, check the back of the neck rather than the hands to gauge how cold they really are. DRESS FOR WHERE YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING Iceland's brutal wind and wet called for different gear than a dry, cold day at home. Match your gear to the specific threat you'll face, not a generic "it's cold" plan. The three-layer system has worked for people going outside long before anyone had Google. Get the gear right, and winter opens back up instead of shutting you indoors until April. If you've got a favorite piece of winter gear or a layering tip of your own, I'd love to hear it. Email me at northwoodsjill@fastmail.com, or find everything at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill Email the podcast at NorthwoodsJill@fastmail.com YouTube @BuzzBlossomSqueak By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences and opinions and is intended for informational and educational purposes only. I am not a licensed biologist, ecologist, or wildlife professional. Any nature observations, identifications, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for professional scientific or environmental guidance. Always follow local regulations when observing or interacting with wildlife and natural spaces. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

  7. Sep 17

    El Nino Winter: What It Means for Backyard Birds

    Somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific right now, the ocean is doing something it hasn't done in almost 150 years, and if you keep a feeder in your backyard, that's about to matter more than you'd think. This fall NOAA has put the odds at over 90% that we're headed into a very strong El Nino by winter, with some scientists reaching back to 1877 for a comparable event. I wanted to break down what El Nino actually is in plain terms, and then get into the part I really care about: what a warm, dry winter like this one tends to do to the birds right outside your window. What El Nino actually is El Nino isn't rare or exotic, it's just what happens when the trade winds that normally push warm Pacific water toward Asia and Australia break down or reverse. That warm water piles up in the central and eastern Pacific instead, heats the ocean surface, and that heat rises into the atmosphere and reshapes weather patterns worldwide. It shows up every two to seven years and typically lasts nine to twelve months, you've almost certainly lived through several without ever learning the name. How big is this one, really Scientists measure El Nino by how far ocean temperatures rise above the long term average in a specific patch of the Pacific, half a degree is a weak event, two full degrees is a "super" El Nino. This winter's forecasts are running past that, which is why the 1877 comparison keeps coming up. Our measurement tools are far better now than they were 150 years ago, so a clean comparison is tricky, and our food systems (drought resistant seed, better irrigation) are much more resilient than they were back then too. What a warm, dry winter means for Northwoods birds Birds don't respond to the average temperature on a chart, they respond to food, water, and ice. When a winter runs warmer and drier than normal, all three of those shift, and you start seeing behavior that looks unusual but has a very logical cause behind it. Three groups of birds, three different reasons to watch Waterfowl like ducks and geese stay put longer because the lakes take longer to freeze. Winter finches, redpolls, siskins, crossbills, grosbeaks, and boreal sparrows, may arrive earlier than usual if a poor boreal seed crop up in Canada pushes them south ahead of schedule. And robins and bluebirds may not migrate as far at all, since bare, snow free ground means they can still find fruit and insects without traveling. What to actually watch for this winter Every El Nino has its own personality, the 2015 to 2016 event, for example, didn't bring Southern California the wet winter everyone expected. So instead of predicting exactly what will happen, I'm suggesting you become an outdoor naturalist this winter: keep your feeders up longer than usual, keep water available (I just added a second birdbath), and start keeping simple records, are the ducks still on the pond in December, is it a big finch year, are the robins sticking around. None of this is guaranteed, and that's really the point. El Nino gives you the odds, but your own backyard gives you the actual story. If you notice something unusual at your feeders this winter, I'd genuinely love to hear about it. 00:00 Intro, the Pacific is warming like it hasn't in 150 years 01:32 What El Nino actually is, in plain terms 03:00 How strong could this El Nino get, the 1877 comparison 05:29 Why birds respond to conditions, not the average winter 07:05 Ducks and geese staying later as freeze up is delayed 07:56 Winter finches arriving early 09:24 Robins and bluebirds may not migrate as far this year 11:24 Every El Nino has its own personality 12:24 What to watch for and how to keep your own backyard records 13:22 Wrap up and how to reach Jill northwoodsjill@fastmail.com jillfromthenorthwoods.com Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill Email the podcast at NorthwoodsJill@fastmail.com YouTube @BuzzBlossomSqueak By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences and opinions and is intended for informational and educational purposes only. I am not a licensed biologist, ecologist, or wildlife professional. Any nature observations, identifications, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for professional scientific or environmental guidance. Always follow local regulations when observing or interacting with wildlife and natural spaces. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

  8. Sep 9

    Chimney Swifts - Can't Perch, Can't Walk, and Barely Lands

    # The Bird That Never Perches: A Chimney Swift Roost at Dusk This week I stood on a picnic table with a few hundred strangers, watching what looked like a tornado of birds pour into a school chimney. It took almost three hours, and by the end I understood exactly why people show up for this every single year. **A Bird Built Only for the Air** Chimney swifts eat, drink, bathe, and even mate in flight. Their feet are built for one thing: clinging to a rough vertical wall. They can't perch on a wire or hop around on the ground like a robin. If they aren't flying, they're clinging to something. **The Long Wait at the Roost** The show doesn't happen all at once. Birds circle and chatter overhead for hours before a few scouts peel off and test the chimney. As the light fades, the funnel tightens until the bulk of the flock finally pours in together, more like water going down a drain than anything organized by a leader. **Packed In Like Shingles** Inside, the swifts cling to the rough brick with their tail feathers, the same trick woodpeckers use on a tree trunk, and stack in tight, overlapping rows. Their combined body heat helps keep the whole roost warm overnight. **The Century-Old Mystery of Where They Go** For decades, nobody knew where chimney swifts disappeared to every winter. Banding studies eventually traced them to the upper Amazon basin in Peru, and more recent tracking shows them drifting on through Venezuela and Brazil before the long flight back north each spring. **A Vanishing Kind of Chimney** Swifts once nested in old hollow trees, then adapted to brick chimneys once those trees disappeared. Now schools and old buildings are being torn down or capped, and the chimneys that host these massive roosts are getting harder to find, which is why the school in my town is weighing a $40,000 decision to rebuild theirs. You don't need any special gear to see this yourself. Find an old school or church chimney, show up twenty minutes before sunset on a late-summer evening, and give it some patience. If you're near one, look up a local Swift Night Out count. Nobody at that roost is in charge, and somehow every bird still knows exactly where to go. You can find everything I do at jillfromthenorthwoods.com, and you can reach me directly at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com. Do you have chimney swifts where you are? --- **A note on this podcast:** I'm a birder and backyard naturalist, not a licensed biologist or ecologist. What you hear here comes from personal observation, published research, and conversations with people who study this professionally. For serious fieldwork, conservation planning, or species identification questions that matter, please consult a professional in the field. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 A thousand swifts, one chimney 01:00 A bird that can't perch or walk 02:00 The long staging process at the roost 03:32 The swirl tightens at sunset 04:29 Packed in like shingles on a roof 05:28 The century-old mystery of where they winter 06:56 When to see them where you live 07:56 Inside a Swift Night Out count 08:55 Why their habitat is disappearing 09:56 Saving a $40,000 chimney for the birds Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill Email the podcast at NorthwoodsJill@fastmail.com YouTube @BuzzBlossomSqueak By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences and opinions and is intended for informational and educational purposes only. I am not a licensed biologist, ecologist, or wildlife professional. Any nature observations, identifications, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for professional scientific or environmental guidance. Always follow local regulations when observing or interacting with wildlife and natural spaces. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

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About

Buzz, Blossom & Squeak is a quiet, curious walk into the natural world right outside your door. You don’t need to be a scientist, a hardcore birder, or someone who hikes miles into the wilderness. This podcast is for anyone who has ever paused to notice a bird call, wondered about a plant growing along a sidewalk, watched insects move through a garden, or felt the seasons shifting without quite knowing why. Each episode focuses on small, approachable pieces of nature—birds, bugs, plants, weather, ecosystems, and natural patterns—explained in a way that’s calm, curious, and grounded in observation. Instead of rushing toward big conclusions, Buzz, Blossom & Squeak invites you to slow down and really notice what’s happening in the living world around you. You’ll hear about things like: How birds use different layers of trees and sky Why certain plants grow where they do What insects are actually doing when they buzz past How seasons quietly reshape landscapes The hidden systems that connect soil, water, plants, and animals The goal isn’t mastery—it’s familiarity. Nature becomes less overwhelming when you take it one small step at a time. This podcast is especially for people who: Want to understand nature without feeling intimidated Enjoy learning through real-world observation Prefer gentle explanations over fast facts Like noticing patterns, habits, and rhythms Find peace and wonder in everyday outdoor moments Episodes are designed to be thoughtful, practical, and reflective. You might walk away with a new question to watch for, a detail you’ve never noticed before, or simply a deeper appreciation for the ordinary wild things that share your space. Buzz, Blossom & Squeak isn’t about traveling far to find nature. It’s about realizing you’ve been standing in it all along.

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