Laura Erickson's For the Birds: Recent Episodes
Laura Erickson
"For the Birds" began airing on KUMD in Duluth, MN, in May, 1986, and is the longest continually-running radio program about birds in the U.S. Hundreds more episodes are available for free at http://www.lauraerickson.com/radio/.
Hunter Biden’s splendid blog is filled with hope, redemption, and even some birds. (NON-political.)
Why do oceanic islands have so many species we don't see anywhere else? And why does the geologic history of an island make a difference in how many and what species live there?
Laura and Russ are headed to the Galápagos Islands next year. The tour leader, Alvaro Jamarillo, is someone Laura met almost 20 years ago on a different tour.
Monarch caterpillars and butterflies are supposed to be toxic, but birds haven't always gotten that memo. (The blog post accompanying this program has a LOT of cool photos and videos, especially of the monarch's life cycle.)
Even as Laura is as furious as she is terrified of the horrible conditions in Duluth right now, she's finding beauty.
This past week, the Air Quality Index in Duluth reached at least 1134 even as the temperature on Laura's front porch exceeded 100ºF. This situation is terrifying.
Laura talks about an exceptionally friendly bird and why it's hard for her to remember its name.
The summer of 1991, Laura and her children raised four baby Blue Jays, embedding the little things deeply in Laura's heart.
On our nation's birthday, Laura is thinking about our right to free speech and our obligation to exercise it.
Two different California governors, a Republican and a Democrat, did their best to protect California Condors from the scourge of lead ammo. The Obama and Biden administrations did their best to at least protect wildlife on some national wildlife refuges, but in both cases, the Trump administration reversed their actions.
The lead in the shot and bullets fired at shooting ranges and by hunters harms human beings. Laura explains how.
Within days of the start taking office in his first administration, Donald Trump rescinded an Obama administration rule outlawing lead ammo and tackle on all national wildlife refuges. The Biden administration created a new rule outlawing the use of lead by hunters and anglers in just 8 national wildlife refuges, but now the Trump administration is reversing that. This week Laura discusses the issue in depth, starting today with how lead has been used in human history.
Ludwig, the baby Blue Jay Laura took care of in 1979, taught her all kinds of interesting things.
The Blue Jay is among Laura's top three favorite birds, in large part because of one individual bird.
Laura does not have a favorite child, but she does have a favorite bird--the one who feels like part of her immediate family.
Laura revisited one of her most beloved places on the planet two weeks ago, and had a lovely time.
Duluthians have only 5 days left to sign two petitions to protect a beautiful, beloved park in Duluth.
When Laura was in Ohio earlier this month, she saw roosting whip-poor-wills for the first time in half a century.
Democratic values, and our lives, are damaged when politicians, developers, and corporations keep secrets regarding critical details about projects that will harm communities or give away public lands. I apologize for the poor sound quality--I recorded this in my hotel room in Chicago and mixed it on my laptop.
Laura never used to be suspicious about secrets because one that she kept as a small child was so very important to her.
Laura shares an essay written this month by the Michigan State professor who changed her life.
One of Laura's most magical experiences in Colorado came about because she tried, and failed, to get pictures of a little flock of Horned Larks.
Laura just got home from a trip to Colorado and got to thinking about The Wizard of Oz.
Agnes's bird in the movie and book, Hamnet is specified to be a falcon--a kestrel. But the falcon was portrayed in the movie by a completely unrelated bird from an entirely different continent--a Harris's Hawk. Laura didn't mind this at all--indeed, there were excellent reasons for using this "incorrect" species. Laura is in Colorado right now--this was recorded in her hotel room. She doesn't know if there will be more new programs this week--after today this is going to be one intense birding trip.
Most "For the Birds" programs have been pretty straightforward, but Laura's occasionally done some silly programs.
Laura never imagined doing anything on the radio, until a cataclysmic event made her rush in to fill a vacuum.
As "For the Birds" approaches its 40th anniversary next month, Laura's thinking back on what made her start this radio show in the first place. The family portrait photo was taken within a month or two of my starting "For the Birds."(No April Fools Day program this year--Laura couldn't find anything fun in the news.)
When this oldie got stuck in my head with new lyrics, I wanted to record it, but my normal accompanist plays piano and this needed a different sound. KUMD was in the basement of UMD's music department, and one day I mustered the courage to ask a professor I often saw in the hall if he had any kids who could do the musical background. They were Darin Bergsven, Nate Perbix, and John Sommerfeld, and were very fun to record in the studio—I’d never done that before! Of course, there was no way in heck I could record my own voice while they were listening! At the time, I was in the Duluth Symphony Chorus, but unless my voice is hidden within a chorus, I am strictly a closet singer.
Another oldie from 20 or 30 years ago, an ad for a new line of products available at Baker's Blue Jay Barn. (Jim Baker voiced by John Keenan.)
The California Ravens sang this oldie sometime around 2000. Katherine Erickson on piano.
A commercial for Jim Baker's new assortment of board games to keep your Blue Jays entertained.
I'm not sure when this first aired--probably around 2000--but I am adding it now because I'm posting several funny programs in time for April Fool's Day.
Earth Angel hears from two satisfied customers, "Lars," whose Earth Angel Bird Identification Binoculars saved his life, and Juliet Montague, who settled an argument with her husband thanks to these amazing optics. For one month, I launched an hour-long program, "Wake Robin," with interviews, music, silly ads, and lots of fun stuff about birds. But I couldn't get anyone at KUMD interested in helping with production. Tim Winker, "the VOICE of the North Woods" and one of KUMD's most creative volunteers, helped me each week, running the board and making sure everything went okay, but without sponsors, I couldn't pay anyone (much less myself), and it took about 60 hours each week for me to get the pre-recorded segments written and produced. So it didn't last. This was one of the segments on that program. Tim Winker introduced the piece, Karen Keenan played Earth Angel, Russ Erickson played Lars, and Stephanie Hemphill played Juliet Montague.
One of Laura's most memorable experiences happened when she was teaching in Madison, Wisconsin, and a Brown Creeper spent time in her classroom. (This was reworked from April 21, 2020.)
One of Laura's favorite early spring migrants should be turning up any day now. (Much of the content is redone from April 17, 2020)
If we can't find out how much energy and water are consumed by various AI and large database programs, how can we make good decisions about using them? IMPORTANT: I've Updated this program based on new information. This is the new, accurate version.
A great many things we do, including listening to this radio program or podcast, involve Big Data.
In George Clooney's 2025 movie, Jay Kelly, his movie star character says, reviewing his life, "All my memories are movies." It turns out just about all Laura's memories are birds.
I don't know if Alexander the Great paid attention to ducks, but three cool diving ducks share their name with his horse.
Laura went out with her husband Russ to search for owls Sunday. Their sightings were limited to a couple of owl decoys, but they still saw some cool birds, and Laura remembers a lifetime of owls she has seen with Russ.
We Minnesotans are banding together in an inclusive, cohesive, peaceful rebel alliance, just like chickadees.
Last month, Laura got to feast her eyes on her "Most Wanted Bird" in the world--an Andean Condor.
One of Laura's listeners and readers, Linda Peplinski, gave Laura a lovely reminder of Thomas Hardy's poem The Darkling Thrush.
Five percent of Laura's joy in a trip comes during the planning stages; 45 percent comes during the actual trip; and a full 50 percent comes in the days, weeks, and years after the trip is over.
Tech companies and data centers will squander electricity and water until we impose strict regulations and give them cost incentives.
Little by little, we've become inured to more and more technological intrusions, some of which bear enormous environmental costs.
It's comprehensive and includes birds of Hawaii now, but is too big to carry in the field, and the font is much too small to be readable for me.
Laura talks about how she protects herself from sunburn, bug bites, and falls while traveling, and also how she manages her heavy equipment in her dotage.
Now that Laura's in her seventies, she's developed a few strategies for keeping her mind and body fit for birding tours.
A Black Phoebe, a species of the American Southwest not known for wandering, showed up at Gooseberry Falls this weekend.
On Saturday, Laura saw a brand new, long-coveted state bird for Minnesota--a Chestnut-collared Longspur
Laura tells us about her experiences with a group of little birds that were once considered sparrows.
When Laura was in Guyana, she fell in love with this stunningly beautiful bird, a species that is globally endangered thanks to the pet trade.
Laura's Guyana trip this year was led by one of the best bird guides Laura has ever spent time with. What makes a good bird guide truly great? Laura will be doing a live Zoom presentation about her Guyana trip for subscribers (free or paid) of her Substack blog next Tuesday night (October 21 at 7 pm CDT). The program will be recorded and made available on her website.
After saw-whet owls molt out of their baby feathers in summer, it's impossible to look at any Northern Saw-whet Owl and know what sex it is or how old it is unless it's in the hand and we're armed with measuring tools and a black light.
Laura got to spend Saturday night watching saw-whet owls get banded at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory.
Birds flying at night must avoid collisions with obstructions as they take off and land, and with one another as they cruise along. How do they do it?
Park Point's been a happenin' place this week! A couple of extremely rare vagrants were there for days or at least hours, but Laura wasn't as lucky as she wished.
How can birds find their way in the dark? The answer is nuanced, so today's program is condensed from the much longer blogpost.
Thirty-one years ago, Laura and her family had some very memorable experiences with two baby flickers.
When the American Ornithological Society's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature announces their annual changes to the official Checklist, birders take notice!
Laura's world seems fresher, more magical, and genuinely miraculous now that she's a grandma.
For many birds, the end of summer marks the beginning of spanking new feathers. Too bad adults have to go through that awkward molt to get them.
Laura talks about hummingbirds and gives some tips to make life better for our backyard hummingbirds.
Horrible news on the bird as well as human front is making it hard for Laura to keep up.
Laura’s many visits to Florida have forged beautiful memories of family, friends, and birds. But she’ll not be returning while the state hosts and even celebrates horrifying ICE facilities, including a concentration camp within the Everglades.
One of Laura's readers got photos of a Blue Jay sunbathing, or "sunning," last week, reminding Laura of when she first learned about this interesting behavior. His photos, along with information about a similar behavior called "anting," are on Laura's blog entry.
Back in 2022, Laura was interviewed by a writer for LIFE magazine. It totally slipped her mind until one of her friends read the article, which is on newsstands now.
Watching backyard nests can be very joyful, when starlings or predators don't intervene.
Birds don’t ostracize individuals from their social flocks based on “objective sex-based differences.” That would undermine their civil society.
Birds don’t ostracize individuals from their social flocks based on “objective sex-based differences.” That would undermine their civil society.
One of Laura's readers was distressed by the last episode of "For the Birds." Laura stands by every word. We can protect our pets from diseases and also protect our backyard birds with one simple, straightforward rule: If your pets get flea and tick protection, don’t set out their fur for nesting birds.
Treatments to protect dogs (and us!) from insect bites turn out to make that pet fur, and our own treated clothing, dangerous for birds.
Four-year-olds should not have any concept of the Air Quality Index. What world are we bequeathing them?
Laura thinks the sudden surge in Red-headed Woodpeckers in her neck of the woods may be due to emerald ash borer and the sudden surge in dead ash trees.
In many ways birds are superior to us humans, and also luckier. This is exactly the kind of program that has inspired some people to call Laura the "Dr. Ruth of Ornithology." The accompanying blog post has a lot of worthwhile photos listeners might want to see.
Laura and her birding buddy Bernie went to Chamber's Grove last Wednesday to see the annual visit by hundreds of American White Pelicans.
Laura was ready with her camera to capture an exciting interaction between a Common Merganser and a northern pike.
The longstanding sponsors of "For the Birds" have updates: Billionaire Earth Angel is embarking on a new project to prove people were banding birds 45,000 years ago, and Jim Baker just added a new, secret ingredient to his already perfect Baker's Blue Jay Blend.
Of the seven species of woodpeckers on Cuba's official checklist, one is almost definitely extinct and one has appeared in the country only as an extremely rare vagrant. Laura saw all five of the others on her February visit to Cuba.
During this bird flu outbreak experts are cautioning people to leave bird carcasses where they are, even though functionally illiterate eagles, dogs, and other creatures have been infected by these carcasses. Laura made a decision about how she will handle this situation if a carcass turns up in her yard.
Every spring it's important to make sure our feeders are safe for birds. During this bird flu outbreak, this is more important than ever.
Famous migration patterns of swallows and cranes is scary this year, as wild and domesticated birds are still dying of highly pathogenic avian influenza and humans are getting infected, but we're losing the very forces that usually manage these crises.
Laura's hearing loss has grown worse since the pandemic, but suddenly things are looking up!!
The morning after she got home from Cuba, Laura and her husband set out for East Lansing, Michigan, so she could see a chickadee in the same area where she saw her first exactly 50 years ago. The blogpost corresponding to this segment is much longer, with lots of photos.
Elon Musk is hoping to set up a launching and landing area for his SpaceX Starships in a very vulnerable, important area.
Knowing when and when not to intervene when an owl seems distressed is not straightforward.
For a while in the 90s, Laura had two licensed education birds, a nighthawk and a Blue Jay, both lovable but entirely different. They inspired this story, written in 2020.
Laura's stayed healthy while birding in Central and South America, Europe, and Africa thanks to the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health.
Jimmy Carter did not fail us. We failed him. (I used Lang Elliott's recording of a Brown Thrasher, the state bird of Georgia, for this program.)
Northern owls are staging an irruption this year, many of them physically stressed. Birders can't help but want to see them. If birders stick together and stay on the road, most owls can handle birders and photographers.
It took Laura 67 days from receiving her first pair of binoculars to her going out to find her first bird. How did she spend that time?
Humans aren't the only creatures who have a need to nurture and help others. (This program's transcript is the second half of the linked blogpost.)
More evidence that Laura's fifth grade teacher was the very best. (The transcript for this program is the first half of the linked blogpost.)
Reports of BB's demise were premature. When that happens to human beings, it can sometimes change history.
The banded Pileated Woodpecker who has been visiting Laura's yard for the past four years disappeared after a Cooper's Hawk was hunting in the vicinity. Laura expected the worst. But spoiler alert: he turned up again on Friday the thirteenth. While he was here, Laura recorded a video of him, which is the drumming sound at the beginning and ending of this program.
Laura remembers her fifth grade teacher, who taught her, via Rodgers and Hammerstein's original stage musical The Sound of Music, that real heroes stand up against cruel regimes even when there is no way to stop it.
Laura remembers three Thanksgivings of the past, and how a Pileated Woodpecker keeps those memories alive.
Every environmental organization down in the Gulf during the BP oil disaster had to abide by a 5-year moratorium on ALL of their eye-witness information except as BP allowed. National Audubon did way more than honor BP's rules--they publicly parroted all of BP's false claims minimizing how bad the disaster was.
At the time of the BP oil spill, Laura thought some important organizations were complying with BP more than they should have. Now, as she explains, she realizes that most of them weren't cowardly.
Laura visited one of the four rehab centers allowed to treat birds oiled in the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Laura talks about the extremely low-tech and ineffective way BP tried to protect beaches and islands after the spill, and the even worse way they approached cleanup. There are many photos and a video on the accompanying blog post at (https://lauraerickson.substack.com/p/getting-away-with-murder-part-2)
As Laura faces her 73rd birthday in what feels like a hopeless time, she looks to chickadees. (This program was reworked from the "For the Birds" program from October 12, 2010.)
The BP oil spill was when Laura learned just how much power a corporation has over individuals; well-meaning and well-respected organizations and institutions; and our government.
Billionaires and corporations have too much power over us, birds, and the environment we need and share.
Laura recently returned from the American Ornithological Society's annual meeting. Some things have changed, and some remain the same.
When Laura makes a mistake, she appreciates people who let her know about it, but notes that there are good ways and bad ways of doing so.
Laura talked to Lillian Stokes and Matt Young about their decision to include the finches of Hawaii (called the Hawaiian Honeycreepers) in their new book.
Matt Young is doing important work with his Finch Research Network to help one of Laura's favorite birds of all, the Evening Grosbeak. He and Lillian Stokes talked about this splendid bird and their new book.
When Laura talked with Lillian Stokes and Matt Young about their new book, The Stokes Guide to Finches, they talked about one of our most widespread, common finches, the American Goldfinch.
Laura spent time talking with Lillian Stokes and Matt Young about their new book, The Stokes Guide to Finches. Today they explain how they met and decided to produce this book.
On September 17, Little Brown will be releasing a great new book, The Stokes Guide to Finches. Laura explains why she likes it.
Duluth birders, and even many non-birders, have been enjoying a huge nighthawk migration this week.
Laura and Russ drove to Michigan this weekend to celebrate the 100th birthday of one of the most important people in Laura's birding life.
The many forces funded by anti-environmental think tanks and the chemical industry are still vilifying Rachel Carson, accusing her of being responsible for the deaths of millions of children. Why are they so persistent?
Human beings won a huge battle when DDT was banned. The powerful anti-environmental forces quickly regrouped to ensure that the success would not be repeated, and did their best to vilify the woman whose book sparked so much of the environmental movement.
Laura gets a big kick out of her backyard birds who molt in August. Before they can again be as beautiful as possible, they must go through an Ugly Duckling stage. Fortunately, they don't have access to mirrors.
In "Star Wars," even as the Rebel Alliance celebrated defeating the Galactic Empire, Darth Vader and the Emperor were plotting their revenge. In the 1970s, even as environmentalists celebrated, dark forces were plotting how to gut the EPA and destroy the legislation protecting air, water, and wildlife.
Laura has fallen in love with one particular catbird in her yard. Naturally, she's worried about it.
Three months after the first Earth Day, Richard Nixon proposed charging the new Environmental Protection Agency with setting goals and standards regarding pesticides, clean air, and clean water, and it was soon given regulatory authority. Laura was as relieved and joyful as Princess Leia at the end of the first Star Wars movie.
Everyday life for most Americans in the 1950s and 60s involved a mind-boggling array of toxic chemicals.
Laura takes a momentary break from an important environmental issue to reminisce about a tragicomedy in the 1990s.
How did the nation come together to start the Environmental Protection Agency and pass the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts?
When Blue Jays and chipmunks stash away food, some people call them greedy pigs. They're not.
How can we possibly think we can communicate with non-human life forms from other galaxies when we can't communicate with intelligent carbon-based life forms right here on earth?
Two weeks ago, I transported a crow from my neighborhood and a fawn with neurological damage from our local Wildwoods rehab facility to Wild & Free in Garrison, Minnesota. Now I'm
Back in 1977, Laura made flashcards from the illustrations in her original Golden Guide. She still has them.
This thrush with the ethereal, spiraling song keeps many secrets that scientists keep trying to tease out.
Seeing ourselves as the one species at the pinnacle of evolution is as wrong-headed as seeing our planet at the center of the universe.
Seeing or even hearing one of these rare birds is a matter of the “3 P’s”: Patience, Perseverance, and Providence.
Two warblers were on the official Endangered Species List in 1973. Now they're both off the list, but for opposite reasons.
Last Tuesday, Laura and her friend Bernie found a Wood Thrush at one of Laura's favorite birding spots in Duluth. She hopes it attracts, or already has, a mate. (The blogpost for this program is much longer and more fleshed out, with lots of photos.)
A cute little predator on the Endangered Species List for Wisconsin and Minnesota has been turning up here and there in both states this spring.
On Saturday, Laura went to Ashland County, Wisconsin, to look at a very lost tropical falcon, a Crested Caracara.
An unprecedented number of Scarlet Tanagers turned up on Peabody Street this year, and Laura was thrilled.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has created two extremely useful apps for birders. Merlin is wonderful and useful, but far from perfect.
Laura sparked unprecedented anger in a listener last week because of a program and blogpost from 2007. (All my blogpost/transcripts have photos, and some are longer than the program itself, but this program's linked transcript/blogpost has a lot more information than I could include in the program, along with pertinent photos and a video.)
The Birds That Audubon Missed by Kenn Kaufman is a clear-eyed and surprisingly exciting portrait of a time and place that have long ago disappeared, and an important and timely book as well. Laura can’t recommend it highly enough.
Kenn Kaufman has written an important new book. Laura begins her review by talking about her own personal feelings about Audubon and his work before Kaufman's rich and enlightening book gave her a broader, more truthful picture of a deeply flawed yet important human being and his contemporaries.
Not much is happening in Laura's yard yet, but things will be popping within the coming week or two. (Lang Elliott recorded the Carolina Wren's rolling trill. Laura recorded the wren's song.)
Chickens haven't established themselves as wild, feral birds in most places in the world, but they're still the most abundant bird on the planet.
If chickens found their way to Hawaii on their own, things would have worked out okay for everyone. Unfortunately, they brought humans along, too.
During spring migration, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds usually arrive a couple of weeks after Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers do, for a very good reason.
The most abundant bird on the planet, feeding billions of humans every day, is the chicken. Laura talks about how they became domesticated and some genetic differences between domestic birds and their wild ancestor, the Red Junglefowl. The recording used in this program is of a wild Red Junglefowl in India, recorded and contributed to Xeno-Canto by Lars Lachmann.
Along with Duluth's spring blizzard came redpolls! (In the background throughout, the sound is a recording of the redpolls at Laura's feeder made this past Saturday, March 30.)
A post-mortem established that Flaco, the famous Eurasian Eagle-Owl whom a vandal released from the Central Park Zoo, was carrying lethal amounts of three anti-coagulants, a pigeon herpesvirus, and even a toxic metabolite of the pesticide DDT. Is anyone actually "free" if they have no alternative but to eat poisoned food?
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl whose enclosure in the Central Park Zoo was vandalized, leading to his escape on February 2, 2023, died Friday.
Laura headed back to Prentice Park in Ashland on Wednesday and this time saw (and got VERY bad photos) of the Fieldfare.
On Tuesday, Laura suddenly noticed a chickadee with a badly overgrown, crossed bill at her feeder.
Last week, an incredibly rare vagrant from Eurasia turned up in Ashland, Wisconsin, sending Laura and Erik Bruhnke on a wild goose chase.
Preparing for a trip can start the fun weeks before I leave. (The accompanying photo is a Nene [Hawaiian Goose] taken by Russ while we were in Hawaii in 2000.)
Laura's annual celebration of Superb Owl Sunday was short on birds but did involve her first sighting of Girl Scout Cookies for 2024.
Laura's was having severe dizzy spells, but they're gone now that a physical therapist showed her "the Epley maneuver." Bird ears have the same structures as ours only with an even more sophisticated design. Do they ever get those dizzy spells?
In the 38 years since Laura started producing For the Birds, many bad things have not gotten better.
This spring, both the 17-year "Great Northern Brood" cicadas and the 13-year "Great Southern Brood" will emerge from underground. These innocuous insects cause absolutely no damage, but their noise is astonishingly loud, so many people over-react. The pesticides people used during the "Great Eastern Brood" emergence in 2021 are believed to have killed a lot of birds.
The American Birding Association's Bird of the Year for 2024 is one of the rarest birds not listed as endangered or threatened.
For the first time, the American Birding Association named a warbler its Bird of the Year.
Why have so many Ancient Murrelets, who belong in the northern Pacific Ocean, turned up in the Great Lakes, and even in Tennessee, in late 2023? We may never know. (The accompanying photo is of the Two Harbors bird, taken by Erik Bruhnke on December 9, 2023.)
Laura spent last Wednesday birding in the Sax-Zim Bog with Erik Bruhnke. Highlights were a Great Gray Owl and a snowshoe hare.
Laura's first bird of the year was a Pileated Woodpecker. In addition to enjoying her backyard birds, she's preparing for her trip to Hawaii next month, by studying the birds and getting herself back in shape for the adventure.
Laura cancelled an exciting trip for this coming February, but is doing well enough that she cancelled her cancellation.
When we read books to toddlers, we're not only enlarging their picture of the world--we're enlarging out own.
Reading to babies and toddlers has a great many benefits for us adults as well as the wee ones.
Laura talks about the pros and cons of feeding Florida Scrub-Jays, and why it's best to follow the current anti-feeding guidelines.
Wild Turkeys are splendid birds, but maybe their introduction into areas where they were not historically found wasn't a good idea.
Field guides and bird song books help children to recognize and name the birds around them, and that's a Good Thing.
Must a book be entirely about birds to qualify? Laura doesn't think so. The books Walter is most enjoying right now are in the "Monkey with a Toolbelt" series, and Laura says they can help us teach the important role that birds play in our daily lives.
Taxonomists have been studying, and revising their names for, scrub jays for a long time.
We have no clue how much birds deal with anxiety and worry, but they sure have the capacity to relieve ours.
The Florida Scrub-Jay has many endearing habits which, tragically, don't seem to resonate with Florida's human population.
The American Ornithological Society just announced that they are changing the names of American birds named for people.
An astonishing 84 percent of Americans older than 65 think they will have to make just minor sacrifices in their lives, or none at all, because of global climate change. Laura is most seriously displeased.
One of the friendliest, most approachable birds on the planet deserves serious protection from the Endangered Species Act, but isn't getting it.
Laura has wanted to see a wild American Flamingo in Florida since her first days of birding half a century ago, without luck. Would this trip to Florida be any different? (This episode was recorded in my motel room, so the sound isn't ideal.)
A late Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Rose-breasted Grosbeak? More record-breaking numbers of Blue Jays? Flamingos in Wisconsin? This month is already on track to be an outlier. CORRECTION A newspaper article that I consulted got the name of the St. Marks NWR flamingo wrong, but I didn't discover this until I'd recorded the program. The name is not Phineas Phlamingo but Pinky. Also, the bird turned up there after Hurricane Michael in 2018, not in 2019.
A Barred Owl turned up in Laura's yard, distressing all the nearby birds except two hopeful crows.
On September 26, 2023, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth set a new season total for the number of Blue Jays flying past: an amazing 75,860, with more still coming! Jim Baker from Baker's Blue Jay Barn has a few thoughts.
You never know when a late hummingbird is going to show up, or what species it will be.
Whether you're a fledgling woodpecker or a person on a bike, landings can be much more awkward than takeoffs.
Even though Laura, in her dotage, is growing forgetful and consumed with her grandson, she says it's not her fault that she didn't mention Blue Jays again after announcing that August was National Blue Jay Awareness Month. She blames the Blue Jays.
In this week's episode of her wonderful podcast, "Going Wild," Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant talks with Christian Cooper, author of Better Living Through Birding and host of the National Geographic Extraordinary Birder television series.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are lingering in Duluth longer than usual this year. Why is that, and where are they headed?
Conservation biologists tend to compete and undercut one another rather than cooperating, which can hurt the birds they think they're helping. Laura's hero Chandler Robbins provided a stellar example of how cooperation can make things better for everyone, humans and birds alike.
The blog link provides the transcript for Tunnel Vision, Part 1 as well, so you'll need to scroll down to get today's transcript.
Conservation biologists have to look beyond their specialties and cooperate if they really want to help birds. My blog link includes the transcript for both this and the next program.
People have a deep-rooted tendency to see the natural world as they first experienced it as "normal," without recognizing the many changes, including tragic, fairly recent losses, that were happening before they started paying attention.
The illustration for today's podcast was created by John Schoenherr for Sterling North's 1963 book, Rascal, a memoir of his experiences as a child while his big brother was fighting in World War I. Schoenherr also illustrated the Caldecott Award-winning Owl Moon. Schoenherr gave me permission to use it in my own work, and I thought it worked well to illustrate how abundant nighthawks once were.
As long as Laura has been birding, and specifically as long as she's been watching Pileated Woodpeckers, she's still making new discoveries. (As usual, all the photos mentioned in this program are on today's blogpost.)
Nighthawks are not recovering their former numbers, but their massive decline seems to have at least leveled off.
Laura recounts two experiences--when she saw her first nighthawk, and when she rehabbed her first one--to explain why she loves this species so very much.
Paying attention to nature and the environment is every bit as important as paying attention to the marketplace.
This episode includes important warnings about birdbaths, feeders, and especially peanut butter! (IMPORTANT takeaway--never get peanut butter with xylitol or "birch sugar" as an ingredient.)
This August will have a blue moon, making this what Laura calls National Blue Jay Awareness Month. It's a good time to think about how Blue Jay adults look their scruffiest and most bedraggled in August, before they start looking their old selves again.
Laura loves a truly wild little piece of central Florida protected and maintained by The Nature Conservancy.
Wild Florida's main attractions for visitors are alligators, sloths, and a "wild animal safari," but Laura was impressed with the wild birds she saw, and especially with the knowledge of an airboat captain who pointed out lots of cool things including her lifer Gray-headed Swamphens.
In April, Laura and her Explore Kissimmee group visited Discovery Cove, a limited-admission park owned by SeaWorld. Laura got great photos and had a lot of fun, but wishes the park provided more information about how and where these animals survive in the wild.
Lake Tohopekaliga is the best place Laura knows for getting good looks at Limpkins and Snail Kites.
Florida's biodiversity and human diversity are at risk right now even as their governor is driving the state off a cliff, asleep at the wheel.
Warning: Three times in this program I use the word "bullshit," twice near the beginning and once near the end. Some radio stations may have to bleep that out.
A Parasitic Jaeger turned up on Park Point in Duluth last weekend, and Laura spent some time watching it Wednesday.
Loons must teach their babies about danger, weighing just how dangerous every threat might be. The loon recordings used in this program were made by me during the pontoon boat experience recounted in the episode.
Magpies and crows in Europe are incorporating metal anti-bird spikes into their nests to keep other birds away. Laura finds this doubly "ironic," reminding us we're all in this together.
The Eurasian Magpie recording was made by Uku Paal.
Laura stopped eating beef ten years ago this week, and received a completely unexpected reward in the form of Pacific Golden-Plovers.
Lang Elliott's free "Hear Birds Again" app with his recommended headphones is "fantabulous."
When the Air Quality Index is high due to smoke particulates, is it safe to set out birdbaths?
Birders using eBird are making an invaluable contribution to science, conservation, and education. This summer the New York Times is collaborating with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to encourage more birders to use it.
Weather radar provides an excellent picture of the movements of migrating birds that has helped demonstrate how serious the losses of birds in North America have been.
The first test we had to measure changes in bird populations, the Breeding Bird Survey, was wonderful but had important shortcomings.
eBird has been a game changer in allowing birders to keep track of every bird they see, and to be able to access information about any of those birds quickly and easily.
When Laura started birding, the only ways of getting the word out about rare birds were slow and inefficient. eBird has been a game changer.
How do we explain to toddlers and nesting birds that they must stay indoors with filtered air to be safe as smoke fills the atmosphere?
New York Times Bestseller author Jennifer Ackerman has a brand new book about owls. What an Owl Knows is extensively researched, beautifully written, and comprehensive, covering just about every imaginable aspect of owl biology, behavior, and psychology, as well as how they figure in the human imagination. And Laura is delighted that her beloved education owl Archimedes is covered in depth. She used recordings of Archimedes at the start and finish of this program.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has developed an ever-improving but always free non-commercial app to help us identify bird songs.
Birds use song, not fences, walls, or flags, to mark off their territories, and never send anyone else off to fight their battles. (I'm using Lang Elliott's Mourning Dove recording to open and close this one because in 1998, Michigan declared the Mourning Dove its official Bird of Peace.
Starting the first day Laura started birding, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has been her most valuable and beloved ornithological resource.
Laura got some photos of this gorgeous little sparrow at the Bog last week, reminding her of the first time she ever saw one.
One of the rarest birds seen in the Lower-48, a Ross's Gull turned up last week at Wisconsin Point.
REGI, the state-of-the-art bird rehab clinic in Antigo, Wisconsin, has been admitting hummingbirds covered in grape jelly. Jelly is apparently just too dangerous to feed birds.
When we set out for a day of birding, we never know what we're going to get, but even when there aren't many birds, the ones we do see can be pretty sweet.
It took mainstream conservation biologists decades to notice how dangerous collisions with windows are for birds.
On May 25, Laura took her grandson on a long bird walk, but they saw a lot more than birds.
What was the 700th bird on Laura's continental US life list? (Photo of Smooth-billed Ani is from Panama in 2019.)
A splendid bird that was on the original Endangered Species List is now doing well by making the best of a bad situation.
In the past 3 weeks, the U.S. House Natural Resource Committee and the U.S. Senate both voted to rescind Endangered Species protections from the imperiled Lesser Prairie-Chicken, a slap in the face to the scientists and managers charged with safeguarding our natural resources, and to all Americans who love this splendid all-American bird, found nowhere on the planet except in the United States, vanishing before our eyes.
Yesterday's ice storm in Duluth was harsher on birds than it was on us. (This program mentions the loon fallout happening right now. To report a downed loon, call REGI at 715-623-4015 or Loon Rescue at 715-966-5415.)
Bird flu is far from over. If we are feeding backyard birds, we need to be paying attention to them.
Yellow-rumped Warblers return well before other warblers because they literally have intestinal fortitude.
April is cruelest for lonely souls who may not discern all the pairings and romantic songs and surging new life all around. Perhaps we must feel a part of nature, rather than bitter onlookers, to take joy in the reawakening of song and romance and nesting and new life. (This program was recast from a 2004 "For the Birds" program for which the audio is lost.)
Mother Nature loves to play tricks on us on April Fool's Day, but sometimes it's worth braving the weather, whether we're swans or humans.
Jim Baker, from Baker's Blue Jay Barn, "Up the Shore a Ways," has an exciting announcement! (Stations can play this on Friday if they want.)
Laura's been keeping track of a banded Pileated Woodpecker since November 2021, and now he seems to have found love.
Laura found herself with a hurt Hairy Woodpecker last week, which reminded her of her old rehab days and why she no longer does this every day.
Last month, a Eurasian Eagle-Owl escaped from the Central Park Zoo in New York City and, despite many efforts to capture him, seems to be doing fine on his own so far. David McArthur, one of Laura's podcast listeners in New York, wonders if he can count this bird on his life list? The Eurasian Eagle-Owl recording used in this program was made in France by Dominique Guillerme, XC780278. Accessible at Xeno-canto.
This year, some plucky little Eurasian Tree Sparrows, far from their species' established range, have been wintering in Superior, Wisconsin. Laura and Erik Bruhnke spent Saturday morning looking for them.
Just in time for spring, Laura's friend, wildlife biologist, and all-around good person Jerry Wayne Davis has a great suggestion for improving our nest boxes--add bark to the front to give birds a more secure and comfortable perch.
Most birders do not keep track of the date on which they saw the first bird on their life list, but that doesn't matter.
Family vacations can be fun for everyone, as long as we remember that every one of us enjoys different things.
Laura went out with her husband Russ Sunday in hopes of seeing an owl on Superb Owl Sunday.
Today Laura talks about the importance of conifers—both trees and shrubs—in backyard habitat, for providing food and shelter both.
A birder named Bridget Butler has been teaching wonderful workshops and online classes about "Slow Birding"—connecting with the birds we see rather than rushing and listing. She did not write the new book titled Slow Birding, which could better have been titled Detailed Descriptions of Some Ornithological Research Projects on Some Familiar Birds.
As night transitions into morning, Laura likes watching the birds show up in her yard, one by one.
Cats and glass windows each kill about a BILLION birds every year in the United States. Before inviting birds to your yard, consider making your windows bird safe.
As important as quality backyard habitat is, we must first make sure we're not luring birds to their deaths. Cats and windows each kill about a BILLION birds in the United States every year. Laura talks about outdoor cats today.
Most Mourning Doves leave northern Minnesota in winter, but listener Kelli Alseth wrote to Laura about one visiting her Proctor feeder this winter. Doves are very vulnerable to cold, but a few stick it out up here. Kelli is doing everything right to ensure that her bird has as good a chance of surviving as possible
After growing irritated with the birdwatchers who smugly criticize the way other birdwatchers watch birds, Laura talks about the many ways people can enjoy birds, hoping every individual can find their own individual path.
There are at least four ways that birds eat sunflower seeds. Today Laura explains two of them.
Seeing videos of a rescued baby beaver building a dam out of plush toys and Christmas decorations last week reminded Laura of when she was a rehabber, and how wild birds adapted to an unnatural environment.
For the first time ever, Laura didn't wonder what her first bird of the new year would be--she was thinking about which individual Pileated Woodpecker she'd see first in 2023.
The Belted Kingfisher has been selected as the 2023 Bird of the Year by the American Birding Association, stirring up lots of memories for Laura.
This year's Duluth Christmas Bird Count was a little low on both species and total numbers, but as always, Laura got to see and photograph some wonderful birds.
Laura explains why she has taken more Shakespeare courses than most non-English majors.
Laura attended the University of Illinois from 1969-1971, when their mascot was the offensive and stereotypical "Chief Illiniwek." Due to pressure from students, alumni, staff, and the community, the U. of I. got rid of that mascot in 2008, but haven't replaced it with anything. A wonderful student, and now alumnus, named Spencer Halsey spearheaded a campaign to name a real-life blue-and-orange local bird, the Belted Kingfisher, the new official mascot. This is a splendid idea that deserves support.
It takes verifiable documentation for anyone, bird or human, to make the grade in Guinness World Records. But based on the standard for the entry "lowest temperature endured by a bird," the Black-capped Chickadee is definitely a contender.
Laura's been spending a lot of time perusing the Guinness Book of World Records this week.
Minnesota's first record of a Phainopepla stuck around the McQuade boat landing from October 29 through November 1. Where is she now? No one will ever know.
A new Pileated Woodpecker spent some time in Laura's yard making her wonder how Pileateds figure out bird feeders.
New apps can identify songs for us, whether those songs were produced by a person or a bird. (The program opens with a Sesame Street recording of "What's the Name of That Song?" and uses the "Li'l Darlin'" tract from the album The Atomic Mr. Basie.
New apps can identify songs for us, whether those songs were produced by a person or a bird. (The program opens with a Sesame Street recording of "What's the Name of That Song?" and uses the "Li'l Darlin'" tract from the album The Atomic Mr. Basie.
Laura's favorite thing about the Woodson Art Museum's annual "Birds in Art" exhibit is how each artist has a unique spin on the theme.
Laura's favorite thing about the Woodson Art Museum's annual "Birds in Art" exhibit is how each artist has a unique spin on the theme.
Laura talks about her visit last month to the Leigh Yawkkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau to see the 2022 Birds in Art exhibit.
Laura's annual sojourn to the Woodson Art Museum in Wausau to see this year's Birds in Art exhibit got her thinking about the history of bird art.
Laura's quiet morning routine would be far less satisfying if the coffee she drank had robbed tropical birds of habitat or hurt the people growing and harvesting it.
Starting the day with a cup of coffee while watching chickadees, Blue Jays, and a Pileated Woodpecker just inches away--what could be better? (Any time I mention a photo or video, it appears on that program's blog post. Today's shows video of the Pileated bobbing her head.)
Blue Jays broke a record this month--over 60,000 of them migrated over Hawk Ridge in Duluth. What does this mean? And what the heck does it have to do with baseball?
Saturday morning was a splendid start to the month, at least on Laura's corner of Peabody Street.
Baseball players sometimes get hit by pitches--nowadays no one more than Laura's favorite player of all, Anthony Rizzo. But those players have a much greater survival rate than the hapless dove who got beaned by a baseball. (The accompanying blog post has a LOT more information than I could fit into the podcast.)
Baseball players sometimes get hit by pitches--nowadays no one more than Laura's favorite player of all, Anthony Rizzo. But those players have a much greater survival rate than the hapless dove who got beaned by a baseball. (The accompanying blog post has a LOT more information than I could fit into the podcast.)
This is the fiftieth anniversary of Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth. People will be celebrating this weekend.
This is the fiftieth anniversary of Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth. People will be celebrating this weekend.
It's hard to get anything accomplished when an extremely rare Fork-tailed Flycatcher appears.
It's hard to get anything accomplished when an extremely rare Fork-tailed Flycatcher appears.
Laura thinks the old rule about bringing hummingbird feeders in by Labor Day is ridiculous. She'll be leaving hers out until at least the end of November. She was still seeing a hummingbird on September 18.
Laura thinks the old rule about bringing hummingbird feeders in by Labor Day is ridiculous. She'll be leaving hers out until at least the end of November. She was still seeing a hummingbird on September 18.
Two of the greatest highlights of Laura's Alaska trip were Horned and Tufted Puffins. Puffins are popular enough that Alaska gift shops sold lots of them--but not one that Laura could find was one of these two native Alaskan species--they were all Atlantic Puffins!
Two of the greatest highlights of Laura's Alaska trip were Horned and Tufted Puffins. Puffins are popular enough that Alaska gift shops sold lots of them--but not one that Laura could find was one of these two native Alaskan species--they were all Atlantic Puffins!
The time around Labor Day Weekend is what Laura thinks of as the "Anything Can Happen" time of year.
(The recording at start and finish is of a Semipalmated Plover, from the Macaulay Library of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Cedar Waxwing recording was made my Lang Elliott.)
How do we encourage declining birds to start using newly-restored habitat? Daniel Wanschura's "Points North" podcast for Interlochen Public Radio about Dustin Brewer's Michigan rail study can be read or heard at the IPR website here.
The features that make puffins so distinctive are also what allow them to live their oceanic lives.
Laura is entranced by two tiny beings this month: hummingbirds and her grandson Walter.
After the big boat trip to Kenai Fjords National Park, there was still a bit of birding to do.
The birds Laura saw on her Alaska boat trip into Kenai Fjords National Park were even more thrilling than the humpback whales.
The boat trip into Kenai Fjords National Park was the most beautiful and exciting part of Laura's Alaska adventure. The first part of the morning wasn't even spent with birds, but rather, a splendid mammal.
Laura managed to see the peak of Denali on two days, first from an airplane and then close to the ground. Denali's wildlife is just as spectacular as the mountain itself.
Laura spent 6 of her 14 nights in Alaska in Anchorage. It's a huge city by Alaska standards, but the birding was excellent.
An amazing bird, at least 1,200 miles from its normal range, turned up at Russell Stewart's house in Carlton County last week.
The last day of Laura's trip to Nome was spent searching for a most wanted bird, the Bristle-thighed Curlew.
Laura birded along the Nome-Teller Road on the afternoon of June 12 and all day on June 13.
Laura gives an overview of the four days she spent in Nome. The bird recording used in the program, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is of the White Wagtail.
Laura and Russ spent some time birding on their own in Anchorage before joining their group for a Nome adventure.
Laura reviews the all new online version of Wisconsin's Favorite Bird Haunts, National Geographic's Complete Birds of North America, and Sharon Stiteler's North American Bird Watching for Beginners.
Chicago's most famous avian residents, the Piping Plovers that nested in the dunes at Montrose Beach, are gone.
Laura's little grandson is growing up in a world of birds and flowers and smiling people.
This spring may be unusually cold, but that's led to an exceptionally colorful few weeks on Peabody Street.(The recording at the start and end of this program is a Cape May Warbler, whose song is so high frequency that it's out of the hearing range of a lot of people.)
Last week, Laura found yet another rare bird in her yard less than 24 hours after she saw the first one.
There's something uniquely special about individual wild birds that we recognize personally. Sometimes the bonds we forge with these can last a long time.
Laura is making picture cards to teach her little grandson about birds and other animals.
How early do you have to get up to hear the very beginning of the dawn chorus? Earlier than you might think.
Laura, back from her close encounter with Covid, finishes her sparrow identification series.
The end of April and beginning of May are when sparrows descend upon the Northland in big numbers. Identifying these little brown jobs isn't as daunting as it might seem.
When Laura photographed a male and female Pileated Woodpecker feeding together in her suet feeder, she realized just how happy she is.
Laura brings us up to date on the conflicting recommendations from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Cornell Cooperative Extension with regard to bird flu and keeping bird feeders going. She also talks about some birds dying at feeders not from diseases but from the bird feeder itself.
Laura's researched as much as she can about this year's outbreak of a dangerous variant of bird flu. She wrote a lot about it on her blog at blog.lauraerickson.com
Laura asked Scott Weidensaul about the people he features in his new children's picture book, A Warbler's Journey, and also more about Yellow Warblers and their treacherous migration.
Laura had a long conversation with Scott Weidensaul earlier this month. Here is Part 1 of their conversation about Scott's new book, A Warbler's Journey.
One of Laura's favorite writers, Scott Weidensaul, has written a children's picture book that Laura loves.
Laura talks about some more old and more recent children's picture books about birds—both favorites and some not.
Note: Laura pronounces the name of the main character in The Trumpet of the Swan, Louis, as loo' iss. E.B. White pronounced it loo' ey, but he said he named the character for Louis Armstrong. Although many people called Armstrong "Louie," he was very clear that he wanted people to pronounce his name "Louis." He even emphasized that whenever he sang "Hello, Dolly!" E.B. White was a wonderful writer whom Laura admires greatly, but on this she's deferring to Satchmo.
This week I'll be talking about some old and some new picture books about birds, for small children, starting with some old classics.
My friend Patricia sent me some fun information about the magpies she grew up with in Australia.
Lots of birds are making their presence known now. Except the chickadees heard near the end, all the sounds heard in this program were recorded out Laura's home office window.
Laura interviews Jim Baker from Baker's Blue Jay Barn about his newest product, Bluolingo, which translates both of the two different sounds coming from a Blue Jay's voice box.
One of the smartest birds on the planet is making it very difficult for scientists to research its movements.
This in-between period where winter slowly melts into spring is Laura's favorite time of year. At least, right now.
Laura just marked her 50th wedding anniversary,. Sticking it out this long involves luck more than anything..
When they head to Nome, Alaska, this June, Russ and Laura will be taking a grueling hike to see the Bristle-thighed Curlew. How is Laura preparing for that?
In preparing for a trip to Alaska in June, Laura's been doing some research to make sure she's mitigating the energy involved in her travel. (The bird song in the background is the Varied Thrush, a song Laura should hear in Alaska.)
Mark Roser created a system called "Interactive Bird Feeding" that Laura wholeheartedly endorses. But as winter comes to an end, she adds one concern that we need to be aware of.
Hand-feeding birds, and just having them close enough to make eye contact, sparks love for them, which comes with responsibility.
Laura always celebrates March 2, the anniversary of seeing her first chickadee. This year was a little rockier than usual.
Backyard redpolls are wonderful to see this winter in the Northland. Nicole Ottjes sent Laura an amazing video of redpolls crowding into her hand for seeds.
Laura talks about the little birds visiting northland feeders in big numbers this winter.
Studies of northern European birds singing on their sub-Saharan wintering grounds suggest that the reason for singing so far from mate and territory is simple—they're practicing.
Even on frigid mornings, chickadees and cardinals are singing away right now. They won't make spring come any faster, but are still warming our hearts.
A beautiful little boardwalk in the Sax-Zim Bog was created as a memorial to Augustus James Feth, with little owl carvings, gifts for anyone who walks the trail to the end, carved by Auggie's great grandfather.
Even when you don't see the one bird you set as your goal, a day spent birding is all good.
On Groundhog Day, Laura got a brief but satisfying look at an Eastern Bluebird visiting a Duluth feeder.
Dawn is noticeably earlier each day now, as Laura is noticing while feeder watching in the morning twilight.
This time Laura looks at the value of feeding mealworms to birds and things to consider in deciding whether to buy live or dried mealworms, or both, as Laura does.
Laura talks about the benefits of feeding birds peanuts and peanut butter, and also important considerations to make this safe for the birds.
All week Laura will be talking about the best choices for what we offer at our bird feeding stations.
The Black-capped Chickadee may be Laura's favorite bird, but the Boreal Chickadee isn't too far behind.
Every day, a female Red-bellied Woodpecker is visiting Peabody Street. Seeing one in Duluth used to be a rare event. Laura is just as thrilled now that it's much more commonplace.
An Ivory Gull turned up in Duluth on January 3. Laura tried, but didn't succeed, in finding it.
Laura answers questions about Canada Jays (also called Gray Jays) and Pine Grosbeaks, and about how birds get water in winter.
2022 appears to be a good year for seeing Pine Grosbeaks, reminding Laura of why she loves this beautiful bird.
Despite some stiff competition, Laura had some pretty compelling reasons to name her Top Bird of 2021 the Black-capped Chickadee.
This program includes the first public performance of "The Chickadee Song," a very short song Laura wrote for her baby grandson.
A plucky little hummingbird filled Laura's heart with joy this November and even into December, making her Final Four top birds of the year.
An article by Chris Sweeney in the current Audubon magazine documents just how dangerous rat poison is, and how easy it is for regular consumers to buy it via the internet.
Laura was relieved to learn last week that Wisdom the Laysan Albatross, the oldest wild bird known to science, had returned once again to Midway Island.
Taxonomists from the University of Colorado, Boulder, have just released a paper in Nature Communications asserting, with lots of data verifying their claim, that Hoary, Lesser, and Common Redpolls all belong to just one species.
The Rufous Hummingbird visiting Peabody Street since before Halloween disappeared late Saturday. Laura thinks she took advantage of a perfect window to skip town before the snowstorm.
What do hummingbirds and little dogs have in common? Laura also bids farewell to Lisa Johnson, who is leaving KUMD after 30 years.
Laura doesn't usually go shopping on Black Friday, but this year she drove up to Two Harbors to buy something not available anywhere else.
Since the 1970s, Laura has been keeping various lists of birds. Today she talks about the most unsavory list of all.
Yesterday the weather was frightful—frigid and windy—but the Rufous Hummingbird continued at Laura's feeders. (You may recognize the opening music from Laura's beloved TV program, Pushing Daisies. The bird sound featured at the very end is the very hummingbird featured in today's program.)
Without capturing Laura's vagrant hummingbird, how are birders sure it's a Rufous Hummingbird rather than the almost identical Allen's Hummingbird? (The linked blog post has lots of photos which listeners might be interested in.)
Laura doesn't usually talk about bird identification, but sometimes it's important to focus on who's who. UPDATE: The hummingbird was back this morning.
The American Birding Association Bird of the Year for 2021, the Pileated Woodpecker, is one of Laura's favorites. Right now she's been seeing a male with a USGS band on his right leg. It's taking time to read the 9-digit number.
Laura's neighborhood got 3 inches of snow on Saturday. How did the Rufous Hummingbird hanging out in her neighborhood fare? (Monday morning update: She made it through the cold night last night!)
Laura got to enjoy something very special for her birthday--a Rufous Hummingbird at a feeder on her own front porch!
Laura works Belted Kingfishers and her first warblers into this year's Top Ten birthday list.
This aired live on November 5 and was very fun to do. Lisa has been one of the very best interviewers I've dealt with in my long career, and I've been interviewed on a lot of local, state, and national radio and television news programs. Lisa always does her homework, so her questions are always intelligent and informed (seriously—very few people in media have her knowledge about nature and environmental issues), and her quick wit is SO fun to engage with!
Here we talk about the Audubon Naturalist Society dropping "Audubon" from its name, the California Condor's so-called "virgin births" announced last week, and New Zealand announcing a tiny little mammal as its Bird of the Year.
Laura concludes National Pigeon Week by talking to Rosemary Mosco about pigeons used in wartime.
Rosemary Mosco explains why pigeons have never been raised as prolifically in captivity as chickens, how cool their neck's circulatory system is, what B.F. Skinner really thought about pigeons, and how Charles Darwin was totally smitten by them.
Today Rosemary Mosco explains how we know the Neanderthals domesticated pigeons, and ways people have used pigeons over the ages.
Today Rosemary Mosco tells Laura why pigeons are doves, why they're dinosaurs, and why they're puppies.
Laura decided to make this National Pigeon Week to celebrate Rosemary Mosco's new book, A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World's Most Misunderstood Bird. She interviewed Rosemary Mosco this summer. Today's program recounts parts of the conversation explaining why Mosco loves pigeons so much.
Yesterday, Ethan Freedman wrote an op-ed for Slate magazine about how the pandemic made him lose interest in birding. Laura hopes he at least keeps an interest in protecting the environment that we and birds share.
Laura talks about the delight she takes in watching her little grandson looking at birds.
This is a banner year for Blue Jays in Duluth. Laura's concerned about how other species are doing.
Laura talks about some of her exciting experiences photographing Pileated Woodpeckers. All the photos she mentions are on today's Blog post.
Laura's window feeder entices a couple of squirrels more than she wanted, but she found an effective, if expensive, solution.
Research about a tropical hummingbird, the White-necked Jacobin, is making scientists pay attention to the advantages females with brighter plumage have, at least in super aggressive species.
It's important to look through our hummingbirds just in case there's an outlier species. But sometimes we're going to misidentify them, as Laura understands firsthand.
Although just about every hummingbird in the East is a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, outliers do occasionally appear.
Baby humans and birds are vulnerable to particulates in the atmosphere this summer thanks to the smoke of forest fires in Canada and the American West.
Laura had a lovely time with a Winter Wren at Rib Mountain State Park in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Laura just saw a Chukar, the national bird of Iraq and Pakistan, in her own neighborhood!
Laura just discovered a lovely spot at Rib Mounta Wausau, Wisconsin, where Acadian Flycatchers nest. Unfortunately, development for a private ski club is putting this population, the furthest north in Wisconsin, in jeopardy.
It takes a combination of luck and stupidity to see a Golden-cheeked Warbler in late July when the temperature is over 110ºF.
Some of Laura's best birds during her Big Year in 2013 were seen thanks to luck rather than good planning.
In 1976, Laura learned a valuable lesson about the importance of saying no and being adaptable when birding with others.
One of Laura's friends asks how woodpeckers know to bash their faces into trees to get food.
Birds, and flying squirrels, are having troubles due to warming temperatures and other environmental issues. Citizen science is an important tool that can help us minimize the damage. Laura talks about some technology that will help us individuals contribute our own data to help.
Today and tomorrow, Laura is talking about birds in the news. Today she covers the bad news.
Laura's baby chickadees may have fledged, but the cavity they built in her cherry tree has attracted a new bird.
Last week, Laura spent 45 minutes watching and recording a Connecticut Warbler in the Sax-Zim Bog.
Dickcissels are usually not found in northern Wisconsin or Minnesota, but this year is an exception.
Sunday, a Gray Catbird reminded Laura why it belongs on her Top Ten List of Favorite Birds. Throughout the program, you can hear the catbird that was singing on Sunday throughout today's program.
The chickadees nesting in Laura's backyard depend on plenty of insects to raise their young, raising Laura's awareness of how important caterpillars are right when people are turning to pesticides to eradicate insects. In the Washington, D.C. area where cicadas have been emerging, birds are being found dead and dying from something neurological that is causing them to go blind. We don't know what the cause is, but it quite possibly is the pesticides people are using to eradicate the cicadas.
Laura's large flock of Evening Grosbeaks made the front page of the Duluth News-Tribune and instantly went on their way.
Last week Laura saw an exciting bird--one she hasn't seen in her yard in over a decade.
Evening Grosbeaks and nesting chickadees are keeping Laura happy despite this slow spring migration. The bird recordings today, made by Laura, are of her Evening Grosbeaks and the male chickadee nesting in her cherry tree.
Blog reader Pam writes about an exciting encounter with chickadees in trouble, with a happy ending.
This program, dedicated to nine-year-old Aleda, is celebrates what Laura calls Song Sparrow Day.
With help from her friend Susan Szeszol, Laura brings us up to date on the famous Monty and Rose, the first Piping Plovers to successfully nest in Chicago since 1955.
A 38-year-old Whooping Crane named Gee Whiz had an important role in the history of the International Crane Foundation and in saving his species. He died earlier this year.
A flood of migrating birds are returning. To enjoy them without hurting them, Laura offers a few feeder tips.
If the FCC knew what chickadees were really saying, they might not allow anyone to play their recordings on the air.
Listeners told Laura about two projects, one in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Minnesota, that involve birds, where we may make a difference.
One of Laura's listeners, Mark Roser, wrote about a Tufted Titmouse he feeds by hand, and a blog reader tells about the fun she's getting from one particular chickadee at her home office window feeder. They ask for advice about hand-feeding.
Protections for fragile populations of Florida's unique wildlife never seem to be enacted until it's too late.
Of mainland America's 49 states, Florida is unique in the number of plants and animals found nowhere else in the country, and Laura is in love with a great many of its wonderful birds.
Laura has long appreciated how much more advanced bird senses are than ours, but suddenly last week, she discovered a new reason to envy them.
Sometimes feeding birds causes problems, but the pandemic has revealed an unexpected problem when tourists stopped feeding birds.
During this Women's History Month, Laura will be talking about women who made important advances in ornithology.
We will certainly have plenty of frigid weather in the coming weeks, but spring is here.
Today Laura reads George Miksch Sutton's poem, "Forever and Ever, Amen." To reproduce this poem in any form, credit must be given to George Miksch Sutton, and the poem must be reproduced in its entirety.
Today Laura remembers one of her favorite bird artists, who drew some of her most treasured portraits of baby birds.
Forty-six years ago yesterday was the first morning in her life that Laura woke up having a life list.
Mark Kastel, who listens to "For the Birds" on WDRT in Viroqua, Wisconsin, shares a lovely experience with Barn Swallows.
One of Laura's correspondents was having problems with too many starlings at her feeding station. How did she solve it?
When we pay attention to special individual birds in our backyards, we have more at stake during horrible cold spells. Laura is nervous about some birds she hasn't seen lately, but also got some wonderful news about an individual bird she's never even seen but deeply cares about.
A few weeks ago, KUMD listener Frank Koshere wrote to Laura about the importance of exposing small children to natural sounds.
Laura didn't see a single owl on Superb Owl Sunday this year--birds are hunkering down during this cold spell. How can we help them?
We may be going through the coldest spell of the entire winter, but there are signs that winter is just about over.
Last time, Laura reminisced about what she was doing when she was seven. Today she talks about how those early experiences shaped her life as an adult.
Last week Laura talked about Bob Hinkle's question, "What were you doing when you were seven?" Today, she talks about her own experiences at that age.
Laura's mentor Bob Hinkle asked a profound question. The answer will affect how committed each of us is about protecting the environment as an adult.
Laura has been looking through what she wrote about a baby Pileated Woodpecker she raised in 1998 and thinking about how it learned new things compared with how her baby grandson is figuring things out. She also talks about how some birds understand reflections in mirrors better than others.
The American Birding Association's Jeff Gordon wrote, “Pileated Woodpeckers have gone from seeming like supernovae to something more like the full moon: impressive and enchanting, and mysterious, yes, but neither rare nor unpredictable.” Laura agrees.
Laura drove up to Stoney Point this weekend to see a lost little bird, quite possibly of the same species that Pa Ingalls brought home in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, The Long Winter.
John Bachman, one of John James Audubon's friends, wrote about a rather horrifying encounter with Pileated Woodpeckers for Audubon's Birds of America.
Sick siskins, flying condors, bird brains, and a major award for a poet who has read some of his work on "For the Birds" are in the news.
Listening to bird recordings can bring us a lot of pleasure, and enhances our sense of well-being. But how does that compare to listening to real bird songs?
It took Laura 6 days to see this year's new ABA Bird of the Year. Where were her two Pileated Woodpeckers before that?
Laura's New Year's wish is to see lots of Evening Grosbeaks this year. We're in the midst of a "finch superflight," but Evening Grosbeaks have been few and far between in Duluth. Laura talks about why.
Laura had to cut back her participation in this year's Christmas Bird Count, but still had a splendid time in what turned out to be a record-breaking count on a few fronts.
Laura doesn't have recommendations about specific binocular brands or models, but does have some suggestions about what to look for.
There aren't as many backyard birds in December as we saw earlier this year. How do we get through these hard times?
One of Laura's venerable trees has made it to a hundred. She's just not quite sure when.
Laura was starting to get nervous when the US Fish and Wildlife Service hadn't put out news about Wisdom, the 69-year-old albatross who nests on Midway Island. But she's returned and laid an egg!
Laura has always answered that hypothetical question about what bird you'd want if you were stranded on a desert island the same way. If there were chickadees or Blue Jays about, she'd never be bored.
In 2006, Laura brought home a feral cat from Ohio. It worked out better than you might expect.
Laura's birthday brings her thoughts of numbers and gallinules, and one unpleasant memory.
Wind turbines kill plenty of birds, but our dependence on fossil fuels is killing orders of magnitude more birds.
Why didn't non-profits do more to expose BP's ways of minimizing their liability in 2010?
BP managed to change a rule to vastly understate the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on wildlife, when the oiled wildlife number is what determines an oil spill's impact on wildlife.
In July 2010, Laura went down to the Gulf for a few weeks during the BP oil spill. It was far worse than people were saying, and Laura is still outraged.
Laura speculates on how adult birds maintain pretty much the same appearance during the time they have dependent young.
Laura is part of the BirdWatching magazine team that will be participating in Global Bird Weekend tomorrow, planning to have a lot of fun in a safe, socially-distanced way, and hoping that her participation will help BirdLife International's campaign to end the illegal bird trade.
Laura's new grandbaby and the neighborhood crows and jays are making her think about dependent young of all species.
Laura got this year's catalogue for the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's annual Birds in Art exhibit.
For Laura, bird watching has been very much like spending her life in one wonderful awe walk.
The New York Times did a story last week about the value of "awe walks"--taking walks while trying to look at things with fresh, childlike eyes--and how after eight weeks, the people doing this were happier, less upset, and more socially connected than people taking as many walks but without being told to focus on new things with those childlike eyes.
WXPR listener Jo Simon asked Laura a simple and obvious question: What are geese honking about as they fly overhead? No one knows for sure, but Laura has a few ideas.
Laura is using a combination of staking out birds out the window and taking photos via three trail cams to keep track of what's going on.
A difficult-to-find bird may be nondescript, but it has an exceptionally weird mating system.
Huge numbers of birds have been found dead and dying in New Mexico. We don't know exactly why.
After living on Peabody Street for 39 years, Laura has a hard time adding new birds to her yard list, but Friday she added a surprising new one! This one goes out with music.
James Stone got Laura thinking about the West Nile virus epidemic that hit the US twenty years ago. That virus didn't hurt anywhere near as many people as we first feared, but it continues to kill Ruffed Grouse and other wildlife.
What birds are migrating through right now? James Stone of Northome brought Laura up to date with his birds, and she's had some interesting experiences in her own yard, too.
In June, the American Ornithological Society changed the name of McCown's Longspur to the Thick-billed Longspur, raising the dander of some people.
Canada Geese learn their migration route from their parents, and then find their lifelong mate on their wintering grounds. Come spring, they want to return to where they hatched out. KUMD's Lisa Johnson asked Laura which young goose in a pair gets to return where it hatched, and which is willing to go along.
Recently, women have been making important discoveries about the singing abilities of female birds, overturning centuries of conventional wisdom about how many female birds sing. Is this coincidence, or powerful evidence that inclusiveness in scientific endeavors casts new eyes on old questions?
One of the bald Blue Jays laura photographed on August 13 has most of its facial feathers in now.
Laura's seeing as many different species in her yard right now as she saw at the peak of migration in May. CORRECTION: Laura said to contact her by September 29 to receive an invitation to the September 1 Zoom presentation--this should be AUGUST 29.
Laura has been talking about bald Blue Jays for years, and now, finally, she has photos.
Laura's getting wonderful photos of her Blue Jays, including some kinds of photos, like of bald Blue Jays, that she's never been able to take before. You can see the photos she refers to on her blog at www.lauraerickson.com.
A couple of weeks ago, when Laura interviewed Don Kroodsma, author of Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist, they talked about a bird people love to hate, the European Starling.
Laura finally got to enjoy the thrill of seeing baby House Wrens the day they fledge from the nest. And she learned about the dark side of seeing baby House Wrens the day they fledge from the nest.
Right now flickers are at their quietest and most secretive, but soon everyone will be noticing them again, along dirt roads, gravel driveways, and expansive lawns.
Why are there more birds today than there will be for the rest of 2020? Laura talks about what's going on with our songbirds right now, and reminds us of the Zoom program she'll be doing this Saturday night (August 1).
Don Kroodsma tells Laura about an important discovery he made about a bird that nests right in the Sax-Zim Bog.
Laura talks with Don Kroodsma about why he wrote Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist and why he so enjoys exploring questions we don't have answers for, yet.
Laura absolutely loves a new book by birdsong authority Donald Kroodsma. Today she reviews the book, and for the rest of the week will be excerpting from a conversation she had with Don about it.
Some birds have a mutualistic relationship with hot peppers, but scientists don't quite understand how birds taste them.
Laura had a memorable experience with a jalapeño pepper and a Black-throated Gray Warbler.
Laura found a transcript from 1993 that explains how she came to be a Ph.D. student in the first place.
Laura is requesting donations to support For the Birds, and offering, on July 1 at 7 pm CDT, a free presentation about nesting birds. Contributors to her Patreon account will automatically be invited, but she'll send invitations to anyone else who asks. See the sidebar on Laura's blog for more details.
KAXE/KBXE listener Lynn Hanske shared a disconcerting video showing a Great Blue Heron who has become a specialist on stalking and capturing chipmunks.
In 1992, Laura made a disturbing discovery about one of the nighthawks she was caring for—a discovery that will live in infamy.
Days are as long as they'll be all year right now, and birds are hard at work from sunrise to sunset, or even longer than that!
The "Dr. Ruth of Ornithology" loved the sections of Jennifer Ackerman's new book, The Bird Way about "Love" and "Parenting."
The section about birds playing in Jennifer Ackerman's The Bird Way may be Laura's favorite.
Today Laura focuses on the section about bird senses in Jennifer Ackerman's The Bird Way.
Laura is remembering Jennifer Ackerman's book The Genius of Birds as she starts a week of looking at Ackerman's new book, The Bird Way.
How much blood can a bird lose before dying? How do we know this? And is that little bit of knowledge worth the cost of finding it out? (This is based on a program I did in 1994.)
Thirty years ago, Laura had her gall bladder out, which set her to wondering whether birds have such a thing.
Is it really necessary to get up while it's still dark to see a lot of birds? (The recording in the background is part of the one I recorded on May 31.)
Laura talks about a wonderful newsletter, "Heated," about climate issues and also about an upcoming workshop Al Gore will be sponsoring about addressing climate change. George Floyd's death is making it clearer to many people how, because of systemic racism, the Black community is disproportionately affected by both climate change and COVID-19. Read more about the newsletter and how to enroll in Al Gore's workshop (free but requires registration) at Laura's blog.
Laura knows when a fox has been around even when she's not paying attention at the time.
Birding has always been uniquely dangerous for Black people. It's time white birders started listening, and taking responsibility for making the birding community and our nation safer for everyone.
Even hunkering at home, Laura is still having fun, right now with hummingbirds and orioles. She also answers the question, should we offer jelly?
Our Endangered Species Act is itself endangered, which bodes ill for the Golden-winged Warbler and many other species.
As much as Laura likes cowbirds, she thinks it's best not to subsidize them with food. She explains why.
Sarah Caldwell, who listens to this program on WDRT, asked Laura to talk about a fascinating bird, the Brown-headed Cowbird .
Laura brings us up to date on the Peabody Street bird activity and relates some stories she received via email from New Hampshire and Excelsior, Minnesota.
Laura just unearthed the transcript of a program from 1995 about her education Blue Jay, Sneakers, when she discovered Mexican jumping beans.
Today is the 85th anniversary of the day Margaret Morse Nice followed a Song Sparrow over an entire 24-hour period, counting every one of the 2,305 songs he sang and recording every one of his behaviors.
Whatever happened about the 450-foot guyed, lighted cell phone tower AT&T wanted to build at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness?
Laura fields questions about disappearing chickadees and other birds and about a bird who has been drumming on a basketball backboard right outside a weary but curious listener's window.
Kadi Franson asked Laura Erickson to do a program about checking our own sense of curiosity and wonder with what birds need.
Laura tells the completely fictitious (but it could be true, maybe) story of a baby nighthawk and a baby Blue Jay.