For the Birds Radio Program
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In Retrospect: The BP oil spill, Part 4
(Nov. 19, 2024)
Who can we trust after a major disaster?
- In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 3 (Nov. 18, 2024)
Laura visited one of the four rehab centers allowed to treat birds oiled in the Deepwater Horizon spill.
- In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 2 (Nov. 12, 2024)
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)
- Look to the Chickadees (Nov. 11, 2024)
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.)
- In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 1 (Nov. 5, 2024)
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.
- Standing up to them (Oct. 29, 2024)
Billionaires and corporations have too much power over us, birds, and the environment we need and share.
- You're not getting older, you're getting better--oh, wait--you ARE getting older (Oct. 25, 2024)
Birding may keep us young, but not literally.
- Transmission Lines, Part 2 (Oct. 23, 2024)
Clean energy should be making us less, not more, reliant on huge transmission lines.
- Transmission Lines (Oct. 22, 2024)
Power transmission lines can be very harmful for birds and human beings.
- Going to a Scientific Meeting in 2024 (Oct. 18, 2024)
Laura recently returned from the American Ornithological Society’s annual meeting. Some things have changed, and some remain the same.
- Going to Scientific Meetings in Past Decades (Oct. 17, 2024)
Laura’s has attended a few professional ornithological meetings through the years.
- Gone to the American Ornithological Society meeting in Colorado for the week. (Sept. 29, 2024)
Audio missing Permalink- Emergency Responders: Blue Jay Style (Sept. 26, 2024)
Blue Jays help protect each other from Sharp-shinned Hawks.
- Mistakes R Us (Sept. 25, 2024)
More cases of errors and mistaken identity, and one case of vindication
- Oops! Correcting the record (Sept. 24, 2024)
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.
- Stokes Guide to Finches: Hawaiian Honeycreepers (Sept. 20, 2024)
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.
- Stokes Guide to Finches: Evening Grosbeaks (Sept. 19, 2024)
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.
- Stokes Guide to Finches: Goldfinches (Sept. 18, 2024)
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.
- For the Finches: How Lillian Stokes and Matt Young connected thanks to Red Crossbills (Sept. 17, 2024)
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.
- Book Review: The Stokes Guide to Finches (Sept. 16, 2024)
On September 17, Little Brown will be releasing a great new book, The Stokes Guide to Finches. Laura explains why she likes it.
- American Golden-Plover (Sept. 10, 2024)
A plucky little survivor. Except when it isn’t.
- Blue Jay migration (Sept. 6, 2024)
The mystery of Blue Jay migration, and the irony of human nature.
- Birdbaths! (Sept. 4, 2024)
On Labor Day, Laura had a most unexpected visitor at her birdbath.
- Nighthawks! (Aug. 29, 2024)
Duluth birders, and even many non-birders, have been enjoying a huge nighthawk migration this week.
- Peabody Street Update: The Good News and the Bad News (Aug. 28, 2024)
There’s a lot happening on Peabody Street these days.
- Hummingbirds! (Aug. 27, 2024)
Are this year’s numbers normal?
- Joan Brigham at 100! (Aug. 20, 2024)
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.
- Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 5B: Why Vilify Rachel Carson? (Aug. 16, 2024)
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?
- Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 5 A: The battle on the DDT front (Aug. 15, 2024)
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.
- Birds Off a Feather (Aug. 8, 2024)
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.
- The bear necessities and other close encounters of the mammalian kind (Aug. 6, 2024)
Two mammals made a visit to Laura’s yard on Sunday night.
- Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 4: The Empire Strikes Back (Aug. 5, 2024)
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.
- In the Catbird's Seat: A momentary diversion from more important matters (July 30, 2024)
Laura has fallen in love with one particular catbird in her yard. Naturally, she’s worried about it.
- Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 3: A New Hope (July 29, 2024)
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.
- Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 2: Pollution—A Way of Life (July 24, 2024)
Everyday life for most Americans in the 1950s and 60s involved a mind-boggling array of toxic chemicals.
- When a Stranger Knocks (A momentary diversion from more important matters) (July 22, 2024)
Laura takes a momentary break from an important environmental issue to reminisce about a tragicomedy in the 1990s.
- Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections Part 1: How Bad It Used to Be (July 18, 2024)
How did the nation come together to start the Environmental Protection Agency and pass the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts?
- Hoarding (July 17, 2024)
When Blue Jays and chipmunks stash away food, some people call them greedy pigs. They’re not.
- Crow vocalizations and good news (July 15, 2024)
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?
- Crows and the Unknowable (July 10, 2024)
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 unsettled wondering how the crow is doing.
- My Backyard Habitat (July 9, 2024)
Even with minimal effort, my backyard habitat is pretty nice!
- Flashcards (July 4, 2024)
Back in 1977, Laura made flashcards from the illustrations in her original Golden Guide. She still has them.
- Veery (July 3, 2024)
This thrush with the ethereal, spiraling song keeps many secrets that scientists keep trying to tease out.
- Superiority (June 21, 2024)
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.
- Golden-winged Warblers (June 19, 2024)
To know them is to love them. But first, we have to be aware of them.
- Connecticut Warbler (June 18, 2024)
Seeing or even hearing one of these rare birds is a matter of the “3 P’s”: Patience, Perseverance, and Providence.
- A Tale of Two Endangered Species: Bachman's and Kirtland's Warblers (June 13, 2024)
Two warblers were on the official Endangered Species List in 1973. Now they’re both off the list, but for opposite reasons.
- Looking for Wood Thrushes (June 11, 2024)
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 the program is much longer and more fleshed out, with lots of photos.)
- Loggerhead Shrike! (June 5, 2024)
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.
- Crested Caracara in Wisconsin (June 4, 2024)
On Saturday, Laura went to Ashland County, Wisconsin, to look at a very lost tropical falcon, a Crested Caracara.
- Pileated Update (May 31, 2024)
BB’s fine but somebody isn’t.
- Scarlet Tanagers! (May 30, 2024)
An unprecedented number of Scarlet Tanagers turned up on Peabody Street this year, and Laura was thrilled.
- Review: The Breeding Birds of Minnesota (May 29, 2024)
A beautiful, useful, and engaging tour de force.
- Red-headed Woodpecker! (May 28, 2024)
It’s a red-letter day when we see one of the prettiest woodpeckers of all.
- Katie's Boo Jays (May 24, 2024)
Laura recalls the birds who inspired her baby daughter’s second word.
- Merlin: All Wizards Have Limitations (May 22, 2024)
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has created two extremely useful apps for birders. Merlin is wonderful and useful, but far from perfect.
- Jelly Redux (May 21, 2024)
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.)
- Review: Kenn Kaufman's new book, The Birds that Audubon Missed. Part 2 (May 17, 2024)
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's new book: The Birds That Audubon Missed, Part 1 (May 16, 2024)
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.
- Lincoln's Sparrow (May 14, 2024)
Laura’s been in love with a pretty little sparrow since she first saw it in 1977.
- My favorite spring arrivals (May 7, 2024)
With birds, as with her children, Laura has trouble picking a favorite.
- Rat Poison (May 3, 2024)
Yet more owls have died, this time in Chicago, from rat poison.
- May Day! (May 2, 2024)
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.)
- Don't Count Your Chickens... (May 1, 2024)
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.
- Here come the chickens! (April 18, 2024)
If chickens found their way to Hawaii on their own, things would have worked out okay for everyone. Unfortunately, they brought humans along, too.
- The Sapsucker–Hummingbird Connection (April 17, 2024)
During spring migration, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds usually arrive a couple of weeks after Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers do, for a very good reason.
- Hawaii before chickens and humans arrived (April 16, 2024)
Millions of years ago, Hawaii was off to a rocky start.
- Chickens, Part 1.5: Kin of Chickens (April 11, 2024)
The rules of counting non-native birds are not always consistent.
- Chickens, Part I: Domestication (April 10, 2024)
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.
- Solar Eclipse! (April 8, 2024)
Laura remembers a wonderful eclipse from three decades ago.
- Trip Guilt and Guilt Trips (April 5, 2024)
Is using energy always the same as squandering it?
- Redpolls! (April 3, 2024)
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.)
- Jim Baker Announces a New Product! (April 1, 2024)
New for the traveling birder!
- Flaco: Post Mortem (March 29, 2024)
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?
- Stopping by Peabody Street on a Snowy Morning (March 27, 2024)
Laura waxes poetic about a poet.
- Separation Anxiety (March 26, 2024)
It’s hard watching children, or a Pileated Woodpecker, move on to independence.
- Every Day Is a Gift, Part 3: The Big Island (March 25, 2024)
The second half of Laura’s trip to Hawaii was just as wonderful as the first.
- Every Day Is a Gift, Part 2: Kauaʻi (March 21, 2024)
Laura’s trip to Hawaii kept getting better.
- Every Day Is a Gift, Part I: Oahu (March 20, 2024)
Laura’s trip to Hawaii was wonderful, every single day.
- Our Changing World (March 1, 2024)
The only constant is change, for better and for worse.
- Why I Live in Duluth (Feb. 29, 2024)
What drew Laura and her husband Russ to Duluth in 1981?
- February Update (Feb. 28, 2024)
How can it be spring before winter even arrives?
- Death of a New York Celebrity: Flaco the Owl (Feb. 27, 2024)
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl whose enclosure in the Central Park Zoo was vandalized, leading to his escape on February 2, 2023, died Friday.
- Mission Accomplished: Fieldfare!! (Feb. 23, 2024)
Laura headed back to Prentice Park in Ashland on Wednesday and this time saw (and got VERY bad photos) of the Fieldfare.
- Chickadee with a Deformed Bill (Feb. 22, 2024)
On Tuesday, Laura suddenly noticed a chickadee with a badly overgrown, crossed bill at her feeder.
- Fieldfare: The One That Got Away (Feb. 20, 2024)
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 Birding Trip (Feb. 15, 2024)
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.)
- Superb Owl Sunday (Feb. 14, 2024)
Laura’s annual celebration of Superb Owl Sunday was short on birds but did involve her first sighting of Girl Scout Cookies for 2024.
- A Matter of Balance (Feb. 9, 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?
- Warm Winter (Feb. 6, 2024)
Mild weather may seem good for birds, but several issues complicate it.
- So it goes.... (Feb. 1, 2024)
In the 38 years since Laura started producing For the Birds, many bad things have not gotten better.
- Brooding over Cicadas (Jan. 25, 2024)
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.
- More about the Golden-winged Warbler (Jan. 23, 2024)
The American Birding Association’s Bird of the Year for 2024 is one of the rarest birds not listed as endangered or threatened.
- Warblers! (Jan. 18, 2024)
For the first time, the American Birding Association named a warbler its Bird of the Year.
- Ancient Murrelets! (Jan. 11, 2024)
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.)
- Starting 2024 Right! (Jan. 8, 2024)
Laura spent last Wednesday birding in the Sax-Zim Bog with Erik Bruhnke. Highlights were a Great Gray Owl and a snowshoe hare.
- In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 3 (Nov. 18, 2024)