Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Today Laura Erickson announces a new contest–to see who can attract the most birds to a northland feeder. (3:35) Date confirmed.

Today Laura Erickson talks about some of the birds that were introduced in the United States. (3:56) Date confirmed.

Today Laura Erickson talks about the totals of this year’s Christmas Bird Count. (3:58)

Today Laura talks about bird feeding issues in winter.

Today Laura Erickson talks about a new environmental issue—Forest Fragmentation.

Laura Erickson took a vacation to Florida last month. Today she talks about the birdlife she found there.

Tomorrow is Duluth’s annual Christmas Bird Count—an annual rite of December.

This was for KUMD’s fall fundraising drive.

Garry Trudeau’s iconic birdwatching character, Richard Davenport, died in 1986 while photographing a Bachman’s Warbler in Yosemite. Laura re-recorded this program.

This was for KUMD’s fall fundraising drive.

This was for KUMD’s fall fundraising drive.

This was for KUMD’s 1988 fall fund drive.

Today Laura Erickson talks about a true bird of the Northland, the White-breasted Nuthatch.

Today Laura Erickson talks about the bizarre mating habits of sea ducks.

What is it like to have a birdwatcher for a mother? Laura Erickson tells the sad but true story on today’s “For the Birds.”

Laura remembers the boys she went to elementary school with who died in Vietnam.

Recast from 7-28-1986 (3:35) Date confirmed.

Recently a North American warbler made the national news when it found its way to Scotland.

Is winter really here? The birds seem to think so. (3:31) Date confirmed.

Today Laura Erickson talks about Minnesota’s crow hunting season, which ended yesterday.

On this Halloween, Laura Erickson talks about a raven that doesn’t fit the spooky stereotype. (3:40)

Laura Erickson is going to be taking a trip to Washington
D.C. to find out if birds can survive in our nation’s capital.

When you go on a trip to a new place, how can you find out the best places to go and what birds to expect?

How can bird counters possibly identify the many birds flying over?

Laura finds herself jealous of birds when she’s washing dishes or doing laundry.

Getting professional help from a licensed rehabber is not only the best way to care for an injured bird; it’s usually the only legal way.

A fascinating group of birds is flying through the northland this fall.

An encounter between two birds brought to Laura’s mind the debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle.

A WOJB listener tells Laura about chickadees that feed from his hand.

Laura talks about her little boy Joey’s favorite bird on his birthday.

93,948 birds, mostly robins and warblers, were tallied flying over the Lakewood Pumping Station on Saturday. Laura is still reeling with quantification. (4:04)

Golden-crowned Kinglets and little toddlers named Tommy make Laura think of Louis Armstrong and what a wonderful world this is.

Why do some Blue Jays migrate? Why are male Sharp-shinned Hawks so much tinier than females? How is it possible to count tens of thousands of hawks in a single day? And why do people spend time counting them?

Laura talks about migrating geese, with Rachel Field’s poem.

How does a shy, unassuming college student get transformed into a passionate birdwatcher?

Laura met a birder at the Lakewood Pumping Station who was familiar with one of her favorite experiences. (3:51) Date verified.

Great birds and stimulating discussion with Pete Dunne marked this year’s Hawk Ridge Weekend.

What’s it like waking at 5:30 to go count birds? (3:47) (Recast at some point–changes in script)

The rule never to feed hummingbirds after Labor Day is FALSE.

Westerly winds, and a huge fire in Yellowstone, are sending some amazing western birds our way.

For the Birds will now be airing 5 days a week.

The skies of autumn are pulsing with the wingbeats of migrating birds, coursing through their arterial flyways like the blood of life.

When are geese a gaggle, and when are they a skein? (3:45)

Laura reads Robert Frost’s poem, “Reluctance.”

Why we need an ornithologist in the White House.

How do birds breathe or otherwise get oxygen inside an egg? (Program dedicated to Russ)

A gorgeous spectacle may be happening right now.

Laura is helping a young grackle become wild. (3:45) Date verified.

Laura probes such questions as what bird’s beak is shaped like Dudley Moore’s nose and whether birds engage in the kind of bigamy that Moore’s character did..

How do birds keep their feathers clean and supple?

Pintails have declined dangerously in the past decade.

Mourning Doves are not a legal game bird in Minnesota, but are in many other states.

Laura talks about a rare bird that showed up briefly—all too briefly—in Duluth, and speculates about where rare birds come from. (Date verified.)

Laura talks about sea swallows and a book of puns.

More and more people are asking Laura about Double-crested Cormorants.

How do birds survive extreme heat?

Laura has information about sleeping birds.

Some birds adapt well to city life.

Today Laura Erickson talks about the many complaints she received about her crow-hunting program, and talks about Bentsen Rio-Grande State Park in Texas, which has ties to a Vice Presidential nominee.

Army worms are another problem this year, but cuckoos are doing their best to solve that one.

This year’s drought seems to be bringing out the worst in some people, and affecting birds as well. (3:57) Date confirmed.

The movie and the book on which it is based have many strengths as well as some weaknesses.

Laura heard from a listener with a report of a black bird rubbing mothballs on its feathers. (3:32)

Laura found opportunities to study birds, and perhaps to be studied by them, on Burntside Lake when she was teaching an Elderhostel.

Laura is most seriously displeased by the no-holds-barred open season on crows in Minnesota.

Dinosaurs still walk, and fly, the earth. (Remade from 12-1-86 )

Laura gives some tips for if you find a baby songbird.

Army worms are taking some of the pressure off Ring-billed Gulls in the area of bad PR. (3:40)

Summer bird songs give Laura a sense of time and place. (4:08) date confirmed.

While the American Birding Association is in Duluth, Laura shares some of the songs of our most-sought-for species. (4:09) Date confirmed.

Laura talks about a warbler found in our northern bogs that birders everywhere yearn to see.

The American Birding Association is meeting in Duluth this week, so Laura talks about some of the birds birders come to Duluth in hopes of finding. (4:01) Date verfied.

Poet and etymologist John Ciardi inspired Laura to start producing For the Birds in the first place. Thinking about him got Laura thinking about the etymology of bird names. (4:00)

The familiar little “teeter-tail” of shorelines is fascinating as well as common.

The state bird of Georgia is a master of mimicry. (3:42)

Laura talks about the bird that produces a soft, dreamy buzz, which is a trademark of lazy summer days. 4:04

What pretty, dainty bird gravitates to sewage ponds?

Laura plays some of the common bird songs we hear up here. (4:01) Date confirmed.

Laura celebrated Donald Duck’s 54th birthday, and her daughter Katie’s half birthday (Katie was 4 1/2) with this program about Donald Duck.

Laura talks about an extraordinarily beautiful and tuneful bird. (4:00) (This was recast for a later program–not sure of the date but I’m assuming it goes with the placeholder on May 27, 1994.)

Some people look at the stars to tell the future, which may not be any less scientific than looking at bird entrails. (4:02), date verified.

Laura’s daughter has chicken pox, making Laura wonder how the disease got its name. (3:53)

From White Fang’s first wild-caught meal to the bird that makes the weirdest call in the universe, the Willow Ptarmigan is pretty pterrific, even if the “p” at the start of the word doesn’t really belong there.

An Indigo Bunting turned up at a feeder in Duluth, delighting a KUMD listener.

Today is the birthday of one of the great people of the 20th Century. (4:16) Date confirmed.

Laura would rather you were outside listening to actual birds right now.

Eagles are nesting again.

Laura talks about a bird that scientists have poked and prodded and studied to make several interesting discoveries. (4:10)

Laura talks about a bird named for the costumed pantomime actors of the Italian stage.

One Michigan bird requires fire for its very survival.

Fire and drought affect birds as well as people. We can at least help our backyard birds. (3:56) Date confirmed.

Laura talks about one of our common birds and the woman who researched them.

Laura slightly updated her program from 1986 about this popular feeder bird.

Laura talks about this misunderstood and often maligned group.

Laura explains some of the mechanisms of bird migration.

The welcome chip of the Yellow-rumped Warbler is everywhere right now.

Richard Nixon was one of the people who helped bring Peregrine Falcons back to Minnesota. Huh?!

Laura has noticed that birds are few and far between in science fiction movies, but do turn up here and there in SF literature. Date verified.

To feed or not to feed, that is the question.

New arrivals, and an intriguing explanation of where the Grand Rapids robins were all winter.

Minnesota’s legislature is considering opening a crow season, but Laura is most seriously displeased.

Jeanne Tonkin, the French teacher at Ordean Junior High School, helps us learn a few words in French.

Laura did a late-night owl census near Floodwood on April first.

The winner of this year’s Last Robin of Winter is announced.

Pine Siskins are everywhere all winter, and were counted in huge numbers along Lake Superior this fall.

Laura had a peculiar bird at her feeder two weeks ago. 3:47 (This is the original recording). (Re-recorded in 1989, 3:56)

Duluth is famous for the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. On April 1, 1988, Laura takes us to the scene of another great race. This episode features Joe Erickson, John and Karen Keenan, Mary Tonkin, and a gasp from Britta Keenan.

Laura encourages listeners to check out her April Fools program.

More bird reports!

Laura has Red Crossbills visiting her feeder for the first time. (3:24)

From nests to wintering robins, Laura answers listener questions and reminds everyone to send in entries for the Last Robin of Winter contest.

Wildlife researchers are studying Great Gray Owls to foster nesting in Minnesota, thanks to the Minnesota DNR Nongame Wildlife Program.

Laura talks about juncos, that are everywhere right now.

Our timber wolf is yet another reason to support Minnesota’s Nongame Wildlife Program.

In the 1986-87 season, federal agents arrested a former Ducks Unlimited national trustee for violating game laws in Louisiana. He now admits that from the time he was a child he violated bag limits, as does everyone else he knows.

Laura celebrates her wedding anniversary with a discussion of bird hearts. (4:01)

Minnesota’s owls provide 12 more reasons why you should contribute to the DNR’s Nongame Wildlife Program.

How Shakespeare’s ignorance about the difference between starlings and mynahs caused an ecological disaster in America centuries later.

(This is a re-recorded program, originally aired February 4, 1987.)

In this promo for the Minnesota DNR’s Nongame Wildlife Program, Laura talks about their work saving the Peregrine Falcon.

How does tropical deforestation affect our birds?

Seeing crows brought a poem by Wordsworth to Laura’s mind, and she has a tip for smelters.

Laura is ambivalent about caring for and releasing injured birds.

Why do waxwings have those little red markings on some feather tips? (Reworked for November 1999–I guessed the date as the 15th)

Is spring just around the corner?

Does your mind ever take a momentary vacation? A bird’s never does. Laura Erickson tells why on today’s “For the Birds.”

Once every four years, we humans are forced out of our little world of man long enough to adjust our schedules to a higher universal order.

How would birding skills measure up in the Winter Olympics?

Northlanders are seeing a few unusual sparrows right now.

This program was sparked by an article in the Duluth News-Tribune about kiwi fruit with the headline “Fruit named for a bird sprouts wings of its own,” which seemed an inappropriate reference to a bird which has no wings at all, not even metaphorical ones.

Laura talks about how and why some robins stick out the winter, and announces a contest.

Laura recounts some of the 115,000 birds tallied at the Lakewood Pumping Station this fall, with the heartening news that U.S. West has withdrawn their proposal to build a tower on Moose Mountain.

Laura talks about a bird that almost everyone likes.

Laura gets a wee-bit political at the end of this revision.

Birds are so different from mammals because they fly.

Redpolls are finally turning up in good numbers. (3:59)

Artis Orjala wrote to Laura about a beautiful and rare bird in Aitkin.

State birds are selected for a wide range of reasons.

Many birds form one or both members of mutually-beneficial partnerships. (4:06) Date confirmed.

Mid-air collisions between birds and aircraft have happened since the Wright Brothers.

Siskins are everywhere this year!

What makes birds so alluring?

This is the first program Laura wrote to celebrate her mother-in-law. (3:55)

Laura talks about the Bohemian Waxwings that seem to be everywhere this winter.

How many seeds are in a 50-pound bag of sunflower seeds? Laura’s family figured this out just so she could figure out how birds keep warm in winter.

Birds judge one another by the content of their character, not the color of their feathers.

How can we see eagles when lakes are frozen?

Laura received an interesting letter from Helen Nordman about Hairy Woodpeckers.

Eagle eyes live up to the reputation.

Sometimes fish turn the tables on birds. And sometimes birds feed fish without getting eaten.

American Goldfinches can remain up here all winter. Once spring comes, they pair off early but don’t nest until mid- or late-summer.

Every bird we see on New Year’s Day is new if you keep a year list. This is the very first time Laura used her line, “No one should go through life listlessly.”