Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Birds often help people to connect with one another

Everyone knows that snow from Lake Superior squalls is magical; if Santa dusts his sleigh runners with it, he can keep his sleigh running even where it’s warm. But one year there was no snow in the northland. A raven saved the day!

Laura has some last minute gift ideas.

One of the most beautiful gulls is also one of the rarest and most elusive. Laura dreamed of seeing this bird for decades, and finally saw it in Ashland.

Poisoning blackbirds to protect sunflower crops that haven’t even been planted yet? There are better ways to control them.

When Laura and Russ searched for a house 20 years ago, they found a good one on Peabody Street.

A listener has a Varied Thrush visiting his yard in Cromwell

In a thorough examination of dead birds retrieved in New York after the outbreak of West Nile Virus, more of the birds had died from pesticides than the disease. Laura thinks lawn care companies should be prohibited from applying insecticides without evidence of actual problems with insects, and should be required to spot spray weeds where the weeds cover less than 10 percent of the lawn.

Any time a movie shows up with a Blue Jay in it, Laura’s going to like it. How serendipitous that this one showed up in theaters during National Blue Jay Awareness Month!

Laura read a news story saying the Monteverde Cloud Forest of Costa Rica is losing its clouds and humidity. Wildlife that tolerate warmer, drier conditions are moving in and cloud forest creatures are disappearing. The Golden Toad has entirely disappeared.

Laura and Russ watched the meteor shower on November 18.

The Erickson family enjoyed the first Harry Potter movie; Laura was of course especially taken with the owls.

Are we really getting older, or simply upgrading our system? Laura talks about the longest living wild birds.

Laura is calling this the start of National Blue Jay Awareness Month

In early winter, robins are a wonderful treat.

Why is the CDC trying to find a vaccination for West Nile virus to help crows and sparrows?

How can a non-hunter like Laura Erickson relate to hunters?

Laura slipped the surly bonds of earth on an ultralight aircraft.

Laura found some respite from the horrors of New York City in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where people from around the world were coming together in a spirit of cooperation.

Carl Sagan’s words give Laura comfort.

Laura got a phone call Wednesday from someone at the airport needing help.

This was produced during the week following September 11, 2001.

A new disease is scaring humans, and taking an even larger toll of birds.

A listener named Barbara asked Laura about what she could do when neighbors’ cats come into her yard.

Today Laura answers a listener’s questions about winter bird feeding and winter bird baths.

Our climate is changing, and the changes are already affecting birds.

This was written after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report, in the summer of 2001. Date of this is uncertain, but it came out a week after the report was released.

Laura and some young girls dissected owl pellets, and learned a lot about how and why owls produce them.

Summer vacation seems to stretch well into the future, but birds are already starting to migrate.

How many times does a hummingbird flap on its flight over the Gulf of Mexico?

You have to look for them, but plenty of warblers are still about.

Laura got to see lots of alcids—birds in the auk family—in Alaska.

A wonderful jay is named for a ship naturalist.

Our tiniest and loveliest falcon is often seen from roads and highways.

Laura and Russ took a cruise on a small ship through the Inside Passage, where Laura focused on birds.

Laura talks about the birds of superlatives which weighs about the same as two pennies—appropriate in a bird that likes to give us its two cents’ worth. And she thinks to herself, “what a wonderful world.”

Laura talks about a bird whose fragile wings carry it back and forth from here to Argentina every year.

Laura loves birding in Port Wing, Wisconsin, where she can count on familiar friends. What makes her love for bluebirds grow the more she sees them?

White-headed Woodpeckers are rare and declining; very dependent on mature, healthy stands of pine. That actually explains why they have a shorter tongue than most woodpeckers.

This year 1,085 Kirtland’s Warblers have been counted—a new high.

At Port Wing’s centennial celebration, celebrating the wealth of trees and fish a century ago, made Laura wonder if in another hundred years, people will look back on us with gratitude or melancholy.

Laura’s been watching the harsh after-effects of mowing pastures, calling to mind Robert Frost’s wonderful poem.

Laura’s gearing up for a trip to Alaska.

Laura answer’s several questions a listener sent.

White-tailed deer eat a lot more than plants. This was a slightly shortened version of the program that aired in December 2000.

Laura talks about one of our uncommon, secretive woodpeckers.

Laura hated this overblown “documentary.”

A poem by Mary Oliver and a bit of prose by Walt Whitman got Laura thinking about the differences between spirit and soul. (4:25)

Laura talks about some of the sounds we can hear after dark in spring.

Many producers use bird sounds in the soundtracks. Some make more sense than others.

Forest Tent Caterpillars are covering the north woods right now. The ways we control them can be worse than the caterpillars.

When some listeners brought Laura a hurt Saw-whet Owl, she discovered that it was at least seven years old! [UPDATE 2019: The Patuxent Bird Banding Lab lists the ages of four Saw-whets, 9 years 5 months (Ontario), 8 years 3 months (California), 7 years 5 months (Ontario), and 3 years 10 months (Ontario). For some reason, this bird didn’t make it into the record books. We weren’t told whether it recovered or not.]

Laura wrote this on May 9, 2001, while cradling in her hand a nuthatch, dying from the mortal wound of a cat.

Why search for intelligent life on other planets when we have so much right here on earth?

Making the world a kinder place may not necessarily require us to toss skunks across a ditch to make feeding safer for a Turkey Vulture. Or does it?

Why do we have favorite birds? And what are our obligations to protect the creatures with which we share this planet?

Laura’s bird book club will be discussing The Yearling tomorrow.

In 2001, why aren’t we working harder to conserve energy?

The end of winter is the hardest time of the year, even as some lovely signs of spring are already happening.

What is it about birds that attracts so many people to them?

Raging hormones do different things, depending on whether you’re a bird or a human.

Laura talks about the birds so striking that people pay attention.

Laura’s best experience in Costa Rica was seeing her first Resplendent Quetzals.

A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers is spending a lot of time in Laura’s box elder trees.

Laura loves the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Diversity of Animal Sounds and their bird song sets from many American regions and states and from foreign lands.

Laura started out learning bird songs with the Peterson recording. Now she uses the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs—most species are on their own track, and recordings are longer per species. She also likes Lang Elliott’s Know Your Bird Sounds and Wild Sounds of the North Woods.

Some birds are harder to see than others.

Laura enjoyed lots of hummingbirds in Costa Rica last month.

There may not be many birds in the northwoods this time of year, but the ones that are here are splendid.

Toucans turned out to be even more wonderful than Laura anticipated.

An increasing number of cardinals may be due to Duluth’s new cat leash ordinance.

Laura was thrilled with her first encounter with Orange-collared Manakins. (4:01)

Laura was captivated by Costa Rican ants.

Laura had big hopes for her Costa Rican trip. How did they compare to the reality?

Laura answers questions about maintaining winter bird baths and whether it hurts birds to stop feeding.

Laura looks into more bird-based expressions, including “looney” and “naked as a jaybird.”

Are bluebirds really happier than other birds? And where did the expression “to eat crow” come from? Laura talks about the origins of some bird expressions.

KAXE listener David Morrison told an interesting and heartwarming story about a baby grackle he’d raised, and how he knew it had become truly wild.

An increasing number of Black-capped Chickadees are turning up in Alaska; no one knows why this is happening.

People who spend their time in nature may enjoy many things, but birds are among the main creatures people enjoy. Alexander Skutch explains.

What is it about chickadees that we find so endearing?

Thanks to the Duluth City Council’s cat leash ordinance, we’re seeing more cardinals, and more of their babies are surviving.

When Laura a flock of Bohemian Waxwings flew along next to Laura’s car, she started thinking about how they dress and act like true Minnesotans.

This winter, Laura’s feeders have been hopping with birds, but she’ll be in Costa Rica this month so won’t get to enjoy them for a while.

Laura talks about the issues involved in providing water to birds in winter.

The story of the Poor Little Match Girl came to mind when Laura encountered a squirrel suffering from mange.

Laura wants to do a once-in-a-lifetime thing on 01-01-01, so she is headed to Costa Rica today!