Laura Erickson's For the Birds

The Wall Street Journal just posted a ridiculous article about bird-feeding.

Why is the Wall Street Journal writing front-page stories about the perils of bird feeding?

Why do birds figure so prominently in our Christmas cards and decorations? And what can we give them in return?

On the solstice, Laura talks about how birds sleep.

Northern birds can deal with snow and cold. But ice storms are exceptionally hard on them.

2002 marks the first year in Duluth Christmas Bird Count history that not a single Evening Grosbeak was counted.

Laura celebrates Beethoven’s birthday by noting how his connection to nature affected his music.

In many birds, the male and female may seem identical, but look entirely different to each other because they can see in the ultraviolet range. This understanding is allowing endangered birds to reproduce in captivity at the Brookfield Zoo.

Laura suggests a few books, including a new one that would make a great stocking stuffer.

This year’s Whooping Cranes have completed their flight to Florida.

Laura talks about how scientists got the idea of how to teach baby Whooping Cranes a new migration route so they could establish a second breeding population in Wisconsin.

Laura talks about the history of Whooping Cranes in America, and one tragic project to restore them.

The Pentagon is trying to get a bill passed that would exempt them from complying with many environmental laws. A Bush administration lawyer even made an argument that shows just how out-of-touch the current administration is, saying that bird lovers benefit when the military kills birds because “bird watchers get more enjoyment spotting a rare bird than they do spotting a common one.”

Laura talks about Thomas Jefferson’s favorite bird.

West Nile Virus appears to be killing a lot of chickadees in Illinois and Wisconsin.

The corvid family is famous for their brains. The Green Jay is as beautiful as it is intelligent.

When a bus broke down during a field trip for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers saved the day.

Laura was just at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, where she thoroughly enjoyed the Texas birds, especially the abundant but cosmically cool Great-tailed Grackles.

Laura reads a collection of light poems about birds.

Laura’s tribute to a true environmental hero.

How many leaves are on a single maple tree?

The Common Goldeneye and Bufflehead share their scientific name with Alexander the Great’s horse.

Watching children grow up and start driving set Laura’s thoughts to Blue Jays.

Operation Migration is hoping to take off today with this year’s group of cranes headed from Wisconsin to Florida. (Verified Date)

In labs, Barn Owls can learn complex behaviors incrementally, which has implications regarding both bird intelligence and helping humans.

Laura spent time in a Chicago suburb last week, thinking about West Nile Virus

Laura came closer than she’d have wanted to some tornadoes while she was in Indiana last week.

Why is autumn so evocative?

I have no idea of length or script or anything, and this was actually a repeat but no date from when.

Laura’s friend Steve Wilson made some astonishingly cool videos of Spruce Grouse.

Ornithologist David Bird has determined that kestrels and some other birds of prey are more faithful to their mates than other species.

Laura’s book club will be meeting this week to discuss Peter Matthiessen’s book about cranes, The Birds of Heaven.

After one dramatic story involving a Red-tailed Hawk made national news, Wisconsin birders started swapping other stories about amazing encounters with hawks.

Environmentalists are trying to protect the unique natural area along Park Point. Are they being obstructionists?

Laura is thinking about Abraham Lincoln today.

What can you do to help birds that collided with a window? And how can you prevent window collisions in the first place?

Laura talks about what we know about the problem of birds colliding with windows.

If adult fall warblers are tricky, their young are even trickier. So why do birders take such pleasure in identifying them?

West Nile Virus has hit Ohio hard, and the director of the Back to the Wild rehabilitation clinic has been dealing with the horrible situation.

A boater on Lake Superior came upon a sad bird disaster—warblers and vireos all about, some resting on his boat, some dead in the water.

Human babies are dependent on their parents for far, far longer than bird babies are dependent on theirs. But even human babies eventually fly away.

rerun, but not sure from when. (Listed on August 2002 calendar file from old computer, no time mentioned, not listed as a rerun)

rerun but not sure which previous date. (Listed on August 2002 calendar file from old computer, no time mentioned, not listed as a rerun)

When environmentalists cannot speak out in their capacity as private citizens without losing their jobs, something is desperately wrong with our democracy.

What has Nancy Newfield learned from decades of banding hummingbirds?

Laura spent a day watching and photographing Nancy Newfield banding hummingbirds near New Orleans.

(Listed on August 2002 calendar file from old computer, no time mentioned, not listed as a rerun)

Laura and Russ went birding in New Orleans last week. (4:29)

Betty, the New Caledonian Crow, is proving to be one smart cookie. (3:55)

(rerun but I don’t know which original) (Listed on April 2003 calendar file from old computer, no time mentioned, not listed as a rerun)

Rerun but I don’t know which program . (Listed on April 2003 calendar file from old computer, no time mentioned, not listed as a rerun)

Laura talks about some alternative seeds to offer birds in summer, and why it’s important to keep feeding hummingbirds at summer’s end and into fall.

Robins from further north are starting to join local birds in mountain ash trees.

Birds are on the move. Laura talks about what we should be looking for.

It took time, but Laura’s chickadees have started taking mealworms out of her feeder.

This summer two Brown Pelicans have turned up in Wisconsin. Laura went chasing for one.

(Listed on April 2003 calendar file from old computer, no time mentioned, not listed as a rerun)

Laura talks about the importance of keeping feeders clean, and the most typical kinds of food to offer when feeding our most common summer birds.

Laura talks about the birds she sees along the road as she drives.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is working on a Golden-winged Warbler atlas project. (4:05)

On July 30, an Anchorage newspaper reported that a Humboldt Penguin ended up in a fishing net in Alaska!

There’s something about robins…

Ticks, mites, lice, and all manner of other parasites make it tough to be a bird. (5:33)

Tyrannus tyrannus lives up to its scientific name.

The bird that once was the most abundant songbird of eastern forests has problems up here, but faces worse problems in South America.

Laura talks about one of her favorite birds, with a 2 1/2-foot wingspan that weighs a mere 2 1/2 ounces.

Laura is taking care of two baby Brown Thrashers. The sound in the background is these two little birds.

If hope and optimism mark spring, suddenly we’re seeing that a lot of those baby birds that have hatched out aren’t going to be around next year. Robert Frost’s poem, “The Ovenbird,” asks the question “What to make of a diminished thing.”

Laura just read a biography of Theodore Roosevelt, whose conservation accomplishments are monumental. Laura reads his lyrical account of an encounter with a Hermit Thrush.

Army Worms have taken over, but they’ll soon be gone.

Laura heard from a first-hand witness to how horseshoe crabs are disappearing.

Sometimes grape jelly can be harmful. Laura tells the story of a woman whose oriole got stuck in it.

Laura talks about the Boo Radley of the bird world.

Laura takes delight in many sparrows, perhaps most in Le Conte’s Sparrow

Laura gives a history of West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses, on birds and humans, and talks about why we must be careful about how we approach the mosquito problem to ensure that the cure isn’t worse than the disease.

Laura talks about some of the complaints people have about birds this time of year, and how to solve them.

Is there anything good about army worms? There is if you love cuckoos.

What makes a sound into a noise? (4:03)

An unexpected treat showed up in Laura’s yard for a week this month.

Laura had a splendid day birding Saturday.

Birds are utterly low tech creatures, but Laura finds herself more and more dependent on computers to watch them.

When Laura was in Costa Rica, she witnessed a comical scene between a manakin, focused entirely on keeping everything out of his little display area, and an antbird, entirely focused on walking across that very display area.

Laura hit a peak performance evening for woodcocks this year. Her exciting adventure ended with the stage direction, “Exit, pursued by a bear.”

White-throated Sparrows, the chipmunks of the bird world, are beautiful and tuneful enough to inspire us to look for other sparrows.

Laura was fixated on Resplendent Quetzals since she was a little girl; she spent some quality time with them in Costa Rica this month.

Laura and Russ visited Niagara Falls for the first time since 1993. What birds did they see?

Listen to some of the lovely sounds Laura is enjoying at dusk in Port Wing, Wisconsin.

Laura talks about the sparrows that migrate through each April

Laura reviews new birding software

Laura went to Costa Rica this month, where she thoroughly enjoyed hearing the national bird, the Clay-colored Thrush.

Now that Laura is 50, she’s wondering how many birds are that old. One Manx Shearwater who has traveled over a million miles during her 50-year life.

A reliable sign of spring grabs for all the gusto it can get.

Laura talks about the tug-of-war between winter and spring.

Laura talks about an endearing but shy little backyard bird, and the longterm study that taught us how they live.

Apparently Blue Jay Way was not the only mention of Jim Baker’s favorite bird in the Beatles’ repertoire.

It is a fact that towers kill birds. The question is what we’re prepared to do about it. Arguing that each tower is necessarily more important than bird lives, or that the research to minimize kills is too expensive, are reasonable approaches in debating the issue. Lying about the facts is not.

One of Laura’s favorite writers, Al Batt, also had an interesting experience with hot peppers while birding in Texas.

That spicy yellow marking by a Black-throated Gray Warbler’s eye makes Laura remember a literally spicy encounter with one.

They won’t be here for over a month, but Laura’s thinking about hummingbirds. (adapted for February 2019)

Laura drove between Duluth and Milwaukee, seeing the progression of spring.

A new species of plastic lawn flamingo seems to be popping up everywhere.

Since the 1980s, Laura has been on a mission to get “Blackburnian Warbler” or at least “Blackburnian” entered in the American Heritage Dictionary.

Laura grew up not knowing that there were books that could help her identify birds. Her first field guide, the Peterson Guide, was her portal into a new universe. His updated edition was even better. Now, after he has died, a new updated edition is being released this spring, which he had been finishing when he died.

American Crows provide plenty of hope that spring is here.

What are Laura’s favorite birds? (Outdated email address.)

What we put into our coffee is important with regard to bird conservation.

Coffee is a very important issue for birds.

Laura just missed celebrating Penguin Awareness Day on January 20.

Laura talks about the problems, but also some of the good points, of introduced species. Date not certain, but JANUARY 2002 is.

War is hell on birds, too.

Laura’s first sighting of 2002 was a chickadee!