Laura Erickson's For the Birds

One of the loveliest if arduous traditions of the year’s end is the Isabella Christmas Bird Count. This year’s number of species was slightly below average, and the number of individuals way below.

Now you can compete in carbon-neutral birding with a Big Green Birding Year

This year’s bird count was a record-breaker in many ways, most of them good.

What are Christmas Bird Counts all about, and how can you find out what’s been going on with winter populations of your favorite species?

Raising chickens in backyards as well as on farms has been a valuable way of producing food throughout American history. The group, “Duluth City Chickens” is searching for ways to make it possible for people to raise chickens in Duluth.

Laura just accepted a job with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She explains why she could qualify for a job with an Ivy League university when she does not qualify for a job at UMD.

Birds are quite hardy if they can get the food they need. Birds that feed on seeds borne high on trees can survive in northern winters more easily than birds that feed on weed seeds that get covered with snow

Birds migrate to wherever they need to go to get food.

When Laura started this radio show in 1986, some birds were far more abundant than they are now, and many ominous signs indicate that our children may not enjoy the birds we do today. What can we do?

Laura spent 23 years on this planet before she ever noticed a junco.

Laura talks about the exquisite vision of owls

Laura’s friend has a Varied Thrush visiting her Duluth feeder, and Laura got to spend some time watching it.

Laura very much likes this book about the problems our songbirds face.

What was a bird that belongs in Texas doing in Two Harbors, Minnesota? And why wasn’t Laura there to see it for weeks?

When Laura was in the Central Valley this month, she spent time in a park looking at a fun combination of wild and feral domesticated waterfowl.

Magpies have always intrigued Laura, since she first saw Heckle and Jeckle.

A lovely and hardy song bird of the frozen north.

Laura remembers the birds that have helped the military in times of war as well as peace.

One of the great New York pigeon fanciers, Frank Viola, has died. Laura talks about the history of pigeon racing in the Big Apple.

Laura has long yearned to visit the Bear River National Wildlife Refuge and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and this fall she and Photon took a trip to do just that.

A Halloween story about a man who missed his wife.

Autumn always seems to stir up somber feelings.

Nature according to Stephen Colbert doesn’t quite match what we experience in the north woods.

Birds and people are preparing for winter.

When bears are about, people pay attention

Laura loves living in a world where everyone sings, whether it’s birds in nature or people in a musical. And Hairspray’s main character, as cheerful and plump as a chickadee, filled Laura with cheer.

In fall, chickadee winter flocks get busy working out their social hierarchies so they’ll get along together all winter.

What do we ask of ourselves in times of war?

Birds are coming and going right now, but even after they’ve left, Laura will be keeping her hummingbird feeders going.

Last week over 5,000 Blue Jays were counted on a single day at Hawk Ridge. The spectacle is one of Laura’s favorite things about fall in Duluth.

Hawk Ridge weekend is coming up.

The annual Whooping Crane Festival at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge is over, but there’s plenty still to see.

Laura received a letter from a listener with interesting observations of a bathing Swainson’s Thrush.

Alex, Irene Pepperberg’s astonishingly verbal Gray Parrot, died last week.

White-throated Sparrows appear at the point where migration and miracles and magic converge.

Laura’s nuthatch made it through the night and showed steady improvement for seven days.

Laura took care of an injured nuthatch.

When lots of fascinating birds pass through during August migration, there’s an excellent chance that September and October will be equally good.

A visit to a hardware store got Laura thinking about nighthawks.

Even when fog envelops Hawk Ridge, there are sights and sounds to relish.

A walk at Tettagouche State Park this time of year gives some great looks of wonderful birds.

This year’s drought has been hard on many birds, but what’s bad for the goose isn’t always bad for those who take a gander at it.

When Laura heard about a Rufous Hummingbird near Solon Springs, she rushed to see and photograph it. She gives hints about feeding hummingbirds, and recommends watching your hummers closely for outliers.

Peregrine Falcons fledged weeks ago, but some of their antics are still on display in downtown Duluth.

Not all game birds are doing well. One facing increasing problems is the pintail.

Bird species are like bridges—we need to heed the danger warnings ahead of time to prevent catastrophes.

One of the rapidly declining but formerly very common birds deserves our attention.

The movie Oklahoma! gives us a model of how people with different interests and needs should work together.

Laura isn’t normally drawn to nature videos, but thoroughly loves Robert Baldwin’s A Loon Story. He spent an entire nesting cycle with a pair of nesting loons, and produced a perfect video.

How much of a danger do eagles, hawks, owls, and other predators pose to little dogs?

Laura and her daughter Katie took a long walk in Port Wing, Wisconsin.

On the eve before the last Harry Potter book comes out, Professor McGonagowl is concerned about how the owls will fare.

Mid-July can be quiet, but birding pleasures abound.

Once in a while, baby falcons get into trouble in a summer storm. And sometimes the story has a happy ending.

Laura’s annual Breeding Bird Survey had some good news and some bad news.

Birders and astronomers should join forces in fighting against light pollution.

One of the joys of birding is noticing cool mammals, too, like porcupines.

A friend of Laura’s in northern Michigan has a birdbath that draws in warblers, thrushes, and other elusive songbirds. How does he do it?

17-year cicadas are about as noisy and conspicuous as insects can be, but as soon as you get good at finding them, poof! They’re gone for another 17 years.

Laura talks about traveling and camping alone and why she’s unwilling to curtail her travels out of fear. “I take care of myself and am reasonably careful, but when my life comes to an end, I want my children and family and friends to know I lived my days happily and fully, and only died at the very end, not squelching my nature and killing my dreams all along.”

Laura’s Mourning Dove Survey revealed two doves at a distance; fortunately, she’d seen a pair up close and personal in Ohio just before. Her survey route doesn’t have many doves, but has plenty of other birds to make up for it.

There are thousands of lovely birds on this planet, and although Laura would feel bereft losing any of them, the world would be dark and humorless indeed without Blue Jays. She missed “National Blue Jay Awareness Month” in May because she hadn’t noticed that it had a Blue Moon here in America (the Blue Moon fell after midnight Greenwich time). But she’ll make today a special Blue Jay Awareness Day.

When a Snowy Plover was discovered on Park Point, Laura had to see it.

Why can’t ornithologists agree on bird names? Laura talks about a fun little bird she sees occasionally in north country, and more reliably at Disney World.

Laura and Russ just happened to be driving through Grayling Michigan, and stopped for a Kirtland’s Warbler tour.

Where cowbird control programs are helping endangered species, they may also be benefitting a variety of non-endangered songbirds.

In the first of this two-part series, Laura talks about the close association between cowbirds and bison, and why they pose less of a problem for some songbirds than others.

This beautiful flycatcher turns up in the Upper Midwest now and then, but the place to see it is in Oklahoma.

Laura went to Oklahoma during a spate of bad storms and tornados; it was ever so worth it!

A sudden heavy snow at a peak of migration put a lot of hummingbirds in trouble. How can we help them?

Laura gives the history of the Peregrine Falcon reintroduction program in Minnesota, and Duluth’s Peregrine nest box.

Laura talks about how birds use facial expressions and why Bell’s Palsy would be even harder for birds than for her.

Laura talks about robin spring behavior patterns.

Laura talks about working on the first Earth Day when she was a freshman in college.

One of Laura’s most popular blog posts ever has been for the transcript for this program, answering the question, Do birds fart? Short answer, no. Maybe.

As the Dr. Ruth of Ornithology, Laura explains why bird poop is so different from mammal poop.

Laura’s been explaining how bird bodies are different from mammal bodies. Today she explains how birds use those bodies to mate.

As the Dr. Ruth of Ornithology, Laura explains how male and female birds synchronize their sexual readiness.

Laura explains why she’s called the Dr. Ruth of Ornithology, and talks about how bird bodies work.

Laura talks about the loss yesterday of one of her heroes, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

What can we do to help birds get through late cold snaps?

Laura yearns for a world in which people acted like chickadees.

Laura talks about an ice storm that hit her neighborhood.

Laura’s friend Peter Dring sent her some fun stories from his days as director of the Little Red Schoolhouse nature center in Chicago, one about a joke he played on some field trip participants, and one about a joke played on him and lots of people by a crow named Whiskey.

A drumming Pileated Woodpecker sets Laura to wondering whether woodpeckers are considering the history of the trees they dig into as Aldo Leopold did in A Sand County Almanac.

One of Laura’s listeners sent some heartwarming stories about interactions with a Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a chickadee,

Laura quotes some works from her favorite poet on his birthday.

“Buzzard Bob,” who is in charge of the official count of Turkey Vultures on Hinckley’s annual celebration, shared some interesting information about this year’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Spring has sprung!

Laura spent a week in Guatemala immediately after a trip to Costa Rica. How do the two tropical countries compare?

Laura is headed for Guatemala. All her travel is wearing her out, even as she’s thrilled about the opportunity.

Laura tells more stories about cool encounters with wild birds.

Laura talks about some of her funny and unexpected encounters with wild birds.

Sometimes when you’re looking at one really wonderful bird, it’s serendipity to find another.

Newsweek published a “My Turn” column about a self-described granny shooting a cardinal. Laura is most seriously displeased.

All the young Whooping Cranes from last year except one were killed in a storm.

Planning for a trip to the tropics involves a range of preparations, from vaccinations to studying up on birds and deciding what to pack.

There are no absolutes when buying optics. Buy the best optics you can comfortably afford. Then stop worrying about it and go out and bird.

Laura went on a Duluth Audubon field trip where the birds were wonderful, from the Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers at the start to the Snowy Owl bonking into a Red-tailed Hawk at the end.

Every bit of progress we’ve made as a species has been based on science. Yet we’re not only ignoring important scientific evidence about climate change—this administration has been suppressing scientific data that doesn’t fit its policies.

Laura drove up to Silver Bay to see a Varied Thrush, catbird, and White-throated Sparrow. Are these and the many other rarities around this winter evidence of climate change?

Laura went birding with her friend Sharon Stiteler to find Short-eared Owls. They never did find the owls, but had plenty of other wonderful birds instead.

The woodpecker found further north than any other is turning up in more places than usual this year.

The 25th annual Isabella CBC took place on December 30. By day, Laura had a close encounter with two American Three-toed Woodpeckers, and by night, she had a very close encounter with a moose.

Laura’s first bird of the year was a regular old pigeon. To improve the prospects for the day and year, she headed up to the Sax-Zim Bog.