Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Laura is heading back to California to end up her big year with a bang.

New York’s airports are now planning to get bird banders to trap and relocate Snowy Owls from the runway areas rather than killing them.

Laura spent a satisfying day in an Arizona canyon thanks to a wonderful bit of bad luck.

Birding can take the sting out of many disappointments.

At the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, Laura saw some birds with big crowds of people, and some on her own.

On the eve of her 62nd birthday, Laura thinks about the #62 bird on her lifelist, the Common Nighthawk.

Laura Erickson has been having a super year, but is wondering about the hectic pace she’s been following for her Big Year.

Laura Erickson is starting to get exhausted chasing birds so much.

Bird songs can make wonderful ringtones.

Even as we grow older, our capacity for astonishment can remain strong, especially when we enjoy birds.

Yes, in 2013, condors are still having problems with DDT. How is that possible?

Laura expected to see California Condors when she attended a field trip with the Ventana Wildlife Society. She never expected to see them at close range!

When the California Condor’s natural history and its history at the hands of humans collided, the species stood at the brink of extinction.

Many times when we look forward to something for many years, the anticipation exceeds the actual event. This was not the case when Laura finally got to go on two Debi Shearwater adventures.

For over 30 years, Laura has been looking forward to going on a pelagic trip–a trip into deepwater ocean–with Debi Shearwater.

Laura’s in California for the first time during her Big Year, looking forward to seeing lots of birds!

KAXE listener Paul Schanhaar writes about witnessing an impressive migration of Common Nighthawks.

Karl Bardon counted 30,874 Common Nighthawks on a single day this fall.

Why are Bicknell’s Thrushes declining?

Laura talks about her birding buddy from when she lived in Madison, Wisconsin.

Seeing degraded habitat first hand during her Conservation Big Year has made Laura give up eating beef.

Laura stopped in St. Louis to visit a dear friend and see a dear bird.

The only bird that breeds nowhere in the universe except Texas is a golden beauty.

Hiking in Big Bend in late July can be uncomfortably hot, but the day Laura did it, the temperature stayed below 72! She didn’t get photos of her two finest sightings of the day, but won’t be forgetting them.

The only way Laura could see every species of warbler that breeds in North America was to go to Big Bend National Park. And she saw plenty of cool birds before she even got there.

Mission Accomplished, and more.

A bird turned up in the US for the first time ever, and Laura decided to search for it.

Laura talks about why every species has a fundamental right to exist.

Laura spent a few hours on Machias Seal Island, up close and personal with puffins.

Laura managed to get the only space on a Bold Coast boat trip still available for July, and headed to Machias Seal Island.

Laura visited Machias Seal Island with her family in 1993. What was it like back then?

Laura talks about how people figured out that Bicknell’s Thrush was a different species from the Gray-cheeked Thrush, and how she finally saw one.

Laura drove to New England for her Conservation Big Year. Her most important goals were the threatened Bicknell’s Thrush in New Hampshire and puffins in Maine, but her drive out there was rich with bird and human encounters.

For her Conservation Big Year, Laura spent some time in Grayling, Michigan, with Kirtland’s Warblers.

Laura and her little dog Photon took a long walk in her favorite place, Port Wing, Wisconsin.

Some of our best tools for tracking bird numbers aren’t precise enough for declining species.

When scientists meddle in nature, even with the best of intentions and even as we move forward, there can be unexpected glitches.

Are the scientists who are trying to replicate Passenger Pigeons using DNA focused too much on genetics without considering other important factors?

This exceptionally cold spring is taking a huge toll on migrants through Duluth. How is this weather consistent with global warming?

A Wilson’s Plover turned up in Duluth this spring for the first time in over three decades, and Laura was in Duluth to see it.

When the needs of two species are pitted against each other, conservation biologists sometimes have to be creative. Some especially creative biologists are helping Marbled Murrelets by making Steller’s Jays vomit.

Some of the moments Laura is most treasuring during her Big Year have been with birds she’d seen many times before.

Expense is not the only difficulty in doing a Big Year.

Laura is doing what she’s calling a Conservation Big Year. How’s it going?

What’s the difference between a birdwatcher and a birder?

During a devastating drought, when only a single lone prairie-chicken remains on his lek, does he slow down his displays in discouragement?

By the end of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is utterly homesick for Kansas, and seeing her home through new eyes. So why wasn’t the end of the movie filmed in color? Rob Penner took Laura to see some of the beautiful, and colorful, Kansas countryside.

Bad weather all over is marking this spring

Laura spent a day in one small area of the Wichita Mountains, doing the kind of birding she loves best.

Laura spent a week in Colorado savoring the birds that require wide open spaces to survive.

Laura visited the Florida Scrub-Jay Trail to see how a handful of people are working tirelessly to encourage private landowners to protect habitat for the Florida Scrub-Jay.

Helping a handful of endangered species to recover has been fairly straightforward.

The number of feeder birds colliding into our windows drops dramatically when we move the feeders directly onto the windows.

Are Snow Geese really too abundant right now?

What made Laura fall in love with a mousy brown sparrow of drab fields? What are scientists learning about the Savannah Sparrow that makes it even more fascinating to her? And how can early mowing for hay change the genetic health of Savannah Sparrows?

Laura thoroughly enjoyed Bridget Stutchbury’s book, The Private Lives of Birds: A Scientist Reveals the Intricacies of Avian Social Life.

When he was running for Senate in 1982, Mark Dayton wrote in a letter to Laura, “We need senators and congressmen representing this state who will commit themselves to strong enforcement efforts by the EPA.” How does this reconcile with his efforts to put Minnesota mining projects on the fast track today?

Laura consideres Katrina van Grauw’s book, The Unfeathered Bird, one of the best books of the year.

Happy ending for one Evening Grosbeak.

In February, birders were seeing lots of Boreal Owls between Duluth and Two Harbors, and at the Sax-Zim Bog. Is this still happening?

Laura marks the anniversary of seeing her first chickadee.

How bad is the drought in Texas? Laura saw first hand.

Laura’s having opportunities to bird on her own or with one or two friends, and getting out with groups. Both approaches have their advantages.

What brought Laura to Duluth in the first place, and what holds her here?

Birders can enjoy Boreal Owls without bothering them or putting them at risk.

News reports about Wisdom the oldest known wild bird have missed some important details.

How can a 62-year-old albatross look so good?

Butcherbirds are songbirds that prey on meat, with innovative ways of killing and storing it.

Some Americans spend part of today watching a pigskin fly; Laura prefers owls.

Laura badly wanted to see Northern Gannets on a pelagic trip off Florida. She wasn’t disappointed!

Laura spent time some quality time birding on Sanibel Island

One place Laura wanted to visit during her Conservation Big Year was the Morton Arboretum, where she saw her very first Canada Geese ever, in 1975.

On her way to Florida, Laura made a stop in Madison, Wisconsin and spent a few hours birding with a buddy.

Laura searched several times before she finally saw her Barrow’s Goldeneye for the year.

Laura and Ryan Brady went birding together. Laura’s main goal was to see Ryan’s famous Northern Shrike–the oldest one on record.

More about the gulls of Canal Park and tips about learning how to identify them.

Laura’s been reading too much bad news about birds.

Gathering with other people to enjoy gulls is an annual tradition in Duluth

An experiment designed to prove that female birds feel pleasure when hearing the songs of males, and that males respond to the songs of other males as humans do when hearing unpleasant music required the researchers to decapitate their subjects.

Laura’s Big Year is beginning!