Laura Erickson's For the Birds

What does it mean when your first bird of the year is a pigeon?

One of Laura's listeners and readers, Linda Peplinski, gave Laura a lovely reminder of Thomas Hardy's poem *The Darkling Thrush.*

Five percent of Laura's joy in a trip comes during the planning stages; 45 percent comes during the actual trip; and a full 50 percent comes in the days, weeks, and years after the trip is over.

Laura's back from a wonderful trip.

Laura's daughter, turning 42 years old on December 10, is facing a hard ordeal.

On December 8, Laura plans to go to sleep on the far side of the Equator.

Tech companies and data centers will squander electricity and water until we impose strict regulations and give them cost incentives.

Why would anyone use AI to create fake birds when reality is so splendid?

Little by little, we've become inured to more and more technological intrusions, some of which bear enormous environmental costs.

It's comprehensive and includes birds of Hawaii now, but is too big to carry in the field, and the font is much too small to be readable for me.

What's a cattle egret doing just outside Duluth around Halloween?

Laura talks about how she protects herself from sunburn, bug bites, and falls while traveling, and also how she manages her heavy equipment in her dotage.

Laura is trying to keep her body fit and healthy so she can keep birding.

Now that Laura's in her seventies, she's developed a few strategies for keeping her mind and body fit for birding tours.

A Black Phoebe, a species of the American Southwest not known for wandering, showed up at Gooseberry Falls this weekend.

On Saturday, Laura saw a brand new, long-coveted state bird for Minnesota--a Chestnut-collared Longspur

Laura tells us about her experiences with a group of little birds that were once considered sparrows.

When Laura was in Guyana, she fell in love with this stunningly beautiful bird, a species that is globally endangered thanks to the pet trade.

Laura's Guyana trip this year was led by one of the best bird guides Laura has ever spent time with. What makes a good bird guide truly great? Laura will be doing a live Zoom presentation about her Guyana trip for subscribers (free or paid) of her Substack blog next Tuesday night (October 21 at 7 pm CDT). The program will be recorded and made available on her website.

How can we find owls on our own?

The more bird banders learn about owls, the more questions they have.

After saw-whet owls molt out of their baby feathers in summer, it's impossible to look at any Northern Saw-whet Owl and know what sex it is or how old it is unless it's in the hand and we're armed with measuring tools and a black light.

Laura got to spend Saturday night watching saw-whet owls get banded at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory.

Birds flying at night must avoid collisions with obstructions as they take off and land, and with one another as they cruise along. How do they do it?

Park Point's been a happenin' place this week! A couple of extremely rare vagrants were there for days or at least hours, but Laura wasn't as lucky as she wished.

How can birds find their way in the dark? The answer is nuanced, so today's program is condensed from the much longer blogpost.

Why do birds with poor night vision migrate at nighttime?

Laura got a crush on the boy in front of her in homeroom sixty years ago this week!

Thirty-one years ago, Laura and her family had some very memorable experiences with two baby flickers.

How can some birds survive a Minnesota winter while others must leave?

When the American Ornithological Society's Committee on Classification and Nomenclature announces their annual changes to the official Checklist, birders take notice!

Even as species decline, bird migration is thrilling to behold.

Laura's world seems fresher, more magical, and genuinely miraculous now that she's a grandma.

For many birds, the end of summer marks the beginning of spanking new feathers. Too bad adults have to go through that awkward molt to get them.

Laura talks about hummingbirds and gives some tips to make life better for our backyard hummingbirds.

Horrible news on the bird as well as human front is making it hard for Laura to keep up.

Laura’s many visits to Florida have forged beautiful memories of family, friends, and birds. But she’ll not be returning while the state hosts and even celebrates horrifying ICE facilities, including a concentration camp within the Everglades.

One of Laura's readers got photos of a Blue Jay sunbathing, or "sunning," last week, reminding Laura of when she first learned about this interesting behavior. His photos, along with information about a similar behavior called "anting," are on Laura's blog entry.

On July 14, BB the Pileated Woodpecker turned up in Laura's yard with a daughter!

Back in 2022, Laura was interviewed by a writer for LIFE magazine. It totally slipped her mind until one of her friends read the article, which is on newsstands now.

Watching backyard nests can be very joyful, when starlings or predators don't intervene.

As much as Laura loves watching baby birds, she is very reluctant to look for nests.

Birds don’t ostracize individuals from their social flocks based on “objective sex-based differences.” That would undermine their civil society.

Birds don’t ostracize individuals from their social flocks based on “objective sex-based differences.” That would undermine their civil society.

One of Laura's readers was distressed by the last episode of "For the Birds." Laura stands by every word. We can protect our pets from diseases and also protect our backyard birds with one simple, straightforward rule: If your pets get flea and tick protection, don’t set out their fur for nesting birds.

Treatments to protect dogs (and us!) from insect bites turn out to make that pet fur, and our own treated clothing, dangerous for birds.

Treatments to protect dogs (and us!) from insect bites turn out to make that pet fur, and our own treated clothing, dangerous for birds.

It's been over 4 months since Laura saw her beloved BB, but now he's back!

Four-year-olds should not have any concept of the Air Quality Index. What world are we bequeathing them?

Laura thinks the sudden surge in Red-headed Woodpeckers in her neck of the woods may be due to emerald ash borer and the sudden surge in dead ash trees.

In many ways birds are superior to us humans, and also luckier. This is exactly the kind of program that has inspired some people to call Laura the "Dr. Ruth of Ornithology." The accompanying blog post has a lot of worthwhile photos listeners might want to see.

This bird of machismo and contradiction keeps scientists guessing.

Laura doesn't like the idea of bucket lists, but she does have a wish list.

Laura feels wealthy in ways Elon Musk or Donald Trump never will.

Laura's trip to Florida's Dry Tortugas was a wonderful success.

Laura and her birding buddy Bernie went to Chamber's Grove last Wednesday to see the annual visit by hundreds of American White Pelicans.

Laura reflects on this year's Earth Day compared to the first Earth Day in 1970.

Laura talks about taking photos through window glass.

Laura is headed to South America next month, and is studying up.

Laura leaves next Friday for a birding tour of Florida's Dry Tortugas.

Laura was ready with her camera to capture an exciting interaction between a Common Merganser and a northern pike.

Laura claims she's done thinking about the number of birds on her many bird lists.

Woodcocks are back in the Northland, much to Laura's delight.

The longstanding sponsors of "For the Birds" have updates: Billionaire Earth Angel is embarking on a new project to prove people were banding birds 45,000 years ago, and Jim Baker just added a new, secret ingredient to his already perfect Baker's Blue Jay Blend.

Of the seven species of woodpeckers on Cuba's official checklist, one is almost definitely extinct and one has appeared in the country only as an extremely rare vagrant. Laura saw all five of the others on her February visit to Cuba.

Seeing Bee Hummingbirds in Cuba last month filled Laura with joy.

During this bird flu outbreak experts are cautioning people to leave bird carcasses where they are, even though functionally illiterate eagles, dogs, and other creatures have been infected by these carcasses. Laura made a decision about how she will handle this situation if a carcass turns up in her yard.

Every spring it's important to make sure our feeders are safe for birds. During this bird flu outbreak, this is more important than ever.

Famous migration patterns of swallows and cranes is scary this year, as wild and domesticated birds are still dying of highly pathogenic avian influenza and humans are getting infected, but we're losing the very forces that usually manage these crises.

Laura is bewitched by Cuban Todies.

Laura's hearing loss has grown worse since the pandemic, but suddenly things are looking up!!

The morning after she got home from Cuba, Laura and her husband set out for East Lansing, Michigan, so she could see a chickadee in the same area where she saw her first exactly 50 years ago. The blogpost corresponding to this segment is much longer, with lots of photos.

Laura had a splendid trip to Cuba.

Elon Musk is hoping to set up a launching and landing area for his SpaceX Starships in a very vulnerable, important area.

Laura and Russ had a "Three Owl Morning" on Superb Owl Sunday.

Laura tells the true story of a baby Pine Siskin.

Laura's feeders are buzzing with the "Miss Congenialities" of the finch family.

STOP feeding ducks! Feeding other birds may be fine, depending on where you live.

Knowing when and when not to intervene when an owl seems distressed is not straightforward.

For a while in the 90s, Laura had two licensed education birds, a nighthawk and a Blue Jay, both lovable but entirely different. They inspired this story, written in 2020.

Laura's stayed healthy while birding in Central and South America, Europe, and Africa thanks to the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health.

BB the banded Pileated Woodpecker still visits Laura's yard now and then.

Jimmy Carter did not fail us. We failed him. (I used Lang Elliott's recording of a Brown Thrasher, the state bird of Georgia, for this program.)

Northern owls are staging an irruption this year, many of them physically stressed. Birders can't help but want to see them. If birders stick together and stay on the road, most owls can handle birders and photographers.

Laura has lots of plans to celebrate her "Year of the Chickadee."

It took Laura 67 days from receiving her first pair of binoculars to her going out to find her first bird. How did she spend that time?

Fifty years ago, Laura was abysmally ignorant about birds. And then--a miracle!

Humans aren't the only creatures who have a need to nurture and help others. (This program's transcript is the second half of the linked blogpost.)

More evidence that Laura's fifth grade teacher was the very best. (The transcript for this program is the first half of the linked blogpost.)

Reports of BB's demise were premature. When that happens to human beings, it can sometimes change history.

The banded Pileated Woodpecker who has been visiting Laura's yard for the past four years disappeared after a Cooper's Hawk was hunting in the vicinity. Laura expected the worst. But spoiler alert: he turned up again on Friday the thirteenth. While he was here, Laura recorded a video of him, which is the drumming sound at the beginning and ending of this program.

Laura remembers her fifth grade teacher, who taught her, via Rodgers and Hammerstein's original stage musical *The Sound of Music*, that real heroes stand up against cruel regimes even when there is no way to stop it.

How do birds fare during frigid weather?

General facts about albatrosses and good news about a very special one.

Laura remembers three Thanksgivings of the past, and how a Pileated Woodpecker keeps those memories alive.

Every environmental organization down in the Gulf during the BP oil disaster had to abide by a 5-year moratorium on ALL of their eye-witness information except as BP allowed. National Audubon did way more than honor BP's rules--they publicly parroted all of BP's false claims minimizing how bad the disaster was.

At the time of the BP oil spill, Laura thought some important organizations were complying with BP more than they should have. Now, as she explains, she realizes that most of them weren't cowardly.

Who can we trust after a major disaster?

Laura visited one of the four rehab centers allowed to treat birds oiled in the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Laura talks about the extremely low-tech and ineffective way BP tried to protect beaches and islands after the spill, and the even worse way they approached cleanup. There are many photos and a video on the accompanying blog post at (https://lauraerickson.substack.com/p/getting-away-with-murder-part-2)