Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Laura’s mentor Bob Hinkle asked a profound question. The answer will affect how committed each of us is about protecting the environment as an adult.

Laura has been looking through what she wrote about a baby Pileated Woodpecker she raised in 1998 and thinking about how it learned new things compared with how her baby grandson is figuring things out. She also talks about how some birds understand reflections in mirrors better than others.

The American Birding Association’s Jeff Gordon wrote, “Pileated Woodpeckers have gone from seeming like supernovae to something more like the full moon: impressive and enchanting, and mysterious, yes, but neither rare nor unpredictable.” Laura agrees.

Why do we talk about dinosaurs as if we’d actually seen them?

Laura drove up to Stoney Point this weekend to see a lost little bird, quite possibly of the same species that Pa Ingalls brought home in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, The Long Winter.

John Bachman, one of John James Audubon’s friends, wrote about a rather horrifying encounter with Pileated Woodpeckers for Audubon’s Birds of America.

Sick siskins, flying condors, bird brains, and a major award for a poet who has read some of his work on “For the Birds” are in the news.

Listening to bird recordings can bring us a lot of pleasure, and enhances our sense of well-being. But how does that compare to listening to real bird songs?

It took Laura 6 days to see this year’s new ABA Bird of the Year. Where were her two Pileated Woodpeckers before that?

Laura started the year right, with a day of birding in the bog.

Laura’s New Year’s wish is to see lots of Evening Grosbeaks this year. We’re in the midst of a “finch superflight,” but Evening Grosbeaks have been few and far between in Duluth. Laura talks about why.