Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Mark Kastel, who listens to “For the Birds” on WDRT in Viroqua, Wisconsin, shares a lovely experience with Barn Swallows.

One of Laura’s correspondents was having problems with too many starlings at her feeding station. How did she solve it?

When we pay attention to special individual birds in our backyards, we have more at stake during horrible cold spells. Laura is nervous about some birds she hasn’t seen lately, but also got some wonderful news about an individual bird she’s never even seen but deeply cares about.

A few weeks ago, KUMD listener Frank Koshere wrote to Laura about the importance of exposing small children to natural sounds.

Laura didn’t see a single owl on Superb Owl Sunday this year–birds are hunkering down during this cold spell. How can we help them?

We may be going through the coldest spell of the entire winter, but there are signs that winter is just about over.

This Sunday is the day Laura celebrates as Superb Owl Sunday. What will she see?

Last time, Laura reminisced about what she was doing when she was seven. Today she talks about how those early experiences shaped her life as an adult.

Last week Laura talked about Bob Hinkle’s question, “What were you doing when you were seven?” Today, she talks about her own experiences at that age.

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.