Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Last month, a Eurasian Eagle-Owl escaped from the Central Park Zoo in New York City and, despite many efforts to capture him, seems to be doing fine on his own so far. David McArthur, one of Laura’s podcast listeners in New York, wonders if he can count this bird on his life list?

This year, some plucky little Eurasian Tree Sparrows, far from their species’ established range, have been wintering in Superior, Wisconsin. Laura and Erik Bruhnke spent Saturday morning looking for them.

Just in time for spring, Laura’s friend, wildlife biologist, and all-around good person Jerry Wayne Davis has a great suggestion for improving our nest boxes–add bark to the front to give birds a more secure and comfortable perch.

It may not look like it yet, but spring has sprung.

Most birders do not keep track of the date on which they saw the first bird on their life list, but that doesn’t matter.

Family vacations can be fun for everyone, as long as we remember that every one of us enjoys different things.

Birds and grandchildren learn to trust us to do the right thing.

Laura talks about things to consider when buying new binoculars

Laura went out with her husband Russ Sunday in hopes of seeing an owl on Superb Owl Sunday.

Some birds depend on conifers for very specific reasons.

Today Laura talks about the importance of conifers—both trees and shrubs—in backyard habitat, for providing food and shelter both.

A birder named Bridget Butler has been teaching wonderful workshops and online classes about “Slow Birding”—connecting with the birds we see rather than rushing and listing. She did not write the new book titled Slow Birding, a new book by Joan E. Strassmann, which would better have been titled Detailed Descriptions of Some Ornithological Research Projects on Some Familiar Birds.

Many of the tagged species are not mentioned in the podcast but are discussed in the blogpost.

As night transitions into morning, Laura likes watching the birds show up in her yard, one by one.

Cats and glass windows each kill about a BILLION birds every year in the United States. Before inviting birds to your yard, consider making your windows bird safe.

As important as quality backyard habitat is, we must first make sure we’re not luring birds to their deaths. Cats and windows each kill about a BILLION birds in the United States every year. Laura talks about outdoor cats today.

Most Mourning Doves leave northern Minnesota in winter, but listener Kelli Alseth wrote to Laura about one visiting her Proctor feeder this winter. Doves are very vulnerable to cold, but a few stick it out up here. Kelli is doing everything right to ensure that her bird has as good a chance of surviving as possible

After growing irritated with the birdwatchers who smugly criticize the way other birdwatchers watch birds, Laura talks about the many ways people can enjoy birds, hoping every individual can find their own individual path.

Blue Jays and chickadees have two different ways to eat a sunflower seed.

There are at least four ways that birds eat sunflower seeds. Today Laura explains two of them.

Seeing videos of a rescued baby beaver building a dam out of plush toys and Christmas decorations last week reminded Laura of when she was a rehabber, and how wild birds adapted to an unnatural environment.

Virtually all of the transcripts of “For the Birds” programs are available on my blog, usually with photos. I didn’t take a lot of pictures back when I was rehabbing in the 80s and 90s–film and getting it developed were expensive! But for this program I did post photos of my little daughter holding this particular Sora. Listeners may enjoy seeing them.

For the first time ever, Laura didn’t wonder what her first bird of the new year would be–she was thinking about which individual Pileated Woodpecker she’d see first in 2023.

The Belted Kingfisher has been selected as the 2023 Bird of the Year by the American Birding Association, stirring up lots of memories for Laura.