Laura Erickson's For the Birds
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Community
563 episodes
A post-mortem established that Flaco, the famous Eurasian Eagle-Owl whom a vandal released from the Central Park Zoo, was carrying lethal amounts of three anti-coagulants, a pigeon herpesvirus, and even a toxic metabolite of the pesticide DDT. Is anyone actually "free" if they have no alternative but to eat poisoned food?
It's hard watching children, or a Pileated Woodpecker, move on to independence.
The second half of Laura's trip to Hawaii was just as wonderful as the first.
Laura's trip to Hawaii was wonderful, every single day.
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl whose enclosure in the Central Park Zoo was vandalized, leading to his escape on February 2, 2023, died Friday.
Laura headed back to Prentice Park in Ashland on Wednesday and this time saw (and got VERY bad photos) of the Fieldfare.
On Tuesday, Laura suddenly noticed a chickadee with a badly overgrown, crossed bill at her feeder.
Last week, an incredibly rare vagrant from Eurasia turned up in Ashland, Wisconsin, sending Laura and Erik Bruhnke on a wild goose chase.
Preparing for a trip can start the fun weeks before I leave. (The accompanying photo is a Nene [Hawaiian Goose] taken by Russ while we were in Hawaii in 2000.)
Laura's annual celebration of Superb Owl Sunday was short on birds but did involve her first sighting of Girl Scout Cookies for 2024.
Laura's was having severe dizzy spells, but they're gone now that a physical therapist showed her "the Epley maneuver." Bird ears have the same structures as ours only with an even more sophisticated design. Do they ever get those dizzy spells?
In the 38 years since Laura started producing For the Birds, many bad things have not gotten better.
This spring, both the 17-year "Great Northern Brood" cicadas and the 13-year "Great Southern Brood" will emerge from underground. These innocuous insects cause absolutely no damage, but their noise is astonishingly loud, so many people over-react. The pesticides people used during the "Great Eastern Brood" emergence in 2021 are believed to have killed a lot of birds.
The American Birding Association's Bird of the Year for 2024 is one of the rarest birds not listed as endangered or threatened.
For the first time, the American Birding Association named a warbler its Bird of the Year.
Why have so many Ancient Murrelets, who belong in the northern Pacific Ocean, turned up in the Great Lakes, and even in Tennessee, in late 2023? We may never know. (The accompanying photo is of the Two Harbors bird, taken by Erik Bruhnke on December 9, 2023.)
Laura spent last Wednesday birding in the Sax-Zim Bog with Erik Bruhnke. Highlights were a Great Gray Owl and a snowshoe hare.
Laura's first bird of the year was a Pileated Woodpecker. In addition to enjoying her backyard birds, she's preparing for her trip to Hawaii next month, by studying the birds and getting herself back in shape for the adventure.
Laura cancelled an exciting trip for this coming February, but is doing well enough that she cancelled her cancellation.
Laura's surgery was successful and she's back looking at, and photographing, birds!
When we read books to toddlers, we're not only enlarging their picture of the world--we're enlarging out own.
Reading to babies and toddlers has a great many benefits for us adults as well as the wee ones.
