For the Birds Radio Program
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Review: Kenn Kaufman's new book, The Birds that Audubon Missed. Part 2
(May 17, 2024)
Kenn Kaufman managed to spark Laura’s imagination
Audio missing Permalink- Kenn Kaufman's new book: The Birds That Audubon Missed, Part 1 (May 16, 2024)
Kenn Kaufman has written an important new book. Laura begins her review by talking about her own personal feelings about Audubon and his work before Kaufman’s rich and enlightening book gave her a broader, more truthful picture of a deeply flawed yet important human being and his contemporaries.
- Lincoln's Sparrow (May 14, 2024)
Laura’s been in love with a pretty little sparrow since she first saw it in 1977.
- My favorite spring arrivals (May 7, 2024)
With birds, as with her children, Laura has trouble picking a favorite.
- Rat Poison (May 3, 2024)
Yet more owls have died, this time in Chicago, from rat poison.
- May Day! (May 2, 2024)
Not much is happening in Laura’s yard yet, but things will be popping within the coming week or two. (Lang Elliott recorded the Carolina Wren’s rolling trill. Laura recorded the wren’s song.)
- Don't Count Your Chickens... (May 1, 2024)
Chickens haven’t established themselves as wild, feral birds in most places in the world, but they’re still the most abundant bird on the planet.
- Here come the chickens! (April 18, 2024)
If chickens found their way to Hawaii on their own, things would have worked out okay for everyone. Unfortunately, they brought humans along, too.
- The Sapsucker–Hummingbird Connection (April 17, 2024)
During spring migration, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds usually arrive a couple of weeks after Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers do, for a very good reason.
- Hawaii before chickens and humans arrived (April 16, 2024)
Millions of years ago, Hawaii was off to a rocky start.
- Chickens, Part 1.5: Kin of Chickens (April 11, 2024)
The rules of counting non-native birds are not always consistent.
- Chickens, Part I: Domestication (April 10, 2024)
The most abundant bird on the planet, feeding billions of humans every day, is the chicken. Laura talks about how they became domesticated and some genetic differences between domestic birds and their wild ancestor, the Red Junglefowl. The recording used in this program is of a wild Red Junglefowl in India, recorded and contributed to Xeno-Canto by Lars Lachmann.
- Solar Eclipse! (April 8, 2024)
Laura remembers a wonderful eclipse from three decades ago.
- Trip Guilt and Guilt Trips (April 5, 2024)
Is using energy always the same as squandering it?
- Redpolls! (April 3, 2024)
Along with Duluth’s spring blizzard came redpolls! (In the background throughout, the sound is a recording of the redpolls at Laura’s feeder made this past Saturday, March 30.)
- Jim Baker Announces a New Product! (April 1, 2024)
New for the traveling birder!
- Flaco: Post Mortem (March 29, 2024)
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?
- Stopping by Peabody Street on a Snowy Morning (March 27, 2024)
Laura waxes poetic about a poet.
- Separation Anxiety (March 26, 2024)
It’s hard watching children, or a Pileated Woodpecker, move on to independence.
- Every Day Is a Gift, Part 3: The Big Island (March 25, 2024)
The second half of Laura’s trip to Hawaii was just as wonderful as the first.
- Every Day Is a Gift, Part 2: Kauaʻi (March 21, 2024)
Laura’s trip to Hawaii kept getting better.
- Every Day Is a Gift, Part I: Oahu (March 20, 2024)
Laura’s trip to Hawaii was wonderful, every single day.
- Our Changing World (March 1, 2024)
The only constant is change, for better and for worse.
- Why I Live in Duluth (Feb. 29, 2024)
What drew Laura and her husband Russ to Duluth in 1981?
- February Update (Feb. 28, 2024)
How can it be spring before winter even arrives?
- Death of a New York Celebrity: Flaco the Owl (Feb. 27, 2024)
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl whose enclosure in the Central Park Zoo was vandalized, leading to his escape on February 2, 2023, died Friday.
- Mission Accomplished: Fieldfare!! (Feb. 23, 2024)
Laura headed back to Prentice Park in Ashland on Wednesday and this time saw (and got VERY bad photos) of the Fieldfare.
- Chickadee with a Deformed Bill (Feb. 22, 2024)
On Tuesday, Laura suddenly noticed a chickadee with a badly overgrown, crossed bill at her feeder.
- Fieldfare: The One That Got Away (Feb. 20, 2024)
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 Birding Trip (Feb. 15, 2024)
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.)
- Superb Owl Sunday (Feb. 14, 2024)
Laura’s annual celebration of Superb Owl Sunday was short on birds but did involve her first sighting of Girl Scout Cookies for 2024.
- A Matter of Balance (Feb. 9, 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?
- Warm Winter (Feb. 6, 2024)
Mild weather may seem good for birds, but several issues complicate it.
- So it goes.... (Feb. 1, 2024)
In the 38 years since Laura started producing For the Birds, many bad things have not gotten better.
- Brooding over Cicadas (Jan. 25, 2024)
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.
- More about the Golden-winged Warbler (Jan. 23, 2024)
The American Birding Association’s Bird of the Year for 2024 is one of the rarest birds not listed as endangered or threatened.
- Warblers! (Jan. 18, 2024)
For the first time, the American Birding Association named a warbler its Bird of the Year.
- Ancient Murrelets! (Jan. 11, 2024)
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.)
- Starting 2024 Right! (Jan. 8, 2024)
Laura spent last Wednesday birding in the Sax-Zim Bog with Erik Bruhnke. Highlights were a Great Gray Owl and a snowshoe hare.
- Kenn Kaufman's new book: The Birds That Audubon Missed, Part 1 (May 16, 2024)