Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Famous migration patterns of swallows and cranes is scary this year, as wild and domesticated birds are still dying of highly pathogenic avian influenza and humans are getting infected, but we're losing the very forces that usually manage these crises.

Laura is bewitched by Cuban Todies.

Laura's hearing loss has grown worse since the pandemic, but suddenly things are looking up!!

The morning after she got home from Cuba, Laura and her husband set out for East Lansing, Michigan, so she could see a chickadee in the same area where she saw her first exactly 50 years ago. The blogpost corresponding to this segment is much longer, with lots of photos.

Laura had a splendid trip to Cuba.

Elon Musk is hoping to set up a launching and landing area for his SpaceX Starships in a very vulnerable, important area.

Laura and Russ had a "Three Owl Morning" on Superb Owl Sunday.

Laura tells the true story of a baby Pine Siskin.

Laura's feeders are buzzing with the "Miss Congenialities" of the finch family.

STOP feeding ducks! Feeding other birds may be fine, depending on where you live.

Knowing when and when not to intervene when an owl seems distressed is not straightforward.

For a while in the 90s, Laura had two licensed education birds, a nighthawk and a Blue Jay, both lovable but entirely different. They inspired this story, written in 2020.

Laura's stayed healthy while birding in Central and South America, Europe, and Africa thanks to the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health.

BB the banded Pileated Woodpecker still visits Laura's yard now and then.

Jimmy Carter did not fail us. We failed him. (I used Lang Elliott's recording of a Brown Thrasher, the state bird of Georgia, for this program.)

Northern owls are staging an irruption this year, many of them physically stressed. Birders can't help but want to see them. If birders stick together and stay on the road, most owls can handle birders and photographers.

Laura has lots of plans to celebrate her "Year of the Chickadee."

It took Laura 67 days from receiving her first pair of binoculars to her going out to find her first bird. How did she spend that time?

Fifty years ago, Laura was abysmally ignorant about birds. And then--a miracle!

Humans aren't the only creatures who have a need to nurture and help others. (This program's transcript is the second half of the linked blogpost.)

More evidence that Laura's fifth grade teacher was the very best. (The transcript for this program is the first half of the linked blogpost.)

Reports of BB's demise were premature. When that happens to human beings, it can sometimes change history.

The banded Pileated Woodpecker who has been visiting Laura's yard for the past four years disappeared after a Cooper's Hawk was hunting in the vicinity. Laura expected the worst. But spoiler alert: he turned up again on Friday the thirteenth. While he was here, Laura recorded a video of him, which is the drumming sound at the beginning and ending of this program.

Laura remembers her fifth grade teacher, who taught her, via Rodgers and Hammerstein's original stage musical *The Sound of Music*, that real heroes stand up against cruel regimes even when there is no way to stop it.

How do birds fare during frigid weather?

General facts about albatrosses and good news about a very special one.

Laura remembers three Thanksgivings of the past, and how a Pileated Woodpecker keeps those memories alive.

Every environmental organization down in the Gulf during the BP oil disaster had to abide by a 5-year moratorium on ALL of their eye-witness information except as BP allowed. National Audubon did way more than honor BP's rules--they publicly parroted all of BP's false claims minimizing how bad the disaster was.

At the time of the BP oil spill, Laura thought some important organizations were complying with BP more than they should have. Now, as she explains, she realizes that most of them weren't cowardly.

Who can we trust after a major disaster?

Laura visited one of the four rehab centers allowed to treat birds oiled in the Deepwater Horizon spill.

Laura talks about the extremely low-tech and ineffective way BP tried to protect beaches and islands after the spill, and the even worse way they approached cleanup. There are many photos and a video on the accompanying blog post at (https://lauraerickson.substack.com/p/getting-away-with-murder-part-2)

As Laura faces her 73rd birthday in what feels like a hopeless time, she looks to chickadees. (This program was reworked from the "For the Birds" program from October 12, 2010.)

The BP oil spill was when Laura learned just how much power a corporation has over individuals; well-meaning and well-respected organizations and institutions; and our government.

Billionaires and corporations have too much power over us, birds, and the environment we need and share.

Birding may keep us young, but not literally.

Clean energy should be making us less, not more, reliant on huge transmission lines.

Power transmission lines can be very harmful for birds and human beings.

Laura recently returned from the American Ornithological Society's annual meeting. Some things have changed, and some remain the same.

Laura's has attended a few professional ornithological meetings through the years.

Blue Jays help protect each other from Sharp-shinned Hawks.

More cases of errors and mistaken identity, and one case of vindication

When Laura makes a mistake, she appreciates people who let her know about it, but notes that there are good ways and bad ways of doing so.

Laura talked to Lillian Stokes and Matt Young about their decision to include the finches of Hawaii (called the Hawaiian Honeycreepers) in their new book.

Matt Young is doing important work with his Finch Research Network to help one of Laura's favorite birds of all, the Evening Grosbeak. He and Lillian Stokes talked about this splendid bird and their new book.

When Laura talked with Lillian Stokes and Matt Young about their new book, *The Stokes Guide to Finches,* they talked about one of our most widespread, common finches, the American Goldfinch.

Laura spent time talking with Lillian Stokes and Matt Young about their new book, *The Stokes Guide to Finches*. Today they explain how they met and decided to produce this book.

On September 17, Little Brown will be releasing a great new book, *The Stokes Guide to Finches.* Laura explains why she likes it.

A plucky little survivor. Except when it isn't.

The mystery of Blue Jay migration, and the irony of human nature.