Laura Erickson's For the Birds cover art

All Episodes

Laura Erickson's For the Birds — 286 episodes

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Title
1

Discovering Texas with Russ

2

Turning my universe right-side up.

3

Piping Plovers nesting at Wisconsin Point!

4

Botflies

5

Blowflies and other external parasites

6

Savoring and Wondering

7

Neighborly Exchanges

8

Feeding peanuts and corn safely.

9

When does autumn begin?

10

Forget Forgetfulness, Part 2: Blue Jays Just Wanna Have Fun

11

Forget Forgetfulness, Part 1--Symbiosis between Blue Jays and oaks.

12

Peabody Street Happenings

13

Hope for the Future

14

Bird Life on Islands

15

A future trip jogs memories of a past trip

16

Monarchs as Bird Food

17

Air Quality, Part 2

18

Air quality, Part 1

19

Canada Jay: What's in a Name?

20

Blue Jays: Family Ties, Part 2

21

To Sin by Silence

22

Moving Forward, and Now Backward, on the Lead Issue

23

How Lead in Ammo and Tackle Harm Wildlife

24

How Lead in Hunters' Ammo Harms Humans

25

Lead in Human History

26

Blue Jays--Family Ties, Part 1

27

Ludwig Part 3

28

Ludwig the Blue Jay, Part 2

29

Ludwig the Blue Jay, Part 1

30

My Top Ten Favorite Birds

31

Not a very warm welcome

32

You CAN Go Home Again

33

Down to the Wire (Time Sensitive)

34

Whip-poor-will

35

NDAs and Our Culture of Secrecy, Part 2: Democracy dies in darkness

36

NDAs and Our Culture of Secrecy, Part 1: Not All Secrets Are Bad.

37

An Essay by My Inspirational Mentor

38

"Anything Can Happen" Day

39

Thank You, Horned Larks

40

The Colors of Everyday Life

41

Harris's Hawk and the Movie "Hamnet"

42

For the Birds Retrospective, Part 3: Things start to get silly.

43

For the Birds Retrospective Part 2-Radio?!

44

For the Birds Retrospective: Part 1, seeking my niche in the Duluth birding community

45

OLDIE: Jim Baker's Oil of Ojay

46

OLDIE: Jim Baker's Blue Jay Board Games

47

OLDIE: Turn Around

48

OLDIE: Jim Baker's Jaybelline Eye Cosmetics

49

OLDIE: Where, Oh Where

50

OLDIE: Testimonials about Earth Angel Bird Identification Binoculars

51

OLDIE: Baker's Blue Jay Video Games

52

OLDIE: Baker's Blue Jay Blend: Not Just for Blue Jays Anymore

53

The Brown Creeper Who Went to School

54

Brown Creepers

55

The costs of AI and the "Cloud" (Revised and updated)

56

Our Growing Reliance on Big Data

57

Of Baseball, Curling, and Boreal Owls

58

The Green Green Grass of Golf

59

The Green Green Grass of Home

60

Monofilament

61

"Set of Years"

62

Bucephala!!

63

Superb Owl Sunday 2026

64

Hummingbirds Pre-History

65

Hummingbirds: The Big Picture

66

Blue-gray Tanager!

67

Cocks-of-the-rock!!

68

Chickadee Strong

69

Enough is enough

70

The Day of the Condor, Part 2

71

Day of the Condor, Part 1

72

2026: The Year of the Pigeon?

73

The Darkling Thrush

74

Homecoming

75

Ecuador!

76

Katie's Birthday

77

Ecuador!

78

Energy Star

79

Fakery

80

Big Data

81

Book Review: New edition of the National Geographic guide

82

Another October Rarity: A Cattle Egret!

83

Dealing with the sun, insects, difficult terrain, and heavy equipment

84

Staying Healthy for Birding at 73

85

Keeping my brain sharp at 73

86

A Black Phoebe in Minnesota?!

87

Chestnut-collared Longspur in Two Harbors!

88

Longspurs!

89

Sun Parakeet

90

My Top Bird Guides: Leon Moore

91

Saw-whet Owl Banding, Part 4: Finding Saw-whet Owls

92

Saw-whet Owl Banding, Part 3

93

Saw-whet Owl Banding, Part 2

94

Saw-whet Owl Banding, Part 1

95

How Do Nocturnal Migrants Avoid Collisions?

96

The One That Got Away, and the One That Didn't (Just Barely)

97

Nocturnal Migration: Navigation

98

Nocturnal Migration: Why?

99

Sixty Years

100

Summer of the Flickers

101

Why do birds migrate?

102

Armchair Lifers

103

August Bird Movements

104

A Little Boy Turns Five

105

The Omega and the Alpha

106

The Bold and the Beautiful

107

Beyond Florida: Everything Everywhere All at Once

108

Florida: Why I Love It, and Why I'm Boycotting It, Part I

109

Sunbathing, Blue Jay Style

110

O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!

111

WHOA! I'm quoted in a special edition of LIFE!!!

112

Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket, Part 2

113

Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket, Part 1

114

Biological Realities, Part 2

115

Biological Realities, Part 1

116

Dog fur controversy?

117

Setting out pet fur for birds is dangerous.

118

My Boyfriend's Back!

119

Darkening Skies

120

Out of the ashes...

121

Hey! My eyes are up here!

122

Magnificent Frigatebird

123

Magnificent Frigatebird!

124

Wealth

125

The Dry Tortugas!

126

The Pelicans of Chamber's Grove

127

Earth Day 2025

128

Through a Glass, Darkly

129

Guyana!

130

The Dry Tortugas!

131

Birding with a Camera

132

Emerging from a Numerical Haze

133

Woodcocks!

134

Updates from Earth Angel and Jim Baker

135

Cuban Woodpeckers

136

The Tiniest Bird in the Universe

137

What to do if you find a dead bird in your yard

138

Bird feeding recommendations during the bird flu outbreak

139

Bird Flu Update

140

The Most Adorable Bird in the Universe

141

A Personal Ray of Hope

142

My 2025 Chickadee Pilgrimage

143

Cuba!!!

144

Explosions R Us

145

Superb Owl Sunday 2025

146

The Best Pine Siskin EVER!

147

Pine Siskins!

148

Bird Flu Update

149

Another Owl Adventure

150

The Completely Made-Up Story of Frederick the Nighthawk and Sneakers the Blue Jay

151

Staying Healthy While Birding in Other Countries

152

BB Update

153

A Great American President

154

Owl Irruption

155

Year of the Chickadee, Part 3

156

Year of the Chickadee, Part 2

157

Year of the Chickadee, Part 1

158

Empathy: An Innate Quality

159

Learning Empathy from the Best

160

Premature obituaries

161

Exit, pursued by a Cooper's Hawk

162

No Way to Stop It

163

Frigid Temperatures

164

Albatrosses

165

Thanksgiving 2024

166

In Retrospect: The BP oil spill. Part 5b--Complicity

167

In Retrospect: The BP oil spill. Part 5--Staying alive to fight another day

168

In Retrospect: The BP oil spill, Part 4

169

In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 3

170

In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 2

171

Look to the Chickadees

172

In retrospect: The BP Oil Spill, Part 1

173

Standing up to them

174

You're not getting older, you're getting better--oh, wait--you ARE getting older

175

Transmission Lines, Part 2

176

Transmission Lines

177

Going to a Scientific Meeting in 2024

178

Going to Scientific Meetings in Past Decades

179

Emergency Responders: Blue Jay Style

180

Mistakes R Us

181

Oops! Correcting the record

182

Stokes Guide to Finches: Hawaiian Honeycreepers

183

Stokes Guide to Finches: Evening Grosbeaks

184

Stokes Guide to Finches: Goldfinches

185

For the Finches: How Lillian Stokes and Matt Young connected thanks to Red Crossbills

186

Book Review: The Stokes Guide to Finches

187

American Golden-Plover

188

Blue Jay migration

189

Birdbaths!

190

Nighthawks!

191

Peabody Street Update: The Good News and the Bad News

192

Hummingbirds!

193

Joan Brigham at 100!

194

Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 5B: Why Vilify Rachel Carson?

195

Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 5 A: The battle on the DDT front

196

Birds Off a Feather

197

The bear necessities and other close encounters of the mammalian kind

198

Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 4: The Empire Strikes Back

199

In the Catbird's Seat: A momentary diversion from more important matters

200

Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 3: A New Hope

201

Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections, Part 2: Pollution—A Way of Life

202

When a Stranger Knocks (A momentary diversion from more important matters)

203

Crafting Invincible Environmental Protections Part 1: How Bad It Used to Be

204

Hoarding

205

Crow vocalizations and good news

206

Crows and the Unknowable

207

My Backyard Habitat

208

Flashcards

209

Veery

210

Superiority

211

Golden-winged Warblers

212

Connecticut Warbler

213

A Tale of Two Endangered Species: Bachman's and Kirtland's Warblers

214

Looking for Wood Thrushes

215

Loggerhead Shrike!

216

Crested Caracara in Wisconsin

217

Pileated Update

218

Scarlet Tanagers!

219

Review: The Breeding Birds of Minnesota

220

Red-headed Woodpecker!

221

Katie's Boo Jays

222

Merlin: All Wizards Have Limitations

223

Jelly Redux

224

Review: Kenn Kaufman's new book, The Birds that Audubon Missed. Part 2

225

Kenn Kaufman's new book: The Birds That Audubon Missed, Part 1

226

Lincoln's Sparrow

227

My favorite spring arrivals

228

Rat Poison

229

May Day!

230

Don't Count Your Chickens...

231

Here come the chickens!

232

The Sapsucker–Hummingbird Connection

233

Hawaii before chickens and humans arrived

234

Chickens, Part 1.5: Kin of Chickens

235

Chickens, Part I: Domestication

236

Solar Eclipse!

237

Trip Guilt and Guilt Trips

238

Redpolls!

239

Jim Baker Announces a New Product!

240

Flaco: Post Mortem

241

Stopping by Peabody Street on a Snowy Morning

242

Separation Anxiety

243

Every Day Is a Gift, Part 3: The Big Island

244

Every Day Is a Gift, Part 2: Kauaʻi

245

Every Day Is a Gift, Part I: Oahu

246

Our Changing World

247

Why I Live in Duluth

248

February Update

249

Death of a New York Celebrity: Flaco the Owl

250

Mission Accomplished: Fieldfare!!

251

Chickadee with a Deformed Bill

252

Fieldfare: The One That Got Away

253

Preparing for a Birding Trip

254

Superb Owl Sunday

255

A Matter of Balance

256

Warm Winter

257

So it goes....

258

Brooding over Cicadas

259

More about the Golden-winged Warbler

260

Warblers!

261

Ancient Murrelets!

262

Starting 2024 Right!

263

Happy 2024

264

A Promising New Year

265

Birding on a Warmish December Day

266

Birding on a Cold November Day

267

Toddler-Approved Bird Books, Part 3b

268

Toddler-Approved Bird Books, Part 3a

269

Florida Scrub-Jays, Part 3: To Feed or Not to Feed

270

Thanksgiving 2023

271

Let's Talk Turkey

272

Toddler-Approved Books, Part 2: Identification Guides

273

Toddler-Approved Bird Books

274

Scrub Jays: From one species to four

275

The Healing Grace of Birds

276

Florida Scrub-Jay, Part 2b: To Know Them Is to Love Them

277

Florida Scrub-Jay, Part 2a: To Know Them Is to Love Them

278

What's in a Name?

279

Birding Ethics

280

Our Responsibilities in Old Age

281

Florida Scrub-Jays, Part I

282

When Plans Go Awry

283

Flamingo Road, Part 2

284

Flamingo Road, Part I

285

When Numbers Get Serious

286

Odd-tober!