Laura Erickson's For The Birds

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.

Laura talks about her brand new book.

This year's Duluth Christmas Bird Count was a little low on both species and total numbers, but as always, Laura got to see and photograph some wonderful birds.

Laura did her annual trek on Saturday, December 17.

Wisdom, the oldest wild bird in the known universe, returned to Midway Island again!

One of Laura's college Shakespeare classes made a huge difference in her life.

Laura explains why she has taken more Shakespeare courses than most non-English majors.

Laura attended the University of Illinois from 1969-1971, when their mascot was the offensive and stereotypical "Chief Illiniwek." Due to pressure from students, alumni, staff, and the community, the U. of I. got rid of that mascot in 2008, but haven't replaced it with anything. A wonderful student, and now alumnus, named Spencer Halsey spearheaded a campaign to name a real-life blue-and-orange local bird, the Belted Kingfisher, the new official mascot. This is a splendid idea that deserves support.

It takes verifiable documentation for anyone, bird or human, to make the grade in *Guinness World Records*. But based on the standard for the entry "lowest temperature endured by a bird," the Black-capped Chickadee is definitely a contender.

Laura's been spending a lot of time perusing the *Guinness Book of World Records* this week.