A bunch of boys are getting together to tell us about the state of the birds in the US: On Thursday March 19th, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will release the first ever U.S. State of the Birds report. The report was developed by a partnership among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, [ Read More ]
The red-winged blackbirds are arriving in larger and larger flocks in Minnesota–spring. I got this photo on Monday while filming a segment with weatherman Rob Koch from KSTP. We were doing a segment on migration and I figured our best bet would be at the Minnesota Valley NWR–sure enough, there was a flock of red-wings. [ Read More ]
This is a trumpeter swan (that is banded, haven’t heard back on the origin of the neck band yet). The bird is preening (think of it as brushing its feathers). It’s rubbing its head over its preen gland on the back of its body and rubbing the oil from the gland all over the rest [ Read More ]
Some fun odds and ends: my buddy Amber was on the Nebraska news. She was co-leading a trip to see the massive amount of sandhill cranes in Nebraska. The group came across a huge flock of snow geese…and a local Nebraska tv station. Click here and you can see this Minnesota girl give a sound [ Read More ]
So, with all my crazy travels, it’s been tough to keep up with all my back emails. Boy, have I missed a whopper! Thank you, so, so much to Robbyn Spratt for sending this my way! Brace yourself, are you ready for this? Okay, here it goes: There’s a great horned owl nesting in a [ Read More ]
I thought I had planned my bird festivals so well this winter. Florida and San Diego–what better places could a Minnesota girl go to in January and March? Alas, both were a bit chillier than I expected. Florida had a record setting cold snap. And well, San Diego was still really warm at 50 degrees [ Read More ]
Don’t forget that this Thursday at 6pm at Merlin’s Rest is a Birds and Beers (Birds and Beers is an informal gathering of birders to sit down, have a beverage, and talk some birds). If you are remotely interested in birds, from the hardcore lister to the backyard birder to someone who saw a bird [ Read More ]
While at the San Diego Bird Festival, I got to enjoy one of my favorite bird species–the acorn woodpecker (this is a female above, she’s just as handsome as the male). I love this species, the first time I ever saw one was years ago in San Francisco. They look like they are about to [ Read More ]
One of the cool things for me, being a Midwestern girl is that when I go to the coasts, just walking out the door of my hotel room brings exciting birds for me like the young Heerman’s gull (it was foraging on the lawn and pandering for a handout). Have you ever seen an adult [ Read More ]
Well, if you are in the mood for something that you know will be gross, but you just can’t look away, here is a video I got of a western gull eating what looks like someone’s discarded catfish. Warning: entrails ahead:
