Explore every episode of the podcast Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Duluth birders, and even many non-birders, have been enjoying a huge nighthawk migration this week.

There's a lot happening on Peabody Street these days.

Three months after the first Earth Day, Richard Nixon proposed charging the new Environmental Protection Agency with setting goals and standards regarding pesticides, clean air, and clean water, and it was soon given regulatory authority. Laura was as relieved and joyful as Princess Leia at the end of the first Star Wars movie.

Whether you're a fledgling woodpecker or a person on a bike, landings can be much more awkward than takeoffs.

Even though Laura, in her dotage, is growing forgetful and consumed with her grandson, she says it's not her fault that she didn't mention Blue Jays again after announcing that August was National Blue Jay Awareness Month. She blames the Blue Jays.

In this week's episode of her wonderful podcast, ["Going Wild,"](https://link.chtbl.com/LTZFSlMP?sid=FortheBirds) Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant talks with Christian Cooper, author of *Better Living Through Birding* and host of the National Geographic *Extraordinary Birder* television series.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are lingering in Duluth longer than usual this year. Why is that, and where are they headed?

Conservation biologists tend to compete and undercut one another rather than cooperating, which can hurt the birds they think they're helping. Laura's hero Chandler Robbins provided a stellar example of how cooperation can make things better for everyone, humans and birds alike. The blog link provides the transcript for Tunnel Vision, Part 1 as well, so you'll need to scroll down to get today's transcript.

Conservation biologists have to look beyond their specialties and cooperate if they really want to help birds. My blog link includes the transcript for both this and the next program.

People have a deep-rooted tendency to see the natural world as they first experienced it as "normal," without recognizing the many changes, including tragic, fairly recent losses, that were happening before they started paying attention. The illustration for today's podcast was created by John Schoenherr for Sterling North's 1963 book, *Rascal*, a memoir of his experiences as a child while his big brother was fighting in World War I. Schoenherr also illustrated the Caldecott Award-winning *Owl Moon*. Schoenherr gave me permission to use it in my own work, and I thought it worked well to illustrate how abundant nighthawks once were.

As long as Laura has been birding, and specifically as long as she's been watching Pileated Woodpeckers, she's still making new discoveries. (As usual, all the photos mentioned in this program are on today's blogpost.)

Nighthawks are not recovering their former numbers, but their massive decline seems to have at least leveled off.

Nighthawks have declined enormously between 1966 and 2015. Why?

Everyday life for most Americans in the 1950s and 60s involved a mind-boggling array of toxic chemicals.

Laura recounts two experiences--when she saw her first nighthawk, and when she rehabbed her first one--to explain why she loves this species so very much.

Paying attention to nature and the environment is every bit as important as paying attention to the marketplace.

This episode includes important warnings about birdbaths, feeders, and especially peanut butter! (IMPORTANT takeaway--never get peanut butter with xylitol or "birch sugar" as an ingredient.)

Laura's grandson Walter and her backyard Pileated Woodpecker are both three years old!

This August will have a blue moon, making this what Laura calls National Blue Jay Awareness Month. It's a good time to think about how Blue Jay adults look their scruffiest and most bedraggled in August, before they start looking their old selves again.

Laura plans to reduce her carbon footprint and have a lot of fun on a new e-bike.

Laura loves a truly wild little piece of central Florida protected and maintained by The Nature Conservancy.

Wild Florida's main attractions for visitors are alligators, sloths, and a "wild animal safari," but Laura was impressed with the wild birds she saw, and especially with the knowledge of an airboat captain who pointed out lots of cool things including her lifer Gray-headed Swamphens.

In April, Laura and her Explore Kissimmee group visited Discovery Cove, a limited-admission park owned by SeaWorld. Laura got great photos and had a lot of fun, but wishes the park provided more information about how and where these animals survive in the wild.

Lake Tohopekaliga is the best place Laura knows for getting good looks at Limpkins and Snail Kites.

Laura takes a momentary break from an important environmental issue to reminisce about a tragicomedy in the 1990s.

Kissimmee, Florida, in the most touristy part of Florida, is still rich in birdlife.

Florida's biodiversity and human diversity are at risk right now even as their governor is driving the state off a cliff, asleep at the wheel. Warning: Three times in this program I use the word "bullshit," twice near the beginning and once near the end. Some radio stations may have to bleep that out.

A Parasitic Jaeger turned up on Park Point in Duluth last weekend, and Laura spent some time watching it Wednesday.

It's time to pay attention to hummingbirds again!

Loons must teach their babies about danger, weighing just how dangerous every threat might be. The loon recordings used in this program were made by me during the pontoon boat experience recounted in the episode.

How do Blue Jays, Crows, and Pileated Woodpeckers teach their babies to avoid danger?

Magpies and crows in Europe are incorporating metal anti-bird spikes into their nests to keep other birds away. Laura finds this doubly "ironic," reminding us we're all in this together. The Eurasian Magpie recording was made by [Uku Paal](https://xeno-canto.org/contributor/XIBLXHRPJO).

Laura stopped eating beef ten years ago this week, and received a completely unexpected reward in the form of Pacific Golden-Plovers.

Laura's favorite Pileated Woodpecker has at least two fledglings.

What's happening on Peabody Street?

How did the nation come together to start the Environmental Protection Agency and pass the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts?

Lang Elliott's free "Hear Birds Again" app with his recommended headphones is "fantabulous."

When the Air Quality Index is high due to smoke particulates, is it safe to set out birdbaths?

Birders using eBird are making an invaluable contribution to science, conservation, and education. This summer the New York Times is collaborating with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to encourage more birders to use it.

Weather radar provides an excellent picture of the movements of migrating birds that has helped demonstrate how serious the losses of birds in North America have been.

The first test we had to measure changes in bird populations, the Breeding Bird Survey, was wonderful but had important shortcomings.

eBird has been a game changer in allowing birders to keep track of every bird they see, and to be able to access information about any of those birds quickly and easily.

When Laura started birding, the only ways of getting the word out about rare birds were slow and inefficient. eBird has been a game changer.

A quirky bird that is much more often heard than seen.

How do we explain to toddlers and nesting birds that they must stay indoors with filtered air to be safe as smoke fills the atmosphere?

New York Times Bestseller author Jennifer Ackerman has a brand new book about owls. *What an Owl Knows* is extensively researched, beautifully written, and comprehensive, covering just about every imaginable aspect of owl biology, behavior, and psychology, as well as how they figure in the human imagination. And Laura is delighted that her beloved education owl Archimedes is covered in depth. She used recordings of Archimedes at the start and finish of this program.

When Blue Jays and chipmunks stash away food, some people call them greedy pigs. They're not.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has developed an ever-improving but always free non-commercial app to help us identify bird songs.

Birds use song, not fences, walls, or flags, to mark off their territories, and never send anyone else off to fight their battles. (I'm using Lang Elliott's Mourning Dove recording to open and close this one because in 1998, Michigan declared the Mourning Dove its official Bird of Peace.

Starting the first day Laura started birding, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has been her most valuable and beloved ornithological resource.