The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Thirteen years ago, a violent storm with a massive tornado tore through North Minneapolis, leaving a swath of destruction in its wake. Numerous people lost trees, had their roofs removed, or their homes destroyed. Walls were reduced to matchsticks. Among the...

Birding the Prairie Potholes of North Dakota

Three hundred miles northwest of Chisago County, a birding opportunity beckons. Each spring, the great migration of waterfowl and shorebirds passes over the Dakotas, with weary birds dropping into marshes to rest and refuel while in transit to summer nesting grounds....

American Woodcock (Scolopax minor)

The last sloppy snowstorm of the past winter fell in late March and brought with it an unusual visitor to our yard: an American Woodcock. Woodcocks are the oddest-looking birds, with a rather dumpy body, a long dagger of a bill, and big, dark eyes set far back in it...