by Sue Leaf | Oct 10, 2023 | Birds
There seemed to be something amiss in the aspens of the woods by our cabin in northern Wisconsin. It was mid-August and I had been sitting at my writing table when the ruckus wafted in through the open window. I cocked my head to listen. The calls sounded like those...
by Sue Leaf | Jul 1, 2023 | Birds
Bicycling the Chisago County back roads on fresh June mornings. I hear the ethereal, fluty call of the Veery. It spirals downward, as if it were blowing through a pipe, hollow and musical. More frequently, I hear their warning call. “Veer, veer,” loud and persistent....
by Sue Leaf | Jul 1, 2023 | Birds
As my Big Birthday approached, my sons proposed an appealing activity: Let’s do a “Big Day” in Chisago County to celebrate! Andy had recently read Kenn Kaufman’s classic memoir, Kingbird Highway: the Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder, in which Kaufman...
by Sue Leaf | May 16, 2023 | Birds
Some birders speak of “spark birds,” species that caught their eyes and launched them as birdwatchers. Canadian Julia Zarankin, in her wonderful memoir Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, describes her spark. On her first outing with a Toronto bird group, she...
by Sue Leaf | Mar 13, 2023 | Birds, Environment
Years ago, the first stop for us on the Christmas Bird Count was at Glenn and Elsie Reed’s farm on County Road 20. They fed birds from an enormous column feeder crafted to resemble a traffic light. In those years in which Glenn got his deer, he also hung the ribcage...
Recent Comments