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...
by Sue Leaf | Jan 6, 2023 | Birds
The sharp-eyed chickadees in our yard have something to say when I come out to fill our bird feeders. “Dee-dee-dee!” they call. “Dee-dee-dee-! Dee-dee-dee!” as they land on a branch directly over my head. As it happens, they are most likely speaking in “Chickadese”, a...
by Sue Leaf | Dec 4, 2022 | Birds
A pair of diminutive red-breasted nuthatches has been frequenting our bird feeders in the past several weeks. Smaller and more colorful than their cousins, the white-breasted nuthatch, our pair cut a fine figure with their gray backs and rosy breasts, and jaunty black...
Recent Comments