Duck Hunting in Minnesota

A recent column by StarTribune staff writer Dennis Anderson covered the proposed changes to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources waterfowl hunting regulations. See “DNR’s proposed duck rule changes run afoul of reality”. The proposed...

How to Count Birds at a Bird Feeder

1) First of all, find out if you live in our Audubon Count Circle. To give you a rough idea, our circle’s epicenter is at County Roads 20 and 12, and extends for a radius of 7.5 miles in all directions. If you think your feeder is within the count circle, text, call...

American Robin (Turdus migratorious)

Our woods are alive with bird chatter as I write. A large flock of robins have dropped in and are hanging out in our woods and they have a lot to say! They forage through the leaf litter, peruse the branches for a rare berry still on the branch, and drink from our...

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)

A pair of Eastern Phoebes once again occupied the nest tucked under the eave of our cabin on Lake Superior. The nest is at least twenty years old, and may be much older. I’m assuming the same pair, or children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc. are in residence....

Book Review: “Owls of the Eastern Ice”

Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2020) Blakiston’s fish owls are huge, the “size of a fire hydrant” according to researcher Jon Slaght. Living in Russia’s Far East, Siberian...