Red-headed Woodpeckers

A strikingly beautiful bird, the Red-headed Woodpecker is difficult to misidentify, with its brilliant scarlet head, black back and a flash of white as it wings. Immatures look much different. They have a similar profile, but are dark on head, throat and upper breast....

The 2019 Christmas Bird Count

Members of Wild River Audubon gathered December 14, 2019 to participate in the National Audubon Christmas Bird Count. It was the chapter’s 44th count, beginning in 1975 and continuing every year to the present. This year, 26 individuals participated either by driving...

Annual Christmas Bird Count

Wild River Audubon chapter will conduct their 44th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Saturday, December 14th.  These bird watchers will try to accurately count as may birds as possible in the 15-mile circle that includes the Chisago Lakes Area, Taylors Falls, Franconia,...

Sandhill Cranes

In an Autumn when bad news abounds for bird lovers, let us rejoice in the comeback of the sandhill crane, a good-news story if there ever was one. In the mid-1800s, when settlers began moving into Minnesota in large numbers, the large, gangly birds were reasonably...

The Rapid Decline of North American Birds

On September 19, 2019, Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, published an article reporting that North America has lost three billion birds, approximately 30 percent, since the 1970s (find the article at this link). The study...

Tree Swallows in Autumn

The Tree Swallow with its snowy breast and iridescent green back feathers is one bird I welcome with joy each spring. This year I had for the first time in several years a pair of tree swallows nesting in my purple martin gourds in my yard. Several years back, there...