Summer Solstice Bird Walk

While it was not the sunny solstice evening hoped for, that did not stop a group of hearty birders from enjoying a stroll around Allemansratt Park’s Anderson Peninsula on June 20th.  It was baby bird season and goslings and ducklings were parading on the lake, a...

Dayle & Bonnie DeClerq Memorial Bird Walk

We could not have asked for a more beautiful spring day on which to resume our Wild River Audubon bird walks!   On May 15th a group of 12 birders explored the Amik’s Pond loop at Wild River State Park. Migrating warblers were anticipated and they did not disappoint...

Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias)

Leggy and elegant, the stately Great Blue Heron cuts a striking figure on Minnesota’s bird scene. We often see great blue herons wading in water on the edge of a pond, rapt and motionless, poised, it would seem, for a kill. Or they appear in the sky, necks drawn into...

Life of Bluebirds

“Life of Bluebirds” by Chuck Kartak is a 2 minute video available on the Wild River Audubon YouTube channel. Chuck,retired state park ranger and now an avid wildlife photographer, photographed these bluebirds at a friend’s home near North Branch,...

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

We had two inches of fresh snow last night and the landscape is wintry as I write this, so it is hard to believe that in just three weeks it is likely we will hear the first Red-winged Blackbirds in local marshes. T.S. Roberts records the earliest arrival in...

Protecting Our Birds from Lead Poisoning

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to view a short movie filmed by the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. The film showed a mature Bald Eagle writhing in the throes of a painful death from lead poisoning. Dr. Pat Redig, the director of the Center at the...