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ANN’S WINDOW TO NATURE It’s a beautiful day. Everything seems a little bit brighter now that our days are growing longer, and our temps are warming. There’s a feeling of “we made it through another Minnesota winter. How did our ancestors do it?” I couldn’t live in a region that did not have four seasons. As the snowpack melts, little…
ANN’S WINDOW TO NATURE “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” (1880s) Ralph Waldo Emerson Winter is a time for rest. Trees rest. Critters rest. We rest. As the days grow shorter and nights grow colder, we layer up with wool, fleece and down. We eat comfort foods cooked in the crock pot and we drink hot tea…
Want to attract more birds to your yard this winter? Supply a source of open water! When temperatures drop, birds are in a constant struggle to maintain their body temperatures. A steady source of fats and proteins will help to nourish and fuel birds’ metabolic needs and keep them warm. But also important—a source of water that is accessible (i.e.…
At All Seasons Wild Bird Store we celebrate Earth Day every day—in little ways. Earth Day was founded in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. The goal of the effort was to create public awareness and ultimately establish a federal bureau dedicated to clean air, clean water and threatened and endangered species. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since…
This morning I had the opportunity to tag along with George Brown as he checked nest boxes along the bluebird trail he maintains. You may recall from a previous blog post that George is the Ramsey and Washington counties coordinator for the Bluebird Recovery Project (BBRC). Checking on the nest boxes weekly is a critical function of maintaining a bluebird…
By Guest Contributor MELISSA BLOCK Have you ever noticed that newly hatched birds all look different? For example, baby cardinals are born helpless, bald, eyes closed and heads bobbing. In contrast, Wood Duck babies—which look like miniature versions of their parents— jump from their nest box after just 24 hours. Ornithologists classify birds as either altricial or precocial to describe…
Report by guest contributor MELISSA BLOCK (Minnetonka, Minnesota) This has been a crazy winter irruption this year—for some locales. It was predicted that we would not get a big influx of Pine Siskins this year, but we did, only early in the season. Most of them have now moved farther south. I know I was excited when I saw some…
Minnesota’s occasional winter birds An irruption is defined as a sudden change in population density of a species in a location. Simply put, it’s an influx of a bird species (or multiple species) that we don’t usually see in our area. Irruptions can occur in response to an increase in a species populations or a change in movement patterns based…
Birds spend a great deal of time caring for their feathers because their lives really do depend on them. A bird’s feathers keep them warm and dry, camouflage them from predators, attract mates during breeding season and, most importantly, give them flight. Here’s a video based on guest contributor Melissa Block’s article in the September/October 2013 edition of our Bird’s-Eye View newsletter. Here, she explains…
