Ann McCarthy, manager of our Eagan All Seasons Wild Bird Store location, shares her family’s bird feeding story. Birdland It all started with a bird feeder… In the mid-70’s my folks moved our family to Eagan. We settled in to our new home located on an acre lot that included a small pond. Around us were cornfields, woodlands and mostly…
The Blue Jay is one of our loudest and most colorful backyard songbirds. The mighty jay is fearless, great at mimicking and an outstanding survivalist known for intelligence, complex social systems and tight family bonds. Here are some insights into the life and habits of this gregarious species. That Amazing Color and a Fantastic “Mohawk” This large-crested bird has various…
The crazy, hazy, lazy days of late summer call for a great reading list! Bird lovers will enjoy these selections by local resident, naturalist wildlife photographer and prolific author; Stan Tekiela. A Year in Nature with Stan Tekiela—a Naturalist’s Notes on the Seasons Learn from the expert in this collection of some of the 500 newspaper columns from Stan’s 20…
We know the backyard birds that usually nest in our birdhouses: House Wrens, Chickadees, Bluebirds, and House Finches. But what about our other backyard birds, like the Cardinal, Blue Jay, Goldfinch, Robins, Hummingbirds or Orioles? Where do they nest? Cardinal nests are usually very well hidden in dense shrubs or trees, about 3-10 feet above the ground. The cup-shaped…