Roadside Birding this Holiday Season

A person can go bird-watching anywhere, anytime...why not while driving in the car?

On a recent WPT trip to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota to spend some pre-Christmas time with my two oldest children; I counted birds as I drove.  Counting helps the miles fly by and also assists in staying awake.  In order to do this, one must be traveling during the daytime.  Thankfully I was.  In addition, my trusty IPod was busily sending a nearly endless wireless signal to the WPT's stereo of over 125 different "For the Birds" (older) but informative and entertaining podcasts gleaned from the gentle and hugely talented, multi-book author and former staff science editor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Laura Erickson.  (The Bird Lady) FYI: Her "newer" podcasts are located here.  

Living in Duluth Minnesota with her husband and three children, Laura has dedicated her professional life to the love, understanding, and protection of birds. She is author of five books about birds, including 101 Ways to Help Birds, The Bird Watching Answer Book, and National Outdoor Book Award winner Sharing the Wonder of Birds with Kids. Since 1986, she has written and produced “For the Birds,” a 3–5 minute radio program broadcast on several public and community stations mostly in the Upper Midwest from Powell, Wyoming, to Jamestown, New York; the program is also podcast on iTunes. Laura was science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a contributing editor for BirdWatching magazine, blogs for the American Birding Association and BirdWatching, and maintains her own birding blog at http://lauraerickson.blogspot.com. She writes regularly for a rural newspaper, The Country Today, and has contributed articles to Birding, BirdScope (which she edited for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology from 2008-2011), Audubon, Wisconsin Trails, The Passenger Pigeon, The Loon, the Wisconsin State Journal, Duluth News-Tribune, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. 

She serves as the “American Robin Expert” and the “Whooping Crane Expert” for the Webby-Award-winning website Journey North. She was Awarded the 2007 Bronze Passenger Pigeon Award “for significant contributions to Wisconsin ornithology,” and the Conservationist of the Year award by The Raptor Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Laura spent two decades as a licensed wildlife rehabber caring for injured and orphaned birds from her home. She rehabbed hundreds of birds of many species, from hummingbirds to owls and loons, specializing on Common Nighthawks. She’s served as a counter for raptors and songbirds at Hawk Ridge and along the Lake Superior shoreline in conjunction with Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve, and was awarded the Frances F. Roberts Award at a joint meeting of the Wilson and Cooper Ornithological Societies for her paper, “Daytime Warbler Migration along Lake Superior.” She was also a winner in the American Ornithologists’ Union’s bird-calling contest in the repertoire category for her owl calls.

Chris Biddleman - photo

Without a doubt the most common bird to see is the Canada goose. Large and small familiar "vee" flocks of flying geese move over the landscape along that particular route from Milwaukee to the NW. Stationary groups can also be seen moving amongst the corn stubble in fields on both sides of the freeways; their heads sometimes the only thing that juts above the roadside snowbanks. I believe I counted in the neighborhood of 140.  Ducks can be seen wading in shallow ponds and are a bit more difficult to identify at 65 MPH, and fellow drivers frown understandably if one hits their brakes suddenly in an attempt to make a positive species ID. My strong advice; Just call them "ducks" and call it a day. Small but fierce falcons called American kestrels are much easier to identify as they sit on wires and highway signs overlooking the roadside for small moving prey, and the much larger Red-tailed hawk, also sits watching an open field for it's next meal. I counted three kestrels, 19 Red-tails, and two Cooper's hawks in my 600 mile journey on both sides of the freeway.  I also spotted approximately 40 turkeys in lightly snow covered open areas (most likely old farm fields) and an assortment of Black-capped chickadees, Blue jays, and small flocks of American goldfinches as they roller-coastered past the windshield.

If possible; try it yourself the next car trip you take.  You might even invent a game of Avian Roadside Bingo for your children to play as they see certain birds that correspond to their game board; marking them with a sticker or some such identifier.  You know that would be a challenge right?  Just to get today's kids to shut off their cell phones, IPads, DVD players, etc. and actually look out the window at America...HA...who am I kidding?  LOL...

Anyway, one can hope...good luck! - B.Stud