Minnesota just experienced a record breaking storm, which included a couple of potential tornados. The National Weather Service is sending a team to determine if the damage was caused by tornados or straight line winds. Either way it was a day and night of unprecedented weather. We had a high of 52F, and we watched
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Turkey Tracks
On Thanksgiving morning our neighbors looked out their window and saw thirteen wild turkeys nonchalantly strutting through their yard, stopping occasionally to peck at some seeds or acorns that grabbed their attention. In ignorant bliss they gradually made their way down the trail into the State Forest, while millions of their domesticated relatives roasted in
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Helping Nesting Birds
Nest Watch is a citizen science program offered by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Like Feederwatch it depends on volunteers who agree in this case to regularly check nest boxes of certain birds to monitor and record the number of eggs in the nest and the resulting chicks. By doing this and reporting results, citizens
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Red-bellied Woodpecker
The Blue Jays are back in force at the feeders. During the summer months they were seen only sporadically. I believe there is a definite pecking order among the jays at the bird feeders, but without a means of identifying the individual birds it is impossible to say for sure who is dominant over whom.
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Drilling Means Spilling
Once again we have watched in distress as an oil pipeline released highly toxic crude oil into the ocean, threatening marine life in the water and the birds that find their food in that ocean. How many times will this continue to happen and what can we do to stop it? Those are big questions
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Shipping Woes
Right now birds of all kinds are traveling across the globe as the season’s change and they head to suitable habitats where they can spend the winter months. They face many, many challenges during these journeys – storms, cell towers, windows in skyscrapers, predators, finding food and water, and in some places people with guns.
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Droughts Impact On Us All
Depending on where you live, it was a summer of nearly constant rain or one of moderate to severe drought. The country seemed to be divided in half by the Mississippi River, with the states east of it dealing with too much water and states to the west with too little. Here in northern Minnesota
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