News Blog

Great-horned Owl

It’s Hooting Season for Great-Horned Owls

Because their offspring have a long learning curve, our largest owls begin raising the next generation even as snow falls in the forest.

February/March 2013

Midwest Peregrine Falcon Restoration with Amber Burnette – Feb 14, 2013 | The Breeding Bird Atlas Project: The Biggest Bird Survey in Minnesota History! with Bonnie Sample – Mar 14, 2013 | SPAS Nominating Committee Announces 2013-2014 Officers and Board Openings | Minnesota Young Birder Club | Wildlife Tour Opportunity | Nebraska Rivers and Wildlife Celebration | 2013 Surveyors Needed | Saint Paul Audubon’s Spring Warbler Weekend | Birds Triumph Over the Cold and more ….

male Pine Grosbeak

Watch for Handsome, Hungry Winter Finches

Crossbills, redpolls and grosbeaks, beautiful birds from the far North, are heading south to find enough food to eat.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Birds Triumph Over the Cold

A backyard scene: winds howl, clouds scud, snow accumulates but even in this maelstrom, dark little juncos hop under feeders, flashy red cardinals scratch under a pine tree, a natty nuthatch spirals down a tree trunk and big blue jays muscle in for a meal.

December 2012/January 2013

In Defense of Crows with Clay Christiansen – December 13th General Meeting | “Today’s Office” with Sharon Stitler – January 10th General Meeting | 2012 Christmas Bird Count is Coming December 15th | SPAS Annual Fund Drive | SPAS Nominating Committee announces 2013-2014 Board | Kestrel Nesting Sites | The Fledging Birders’ Institute | Book Review: Adventures with Hip Hop Parrots, Cantankerous Cassowaries, Crabby Crows, Peripatetic Pigeons, Hens, Hawks, and Hummingbirds | The GBBC is Going Global!

Downy Woodpecker at suet feeder

Downies, the Pocket-Sized Woodpeckers

As the season changes, our ‘old reliables’ are moving back to center stage in backyards and at bird feeders.

Scarlet Tanager

Birds Eating Weirdly

Birds don’t always order off the regular menu, including a robin who makes his own jelly worms to orioles dining on corn on the cob.

October/November 2012

Join us Thursday, Oct 11th for Bees: What do They do for Us, and What Can We do for Them? With Elaine Evans, Entomologist, University of Minnesota, October 11, 2012 | Recent Changes in Minnesota Bird Life with Bob Janssen, ‘The Birdman of Minnesota’, Nov 8, 2012 | Audubon Minnesota’s Annual Bird Conservation Celebration, October 20th | The Christmas Bird Count is coming… And this year its FREE! | BOOK REVIEW: Hawk Ridge: Minnesota’s Birds of Prey

Sandhill Crane

Cranes families are on the move

Standing in a large wooden viewing box in the pitch dark on early April morning, a group of us waited for thousands of sandhill cranes to awaken.