Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society

Recently, The National Loon Center has been featured in various different media outlets!

To read more about our new center, head over to the Star Tribune!

To read more about why natural shorelines are important for loons, look out for an MPR article about us!

These articles have helped us reach a larger audience! We have seen great support come from this and are exciting to keep watching that audience grow!

Shorebirds - Where, When, How (1 Hour Version) - Ben Douglas This was the 1 hour zoom call presentation by MOU volunteer Ben Douglas that covers Shorebird identification and more specifically all the details around how...

It's time for the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz! From July 26 - August 4, join us by spotting monarch eggs, caterpillars, adults or milkweed plants, and report your sightings to Journey North, Monarch Larva Monitoring Project and Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper.

The information collected by North American community science observers helps researchers identify priority areas for monarch conservation actions.
Thanks to our engaged community of observers, monarch researchers can analyze summer breeding population trends.

Last year there were nearly 4,000 observations submitted including more than 13,000 monarch sightings and more than 40,000 milkweeds!

📷 Mike Budd/USFWS

🎉 We are thrilled to announce that beginning Saturday, August 3rd, our Rapids Lake Education and Visitor Center will reopen! 🥳

We will be serving the community Saturday - Sunday, 10am-5pm. Stop in to explore exhibits, obtain trail information and more!

Our trails are still open daily from 5am-10pm - so there are ample opportunities to get outside and enjoy the refuge!

Photo by Thia Xiong/USFWS

Bird Hikes at the Northland Arboretum in Baxter, MN Discover bird watching at the Northland Arboretum in Baxter, MN. Join upcoming hikes and enjoy nature with expert guidance.

Hummingbird Feeding FAQs Have a question? We've got answers.

Please join us for some great outings!!!

Are the loons back near you? Report sightings to Journey North !

Help this volunteer science program track spring phenology by keeping track of two dates:
1. The day of ice-out on a lake.
2. The day Common Loons were first spotted on this lake.

Submit your sightings on www.journeynorth.org

Photo by Brian Sartor.

This Saturday, April 20 (7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) celebrate birds and conservation with our partners at the Carpenter Nature Center MN Campus. Join fellow bird enthusiasts for a day of bird banding demonstrations, guided birding field trips, a kids “Build-a-Bird Feeder” workshop, live raptor presentations, and more. Keynote speaker will be Patty Mueller from Tropical Wings, presenting “There are No Borders Beneath Their Wings.” Event fee: $5 per person or $15 with boxed lunch (advanced registration required for boxed lunch).

For more information and to register: https://carpenternaturecenter.org/birding-fest

Field trips include:
Learning to Bird with Accessibility - at Carpenter Nature Center
Get to Know the Prescott Area Birding Locations - at Pt. Douglas / Freedom Park
Exploring the Largest North American Flyway - at Mississippi River Flats
Early Spring Songbird Migrants - at Afton State Park
Waterfowl & Shorebirds - at Lake Byllesby/GWIP
St. Croix Valley Gem w/ Prairie & Forest Birds - at CNC Wisconsin Campus
Natural Wetland Migrant Stopover - at 180th Street Marsh

Our last program meeting for the spring!

Woodpecker Nest Tree Preference

Speaker: Kaysie Maleski, Masters student at Bemidji State University
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at 7:00 pm
Location: Northland Arboretum, 14250 Conservation Drive, Baxter, MN 5642

Kaysie is studying the ecology of woodpeckers, specifically looking at nest tree selection in aspen dominant stands. Her study area is the Red Lake Wildlife Management Area and Beltrami Island State Forest in northwestern MN, which consists of over one million acres. Kaysie is documenting nest tree selection by eight different species of woodpeckers, while also noting how the woodpeckers nesting and denning cavities benefit other bird species.

This program is sponsored by the Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society, and is free and open to the public. Masks are not required but please feel free to wear one. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please contact Lorrene Maroney at [email protected]. or the Northland Arboretum at [email protected].

Audubon Gift Center | Red-tailed Hawk The magnificent Red-tailed Hawk soars in high circles over open fields or woods. Share this natural wonder by adopting one today.

Join us for our next program. 🐝🌿🐞🌻

Planting to attract pollinators to your yard

Speaker: Adam Maleski, Crow Wing SWCD

Date and Time: Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 7:00 pm

Location: Northland Arboretum, 14250 Conservation Drive, Baxter, MN 5642

Adam is with the Crow Wing SWCD and will be talking about attracting pollinators to your backyard. The talk will discuss the complexity of converting turf grass and Smooth Brome into an oasis of habitat.

The presentation will highlight what plants are most attractive and beneficial in a planting and the programs centered around pollinator habitat available to the community.

This program is sponsored by the Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society, and is free and open to the public. Masks are not required but please feel free to wear one. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please contact Lorrene Maroney at [email protected]. or the Northland Arboretum at [email protected].

Please join us for our program this week.

How Pheasants Forever Programs help local bird species

Speaker: Destiny McDonald, Pheasants Forever
Date and Time: Wednesday, February 28, 2024, at 7:00 pm
Location: Northland Arboretum, 14250 Conservation Drive, Baxter, MN 5642

Destiny is the Pheasants Forever wildlife biologist stationed at the USDA office in the Little Falls. While working with government conservation programs, she also services as a technical advisor to private landowners and public organizations on wildlife habitat enhancement techniques. Destiny will relate how the programs she works with help to benefit not only pheasants, but local bird species as well.

This program is sponsored by the Brainerd Lakes Area Audubon Society, and is free and open to the public. Masks are not required but please feel free to wear one. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, please contact Lorrene Maroney at [email protected]. or the Northland Arboretum at [email protected].

During the Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb 16-19), Minnesota birders reported 124 species on 3,680 checklists. What did you see? Share your favorite GBBC sightings and birding destinations in the comments!

Reports were made from 80 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. Birders were out in force in the north country with more than a third (1,337) of GBBC checklists filed in St. Louis County. St. Louis (64) also led the species count, followed by Hennepin (61). Dakota and Washington counties were tied at 56 species each. As always, the Sax-Zim Bog (St. Louis) was a popular winter hotspot with 33 species tallied. New this GBBC to the top hotspots were the Blue Lake WTP (Scott; 30 sp) and Afton Marina/Steamboat Park (Washington; 29 sp) where open water drew waterfowl and birders. A White-winged Scoter continues at the Blue Lake WTP, but the Afton Surf Scoter was a GBBC no-show being last reported on Feb 11.

There and back again, a hobbit's tale or a loon's tale? Loons take quite the adventure when they travel to the Gulf and back again. Take the journey into loon migration with with the NLC tomorrow evening!

Join the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation's monthly Loon Zoom series on February 8 at 7pm EST/6pm CST. Register the day of by 12pm EST/11am CST. We hope to see you there!

https://www.adkloon.org/events

Recordings of the 2023 Paper Session presentations are now available on the MOU's YouTube channel. Thank you to everyone who attended and to all of the volunteers and speakers that contributed to the event’s success!
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrREFP8F9naO00FcJQQfqIa11GSxkvvXF&si=7EegkX-xb0K6cfjC

We will NOT BE HOLDING A PROGRAM on Wednesday, January 24th.

Please join us for our next meeting and program by Destiny McDonald of Pheasants Forever on Wednesday, February 28th

So unfortunate!!! This is an issue we should all care about

If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, we have one for you - help us spread the word to prevent lead from being put into our environment. During Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, our hospital staff and volunteers, who work 365 days a year, spent the holidays responding to 4 bald eagles with lead poisoning, sadly none of which survived.

The Raptor Center's lead surveillance reveals 80-90% of the bald eagles admitted have lead in their blood, with a significant portion suffering from severe and lethal toxicity. Responsible hunting activities can help to keep our ecosystem balanced and healthy, but unfortunately, when lead ammunition is used there can be widespread unintended consequences. During deer hunting season, eagles, scavenging on gut piles or unrecovered deer contaminated with lead-based ammunition, ingest this deadly toxin. The fragmented lead bullets, used widely in hunting, are found to disperse dangerously within the deer carcass, turning what should be a natural act of scavenging into a lethal meal for these majestic birds.

With over 100,000 deer hunted annually in Minnesota alone, the choice of ammunition has a far-reaching impact on our wildlife and environment. Switching to non-lead alternatives, such as copper ammunition, can be a game-changer. These non-toxic options are not only proven to be as effective as lead shots and increasingly affordable, but also ensure that wildlife, like our cherished bald eagles, are spared from unintended harm.

Hunters can redefine their love for nature and their role as conservationists. Choosing non-toxic ammunition like copper is a choice that benefits not just eagles but all wildlife, and even hunters themselves, by providing a safer food source. It’s a small change with a massive impact, safeguarding the future of the bald eagle and honoring the true spirit of hunting and conservation.

Minnesota eBird 2023 Year in Review - Minnesota eBird In 2023, Minnesota eBirders submitted more than 179,300 checklists and tallied 353 species. This post provides an overview of the year’s birding highlights together with statistics, insights, and photos from across the state.

What do you call a bird in the winter? A brrrrrrr-d! 🐦

Happy National Bird Day! If you stop by our Bloomington Visitor Center (10am – 4pm, Thursday-Sunday) and check out binoculars for free, you may notice the birds looking a little thicker these days.

Since they can’t cuddle under a blanket, birds have a few tricks to keep warm during the winter- packing on body weight in the fall, snuggling up to conserve body heat and fluffing up their feathers to trap pockets of air around their bodies.

Photo of a Blue Jay resting on a branch with its feathers fluffed by Chad Gustafson/USFWS.

🤔 AN UNUSUAL WINTER: WHAT TO MAKE OF BALD EAGLE VIEWING AND COUNTS 🤔

There is no doubt about it - this winter season is very unusual along the Upper Mississippi River Valley. Here we are on January 4 and there is no ice on the Mississippi's main channel and no snow cover on the ground, not even a dusting. It's... alarming! And for would-be Bald Eagle watchers, it is proving to be somewhat frustrating.

Winter Bald Eagle viewing is a bit unpredictable during the best of conditions. We know that winter is the best season for Bald Eagle viewing, but when people call the Center asking when is the best time to see wild eagles or how many they will see, we can never give them an exact answer. Wild eagles move around with food sources and weather conditions. It is anything but an exact science.

This winter's extremely mild conditions are only making viewing even more unpredictable. Normally, it can be reasonably expected that Bald Eagles will congregate in trees and on ice shelves around open pools of water. But when all the water is wide open and ice-free, they remain mostly spread out in the backwaters and even in the backcountry of the farm fields and bluffs. Hardly ideal for knowing where to look for them. Viewing becomes very hit-or-miss, and our weekly counts are reflecting that this season.

There are eagles to be seen for sure. This photo shared with us by Bill Dunn shows a massive kettle of Bald Eagles he observed at Reads Landing, MN (just north of Wabasha and the Center) on New Year's Day 2024. He reported that there were over 200 in total! WOW! Were they just moving through? Was there a fish die-off in the area that created a buffet? We don't know. And so goes this winter season. Until we get some typical winter conditions that are a bit more predictable, the eagles will remain hard to pin down. Keep checking the weekly counts for updates, keep your eyes skyward, and good luck if you do head out for some eagle viewing! 🦅😃👍👍

Keep counting into the new year!

Pillager Christmas Bird Count will be held Monday, January 1, 2024. Meet at Bjerga’s Cafe at 8:00 AM to be assigned a section to survey.