Barred Owl found on the campus of the College of St. Scholastica in late November 2021. It is the 126th species to be included on a campus list currently maintained by the college library.

Librarians at the College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN, have created an interdisciplinary guide dedicated to the birds found on their campus. A Catalog of Birds @ The College of St. Scholastica got its start when the college’s former chair of music (Dr. LeAnn House) gave the library a checklist of 97 bird species compiled by a college biology professor and her students from 1978 to 1996. With permission from the now-retired faculty member Sr. Donna Schroeder—a Benedictine Sister who still lives in the monastery adjacent to the College—faculty librarian Brad Snelling has updated the list with an additional 29 species that he has observed on campus since 2005. The guide has been viewed 1,160 times since it was published in June 2020.

The guide is a natural follow-up to other bird-related programming that the library has offered over the past seven years. The library has sponsored campus walks with two well-known ornithologists who are also authors of books about birds and birdwatching. Kim Eckert, who led such a walk in 2016, is the author of A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota, a work considered by many to be a sort of bible to birds and birding locations in the state. Laura Erickson, who has led four such walks, also serves as an informal advisor for the library’s guide. Erickson enjoys near-celebrity status in the region for her public radio spot, For the Birds, which has been on the air since 1986, and is the longest-running radio program about birds in the country. Erickson is the author of 12 books, including the American Birding Association Field Guide to Minnesota Birds, and was the 2014 recipient of the American Birding Association’s Roger Peterson Award, a lifetime award in honor of her contributions to promote the cause of birding.

Last summer, the library commissioned an essay from Erickson with funding from its regional library system, the Arrowhead Library System, based in Mt. Iron, MN. In her piece, Erickson comments on the excellent habitat for birds on the campus. She also provides commentary on the college’s checklist, noting certain species such as Evening Grosbeak, which were present on campus during the early years in which the list was kept, but which can no longer be found there. Erickson also draws attention to other species seldom seen in the region during the 1980s and 1990s, but that have become relatively common due to climate change. One example is Red-bellied Woodpecker, which only first appeared on the list in 2019.

In addition to featuring illustrations by reference librarian Todd White, the guide has offered an outstanding opportunity for outreach to college faculty in a variety of disciplines. It includes a video performance by faculty pianist Dr. Nicholas Susi of a work by Liszt, inspired by the legend of St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds. The title for the guide is itself inspired by the music of the 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen, particularly his Catalogue d'oiseaux, a collection of 13 piano pieces, each drawing on the song of a specific bird. Last August, Dr. Susi conducted an interview on behalf of the library with British pianist Paul Crossley, who studied with Messiaen during the 1960s. In the interview, now featured in the guide, Crossley describes a car trip with Messiaen during which the composer insisted on frequent stops so that he could identify the birdsong he was hearing. As a result, the two men and their passengers missed a luncheon being held in their honor.

The library has been collecting photographs and recordings of birds on campus. These are archived in the college’s institutional repository and highlighted in galleries in the guide. One such gallery features photographs of a spectacular Barred Owl found on campus during the 2021 Thanksgiving break. The appearance of this bird, the newest and 126th species on the campus list, provided an opportunity for the library to highlight the early research of a faculty member in biology (Dr. Pamela Freeman) who published an article on the call of the Barred Owl for the Journal of Raptor Research in 2000.

Library staff hope that this visual offering of birds as they were seen in this specific locale will be of special value to future faculty and students at the college. The possibility that certain species recorded now might not be seen in future decades has been a special consideration. By drawing attention to and developing empathy for campus birds, the compilers of the guide hope to contribute, in a small way, to conservation of the species found in this particular place.

Although the pandemic has brought a halt to birding walks led by visiting experts, library staff hope to resume this programming in the future. In the meantime they have had opportunities to engage the local academic community, including an invitation to present on the project next month at Biboon, an annual winter retreat dedicated to campus sustainability issues. This will mark the library’s first opportunity to share the project in person with students. Engaging students in work on the Catalog is an important long-term goal, since student involvement was at the heart of the original work that Sr. Donna Schroeder initiated in 1978. She commented recently on the library’s effort to continue her project: “When I was asked if the bird list that my students and I compiled over the years could be used on a college library website project, I was delighted. I was even more pleased when I explored the guide that was developed. It was a generous reward for all of those early morning birding treks and is an important aspect of campus history.”