Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2016 i Audubon Magazine

RIVERS, LAKES, AND WETLANDS ARE DISAPPEARING AT AN ALARMING Rate across the West, where years of drought are cementing the idea that dry is normal and that we have to find new ways to manage our water resources. A century of intensive water development has already taken a toll, and birds have generally lost ground in a rigid water management framework that does not take them into account. But the Colorado River and its tributaries, as well as saline lakes like the Salton Sea, are key breeding and stopover areas for millions of birds. People who steward the West’s scarce water resources are now planning for how we live with less water, and making historic changes to longstanding rules. They know it makes no sense to trade one crisis for…

1890 Conflicts erupt as individuals and corporations attempt to control the growing tourism industry at the Grand Canyon. 1906 Congress creates the Grand Canyon Game Preserve to protect area wildlife like mule deer, which are overhunted. 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt places more than 800,000 acres of the 6-million-yearold canyon under federal protection, declaring it a national monument. 1919 President Woodrow Wilson signs the Grand Canyon National Park Act, officially outlawing private development within the monument. 1922 The Colorado River Compact allows states in the Colorado River Basin to allocate and divide water rights. 1966 David Brower and the Sierra Club launch the “Grand Canyon Battle Ads,” and by the following year, plans for two federal dam projects collapse. 1975 Congress passes the Grand Canyon Enlargement Act to expand and protect…

North American Birds That Breed in the Boreal Waterfowl species Finch species Warbler species For more summer destinations, visit audubon.org/travel. Grail Bird Spruce Grouse This elegant bird can seem hard to find—not because it’s shy but because it’s tame. Spruce Grouse may sit motionless as you walk by just a few feet away. Males sometimes stand along road edges at dawn, and hens with chicks prowl dirt roads and trails in midsummer. FOR MOST OF NORTH AMERICA, THE BIRDS of the boreal forest—the vast swath of spruce woods, bogs, and northern hardwoods stretching across the top of the continent—appear only fleetingly, if they’re seen at all. You might find a flock of Common Redpolls feeding in a Minnesota field in January or a Blackburnian Warbler perched in a Tennessee treetop…

Conservation groups have been vying unsuccessfully for years to stop the slowmotion ecological disaster at the Salton Sea, but that isn’t scaring Audubon California away now. “There’s just no way that you can talk about doing flyway-level bird conservation in California and not throw your weight into finding a solution at the Salton Sea,” says Audubon California Executive Director Brigid McCormack. “The challenges are daunting, but there hasn’t been a better time to make real progress than right now.” With the sea facing major water cutbacks starting in 2018, Audubon California is working closely with the state and other stakeholders on a restoration plan to avoid massive habitat loss and the ensuing public health crisis that would result from huge dust storms fed by exposed lakebed. Audubon California is providing…

WHEN WE CAME UP WITH THE idea for a series of photodriven stories that capture the vast range of inspiring ways that people’s passion for birds comes to life, we knew we’d struck gold. What better nexus could there be to train our photographers’ lenses upon than the intersection of birds and the people who care about them? That, after all, is the place where the Audubon Society and our members are most at home. On an oddly pragmatic level, we were also looking to create something that would entice us to be happy: More frequently than we’d like here at Audubon, we find ourselves drawn to stories that reflect our world in all of its darker shadings (climate change, habitat destruction, greed-driven despoliation). I make no apologies for that,…

IN JANUARY A GROUP OF ARMED men took control of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the high desert of southeast Oregon. For 41 days they occupied its headquarters, looting electronics, overflowing the septic system, bulldozing over Native American artifacts—all told, doing $6 million worth of damage— and deploying armed guards to patrol the 300 square miles of sagebrush meadows and river valleys where 320 bird species occur. High among their demands was for the feds to turn over control of Malheur to surrounding Harney County. In a Facebook video, Ammon Bundy, one of the group’s leaders, explained, “We’re doing this so the people can have their land and their resources back where they belong.” Locals, however, had little interest in their help. That’s because Malheur doesn’t exemplify the classic hard-drawn…

LUKE ROBERTS, A 26-YEAROLD musician with an ash-blond Mohawk and a scruffy chin, sits at a table littered with wires, spare parts, and half-assembled robots. Behind him stands a red and black humansized bot with four-footlong arms and a gray computer screen for a face. This is the University of Maryland’s Robotics Center, in College Park, a 35-minute drive from Washington, D.C., and where Roberts completed his master’s degree. Here students’ mechanical creations learn to walk, crawl, and even fly. Unlike some of the other hulking bots standing about the room, Roberts’s consists of just a few carbon fiber sticks about 30 inches long, a whir of wires and sensors, and microchips. It weighs roughly half a pound. “The skeleton holds all the electronics,” he explains, pointing at the flight…

Average Wingspan Adults of related species, in inches American Robin vs. European Robin 8 14 Common Raven vs. American Crow 46 36 Mute Swan vs. Tundra Swan 88 66 IDENTIFYING A BIRD IS LIKE SOLVING A MYSTERY. Every gumshoe birder gathers clues from the subject’s appearance. But what happens when those clues don’t materialize, or when they add up to a species that defies logic? With no point of reference, judging size can be tough. Catch a bird in the wrong light and it looks washed out. Even worse are oddballs that turn up with missing feathers or field marks painted on by brushes with nature. To crack those cases, you’ll need to know both the environment and the nuances between species—but also be ready to second-guess yourself. Follow the…

Status of Seabirds 47% decreasing 25% stable 17% increasing 11% unknown Want land-based tips, too? Go to audubon.org/photography. YOU KNOW THE PHOTO YOU really WANT. Maybe it’s a Common Loon navigating a remote lake in northern Minnesota. Or an Atlantic Puffin perched on Eastern Egg Rock, off the coast of Maine. Or a bunch of Roseate Spoonbills feeding in a backwater of the Everglades. The good news is that you can get that shot. The bad news is that it won’t be waiting for you at the end of a boardwalk. No, to get this photo, you’re going to need a boat. While water-based photography is in many ways similar to shooting on land, it does require extra precautions. Here’s how to stay dry and hold steady. Grail Bird Black-capped…

KNIFE, PEN, AND TRACING PAPER are Claire Brewster’s essential tools for crafting her nature-inspired paper sculptures. This iteration of Audubon’s Red Knot was cut from The Times Atlas of the World from the 1970s, given to her by a friend. Brewster, 48, who lives in Central London, likes using maps in her art because “you learn so much about the changes in the world from them,” she says. The colors, patterns, and quality of the printing and paper add to their appeal. What’s more, maps are symbolic of movement, which is particularly apt for the Red Knot, a record holder for one of the longest yearly migrations of any bird (nearly 19,000 miles to and from its Arctic breeding area to its South American wintering grounds in Tierra del Fuego).…