Innholdsfortegnelse for May-June 2016 i Audubon Magazine

Albatrosses and petrels are among Earth’s most imperiled seabirds. That’s largely because they get hooked on longlines set by commercial fishermen and because many of the islands where they breed are infested with alien invaders such as insects and rodents. Here in the United States we’ve made significant advances in addressing both these threats. This country is the world leader in devising longline-mitigation measures that drastically reduce and in some cases eliminate bird bycatch. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act makes these measures mandatory for U.S. fishermen. And U.S. agencies and nonprofits are pioneers in recovering seabirds and other native species on islands. Among the more spectacular recent successes is the rat eradication by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, and Island Conservation on the Palmyra…

1803 John James Audubon ties silver cords around the legs of Eastern Phoebe nestlings, becoming North America’s first known bird bander. 1958 Teenager Sidney Gauthreaux posits that the unexplained “angels” on radar screens are actually birds; soon after, he uses radar to prove the existence of massive trans-Gulf avian migrations. 1960 Scientists outfit two Ruffed Grouse in Minnesota with radio transmitters, becoming the first researchers to track a bird’s movements in real time. 1983 A Mute Swan in Chesapeake Bay carries a prototype satellite transmitter for an entire summer, opening up a new world of tracking birds from space. 1983 Biologists begin using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags, rice-size microchips inserted under an animal’s skin that reveal its identity when scanned, like a barcode. 2001 Wandering Albatrosses are among the…

Red Knots and other shorebirds are particularly vulnerable to climate change— rising sea levels and warmer temperatures may disproportionately harm the coastal habitats shorebirds require at critical times of their life cycle and the foods that fuel their long migrations. In 2012, with 60 percent of shorebirds at risk, Audubon launched its Seas and Shores initiative. The program protects three crucial ecosystems—beaches and islands, estuaries and marshes, and marine environments— through on-the-ground work. For example, Delaware Audubon and local volunteers helped restore beaches damaged by Hurricane Sandy, and relocated horseshoe crabs from debris-filled zones to restored areas. Farther north, New York City Audubon is working to protect horseshoe crab habitat in Jamaica Bay. On a bigger-picture level, the chapter is working to raise awareness about climate change through education and…

Celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Park Service with a dream birding vacation in one of the country’s most treasured places. Most Visited National Parks in 2015 Great Smoky Mountains: 10,712,674 visits Grand Canyon: 5,520,736 visits Rocky Mountain: 4,155,916 visits For more on birding in the national parks and beyond, visit audubon.org/travel. Grail Bird Clark’s Nutcracker If you’re traveling out west this summer, this is one of the birds to search for. The spike-billed crow relative is widespread but uncommon in high-elevation forests in the western mountains. Several national parks, including Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, and Mount Rainier, feature scenic highways that will take you into prime nutcracker habitat. this summer, tens of millions of people will visit one or more of the 410 sites that make up our National…

As the Red Knot’s fraught journey illustrates, climate change could upend everything birds need to thrive. Facing this requires collaboration across countries, disciplines, and organizations—birds don’t see borders, after all. That’s why, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Audubon is spearheading an unprecedented effort to coordinate BirdLife International partners in 12 Western Hemisphere nations—the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil—to address climate change’s threats to birds. “We’re mobilizing a network to deal with climate change on the level and scale that birds need,” says Matthew Jeffery (above), deputy director and senior program director for Audubon’s International Alliances Program. As in Audubon’s 2014 Birds and Climate Change Report, science leads the way. The first task is…

With this issue, we unveil a new approach to publishing Audubon: We’ve dropped most of the ads. The decision sprang from our dawning conviction that it no longer makes sense to run advertisements from companies that have a merely mercantile relationship with Audubon, that are just buying space in these pages. Frankly, the revenues raised were insufficient to justify the effort expended—not to mention the visual chaos the ads tended to inflict upon this beautiful publication. Going forward, we’ll feature advertising only from companies and organizations that have meaningful partnerships with the National Audubon Society. (On the back cover, you’ll find an exemplar of this, an ad from Aveda, which is dedicating the proceeds from every bottle sold of its new fragrance, Love, to Audubon’s Climate Initiative.) I could not…

Consider the moa, the flightless, Muppet-esque bird that once dominated the New Zealand landscape. The nine known moa species ranged greatly in size, from 12-foot-tall, 440-pound beasts to two-foottall, 60-pound darters. But they all met a similar fate, hunted to extinction in the 15th century by Polynesian settlers. Scientists knew a fair amount about the moas, including, thanks to some fossilized poop, what they ate. But they didn’t know how they ate. It may not seem so important, but when the moas vanished, they left a hole in the ecosystem; because there were no grazing mammals in New Zealand at the time, these large herbivores had played an outsized role in shaping the landscape, from thinning out vegetation to dispersing seeds. So to find out more about how the moas…

47 Million Adult U.S. Birders Backyard birders: 41 million Birders who hit the field: 18 million Overlap: 12 million You’ve got the basics. Now what? Find expert tips at audubon.org/birding. Welcome to the wonderful world of birding. No need to feel intimidated—here's everything you need to know to get started. SPRING HAS SPRUNG, and birds have descended on nearly every park, trail, and green space. If you’ve been considering joining the ranks of the tens of millions of birders in the United States, now is the perfect time to grab a pair of binoculars. But wait. Which bins should you choose? What birds will you see? If you’re a novice, this handy primer will let you venture into the field with confidence. (First tip: Always casually refer to binoculars as…

Ohio Lake Erie Birding Trail Ohio’s north coast offers great birding in the summer and year-round. This relatively new trail, organized into seven loops, will lead you to more than 80 prime sites in the counties bordering Lake Erie. Visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park in spring and summer to find Yellow-throated and Cerulean Warblers. Search marshy habitats in state wildlife areas and federal refuges for Bald Eagles and Common Gallinules. In the Oak Openings region, look for Redheaded Woodpeckers, Blue Grosbeaks, and Lark Sparrows. During spring migration you’re likely to see large concentrations of warblers in woodlots along the lake and flocks of shorebirds in the managed wetlands. Learn more at lakeerie birding.ohiodnr.gov, and explore other birding trails at audubon.org/travel. —K.K. GEAR Along for the Ride The Patagonia Torrentshell poncho…

AUDUBON: What was your mandate from the National Audubon Society board when it hired you almost six years ago? DAVID YARNOLD: The board was explicit: They wanted to come back to a focus on bird-centered conservation. Despite the fact that many of Audubon’s staff and volunteers had done great work on behalf of birds, the board wasn’t shy about saying we were facing the kind of major turnaround that legacy nonprofits don’t generally attempt. That started with changing the way we approach conservation. If we were going to take on the biggest challenges that birds face, then we had to acknowledge that birds don’t know state or national borders. But Audubon had become a collection of proudly disconnected states full of passionate, independent chapters, so thinking bigger meant finding a…

The Puzzle: Project Puffin founder Steve Kress, who in the 1970s famously reestablished Atlantic Puffin colonies on islands off the coast of Maine, has spent more than 40 summers studying the birds. But there was one mystery he couldn’t get to the bottom of: where they winter. The puffins breed in spring and summer, but in August they swim away, disappearing for up to eight months. Without knowing their whereabouts, it’s impossible to fully protect the birds, which are threatened by climate change and shifting food chains. “If you’re really trying to be a steward for a species, you need to know where it is year-round,” says Kress. The Investigators: Kress and his Project Puffin team members Caroline Poli, Nathan Banfield, Scott Hall, and Paula Shannon. The Strategy: The team…

Scientific Name: Calidris canutus Range: Breeds in Arctic, winters along coastlines of six continents. Subspecies rufa breeds in central Canadian Arctic, winters from southeastern U.S. to southern South America. Habitat: Arctic tundra during the summer; tidal flats, estuaries, and beaches in winter. Status: Most populations are thought to be declining. Subspecies rufa has declined by 70 to 75 percent in recent decades, now listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Threats/Outlook: The overharvesting of horseshoe crabs has reduced the food supply for Red Knots at essential spring stopover sites. Other threats are mostly related to warming climate: rising sea levels are reducing stopover and wintering habitat; warming and acidification of oceans are acting to reduce food supply; changes in the tundra may shrink nesting habitat. More info: audubon.org/redknot…