Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2017 i Audubon Magazine

For five years the photographer Noppadol Paothong traveled around the West, documenting the life cycle of the Greater Sage-Grouse, a bird that, he says, “most people probably know little, if anything, about.” Already working a full-time job, Paothong squeezed in weekend trips and used his vacation time to seek out grouse in every season. His new book, Sage Grouse: Icon of the West, features intimate portraits of the birds and striking photos of the vast sagebrush landscape where they live—and where unprecedented conservation efforts are underway to prevent this chubby, chicken-like species from sliding toward extinction. Don’t let those fanciful tail feathers deceive you. Greater Sage-Grouse are powerful flyers, capable of 50-mile-an-hour bursts that give them a fair chance at escaping the clutches of Golden Eagles and other predators. Yet…

LESS THAN TWO YEARS AFTER 11 western states and the Department of the Interior put a bow around the largest conservation plan America has ever seen, D.C.-based politicians have stepped in to fix something that isn’t broken. Instead of supporting the states and private landowners in their efforts to effectively manage land that Greater Sage-Grouse and more than 350 other species use, Washington had to “improve” on a solution that took a decade to reach. Sitting in the big chair in Washington appears to lead Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to think he can do a better job of planning for Western states than their governors and the businesses and ranchers who live there. To grasp why this exercise is so infuriating it’s important to understand the history. Audubon and its…

On autumn nights in North America, millions of migrating birds take to the skies unseen. As the water in their bodies reflects radar beams, their movements pop up on weather maps across the country. Meteorologists typically erase these imprints from forecasts, but ornithologists do the very opposite: They mask rainstorms and other atmospheric events to reveal only bird activity. (It’s been a practice since 1941, just after radar technology was first invented.) Spotting large flights, however, is the easy part; it’s much harder to identify which species are actually on the move. Now Kyle Horton, an ornithologist at Cornell University, is combining radar data with eBird records to break down these mysterious avian clouds. When birders log sightings, they clue Horton into which species may be passing through an area,…

Louisiana’s barrier islands don’t look like much. Dozens of the long, narrow masses form a loose chain around the state’s southeastern coastline, and many rise only a couple of feet above the surface of the ocean. Erosion is an inevitable foe for any sandy expanse, but in recent years these islands have begun to contract at an alarming rate—so quickly that the thousands-year-old features may disappear entirely by the end of the century. Losing these wisps of land would be disastrous. Without them, powerful storms would slam coastal towns, seaports, and wetlands. The calm waters behind their protective front would vanish, and with them the nurseries where fish, shrimp, crab, and oysters reproduce and raise their young, and where 100 million birds live, nest, or stop to rest and refuel…

NORTH AMERICA’S MOST ENDANGERED bird hardly qualifies as “charismatic megafauna.” It is not a big sexy animal, not the kind you’d see on a state flag. It’s a tiny bird that lives on something in central Florida called the dry prairie, which feels vast when you’re standing in the middle of it but which today covers maybe a tenth of its historic extent. The dry prairie is also home to spotted skunks, and snakes, and red imported fire ants. And sometimes cows. And an unknown but presumably growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and parasites and other pathogens. All of which are bad for the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. When you’re just a few inches long and you live for maybe four years and you’re the potato chip of the food chain…

4 Tips for Teachers Find a Hotspot Stick to areas near water. You’ll likely spot swans, herons, and egrets, which stay still and are easier for kids to see. Plus, ducklings! Look for Clues If you can’t find birds on your outing, don’t despair. Point out signs of their presence such as nests, cracked seeds, whitewash (poop), or owl pellets. Get Tech-y Kids may have trouble looking through spotting scopes. Just pop an adapter over the scope’s ocular lens and line it up with your smartphone camera so they can view the bird on a screen. Bring in Experts Many avian organizations prepare lessons and activities for classroom use. Audubon Adventures and BirdSleuth are two examples to look for online. —Marina Pita, Seward Park Audubon Center HOW MANY NORTH AMERICAN…

PERHAPS THEY SLIPPED RIGHT BY YOU UNNOTICED WHEN YOU HAD your lens pointed upward; maybe they fail to catch your attention precisely because you see them everywhere. Ducks, however, sport some of the most striking and intricate plumage in nature and so are well worth training your camera on. And although they’re wary in the wilderness, when they migrate to urban waters, they may become very approachable. Ducks also become quite social in the fall, gathering in large groups like the Mallards above, so head out and join the flock. Grail Bird Wood Duck These incredibly photogenic ducks gather during the autumn on shady, tree-lined ponds and rivers. Go out in early fall to scope out prime locations and plan your shooting angles, so you’ll be prepared to go back…

Busy Bird I love that Bob from “Flamingo Road” is educating children about wildlife and all of the challenges the environment faces. It’s so important that younger generations understand what is happening to nature today in order to be part of planning for a better tomorrow! —Suzanne Dormsjo Overnight Adventure [Re: “Travel: Camping”] In the past five years, I’ve camped in the Smokies and backpacked on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut. I loved hearing the warblers singing in the morning and Barred Owls hooting at night. KARENA JOHNSON Super Freak [Re: “The Illustrated Aviary: American Flamingo”] There was a time when a flamingo dropped into Lake Erie might have come out looking like this. PAT MELLOR Editing Nature [Re: “Engineering a Better Mousetrap”] It may be helpful to liken genetic…

CHRIS LAJEWSKI PEERS OUT on the mouth of Nine Mile Creek, where it flows into New York’s Onondaga Lake. The overcast June sky looms heavy over the water, which is pockmarked with the tussling tails of carp. Suddenly, he cups his ears. Is that a Field Sparrow seep seep-ing in the nascent grassland? He’s been hearing its song a lot these days: a good omen for the health of the beleaguered lake. Once named one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country, Onondaga reached the federal Superfund list in 1994 and was still in poor shape seven years ago, when Lajewski joined the nearby Montezuma Audubon Center. The five-mile-long lake, situated just northwest of Syracuse, was filled with industrial mercury and PCBs. Resident sturgeon had been extirpated;…

The first bird that saved Robert Vallières was a Black Hawk helicopter. It was October 1990, and the then 28-year-old Army soldier was serving in the Persian Gulf War. While riding in the back of a truck on a mission to fortify a foxhole in the remote Arabian Desert, a heavy beam slammed into him, sending him flying and causing severe head injuries and swelling in the brain. The chopper sped Vallières to a field hospital for emergency care. He was later taken to the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort, where he was stabilized, and then transferred to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to undergo heart and arterial surgery. After being honorably discharged, Vallières returned to Concord, New Hampshire. While he appeared to be on the mend,…

MOST BIRDS LIVE THREE-DIMENSIONAL LIVES, exploring every level from the substrate to the sky. Do all of your birdwatching from the ground, and you miss out on part of the experience. By taking our birding up a notch, we gain new perspectives, see birds from new angles, and possibly spot new species. Just as importantly, shifting your altitude may help deepen your understanding of how the birds themselves experience their world. —Kenn Kaufman Grail Bird Golden Eagle These large raptors are usually solitary, but during migration they concentrate along ridges, where updrafts allow easy gliding. The best site for Goldens in the Lower 48 is atop Montana’s 8,520-foothigh Bridger Mountains, where more than 200 may pass the hawkwatch on a mid-October day. HIGH ADVENTURE Nest Quest black swifts nest behind…

ARTIST DIANNE BENNETT grew up amid the urban sprawl of California’s San Fernando Valley. “My experience was seeing every bit of open space developed,” she says. Her work has often focused on animals in bucolic settings, but is evolving with growing environmental concerns. “Now,” she says, “it’s almost like humanity’s starting to take over the painting.” The human footprint is obvious in her depiction of Audubon’s male Eastern Bluebird, which she rendered in oil paint on a salvaged road construction sign. It soars across smattered squares and triangles that signify buildings. The green patches symbolize dwindling natural areas, while milky swirls evoke the cosmos. The outlook isn’t all bad: A small box in the right corner represents abodes people build to help these birds thrive. Bennett has painted bluebirds on…