Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2018 i Audubon Magazine

AN AMERICAN ROBIN TAKES OFF FROM ITS SUMMER home in Montreal, Canada, putting everything on the line to fly 1,600 miles to spend the holidays in West Palm Beach, Florida. Even more grueling is the journey of a Scarlet Tanager that wings 2,700 miles from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to Cali, Colombia. Each fall, billions of birds like the robin and tanager make their way to the Lower 48 or to the tropics. But a big slice of them never flies back—casualties of natural causes like weather and predation, and unnatural causes like oil pits, feral cats, and glass collisions. Now scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, have put a first-ever estimate on those missing travelers. By tracking migratory night flights from 2013 to 2017 on weather…

The fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge isn’t over—it’s just taken on new and more urgent dimensions. Audubon and a coalition of environmental groups have devised a multi-pronged strategy that includes directly targeting companies involved in Arctic drilling projects and the banks financing them. Already, investors representing more than $2 trillion in assets have said they oppose any efforts to drill in protected areas of the Arctic. These include money managers, foundations, and religious groups such as the Episcopal Church. You can join them. “Tell your broker you don’t want your money going to support drilling in the Arctic,” says Sierra Club organizer Lena Moffitt. Wherever your money is held, talk to your asset manager or call the company’s helpline. Engagement in the political process is also critically…

Dirty dishes may seem harmless, but they can lead to sick or even dead birds. Regular feeder cleanings help stave off avian pox, salmonella, trichomoniasis, and lice, says Mary Kostus, conservation chair for the Bergen County Audubon Society in New Jersey. For the simplest routine, wash your feeders at the start and end of each season. Dunk them in a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water, then rinse thoroughly and allow to dry before reinstalling. If you’ve missed a few cleanings, use a hose or power washer to blast out caked-on leftovers. A spatula, toothbrush, or bottle brush will help you reach nooks and crannies. Don’t forget: Plastic and wood can make for a bad dishwasher combination. When all else fails, toss the feeder and buy a…

Project FeederWatch This long-term Cornell survey has you jot down notes on visitors and their interactions from November to April. Experts use the data to map social hierarchies. Great Backyard Bird Count Log feeder birds for at least 15 minutes between February 15 and 18. Final reports can reveal population trends in common species such as Downy Woodpeckers. Hummingbirds at Home Help Audubon scientists map the spring arrival of hummingbirds by monitoring your nectar holder. The intel is particularly insightful as climate change futzes with flowering times.…

Prep the Bird’s Perch A bush or tree can serve as an attractive ready-made perch, but if your yard lacks one, you can also build your own. Find a downed branch—preferably dark or mid-toned—with some visual interest such as moss or blossoms. Then use a clamp to attach the branch to vegetation or to a metal stake in the ground (position the branch at a slant, perpendicular to your lens). As in all things real estate, location matters, so here are three more considerations. Angles: When a bird lands on a perch, it will typically orient its face and body toward the food source. Position your feeder, your perch, and yourself in a triangle so that the bird is angled slightly toward your camera, too. Lighting: Typically you’ll want the…

As one scientist says, “Nothing’s going to happen until the birders take up the cause.” OF THE MANY MENACES TO the state of Florida—red tide, sea-level rise, super charged storms—perhaps none looms quite so large as the Burmese pythons slithering through its swampland. Up to 18 feet long and able to swallow multiple Great Blue Herons in one fell swoop, even they, as Chris Sweeney discovers in “Invasion of the Bird Snatchers” (page 34), are merely one monster in a cast of sci-fi-worthy reptiles now threatening Florida’s rich avian life. No one knows exactly how these creatures became established in the Sunshine State (although we have a pretty good idea). But we are coming to understand the unintended consequences of their invasion. At the heart of this offbeat narrative is…

Proposals include floating homes, tidal lagoons, and other features designed to protect current and new residents alike. WHEN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, loses two professional sports teams in the next few years, it will gain prime waterfront real estate. The stadiums for the Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors will be razed, creating space for thousands of affordable new homes. According to climate models, however, that housing might not last much longer than its athletic forebears: The bay around the neighborhoods is prone to as much as two feet of sea-level rise by 2050. The good people of Oakland aren’t about to let that opportunity wash away. They’ve pressed their government to confront climate change before it wreaks havoc on the city’s 19 miles of shoreline. The mayor and council have responded…

THE HALF-DOZEN FOURTH GRADERS are supposed to be hard at work weeding garden beds with their science class at Gotwals Elementary School in Norristown, Pennsylvania. But for a moment on this spring day, the plants will have to wait. The kids have made a discovery. “It just moved!” “I can see the head!” “Can we touch it?” A garter snake has scaled an overgrown weed to catch a few rays. “Doesn’t it look like a branch?” an educator asks. “Nature lets it hide in plain sight.” The students huddle for a closer look at the harmless reptile as the conversation turns to native plants. Across the playground, other students wielding kid-size binoculars scour the skies for birds. A third gaggle, armed with gloves and garbage bags, train their eyes on…

GETTING TO KNOW YOU Multiple tit species, including Blue Tits (opposite), abound in Wytham Woods. Above is a visual representation of the social network of Great Tits in winter: who interacts with whom, and how strong those ties are. Each circle represents one bird. BARE TREES, THE SMELL OF DEAD LEAVES, SILENCE, MUD. The winter woods in Oxfordshire are lovely, if you like that sort of thing. If you’re a scientist with the legendary Wytham Tit Project, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. The batteries in your trick bird feeder must be changed every two days or your data will be ruined. And getting the most and the best data is the name of the game here in Wytham Woods. So Oxford University graduate student Friederike “Freddy”…

Birds with different beaks have different dietary needs. Large-billed species are specialized to eat seeds and nuts, while ground feeders go for grains. Use this handy menu, with advice from Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count Director Geoff LeBaron, to match species to their favorite foods. Entrée: Suet Species: Woodpeckers, wrens, titmice Prep: Try a DIY recipe by mixing seeds or grain with animal fats or nut butter. Entrée: Sunflower seeds Species: Chickadees, jays, cardinals Prep: Buy them whole and hulled; it’s less messy and every piece gets eaten. Entrée: Cracked corn Species: Pheasants, doves, towhees Prep: Spread in small doses and away from water (corn rots quickly). Entrée: Mixed seeds Species: Most bird species Prep: Choose this if you have a single feeder but want to draw a bevy of birds.…

Get this: Spending quality time at your feeders can make you a better birder. After knocking out IDs, take a few minutes to note the subtle differences among members of the same species. Jot down your observations in a journal or eBird checklist for quick comparison as the season progresses. Species such as Blue Jays and House Finches can have noticeable differences in plumage, for instance. Some jays sport a more prominent chinstrap or unique black-and-white patches around the face. With House Finches, you can tell how healthy a male’s diet is based on how pink its head and chest feathers are. An orange or jaundiced-looking House Finch is probably not eating enough berries with carotenoid pigments. Watching birds wing back and forth from feeders can also hone your eyes…

Birds of the Okavango Delta The Okavango River doesn’t flow to the sea: Its waters spread out into a huge inland delta and slowly evaporate. As a vast wetland surrounded by arid country in northern Botswana, the delta is a reliable feeding ground for a dizzying diversity of life. More than 500 bird species occur here, residents and long-distance migrants alike. They include water birds like cranes and kingfishers, but also a voluminous variety of hornbills, barbets, bee-eaters, rollers, and other tropical specialties. Parrots at the Tambopata Clay Licks At several sites in western Amazonia, galaxies of colorful parrots gather along riverbanks to eat dirt—well, technically clay. Some of the largest clay licks are along the Tambopata River in southeastern Peru, where hundreds of macaws, parrots, and parakeets, representing more…

Pack for a week and never fear a lost-luggage delay with the deceptively sleek Cotopaxi Allpa carry-on ($190). Get remarkably bright, clear close-ups of birds chowing down with Leica Noctivid binoculars in olive green ($2,749). If the birds aren’t biting, dive into The Ravenmaster ($26), a delightful memoir about caring for the Tower of London’s famous corvids. The LifeSaver Liberty bottle ($100) lets you sip safely from the streams that sustain your quarry.…

For a high-school junior, Ashleigh Scully has quite the resume: She’s won more than a dozen photography awards, and she’s travelled the world to document wildlife. But to get this shot, she didn’t have to go any farther than her own kitchen. When Scully learned that a family of Eastern Screech-Owls had taken up residence in the nest box in her backyard, she hunkered down by a window with a pair of binoculars. Occasionally, an owlet face would pop into view—it seemed the curious young birds were eager to sneak a peek at the world beyond their box. Scully waited till the birds were sleeping to set up her camera, attached to a wireless remote trigger—but no flash—on a tripod about 60 feet from the nest. Then she went back…

1898 The U.S. military claims Guam as sovereign territory during the Spanish-American War. The first naval and Air Force bases are built soon after. 1949 The brown tree snake arrives, catching a ride hundreds of miles in the cargo of a military ship or plane. (As Samuel L. Jackson puts it nearly 50 years later: “Everybody strap in.”) 1985 The snake hits a peak density of 250 individuals per acre. By year’s end, it’s eaten 60 percent of the island’s breeding bird species to extinction. 1989 Captive-bred Guam Rails are released on the nearby isle of Rota. U.S. zoos have since reared more rails, along with Guam Kingfishers. 2008 Haldre Rogers wins her first grant to visit Guam and map the brown tree snake’s effects on local ecosystems. Her team…

1980 President Carter creates the 18-million-acre refuge and prohibits oil and gas production there unless authorized by Congress. 1987 A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report advises opening to development 1.5 million acres in the 1002 Area along the coastal plain. 1989 Congressional support for leasing dissolves after the Exxon Valdez oil spill fouls 1,000 miles of coastline and kills a quarter-million birds. 1995 Congress passes a budget authorizing drilling in the 1002 Area. President Clinton vetoes the legislation. 2002 The House approves drilling in the 1002 Area as part of energy legislation. The bill dies in the Senate. 2005 Three legislative measures attempt to open the refuge to drilling. All fail. 2017 Congress approves a bill that opens the 1002 Area to drilling and requires the Interior Department to…

The reservoir in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia’s largest green space, is an important migratory stopover—and was once a beloved destination for people, too. They fished and swam in the 37-acre lake, and the local high school track team ran its mile-long perimeter. Then in the 1970s the city erected a barbed-wire fence, blocking access for decades. Now the reservoir is once again open to the public, thanks to Audubon Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Outward Bound School. As The Discovery Center, a nature-based educational facility, went up, the fence around the reservoir was torn down and replaced with trails. The center will host educational programs, including school field trips and weekly walks. “As a teenager I used to come up here with my cousins,” says Lenora Jackson-Evans, a longtime resident on the…

Blackberry Corners, Martin, OH “The concept of ‘Lifer Pie,’ now recognized by birders on multiple continents, had its origin at Blackberry Corners,” says Kenn Kaufman of the rural diner near Magee Marsh, a must-see migration hotspot. Yachats Brewing, Yachats, OR Forget pie. Oregon birders yen for “Lifer Beer,” says Linnaea Bee, who downs hers (plus good food) at Yachats Brewing. It’s conveniently located near Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve, where throngs of seabirds nest. Dixie Crossroads, Titusville, FL Katie Andersen replenishes calories burnt hiking in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in search of Roseate Spoonbills and Florida Scrub-Jays at this popular seafood eatery. “The rock shrimp is amazing,” she says. Owl Café, Albuquerque, NM After chasing rosy-finches at Sandia Crest or espying roadrunners along the Rio Grande, Gene Hanners keeps the…

Light Right The iridescence that most hummingbirds exhibit can easily lead to blown-out specular highlights. Avoid them by shooting in soft light. If you are using a Speedlite flash, softboxes or diffusion of some kind will help. Invest in Autofocus Hummingbirds are small, fast, erratic, and entirely unpredictable. The better your camera’s autofocus performance, the more keepers you’ll get. Keep It Clean If you are drawing hummingbirds to your yard with a feeder, remember that sugar water degenerates quickly, promoting bacterial growth. Change the water at least once a week in cooler weather and every three days when it’s hot out.…