Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2020 i Audubon Magazine

Adult Swallow-tailed Kites primarily eat insects, but they feed their chicks lizards, snakes, and amphibians, like the green tree frog this father caught. Many known nests in the United States are located in privately owned working forests. When conducted sustainably, logging creates the mosaic historically formed by natural disturbances that kites need: a heterogeneous patchwork of stands of varying ages and heights that provide the raptors with nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat, all within relatively close proximity. “When you think about the disturbance factors in Florida, it’s fire and storms,” says Ken Meyer, head of the nonprofit Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI). “Timber harvest mimics those disturbances.” When spring arrives in Florida, avian acrobats cut across the sky. Swallow-tailed Kites carry cypress twigs and long strands of Spanish moss…

Supplement your retirement with fixed income for as long as you live—at an attractive rate—and leave a conservation legacy with an Audubon gift annuity. Annual payment rates go as high as 9.0%, depending on your age. Act now to save on taxes in 2020. SAMPLE RATES * *Based on a donation of $25,000 and one beneficiary SEE YOUR BENEFITS To receive a no-obligation personal proposal describing your payment rate and tax savings using your age and gift amount (minimum age is 65 and minimum contribution is $10,000), contact Shari Kolding: By mail: Using the attached reply card By email: plannedgifts@audubon.org By phone: 512.236.9076…

STEVE BEISSINGER KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT famed naturalist Joseph Grinnell was doing on June 2, 1932: He was hiking a ridge near Lagunitas, California, with his wife, Hilda. This was no lovers’ picnic. On their 3.5-hour trek, the duo undertook three separate bird counts, and Grinnell tallied each of the 94 birds from 31 species that they saw or heard. Beissinger knows all this because he’s been reading Grinnell’s diaries. Clues gleaned from two pages of neat cursive written 87 years ago led the modern ornithologist with University of California, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) to what he’s certain is the same trail Grinnell investigated. On a May morning, he, his postdoctoral student Kelly Iknayan, and I returned to repeat the hike ourselves. “We were surprised by the luxuriance of…

AROUND THE VILLAGE OF Pachariya in India’s northeastern province of Assam, hibiscus flowers bloom into fuchsia whorls and paddy fields pop green from recent monsoon rains. Inside the prayer hall, wafting incense blends with the scent of sliced fruit. Two dozen women laugh and talk as they prepare foods for a baby shower. It’s a celebration rooted in tradition, but for the nature of the new arrivals. The women are celebrating the nesting season of the Greater Adjutant Stork. Known locally as hargila, or bone swallower, the leggy five-foot bird once evoked much harsher treatment. When Purnima Devi Barman first visited these villages in 2008, as a university student researching the world’s largest colony of the species, she witnessed their maltreatment firsthand. One day a villager pointed her to a…

A half-century-old chemical has come back with a vengeance, for the express purpose of killing birds and other wildlife. The more officials investigate, the more crime scenes they uncover. THE VICTIM LYING ON KEVIN HYNES’S STAINLESS-STEEL table on March 11, 2015, showed no obvious cause of death. There were no injuries indicating that she had been hit by a car or electrocuted—the usual killers. Dressed in surgical scrubs and latex gloves, Hynes, a wildlife biologist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation in Delmar, peered through the magnifying visor affixed to his headband and examined the Bald Eagle more closely. She was a female, seemingly in good health, and likely a mother incubating eggs, indicated by the bare skin—a brood patch—on her underbelly. Her stomach contents showed that she…

THE WORST OIL SPILL IN U.S. WATERS BEGAN with a deadly explosion on April 20, 2010. Many of us remember the distress we felt as that day stretched into days, then months—a slow-building dread that no one could make a gaping hole drilled into the earth stop gushing. Capping the well took 87 days. The consequences unfurled long after. Today BP penalty funds flowing to the region provide an enormous opportunity to not only repair environmental damages from that disaster, but also help restore a long-suffering Gulf Coast. In 2019 Audubon provided a roadmap for investing nearly $2 billion of this pot to shore up key habitats through 30 projects covering more than 136,000 acres. With partners, it’s now ensuring many of those projects are advancing. For example, this winter…

Quiz! Match the warbler to its description (answer key at lower left). 1 American Redstart 2 Louisiana Waterthrush 3 Ovenbird 4 Kentucky Warbler A Walks Like a Chicken B Actively Wags Its Tail C Appears to Wear Goggles D Is Actually Orange For more warbler wisdom, go to audubon.org/photography. with their bright colors, unique patterns, and flitting movements, warblers beguile and challenge even the most seasoned bird photographers. Spring offers a rolling bonanza, with dozens of species moving through North America. When pursuing that perfectly crisp shot of a masked Common Yellowthroat or flaming Blackburnian, it’s best to conserve your energy. Warblers don’t stop moving, and your shutter won’t either. Grail Bird Cerulean Warbler Uncommon and declining, and with a penchant for sticking to the tops of tall trees, the Cerulean…

TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT! Enter the 10th Audubon Photography Awards. You could win cash prizes and see your photo published in Audubon and Nature’s Best Photography. CONTESTDATES Jan. 13–Apr. 6, 2020 PRIZE CATEGORIES Grand, Amateur, Professional, Youth, Plants for Birds, and Fisher Prizes SPECIAL YOUTH PRIZE Six days at the Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine RECOGNITION Winning photos will be featured in an exhibit that travels across the country. JUDGES INCLUDE Steve Freligh Publisher, Nature’s Best Photography Melissa Groo Wildlife photographer Allen Murabayashi Chairman and Co-founder, PhotoShelter Jason Ward Host of “Birds of North America” No purchase necessary. Contest begins 1/13/20 and ends 4/6/20. Must be at least 13 years of age and a legal resident of the 50 U.S. states, D.C., or Canada (excluding Quebec) to enter. Entrants…

THERE’S A NIGHTMARISH, AND completely avoidable, scenario coming into focus for climate and wildlife advocates, one where America’s wildlife could become roadkill on the path to ambitious reductions in climate change. If you connect the dots, the formula for this tragedy is already unfolding: The gutting of our major environmental protections leaves birds and other wildlife vulnerable while climate activists are at work building plans for urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Ironically, that outcome would suit both longtime climate-action opponents and those companies that would benefit from massive investments in renewable energy. We plan to hold everyone accountable, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the American Wind Energy Association. And as we look to build a bipartisan coalition of legislators that will take the bold steps needed to…

You can now easily find the local plants you need to support the birds you love. audubon.org/native-plants HONEYSUCKLES The long, tubular flowers of native honeysuckle vines are magnets for hummingbirds. Plant them near a fence or trellis to ensure a sturdy vertical growing space. MILKWEEDS Milkweed blooms entice both butterflies and hummingbirds. Tolerant to drought, these hardy plants prefer to grow in full sun and well-drained, sandy soils. SAGES The colorful flowers of these perennial shrubs draw hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. Blooming in spring and summer, sage thrives in full sun and dry soils. PENSTEMONS Penstemons blossom in a variety of colors and attract hummingbirds and other pollinators. Ground-feeding birds eat the tiny seeds of these perennials.…

NURTURED FROM NATIVE seeds, a lively prairie near Ohio’s Dayton International Airport sprouted on 140 acres of former farmland in 1995. The wildflower revival marked a win for both conservation and aviation at the time. Yet alongside verdant grasses, seeds of conflict were sown. Aullwood Audubon had helped cultivate the Paul E. Knoop, Jr. Prairie to protect the watershed of Wiles Creek. The stream starts on the prairie’s edge and meanders under a highway, feeding the Audubon center’s sensitive wetlands. While providing habitat for birds and insects, its tall grasses don’t appeal to Canada Geese, which are a particular menace to airplanes. In 2007, with airport traffic and Dayton’s economy slumping, the city ended Aullwood’s lease, citing a decade-old FAA recommendation of at least 10,000 feet of distance between runways…

SHAWN VIRGILLO HAS ALWAYS LOVED the outdoors. He grew up among farms and forests in Astoria, Oregon, near where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific. He used to make regular trips to the state’s eastern border to fish on the Snake River, and would roll down his car window to catch the bitter, citrusy scent of sagebrush baking in the high-desert sun. He was wild about that smell. Now Virgillo lives just a few miles from the river, but he likely won’t fish again until 2022. For two years he’s been among the 200 inmates in the minimum-security section of the Snake River Correctional Institution, Oregon’s biggest prison. Virgillo was convicted of assault in 2017. He knew the officers who arrested him from his work in the event-security business.…

Climate change is the single greatest threat to birds today. It’s time to do whatever you can to help vulnerable species survive and thrive. Join a select group of devoted supporters by becoming a member of the Great Egret Society. With a gift of $500 you can join this society of passionate people who pay attention to birds and want to protect them before it’s too late. As a member of the Great Egret Society, you will receive insider updates from Audubon leadership, special event invitations, access to members-only content in our digital hub, a certificate of membership, and our handsome lapel pin. Become a member of the Great Egret Society today! audubon.org/GreatEgretSociety…