Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2020 i Audubon Magazine

The cold, fast-flowing streams of the West are home to the American Dipper, North America’s only truly aquatic songbird. Dippers first caught Michael Forsberg’s attention as a child, when his family would vacation in the Colorado mountains to escape the heat and humidity of Nebraska summers. The young angler occasionally spotted chunky little gray birds that bobbed up and down on rocks, dove into the water, and resurfaced with insects in their beaks. Now a professional photographer, Forsberg returned to the streams of his childhood over four years to document the dippers’ life cycle. “I call them a trout with feathers because they eat the same things,” he says, “and they are remarkable underwater.” Through the project he’s gained a deep appreciation for the resilient birds and their role as…

Tap Your Bird Brain Every year the entries to our Audubon Photography Awards are brimming with wildly entertaining bird photos. So much so that sometimes we ask ourselves, “What is that bird thinking?” Well, now we’re asking you exactly that! The above photo of two tangled Piping Plover chicks and their parent is just begging for a caption. Please email your submission to the magazine inbox for a chance to have it featured in the fall issue. Spring 2020 I finished the Spring issue and was shocked by two articles [“Death Spiral” and “Ten Years Later.”]. How are we letting carbofuran still be used? And how is there an abandoned well that has been leaking for close to 15 years? I’m happy to hear wildlife officers are catching and prosecuting…

The world produced the weight equivalent of 25,000 Empire State Buildings in plastic from 1950 to 2015. If current trends continue, global annual production may roughly triple by 2050. Global Emissions Greenhouse gases increase with production. As clean energy displaces fossil fuels, plastic’s share of total emissions will grow.…

THE ALLURE OF BIRDS, IN NO SMALL PART, IS THAT THEY’RE EVERYWHERE, from the House Sparrows hopping around outside your window to the Emperor Penguins eking out a living in Antarctica. But our appreciation for birds transcends geographic borders. Our affection and interest for avians permeates our culture, influencing and inspiring books, movies, games, music, art, social circles, even dining rituals. So set aside the field guide and take in the various ways in which birds enrich our lives. Pitch Perfect Amanda Gallinat came up empty when she sought a bird-themed Spotify playlist. So the biologist scoured the musical landscape for tunes to put in phylogenetic order. Take “Snow Grouse,” by Swedish Sami artist Sofia Jannok, now a favorite song: “I would never have found it if I wasn’t looking…

THERE’S NO BETTER WAY TO GET COMFORTABLE IN THE FIELD THAN by actively birding—but that’s not the only way to take your skills to the next level. You won’t be able to identify that elusive sparrow if you haven’t memorized key field marks; likewise, waking up for the dawn chorus, as lovely as it is, can’t teach you to distinguish one bird’s song from another. To deepen your knowledge and broaden your awareness, steep yourself in these bird studies without leaving home. PAGE-TURNERS Bird Smarts Avian antics are captivating—and often confounding. Three new books offer insights into why birds do what they do. In The Bird Way (Penguin Press; $28), journalist Jennifer Ackerman explains the intelligence behind unusual behavior through five themes—talk, work, play, parent, and think. Biologist Wenfei Tong’s…

SUMMER CAMP MIGHT BE CANCELED THIS YEAR, BUT THAT doesn’t mean fun is canceled. This spring, we created Audubon for Kids, an online magazine featuring nature- and bird-themed activities for parents to explore with their children at home. We quickly realized its universal appeal. Who wouldn’t benefit from more playful pursuits in their life? So, we filled this section with diversions and puzzles for the bird-obsessed child inside all of us. Rapture for Raptors Raptors have inspired poets from Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Mary Oliver. Try your hand with a poetic form called a cinquain, which tells an action-packed story in five short lines. Each line has a set number of syllables: two, four, six, eight, and two, sequentially. Here’s an example: Wings flash. Rising, soaring, High-pitched call, turning now,…

THE TOLL OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC is hard to count and even harder to comprehend. Each death is uniquely tragic, and every mourner’s pain adds up. Millions of essential workers, struggling caregivers, and people who have lost their income grapple with hardship. And who among us hasn’t felt the burden of fear and uncertainty? Amid all of this, Audubon’s focus on birds and their well-being might feel like a luxury. It’s not. As this special report shows, birds provide jobs, solace, and points of connection with a planet that is suffering. Protecting their world—and ours—is more important than ever. TO THE LIST OF THINGS MANY OF US TOOK FOR GRANTED just months ago—watching sports, dining out, embracing friends—add spring migration. One of birding’s greatest gifts is the chance to surf…

WELL BEFORE THE PANdemic, energy analysts predicted that within 5 to 20 years, the world would hit peak oil—the point at which demand for fossil fuels maxes out and begins to permanently decline. Now some, including the chief executive of BP, say the coronavirus crisis may have delivered that moment already. To justify expensive extraction projects, “oil and gas counts on scarcity and on a price tag of $100 a barrel indefinitely,” says Clark Williams-Derry, an analyst with the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The last time prices were that high was 2014. “Now any expectations that we’ll hit $100 a barrel again have vanished,” he says. COVID-19 has led to societal change on an extraordinary scale. That’s why advocates hope the recovery could offer a turning…

IT’S EARLY APRIL AND American Woodcocks have begun twilight mating displays, making whistling, twirling falls from the sky. You’ve seen them before with friends, but to abide by social distancing rules you decide on a solo trip. Then you recall the sound of gravel behind you as a police car followed you to a trailhead the other day. You quickly but calmly grabbed your binoculars and pointed them to a nearby tree. Not because you saw a bird, but to prove your innocence—to de-escalate what you feared could unfold. It’s cold outside and will be colder tonight when the woodcocks dance. You should layer up with your hoodie, but you know how that makes you look. Especially at night. Especially alone. You decide it’s better not to go. Every detail…

MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE OWLS of Marco Island came more than 15 years ago. I was walking down a quiet residential street on this heavily developed barrier island that lies just south of Naples and north of the Everglades. Off to my left, a phalanx of beachfront condos loomed over the Gulf of Mexico. Palm trees rustled in the February breeze, and the bougainvillea blooming in the yards drew my gaze. When I glanced back down the sidewalk, I found my way blocked by a small owl. I stopped, a bit shocked. I knew Marco Island had a robust population of Burrowing Owls—round-headed, long-legged raptors the size of beverage cans—but I hadn’t expected to find one contesting my passage. I stared. The owl glared. Finally it flew a few…

Discarded plastic that becomes litter in waterways, cities, and shores harms people and wildlife, but there is also a less visible chain of impacts that occurs well before the material even becomes a useful product. In the United States, communities along the plastic supply chain are seeing these effects up close as domestic natural gas drilling, petrochemical production, and plastic exports have risen in the past decade. DRILLING DOWN Pink areas show where U.S. shale holds natural gas reserves. The dots indicate facilities. Advances in hydraulic fracturing have enabled industry to tap previously unutilized natural gas deposits in shale formations across the United States, particularly in the Ohio River Valley and on the Gulf Coast—leading to greater supply and lower gas prices. Ethane, a product of natural gas extraction, is…

Across 1 Swallow nest site 5 Swift mortar 10 Sunburn soother 11 Home cooler 13 High cards 14 Totals 15 Audubon has more than 450 18 Fledglings leave these behind 19 Language suffix 20 Modern quill 22 Prairie 26 Professor’s asst. 27 Stronghold 28 Grosses 29 Eagle’s nest 30 Construction material 31 Govt. lawyer 33 Performed 34 Windy Santa ___ 35 Mathematician Lovelace 37 A robin might build here 42 Win an eye battle 45 Constellation unit 46 2017 Audubon convention locale 47 Pacific reg. 48 Farm fraction 49 A plover digs one 50 Birds don’t do this to their food Down 1 Acid neutralizer 2 Grad 3 Frolic 4 Homebody 6 Back muscles 7 Penguin diving platform 8 Bible abbr. 9 Said “yes” 11 Blemishes 12 Male sage-grouse’s notable…

IT’S MID-JUNE, AND I’M WRITING this column for the third time in as many weeks. My first draft covered the surge of interest in birds and nature in the early months of COVID-19. My second draft addressed a racist incident in Central Park in which a white woman called the police on Christian Cooper, a Black man and New York City Audubon board member, who was simply out birding during spring migration. No sooner had I finished that draft when the country erupted in agony and righteous fury over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers—and the murder of many others at the hands of law enforcement across the country. And so now here we are, two weeks into collective action to demand justice for Floyd and for…

Bird Rehab: Working with a skeleton crew, staff at the Wild Bird Fund, a wildlife rehabilitation center in New York City, showed up in staggered shifts to limit contact with one another. “The days are exhausting,” says animal care manager Phyllis Tseng. Still, she knew her patients—which recently included an American Woodcock that collided with a building and four Northern Gannets—needed them. Captive Care: With fewer than 700 Whooping Cranes left in the wild, safeguarding the 159 birds in captivity is crucial to the species’ recovery. Birdkeeper Chris Crowe stayed busy feeding the cranes and keeping their facilities clean at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. He also fulfilled another essential duty: artificially inseminating one of the cranes. If all goes well, her chicks will join the 71 wild Whoopers in…

GRAND PRIZE WINNER CATEGORY Professional PHOTOGRAPHER Joanna Lentini SPECIES Double-crested Cormorant LOCATION Los Islotes, Mexico CAMERA Canon EOS 7D Mark II with Tokina 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 AT-X 107 DX AF Fisheye lens; 1/640 second at f/6.3; ISO 320 BEHIND THE SHOT I’ve spent many hours underwater at this California sea lion rookery in the Bay of La Paz, but I had never before encountered diving cormorants there. Shifting my focus from the playful sea lions, I watched in awe as the cormorants plunged beak-first into the sea to snap at the sardines swimming by. Although I spent a long time admiring these birds, I didn’t see a single one catch a fish. Adding insult to injury, curious sea lion pups would zip by the hunting birds and nip at them from…

ANDREW WUNDERLEY CROUCHES IN THE SAND TO PICK up a milky white sphere. He pinches the lentil-size orb between his thumb and forefinger. It nearly pops out of his grip. The little pellet is made of brand-new plastic and has all the wondrous qualities of the material—light, smooth, and virtually forever-lasting. Many more are scattered in the high-tide line of the wide, windswept beach, the pride of Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, a barrier island at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. He drops the pellet into a glass jar and picks up another, then another. Just offshore, container ships cut through the January fog on their way to Charleston’s industrial port. Before plastic is formed into forks or garbage bags or iPhone cases, it is born into the world as these…