Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i Audubon Magazine

TODAY BIRDS CONNECT AND INSPIRE people at a scale unimaginable in the early 20th century. And Audubon has grown into a hemispheric organization with nearly 2 million supporters, 415 community chapters, and 92 campus chapters, and it has expanded its work into 11 countries. “We are building on our rich history to arrive at this moment equipped for the future.” The challenges facing the planet have also never been greater, and birds continue to act as important sentinels of its health. Nearly 3 billion birds have vanished from North America since 1970, as habitat loss and climate change have transformed ecosystems that both birds and people rely upon. In order to reverse this ​ precipitous decline and bend the bird curve back upward, Audubon has expanded its commitment to conservation…

MALLARDS SEEM TO BE EVERYWHERE. THEY GATHER IN PARKS and ponds, forage in farm fields, and even nest in urban planter boxes. This flexibility has helped make Mallards the most common ducks in North America. And yet, while waterfowl populations overall have grown in the past few decades, Mallard numbers have declined by an estimated 20 percent since 1998, according to annual surveys. In the stretch of the Atlantic Flyway from New Hampshire to Virginia, the losses have been more than twice that. For such an adaptable species to undergo such a precipitous drop is troubling, says John Coluccy, director of conservation planning at Ducks Unlimited. “It indicates that something’s going on that we need to be paying attention to.” For such an adaptable species to undergo such a precipitous…

“Historically, the belief of our people is that only the Golden Eagle can fly high enough and far enough to see the face of God.” ON A BRISK DECEMBER NIGHT, THREE MEN GATHERED in Cyril, a speck of a town in southwest Oklahoma. They had come for a special purpose—one that connected them to their Comanche ancestors and channeled powers beyond the physical realm. Tonight, they would be “roadmen,” the spiritual leaders of peyote meetings. This ceremonial practice involves all-night sessions of prayer and song at which attendees may consume the psychoactive cactus peyote. Many Indigenous Americans, especially those who are members of the Native American Church, consider it to be integral to their culture. “It’s who we are,” says Charles Tahah, one of the Comanche roadmen present at the…

EVERY SUMMER, I RETURN WITH my family and my siblings’ families to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. It is a place we know by heart—where we spend a week living simply, in nature, surrounded by forests and water. Mornings begin with the call of a Common Loon echoing across the water—always the first sound I listen for. Later in the day, the drumming of a Pileated Woodpecker might carry through the trees. It is a place that reminds me how much birds belong to the places that shape them—and how much we do, too. Each of these landscapes reminds us how much hangs in the balance. It is not a remote wilderness or a protected refuge. But it is a place that holds memory, meaning, and connection. And it reinforces…

1905 Two decades of grassroots action to stop the slaughter of birds, propelled by advocates like Harriet Hemenway (below), culminate in the incorporation of the National Association of Audubon Societies. The organization, later renamed the National Audubon Society, locates its head-quarters in New York City, then the center of the feather industry. 1910s Junior Audubon Clubs take off. Among the millions of schoolchildren who join and learn about birds over the next several decades is Roger Tory Peterson (below), who goes on to revolutionize birding with his illustrated field guide and inspire other young conservationists as Audubon’s education director and art director of its magazine. 1923 Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary in New York becomes the first of 29 nature sanctuaries, followed by Rainey Sanctuary in Louisiana. Over decades Audubon’s system grows to…

THE TWIN ISLANDS OF ALAFIA Bank were washing away. The state-designated bird sanctuary, whose sandy shores sit just above sea level in Florida’s Tampa Bay, offers a haven for more than 10,000 nesting pairs consisting of 17 different bird species, including Roseate Spoonbills and Reddish Egrets. But every year, some of the islets’ mangrove trees would topple as boat wakes, storms, and rising seas eroded the coast. In the 1980s, conservationists strapped thousands of donated tires together and placed them along the beach to stop waves from eating away at the shore, says Jeff Liechty, sanctuary manager with Audubon Florida. But the rubber barriers later broke apart. So, in 2011, Audubon Florida, which leases and co-manages the site with The Mosaic Company and Port Tampa Bay, tried a different approach:…

ON THE CENTRAL PLATTE RIVER in Nebraska, every water drop has a purpose. Some generate electricity, irrigate farms, or meet demands downstream. Others ensure that Whooping Cranes have the habitat the Endangered Species Act requires. Often there aren’t enough drops to fulfill all legal water rights in the heavily managed river valley. But even overburdened rivers sometimes see seasonal floods or heavy rains, and water managers outside the Platte basin are seeking a share when that happens: They propose to divert water from the river during flush times and pipe some “excess” south to the Republican River basin, where the flow could help farmers irrigate crops and fulfill Nebraska’s obligations under a water-sharing deal with Kansas. The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources is now weighing the plan. Large water pulses…

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SECOND TRUMP PRESIDENCY featured a firehose of executive orders targeting climate programs, environmental justice efforts, and much more. One order stood out because it was focused not on a particular policy issue, but on a specific place. Its title: Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential. By signing the order, President Trump turned up the heat on long-simmering debates about how to weigh natural resource extraction in Alaska—the bedrock of the state’s economy—against environmental protection in what are some of the nation’s most spectacular wild places. The areas singled out for development are like vital organs that sustain vast migrations and entire ecosystems, says David Krause, vice president of Audubon’s Alaska program. For myriad bird species, for instance, these plains and forests and wetlands are of crucial,…

INSTALLING A NEST BOX near your home is a wonderful way to support local birds and draw them close. But soaring temperatures can turn a nest box into a miniature oven, posing a deadly risk to chicks. Thankfully, simple interventions can keep these spaces habitable—and help birds survive and thrive in a warming world. AVOID DIRECT SUN. Shaded spots under trees are much cooler than open areas and are suitable nest box sites for birds like wrens and chickadees. The direction the nest box faces also makes a difference: Try to orient the opening toward the north and east, away from afternoon light. If possible, put out more than one nest box. Cavity nesters can’t build their own nests, so they have to take what they can get. “Let’s give our…

ROBERTO BENAVIDEZ HAS LONG BEEN FASCINATED BY SCULPTURAL ART, BUT IT TOOK HIM YEARS to hit upon the perfect medium: the piñata. After first crafting fantastical animals, Benavidez, a Los Angeles–based artist of Mexican and European descent, turned to replicating real avian life, encoding messages through subtle twists. “The more I learned about birds, the more I could see that I could say things with them,” he says. For this piñata, he reimagined John James Audubon’s watercolor of three Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, a species that is either one of the world’s rarest, or extinct, largely due to the destruction of its bottomland forest habitat. Benavidez began by layering papier-mâché over balloons to shape the birds’ bodies. He used paperboard to craft the wings and beaks, and wire for the legs and…

IN THE LATE 1800S CONCERN FOR BIRDS was mounting. Millions were being slaugh-tered each year for market hunting and the millinery trade. To turn public sentiment in favor of protecting wild birds, in 1886 Field and Stream editor George Bird Grinnell formed the first Audubon Society. Within a year some 40,000 people had joined, but the rapid growth proved too much to maintain. By 1889 the group had ceased to exist—and then two women picked up the cause. Cousins Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall launched the Audubon movement that would endure. Disturbed by the destruction of heron rookeries, in 1896 they urged Boston women to eschew feathered hats and join a society for the protection of birds. Thousands did, and more societies formed. Harnessing their political power, Audubon members…

New Bird Alert Birders on the West Coast have recently had to add a new species to their mental field guide: the Swinhoe’s White-eye. Native to Asia, these small yellow songbirds were accidentally introduced to Southern California in 2007, but in the past decade, their population has exploded, spreading from Seattle to Baja. The boom has surprised experts, who recently discovered that the white-eyes are moving into areas climatically different from their home range—suggesting that their U.S. expansion might just be getting started. Read more at audubon.org/whiteeyes. RE: “The ‘Forever’ Fallout” The Spring 2025 cover story about the contamination of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River shined a light on the risks to wildlife and local residents. “The molecules in our environment are constantly…

With a long, powerful bill capable of splitting open shells that few birds can crack, the American Oystercatcher seems well equipped to find plenty to eat in its coast-hugging habitats. In the early 2000s, though, scientists noticed oystercatchers’ namesake food source was disappearing—and the shorebirds were following suit. By 2008 the species’ main populations along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts had dropped 8 percent in five years, with only around 10,000 birds left. When the American Oystercatcher Working Group, a coalition of experts, asked the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) for help turning the tide, the grant maker requested something unexpected: a business plan. Thinking of birds as “returns on investment” felt foreign at first, says Alex Wilke, a coastal scientist with The Nature Conservancy. But the conservationists soon…

IN ARID SOUTHEAST ARIZONA, chile pepper farmer Ed Curry has monitored his wells and done his best to conserve water for five decades. But until recently, his diligence wasn't mandatory. When the state passed the 1980 Groundwater Management Act, it focused on cities, leaving aquifers in rural areas—about 80 percent of the state—unregulated. Anyone could drill a well and pump away. About eight years ago, as larger farms and dairies began operating nearby, Curry started noticing that even wells he wasn’t using were losing water. Without guardrails preventing overuse, the Willcox groundwater basin he draws from has, in recent years, lost the equivalent of 54,000 Olympic swimming pools of water annually. In 2023 Curry spent $600,000 drilling deeper wells. Every farmer he knows has had to do the same. “There’s…

PHENOMENA Night Lights Fireflies may be closer than you think. Scientists want your help finding them. ALMOST A DECADE AGO, staff at the Audubon Center and Sanctuary at Francis Beidler Forest were lingering in the parking lot to debrief the night’s “Wine and Warblers” event. Then the fireflies appeared. The group stayed for another 45 minutes, amazed by the light show. From this spectacle, an idea was hatched. Today hundreds of people head to the South Carolina center every year for “Firefly Nights.” Visitors watch lightning bugs blink in synchrony in the old-growth forest, which also offers refuge to more than 150 bird species, including Wood Storks and the striking yellow “swamp candle,” or Prothonotary Warbler. Eager attendees share nostalgia, as well as a worry. “I can’t tell you how…

WINGS ABLUR, ZIPPING FROM bloom to bloom, hummingbirds rarely seem to rest. Photographer Soo Baus can relate. Between shifts as a trauma ICU nurse, Baus is usually outside, camera in hand, searching Seattle’s parks for birds. But when a slow recovery from COVID-19 sapped her energy in the summer of 2023, she decided to focus on birds closer to home. In particular, she turned her attention to her resident frenetic fliers: Anna’s Hummingbirds. With a few tweaks to her yard and a lot of patience, Baus captured some of the best photos she’s ever taken of the birds—right outside her front door. First, Baus gathered the elements of a “hummingbird playground,” including a bubbling water fountain and lots of nectarrich flowers, chosen at a local nursery to bloom throughout the season.…