Audubon articles from March 2005

Audubon archives from March 2005

Editor's note.
March 1, 2005... Every so often it's necessary to return to a theme central to this magazine: hope. I was reminded of it while preparing for our recent centennial issue. In January 1973 Roger Tory Peterson, who worked on staff here as design director for many...

Audubon view.
March 1, 2005... New York City Audubon recently led a high-profile campaign to restore a red-tailed hawk nest to a Fifth Avenue co-op building window ledge overlooking Central Park. The nest had been home to celebrity hawk couple Pale Male and Lola. The...

Common cause.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I READ TED WILLIAMS'S "GUNS & GREENS" [January-February] with great interest. He posits that much good can be done for everybody if environmentalists and sportsmen were to combine forces in their mutual interests. As a member of both the...

Tip of the hat.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... RE YOUR STORY CONCERNING BIRDS on hats ["Hats Off to Audubon," November-December 2004]: There must have been many wise observations by children at that time. In 1958, when one of my sons was a toddler, I took him into "big church." We were a...

The future is now.(wildlife conservation)
March 1, 2005... TWO YEARS AGO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, citing "uncertainty" in the science behind global warming, called for additional studies before taking action. At about the same time, White House officials removed a passage from a report by the...

Sitting ducks.(Dispatches ...)(abandoned ducks)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Each spring parents buy their children adorable ducklings and goslings at fairs and pet stores as Easter gifts. Later, when the birds grow up, many are released in city parks. Unfortunately, the owners don't realize they're "duck dumping."...

A mighty wind.(Dispatches ...)(Carleton College, Northfield install wind power turbine)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The proposal was the brainchild of students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Why not power the school by building a turbine to tap into the area's winds? With the help of RENew Northfield, a local environmental group, the school...

What garbage?(Dispatches ...)(www.freecycling.org)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... An Internet phenomenon called "freecycling" has inspired more than half a million people to keep their junk out of landfills. Instead of simply tossing out used furniture, clothing, or building materials, freecyclers offer the items to members...

Arctic sprawl.(field notes)(Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--the plain is often called ANWR's biological heart--is home to a spectacular array of wildlife, from polar bears to caribou and more than a hundred species of birds. It...

Patriotic trees.(Dispatches ...)(trees that would sense biological, chemical agents in the environment)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Evildoers, beware, insects, weeds, and other organisms are joining the fight against terrorism, as scientists look for more effective ways to detect hazardous materials and monitor the spread of contamination in the environment. After the...

!Viva las Aves!(Kenn Kaufman)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... Kenn Kaufman's Focus' Guide to the Birds of North America became an indispensable pocket companion for many of the country's birders when it was published in 2000. This April a Spanish-language edition, the Kaufman Guia de Campo a las Aves de...

Caught on radar.(Dispatches ...)(migratory bird monitoring radar)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... It seems an unlikely tool for protecting bird habitat: a flat, hexagonal panel, 18 feet wide, sitting on a 60-foot-high platform north of Oyster, Virginia. But because of a partnership between NASA and the Nature Conservancy, this one-of-a-kind...

Dead wood talking.(dead wood vital forest ecology)
March 1, 2005... WHEN A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST, there may or may not be someone to hear it, and it may or may not make a sound. But if it falls in a forest in Europe, from Finland to France and Poland to Portugal, you might hear the sound of a well-meaning...

Birding adventures in Virginia.(Advertisement)
March 1, 2005... WILDLIFE WATCHING IN VIRGINIA Grasslands and pineland savannahs. Winding waterways and miles of coastline. Caverns and cruises. Mountain resorts and camping The wonder of wildlife watching in Virginia is that its sea-kissed coastline and...

Red alert.(migrations)
March 1, 2005... Alas, there was no Endangered Species Act, no Important Bird Areas program when ivory-billed woodpeckers still roamed the South's mature forests. Their nesting places could have used the care and attention now granted to woodland habitat in...

How the nest was won: over 21 heartrending days, Pale Male became not only the world's most famous bird but a powerful symbol, too, by beating the odds stacked against nature in New York City.(birds)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... BY NOW, VIRTUALLY EVERYONE in the world knows about Pale Male--except maybe those who don't read newspapers or magazines, listen to the radio, watch television, or go on the Internet. The red-tailed hawk had one of the swankiest homes in New...

Arizona's natural attractions: hundreds of species, spectacular settings.(Advertisement)
March 1, 2005... Already having achieved a high level of recognition for its spectacular terrain--the world's most famous canyon, truly majestic mountains, deserts carpeted in colorful blooms--Arizona receives more and more notoriety each year as a place where...

Slip sliding away: the American eel's bizarre journey from the Sargasso Sea is one of the world's least appreciated wildlife migrations. Running the gauntlet of bait hunters, turbines, and spillways, the eel remains in a constant battle to hold its own.(true nature)
March 1, 2005... Standing calf-deep in the cold stream, I turn over rocks and rotting logs. Nothing. I sweep a flashlight beam along a weedy edge, where crayfish back away from the light, pincers raised. They're not there either. Next I wade upstream, toward...

Nature's best in Nova Scotia: for outdoor lovers, the greatest challenge in visiting Nova Scotia is deciding what part of the province's natural beauty to explore first.(Special Advertising Section)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... With two national parks, 125 provincial parks and picturesque driving travelways that cover much of the province, narrowing your choice will truly be a challenge. Birders will find the experience at Kejimkujik National Park delightful....

Discovering the natural attractions of Florida.(Advertisement)
March 1, 2005... Florida has been attracting travelers in search of a sense of rejuvenation ever since Ponce de Leon combed the peninsula in his quixotic search for the fountain of youth. Whether drawn to the breezes of the gulf, the whisper of the surf or the...

Showtime!(Audubon Sanctuary)(Nebraskas Platte River, migrating birds)
March 1, 2005... Each spring people from across the country and around the globe flock to Nebraska's Platte River to marvel at one of the bird world's most spectacular phenomena. As half a million sandhill cranes converge (luring their northward migration, they...

Bound for tomorrow: in Alaska's Western Arctic, one of the world's largest caribou herds--almost half a million strong--carries out its relentless migration, even as strip mining and other threats cast shadows over the tundra. Now a group of disparate stakeholders have banded together to protect these animals.(The Arctic)
March 1, 2005... FROM WHERE I SAT ON THE BONY SHOULDER OF A LOW RIDGE NORTH OF THE FAR-WESTERN BROOKS RANGE, I LOOKED OUT ACROSS MILES OF VERDANT, ROLLING TUNDRA FOOTHILLS. These were the Utukok River Uplands in northern Alaska, prime calving grounds of...

The sound of music: birdsong in all its variations has captivated everyone from musicians to poets down through the ages. In one of their newest fields, scientist are now seeking to unlock the mysteries of how chickadees and other birds use sound to communicate.(Birds)
March 1, 2005... SEVERAL YEARS AGO ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON, I WANDERED through the one-story cinder block building at one of the most famous addresses in bird studies--159 Sapsucker Woods Road: Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology Passing through an...

Into the breach: a young photographer's fascination with humpback whales in Alaska leads him to extremes few people would dream of and images unlike any others.
March 1, 2005... PHOTO ESSAY BY NORIO MATSUMOTO Norio Matsumoto likes to work alone. For months at a time the 32-year-old photographer from Japan makes solo forays into Alaska's wilderness, intent on capturing the images in his mind's eye. "I do, want to...

Tracking Desire: a Journey After Swallow-tailed Kites.(Editors' Choice)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow tailed Kites By Susan Cerulean University of Georgia Press, 192 pages, $24.95 Tracking Desire: A Journey After Swallow-tailed Kites is an honest book, finely written, exposing the author's heart even...

The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar and the Geography of Desire.(Editors' Choice)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar and the Geography of Desire By Richard Adams Carey Counter Point Press, 336 pages, $26 The sturgeon is one of the world's oldest and largest fishes, dating back at least 100 million years and...

All a flutter: since the 18th century, people from all walks of life have been possessed by birding. The thrill reflects, as a notable poet once wrote, an assurance that "the globe's still working.".(A Bird in the Bush: A Social History of Birdwatching )(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... A Bird in the Bush: A Social History of Birdwatching By Stephen Moss Aurum Press, 375 pages, $31.95 DID YOU KNOW THAT THE FIRST real birdwatcher was an 18th-century clergyman living in a quiet English village? Until then, writes Stephen...

Art of the Wild.(Art of the Wild In Sound of Summer Running)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Art of the Wild In Sound of Summer Running (Nazraeli Press, 68 pages, $50), Montana-based photographer Raymond Meeks captures the lives of children (including his daughter) as they explore their rural surroundings. Nature is illuminated as...

America's Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade?(Editors' Choice)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... America's Environmental Report Card: Are We Making the Grade? By Harvey Blatt MIT Press, 277 pages, $27.95 This book's title, America's Environmental Report Card, is slightly misleading. Instead of assigning a letter grade to America's...

An Alaska sampling.(Special Advertising Section)
March 1, 2005... ALASKA CONJURES UP IMAGES OF DRAMA, the spectacular results of its unique marriage of wild location and beguiling wildlife: flocks of birds roaring across the skies in sun-darkening waves, great herds of Arctic caribou trekking across the...

One picture.(portrait of an elephant)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A COW ELEPHANT AT A GAME RESERVE IN SOUTH AFRICA APPEARS TO BE BATTING HER considerable eyelashes at Tim Flach, a London-based photographer noted for his (apologies) eye-catching animal portraits. Or possibly she's trying to convey a silent...