Audubon articles from March 2009

Audubon archives from March 2009

Editor's note.(Editorial)
March 1, 2009... AS YOU ADMIRE THE IMAGE OF THE COLLARED ARACARI SELECTED BY DESIGN director Kevin Fisher and photo editor Kim Hubbard for this issue's cover, I hope the story behind it further enhances your appreciation for the photo and the other spectacular...

Audubon view.
March 1, 2009... AUDUBON HAS CLEAN SOLAR ELECTRICITY THAT'S GOING TO WASTE. DOES ANYONE WANT IT? The Debs Park Audubon Center in East Los Angeles is one of those rare commercial buildings that operates off the grid, powered entirely by solar electricity....

Boreal support.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... It was encouraging to read in "Paper Chase" [January-February] about the intense grassroots and political pressures placed upon several major corporations and to see that Victoria's Secret, Williams-Sonoma, Dell, and L.L. Bean have agreed to...

Cutting carbs.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... I read with interest "The Low-Carbon Diet" [January-February], and I draw a much different conclusion regarding author Mike Tidwell's assertion that "it's got to be about morality, about right versus wrong." Why are we not seeing more emphasis...

Giving a hoot.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... As "Owl War II" ["Incite," January-February] highlights, scientists acknowledge that barred owl competition is a main threat to recovering the northern spotted owl, yet no clear remedy exists. One way to address the threat is to control barred...

The beef on beef.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2009... In "High Steaks" [January-February], which reviewed Courtney White's book Revolution on the Range, a reference is made to the poor condition of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona, while nearby land being grazed by...

Carbon food print.(Field Notes)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... About a quarter, or 8.1 tons, of the average U.S. family's annual 38-ton carbon dioxide footprint comes from food. When engineers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, looked at how these food-linked emissions are...

On the move.(bird migration and climate change)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There is something dreadfully wrong," says duck hunter and Arkansas Wildlife Federation board member David Carruth, noting that many mallards stopped migrating south along the Mississippi Flyway several years ago. In...

Early bloomers.(Henry David Thoreau's work on plant flowering and climate change)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] When naturalist Henry David Thoreau recorded his observations on the environment in Concord, Massachusetts, he probably never imagined his work would help scientists 150 years later understand their changing climate....

Getting psyched.(peer pressure in sustainable living)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Whether your friends are hounding you to get a new cell phone (yours is so old) or see a movie you're not into (you'll have the best time), it's human nature to give in to peer pressure. Psychologists are trying to...

Yellow fever.(uranium mining and environmental impact on Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nuclear energy, long controversial, is gaining ground as a clean alternative to burning fossil fuels--even among some environmentalists. Yet although nuclear reactors don't emit greenhouse gases, the industry does...

The big sleep.(animal hibernationa and sleep)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 40 The number of days the poorwill, a nocturnal bird common to the Southwest desert, has stayed in a dormant state called torpor--the only bird known to do so for multiple days. 310 The average number...

Fast track.(bird migration tracking using satellites)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For decades biologists have followed bird migrations by rather crude means: tagging individuals, then waiting to see where they showed up, or attaching radio transmitters and following the animals with handheld...

Feed-in tariffs: how they work.(renewable energy sources)
March 1, 2009... With the threat of drastic climate change looming large, the world needs to shift away from oil and coal as quickly as possible. But doing so will require mobilizing the private sector to invest heavily in alternatives--solar, wind, geothermal,...

Clean break: a new strategy could offer the best, and quickest, solution to global warming. What's more, you might be able to get the ball rolling in your own backyard.(CLIMATE CHANGE GLOBAL SOLUTIONS)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DESPITE SURVEY AFTER SURVEY SHOWING that many Americans would prefer to get their power from clean, renewable sources like wind or solar, few actually do. Carbon-spewing coal plants are still cheaper to build and...

End of the road.(toll-road extension in Southern Orange County's San Onofre State Beach prevented to preserve the area for birds)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... In December birders, surfers, and conservationists across California hung 10 with joy after protecting Southern Orange County's San Onofre State Beach, an Important Bird Area. The U.S. Department of Commerce rejected a county transportation...

Sea change.(former president George Bush designated new marine national monuments at Pacific Ocean)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... During his final days in office, President George Bush designated three new marine national monuments covering nearly 200,000 square miles in the Pacific Ocean, creating the world's largest area of fully protected waters. The monuments support...

Wild for wilderness.(The 111th Congress and land bills protecting wilderness areas, scenic rivers, and nationa trails and heritage sites)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... The 111th Congress kicked off with a rare Sunday vote, easily overcoming Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) filibuster 66-12 to approve a massive package with 160 public lands bills. If signed into law, it will designate more than two million acres of...

Giving trees.(agriculture, environmental management, and forest conservation)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For more than two millennia farmers have been planting and harvesting crops within the tropical forests of the Western Ghats, a thread of mountains along India's west coast. Such long-term, continuous farming near...

Herbal remedy.(plant extract methyl salicylate used to defend against disease)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When we ache we often reach for an aspirin. Some plants, it turns out, don't need to pop a painkiller when they get stressed out--they create their own. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research...

The Puffin Prof.(Sue Schubel in education gpeople of puffin protection)(Interview)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sue Schubel has been championing Atlantic birdlife for more than two decades as a field researcher and, since 2000, as outreach educator for Audubon's Project Puffin (puffinproject.org)--a program that has...

Birds in cyberspace.(ebird.org online database for bird watchers)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For nearly three years truck driver Bill Pulliam jotted down bird sightings on paper scraps, noting each glimpsed magpie or red-tailed hawk and then filing the notes away at home. In 2006 moisture in his fixer-upper...

Shake that tail.(Anna's hummingbird mating behavior)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To impress females and intimidate rivals, the male Anna's hummingbird chirps an explosive, high-pitched squeak that punctuates his 60-mile-per-hour display dive. For decades people have debated whether this love...

Thar she blows.(use of toy helicopters to collect mucus from blue whales' blowholes to collect mucus in aid of diagnosis)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... Scientists trying to find out what illnesses afflict blue whales can hardly ask the enormous mammals to blow into a tissue for a mucus sample. Toy helicopters, on the other hand, work quite well. After Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse had trouble...

Seeding the ocean.(phytoremediative method of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by inducing algal blooms in the ocean)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Decreasing emissions won't cut it. Most experts agree that to stop global warming we'll also have to remove vast quantities of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. One promising, if controversial, scheme involves...

Green guru: advice for the eco-minded.(sustainable living and use of green products)
March 1, 2009... Is there a chemical-free way to get rid of slugs that infiltrate my garden? Andy Davenport, Arlington, VA If telltale slime trails and ragged holes mar the leaves of your plants, you most likely have slugs munching on your garden. For...

Slick promise: oil shale is an energy developer's dream: a plentiful rock that can be turned into billions of barrels of oil. But is it truly the Holy Grail, or fool's gold?(Energy)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Arriving at the remote Mahogany Research Project administration building in rural western Colorado, Shell communications and sustainability manager Tracy Boyd steps out of his car and surveys the view like a man...

Where dreams come true: welcome to one of Central America's new up-and-coming eco-destinations, a birder's paradise that's home to half of Honduras' 700 bird species--from the marvelous masked tityra to the elusive lovely cotinga.(GREEN TRAVEL)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Oh-baby, oh-baby, oh-baby!" Fourteen stories above the ground, David Anderson is having a fit. He straddles a branch of a common rainforest tree known locally as the San Juan rojo, where the tree's massive crown...

Flight plan: winging at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, an entire flock of birds can make hairpin turns in an instant. How do they do it? A group of investigators is closer than ever to finding out.(TRUE NATURE)
March 1, 2009... A DARK FLOCK OF DUNLINS SPRINTS STRAIGHT OVER A MARSH--until a merlin appears and they all veer at the same moment, flashing their bright white underparts and rearranging their group into an hourglass shape with shocking swiftness. A distant...

Audubon's field guide to birding trails.(Third in a Series: East)(List)
March 1, 2009... Visit audubonmagazine.org for more guides to other regions of the country, and stop back for additions and updates. Delaware Birding Trail [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Despite its size, Delaware encompasses six well-defined ecological...

Eastern Edens.(birding trails in Northeastern United States)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Northeast Corridor may be the most heavily settled part of the country, but it is still a land of amazing natural riches. Nothing demonstrates this more delightfully than the wealth of bird species found here....

Beetle Mania Artist Christopher Marley reveals how his insect phobia became a deep passion.(PORTFOLIO)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I haven't always loved bugs. In fact, I spent the first nearly 30 years of my life in fear of them. Where I grew up in Oregon, however, I rarely encountered insects, so I seldom found my...

Last-ditch rescues: all across America, as bulldozers stand ready to turn habitat into houses, squads of volunteers are swooping in, salvaging native cacti, sedges, shrubs, and trees just in the nick of time.(Native Plant Salvage Program)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Digging up plants is always a dirty, difficult job, and the work isn't made any easier this morning by the cool mist and light rain engulfing Snoqualmie Ridge in the foothills of the...

Capitol gains: serving local food? Screwing in CFLs? Tapping into wind power? Composting? The U.S. House of Representatives proves that change really does begin at home.(Currents)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At 9:30 a.m. on an unseasonably warm morning in early spring, the Longworth Cafe in the U.S. House of Representatives is already buzzing with activity: elder statesmen grabbing that first coffee of the day; earnest...

Bad news, good news: even as bobwhite numbers continue to free-fall, ambitious conservation programs are showing that for quail and other grassland birds, a little habitat goes a long way.(Birds)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Idylwild Wildlife Management Area, a 3,300-acre oasis in the agricultural desert of Maryland's Eastern Shore, lives up to its name. On the next-to-last day of April, flowering dogwoods flash glossy-white bracts...

Audubon directory.(Directory)
March 1, 2009... Your quick guide to the National Audubon Society BOARD OF DIRECTORS B. HOLT THRASHER Chair of the Board LLOYD SEMPLE ALAN WILSON Vice-Chairs ALLEN J. MODEL Treasurer MARGOT ERNST Secretary ...

The Hedgehog's Dilemma.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... The Hedgehog's Dilemma By Hugh Warwick Bloomsbury, 288 pages, $25 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] British writer and ecologist Hugh Warwick is aware that a smelly, spiny, noisy little mammal is not an immediate candidate for...

Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet By James Glave Skyhorse Publishing, 252 pages, $24.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Driven to reduce his carbon footprint and set an example in his community, journalist...

Art of the matter: detailed bird illustrations are much more than works of art.(ESSAY)(Humans, Nature and Birds: Science Art From Cave Walls to Computer Screens )(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Humans, Nature and Birds: Science Art From Cave Walls to Computer Screens By Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy Yale University Press, 240 pages, $37.50 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a controversial lecture delivered in 1959 at...

Art of the wild.(Frog )(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Forget dull splotches of green and brown. Lemony yellow swirls, sapphire speckles, and pearlescent stripes are just a sampling of the kaleidoscopic markings showcased in Thomas Marent's Frog (DK Publishers, 280 pages, $30), an album of more...

Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes By Robert Kull New World Library, 320 pages, $25.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his late twenties, Robert Kull experienced "a powerful need to be alone," so he quit his logging job and...

Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story From Africa.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story From Africa By Jeanette Winter Harcourt, 32 pages, $17 (3-7) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Distraught by deforestation development that had ravaged her native Kenya, Wangari Maathai planted nine...

Birdscapes: A Pop-up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Birdscapes: A Pop-up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound By Miyoko Chu with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology/ Paper engineering by Gene Vosough, Renee Jablow, and Andy Baron/Illustrations by Julia Hargreaves Chronicle Books, 18...

Science Warriors: The Battle Against Invasive Species.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
March 1, 2009... Science Warriors: The Battle Against Invasive Species By Sneed B. Collard III Houghton Mifflin, 48 pages, $17 (10-14) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The thought of war might conjure images of soldiers and rumbling artillery. But every...

Armed and ingenious.(intelligence of an octupus evaluated)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The world-record time for solving the Rubik's Cube puzzle currently stands at 7.08 seconds, and it probably won't be shattered by a cubaholic named Mavis. She's a giant Pacific octopus in residence at the Weymouth...