Audubon articles from May 2005

Audubon archives from May 2005

Editor's note.(global warming)(Editorial)
May 1, 2005... "I blame environmental organizations every bit as much as developers and strip miners," writes Michael "Jurassic Park" Crichton in his new best-selling novel, State of Fear. In various speeches he has advocated lifting the ban on DDT because...

Audubon view.(grassland protection)
May 1, 2005... Buff-breasted sandpipers are truly amazing travelers. Every year they migrate to and from southern South America to the North American Arctic. They are shorebirds, but like a few other shorebirds, they find most of their food in grasslands, so...

Beauty on the wing.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... THE CLOSE-UP OF THE FLYING SANDhill crane ["Showtime!" March-April] is a masterpiece! I have been to see these birds at the Rowe Sanctuary once in my 75 years, and I still love their unique calls. I remember hearing and seeing many small flocks...

Thank you, Pale Male.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... AS A MEMBER OF AUDUBON, A GREAT nature lover, and originally from New York City, I told myself, what better cause than saving Pale Male, Lola, and their heirs ["How the Nest Was Won," March-April]. And so I did all I could to help them. Later I...

Sharpening the drills.(Arctic Update)
May 1, 2005... As Audubon went to press, the U.S. Senate, in a 51 to 49 vote, took a major step toward drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last great wilderness areas on the planet. There is little doubt that this activity will disrupt...

Mercury rising.(pollution)
May 1, 2005... FOR YEARS SCIENTISTS HAVE DOCUMENTED the alarming amounts of mercury polluting American rivers and lakes. Until now research on wildlife and mercury emissions from coal-burning plants has focused primarily on fish and fish-eating birds like...

Hot blog.(DISPATCHES ...)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Political pundits, novelists, and movie junkies have all caught the Internet blogging bug. Nine internationally recognized climate scientists have now joined the fun and launched www.realclimate.org, a site that seeks to set the record straight...

The big green apple.(DISPATCHES ...)(environmental maps)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... In 1992, when designer Wendy Brawer first made a map of environmental resources--and toxic zones--in New York City, it was pretty spare. "I highlighted spots that needed cleaning and sites of environmental interest," she says. "But the idea...

Junior Ecologists.(DISPATCHES ...)(science education)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Dissecting frogs may still be a time-honored exercise in biology class, but these days there's much more to a school's science curriculum. In Santa Barbara, California, for instance, Annemari Goldsmith's fifth graders wanted to compare the...

The big chill.(interference)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Last February, 62 distinguished scientists, 20 Nobel laureates among them, charged the Bush administration with "manipulation of the process through which science enters into its decisions." To discover the extent of the abuse, the Union of...

Cupid's arrow.(DISPATCHES ...)(Kyoto Protocol)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... President George W. Bush's biggest valentine last February 14 probably wasn't his favorite. With the romantic celebration coming only two days before the Kyoto Protocol took effect, the Montana-based National Global Warming Coalition presented...

Sowing the grassroots.(chapter spotlight)(Bill McQuilkin Jr.)(Interview)
May 1, 2005... Bill McQuilkin Jr. of Florida, who joined National Audubon's board of directors in 2001, has been an active volunteer at Audubon's local, state, and national levels. His grasp of grassroots issues made him the obvious choice to head the board's...

The magical allure of Honduras.(SPECIAL ADVERTISING FEATURE)(Advertisement)
May 1, 2005... One of Central America's most biologically diverse countries, Honduras is also one of its least commercially developed. The outstanding natural beauty of this place--its towering mountain ranges, misty cloud forests, lagoons, tropical rivers...

Bravo, Rio!(DISPATCHES ...)(tracking endangered specis)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Debbie Smith was on a foxhunt, although not in the traditional English way. Instead of tracking down the endangered San Joaquin kit fox for sport, Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington, spent four years with her dog, Rio,...

Staying on course.(bird conservation)(albatrosses)
May 1, 2005... The epic migrations of albatrosses have long led poets to wonder at the birds' restlessness--and scientists to ponder exactly where albatrosses go during their months-long oceanic wanderings, which can cover thousands of miles. When adult...

Rocky redoubt.(migrations)(bird protection )
May 1, 2005... Islands are the booby traps of avian conservation. While they can isolate birds from mainland hazards, they can become final resting places for countless species as humans discover the charms of island living. Thus the Channel islands off...

Pulp fiction: the best-selling thriller State of Fear blithely dismisses the threat of global climate change as an elaborate hoax. Can novelist turned anti-global warming crusader Michael Crichton be brushed aside as easily?(profile)
May 1, 2005... Michael Crichton appears a little schizophrenic these days. Most people know him as a pop culture juggernaut: author of the Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and Prey, creator of the television show ER; winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, and a...

A falcon with flair: with a well-placed nest box, this jaunty little raptor just might show up in your neighborhood.(Audubon at home)
May 1, 2005... Before the rise of ornithological correctness, at a time when even professionals thought most birds of prey ought to be dealt with by the gun or the snare, hardly anyone had a nasty word for the American kestrel. The prominent naturalist...

Blueprint.(american kestrel)(bird boxes)
May 1, 2005... Tools Tape measure; carpenter's square; pencil; table saw (to make two angle cuts), or carpenter's handsaw and miter box; electric hand drill with attachments (3-inch-diameter keyhole saw or expansion bit; 1/16-inch bit; 3/32-inch bit [to...

Score one for the desert: for decades Tucson's urban sprawl swallowed up the magnificent desert and wildlife that drew people to the area from far and wide. Then, in the heat of a recent battle, opposing sides banded together to adopt a pioneering plan that balances biodiversity with development.(SOLUTIONS)
May 1, 2005... IN 1997 PASSIONS OVER A REDDISH, MUFFIN-SIZE BIRD WERE BEGINNING TO BOIL OVER IN THE ARIZONA DESERT. THE CACTUS FERRUGINOUS PYGMY owl, its population in the state down to a dozen and clinging to the last patches of saguaro cactus not yet...

The big flap: an embattled biologist has dedicated years to teaching trumpeter swans, the earth's largest waterflow, the migration route he believes they one took to the Atlantic Coast. Still, he has yet to convince his critics, who feel that money and time be better spent on worthier projects.(BIRDS)
May 1, 2005... IN THE ROLLING VIRGINIA COUNTRYSIDE, an hour's drive west of the nation's capital, William J. Sladen threw a handful of corn into the lake by his house and called, "Hey, swans, where are you?" Sladen, the 84-year-old director of...

East is east: the work of this master Chinese photographer does more than display his innovative technique. It challenges our assumptions about art itself.(PHOTO ESSAY)(Don Hong-Oai)
May 1, 2005... RUDYARD KIPLING FAMOUSLY OBSERVED that East and West would never meet. Modern international trade and global communications would appear to prove him wrong, at least superficially. But beneath the surface connections, there are still deep...

2nd chances: a novel prison program in New York City uses nature to teach inmates about life's larger lessons.(REHABILITATION)
May 1, 2005... BREEZES CARRIED WAFTS OF LEMON BALM AND MINT from the herb garden, hedged by apricot and nectarine trees. Monarchs flitted around butterfly bushes, and a pair of resident ducks shuttled between a marshy puddle and a carefully tended pond. Just...

Earth almanac: Celebrating the Wonders & Beauty of the Natural World.
May 1, 2005... HEAVY METAL BEETLE When hardwood leaves unfurl, large beetles with metallic-green wing covers and metallic-blue or -purple heads and legs are on the prowl most everywhere in the contiguous United States. Called fiery searchers or, more...

Mourning glory: in his quest to see an elusive warbler, a lifelong birder discovers that some species are indeed more equal than others.(journal)(Column)
May 1, 2005... ABRUPTLY THE THRUSHES AND TOWHEES that had been vying with their songs went still. Silence spread over the wood, broken only by the warning---a sporadic tonk!--of a chipmunk sitting stock still on a log. Up in a pine tree a red squirrel hunched...

Audubon directory: your quick guide to the national audubon society.(Directory)
May 1, 2005... BOARD OF DIRECTORS CAROL M. BROWNER Chair of the board LESLIE DACH W. HARDY ESHBAUGH Vice-Chairs ALLEN J. MODEL Treasurer JACK J. DEMPSEY Secretary CHRISTOPHER M. HARTE VIVIAN R. JOHNSON Assistant Secretaries Directors JOHN H. ANDERSON...

Manitoba: one of North America's most diverse travel experiences.(SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION)(Advertisement)
May 1, 2005... THE MID-WESTERN CANADIAN PROVINCE OF MANITOBA offers one of the most diverse wildlife-watching experiences in North America. A wide diversity of terrain spans the province, from desert dunes to deep boreal forest. An escarpment rises out of the...

To See Every Bird on Earth: a Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession By Dan Koeppel Hudson Street Press, 304 pages, $24.95 Everyone has his or her addiction, be it coffee, alcohol, or nicotine. Bird-watching is the drug of choice for...

Dancing at the Dead Sea: Tracking the World's Environmental Hotspots.(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Dancing at the Dead Sea: Tracking the World's Environmental Hot Spots By Alanna Mitchell University of Chicago Press, 239 pages, $25 As a child, Alanna Mitchell recalls that her father, George Mitchell, one of North America's earliest and...

The tree of life: it has provided nourishment, shelter, and fuel. Without the hardy and ubiquitous oak, humans would have never made it this far.(Essay)(Oak: The Frame of Civilization )(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Oak: The Frame of Civilization By William Bryant Logan W.W. Norton & Company, 320 pages, $24,95 WILLIAM BLAKE ONCE CELEBRATED our ability "To see the world in a grain of sand, / And a heaven in a wild flower." In the more than two...

Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land By Janisse Ray Chelsea Green Publishing, 160 pages, $12 In her previous book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Janisse Ray wrote about her desire to save the South's longleaf pine ecosystem....

Art of the Wild.(Twenty-One Red-Crowned Cranes and One Black Crow)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Art of the Wild Camille Solyagua's aptly named Twenty-One Red-Crowned Cranes and One Black Crow (Nazaraeli Press, 16 pages, S40) is an ode to one of the world's rarest and most majestic birds. Each black-and-white image shows the cranes--only...

One picture.(hurricanes)(Illustration)
May 1, 2005... SPECIFICATIONS Subject: Hurricane Bonnie Date: 1998 Where: Georgica Beach, East Hampton, New York Camera: Mamiya 7 with 115mm lens Film: Kodak T-Max 400 AT TIMES THE FINE-ART PHOTOGRAPHERS WHOSE WORK IS SEEN ON THIS...