Audubon articles from May 2008

Audubon archives from May 2008

Editor's note.(Editorial)
May 1, 2008... One of the many privileges of editing Audubon is sharing a bond with you, our readers. We know from personal experience and independent research that you are among the most politically influential of any magazine's readers, and that this means,...

Audubon view.(environmental partnership with Toyota)
May 1, 2008... Imagine if every American acted to improve the health of our natural world. Think what we could accomplish. We could protect and restore the habitats so critical to imperiled birds and other wildlife--and to people. We could reduce our demand...

Show stoppers.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I enjoyed "Showtime" [Birds, March-April], but I disagree with the article's claim that only six true grassland birds occur in Illinois. Depending on how one defines "true grassland bird," there could be from 16 to 40 bird species either...

A rosier picture.(Letters from our readers)(Ecuador's floriculture)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Had an observer asked "Darth Vader," the flower worker in the protective spraying suit described in "A Rose Is [Not] a Rose" [January-February], he might have said his suit does indeed protect him from potentially noxious chemicals and that his...

A shorty read.(Letters from our readers)(The New Bedford Samurai)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I read with great interest the article "Raising Shorties" [Birds, January-February]. Your readers who enjoyed that piece may want to know about a just-published book, The New Bedford Samurai, by Anca Vlasopolos. It tells the story of the man...

Bulletproof.(Letters from our readers)(lead bullets)(Letter to the editor)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... "Dodging a Bullet" [Field Notes, January-February], announcing the recent successful move in California to ban the use of lead ammunition in condor habitat, should have given credit to the author of that legislation (AB 821), Assemblyman Pedro...

In hot water.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... January-February's Green Guru votes strongly for tankless water heaters over storage types. I have no quarrel with the choice, as my wife and I have been using tankless heaters for nearly two decades. But let's be entirely fair about one point....

Too pro Bush?(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... As a longtime member of Audubon, I thoroughly object to the article highlighting President Bush ["Bush Is for the Birds," Field Notes, January-February]. What a sick joke! Bush is the same person who gave us the "Clean Skies" and "Healthy...

Packing a punch.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I want to congratulate Audubon for the magnificent January-February issue. I say "magnificent" advisedly, having in mind the beauty and cogency of pages 40 to 86 in particular. Few magazines competing for public attention have, I believe, done...

Super sucker.(field notes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Vacuums are not only good for carpets, they can clean coral, too. To suck up invasive algae that is overwhelming the reefs along the coast of Hawaii, marine biologists dive below the surface with a giant vacuum hose...

Eat local.(field notes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... For some, even the distance from the couch to the refrigerator is too far to go for a snack. But consider one leatherback turtle, which swam for nearly 650 days and more than 12,427 miles from Papua Barat, Indonesia (on the island of New...

No-man's land.(THE BORDER)(Department of Homeland Security's planned fence)
May 1, 2008... In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, on the border between Texas and Mexico, water and warmth fortify birds, butterflies, and two endangered wild cats, the ocelot and jaguarundi. In the river's oxbows, a string of public and private preserves...

Sour grapes.(field notes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Birds foraging in Panama's tropical forests may find "fruit" that packs some extra punch--or crunch. Instead of eating what looks to them like juicy red berries, the birds are sinking their beaks into ants ripe with parasite eggs. Researchers...

Climate change: stormy weather.(field notes)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] As if the average hurricane weren't nasty enough, there's increasing evidence that these storms may be growing fiercer because of global warming. The Atlantic hurricane season officially starts on the first day of...

Guns and blubber.(SEA LIFE)(United States Navy versus beaked whales)
May 1, 2008... An unfolding legal drama has forced judges to choose between battleships and beaked whales. In February a federal court in southern California sided with the living behemoths, ruling that the U.S. Navy must take additional measures to protect...

Arresting the messenger.(field notes)(Greenpeace; polar bear protection)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The six foot polar bear sat in a white paddleboat bobbing in an artificial pond in front of the Interior Department in Washington, D.C., waving to children on their way to school and federal employees trudging to...

Mother's day.(field notes)(Seychelles warbler)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Doting grandparents are rare in the animal kingdom. Only a few species, including humans and pilot whales, have a family structure that includes animals that behave like grandma and grandpa. Now scientists can add the Seychelles warbler to the...

Batmobiles.(field notes)(Mexican free-tailed bats in Florida)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Motorists in Port St. Lucie, Florida, are being driven literally batty by recent delays in roadwork on Interstate 95. More than 20,000 Mexican free-tailed bats and evening bats have taken up residence under a bridge, complicating plans to widen...

Pulp fact.(GOOD NEWS)(mulch industry and the cypress trees)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Since 2002, much of the garden mulch sold from big-box retailers has come from coastal Louisianas shrinking cypress forests, home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including the "rediscovered" ivory-billed woodpecker....

Yosemite Sam's vacation.(field notes)
May 1, 2008... If you're vacationing in a national park this summer, that crack you hear may not announce the start of an afternoon thunderstorm. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), with the support of the National Rifle Association, is pushing legislation...

Who knew, emu?(ENDANGERED SPECIES)(cassowary)
May 1, 2008... In northern Australia the king of the jungle is a flightless, five-foot-tall bird with a blue neck, a brilliant red wattle, and a prehistoric casque atop its head. The southern cassowary tromps through the forest gulping down ripe fruits from...

Alien landing: after a gardener discovers a plague of exotic invasive plants overrunning his yard, he decides to take matters into his own hands.(Audubon Living)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] "The birds love the strange lilac and deep-blue wild grapes growing in our backyard," I proudly told my friend Marilyn. I thought she would be pleased. After all, she was the one who handed me my first pair of...

Go, greased lightnin': a back-to-the-earther shrinks his carbon footprint by turning to a truck that runs on food waste. Now, if he can shake his craving for French fries and Chinese takeout.(Off the Grid)(Essay)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As I watched my Subaru Legacy slide backward, the thought crossed my mind that if it kept going--and I didn't see why it wouldn't--at least I would be using less gasoline. A few days after I moved into the sprawling,...

Green:guru: advice for the eco-minded.(repelling yellow jackets; environment-friendly dry cleaners; weddings)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Is there a natural way to repel yellow jackets? We've tried the traps without success. Janet Adamski, Brooklyn, NY Yellow jackets, as anyone who frequents picnics knows, can be pugnacious party guests. But...

Desert gem: in southeast Utah an anomalous oasis has survived centuries of intense sun and wind. It's less clear that it can survive a modern onslaught of off-road vehicles.(Currents)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Utah is famous for its deep amber canyons and mountains of downy snow, not hilly sands. And yet on a warm June evening I find myself standing at the crest of a salmonberry-hued dune, listening as laughter cascades...

Polar distress: with the clock running out in January, the Bush administration, ignoring the concerns of its own scientists and possibly breaking federal law, looks to open a vital stretch of Arctic habitat to offshore oil and gas drilling. So much for saving endangered bears.(Habitat)(Cover story)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Early each spring pregnant bowhead whales, insulated by up to a foot and a half of fat that helps them withstand frigid Arctic waters, pass north through the Bering Strait and pause in their annual, 3,500-mile...

Plan bee: while the honeybee's collapse--and its potentially devastating impact on our food supply--has been making news, scientists are quietly doing groundbreaking fieldwork that shows native bees can step into the breach. First, though, they need a little help from us.(Pollination)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Threading through dewy watermelon vines in the cool pre-dawn hours, ecologist Rachael Winfree slips bags made of bridal veil over flowers on the verge of bloom. There is some urgency to the work because when the sun...

The spectacle of wings: in the newly released book Wild Birds of the American Wetlands, captures the ethereal beauty of wading birds with the flair of a painter and the passion of an activist.(Photo Essay)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] With a camera in hand and a heart as wide as the country she is seeking, Rosalie Winard has migrated in and out of America's wetlands in search of her beloved long-legged birds. By now, after almost a decade of...

Thrashed: ever wonder where the cell phone or computer you toss ends up? Our writer follows her own digital detritus to the far ends of the earth.(Technology)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My basement is a mausoleum of sorts, cluttered with memorabilia harking back to childhood. Deep in its depths, behind the sports equipment and long-forgotten board games, lurks a jumble of electronic...

Ambush: in springtime in the Northeast, timber rattlers emerge from their shared dens, dodging snake collectors before setting off to lie in wait for their own prey.(Journal)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I have seen timber rattlesnakes before, mostly on sun-baked talus in western Vermont--dark, with vague markings, or mustard-colored and distinctly banded to merge with the forest floor--but never an incandescent...

Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery By Jim Motavalli Da Capo Press, 352 pages, $26.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ninety-five years ago a self-taught artist and part-time newspaper illustrator named Joseph...

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild By Craig Childs Little, Brown and Company, 322 pages, $24.99 In an era when many of us spend too much time indoors, when kids are suffering from "nature deficit disorder," and when fewer...

Father knows wasps: Gerd Heinrich cared more about his precious insects than he did for his own family. But he also managed to imbue in his son, Bernd, a love of nature.(ESSAY)(Critical essay)
May 1, 2008... The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of Biology By Bernd Heinrich Harper Collins, 961 pages, $29.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bernd Heinrich's new book, The Snoring Bird: My Family's Journey Through a Century of...

Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living By Graham Hill and Meaghan O'Neill Villard Books, 240 pages, $15 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Replacing your incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescents is all fine and good, but...

The Puzzle of the Platypus and Other Explorations of Science in Action.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... The Puzzle of the Platypus and Other Explorations of Science in Action By Jack Myers/Illustrated by John Rice Boyds Mills Press, 64 pages, $17.95 (9-12) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As chief science editor at the beloved magazine Highlights...

Face to Face With Caterpillars.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Face to Face With Caterpillars By Darlyne A. Murawaski National Geographic Society, 32 pages, $16.95 (6-9) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What looks fuzzy and orange, has multiple legs, and can climb like a primate? The answer is easy if you...

Biomass: Fueling Change Generating Wind Power Harnessing Power From the Sun Hydrogen: Running on Water.(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Biomass: Fueling Change Generating Wind Power Harnessing Power From the Sun Hydrogen: Running on Water By Niki Walker Crabtree Publishing, 32 pages/$8.95 each (9-14) [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] With wind farms and ethanol pumping stations...

Sleeping beauties.(One Picture)(hibernation; Arctic ground squirrel)(Photograph)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Should astronauts ever venture to Mars or beyond--perhaps with a friendlier onboard computer than HAL of the classic sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey--they may have to pass the years en route in a state similar to...