Audubon articles from November 2004

Audubon archives from November 2004

Editor's note.(Editorial)
November 1, 2004... We're starting our celebration a little early to let you know that 2005 will mark the centennial of the founding of Audubon. This milestone occurred five years after the launch of a bimonthly nature magazine called Bird-Lore, the precursor to...

Audubon view.(Audubon Christmas Bird Count)
November 1, 2004... I remember my first Audubon Christmas Bird Count, on a cold December day in Central Park. A leader from the New York City Chapter registered the 100 or so people who showed up, and divided us into groups assigned to sections of the park....

Splitting whiskers.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... TED WILLIAMS IS PARTLY correct in pointing out the complexities of panther conservation in south Florida, and does so in his typically uncompromising fashion ["Going Catatonic," Incite, September-October]. However, as a 20-year veteran of the...

Fuel for the fire.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... IT SEEMS ODD THAT AN ORGANIZAtion whose purported mission is to "conserve and restore natural ecosystems" would so deliberately malign one of the best tools we have to reduce air pollution in this country--ethanol. Ted Williams's "Drunk on...

On the prowl.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2004... SUSAN McGRATH'S ARTICLE ON THE Cockscomb Wildlife Basin is topnotch ["Top Cat," July-August]. Not only does she beckon a visit to this extraordinary place, she tells how successful efforts to save the jaguar have provided a better life for the...

The comeback creepers.(endangered species)
November 1, 2004... FOR A CENTURY THE SONGS OF NATIVE have been conspicuously absent from the dark-green canopy of Hawaii's low-lying forests. The introduction and rapid spread of avian malaria in the early 1900s decimated the birds' populations. But today...

Red-eye flights.(Dispatches ...)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... For humans, a weeklong road trip with only a few hours of sleep each night would require serious amounts of caffeine. For migrating birds, though, temporary sleep loss appears to be no problem. A recent study by Niels Rattenborg, a scientist at...

Lights, camera ... beaker?(Dispatches ...)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... "We see so many movies about lawyers and doctors," says Robert Barker, a physicist with the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. "[Scientists] deserve better exposure to the public." To that end, the office recently helped fund a...

Cockney quackers.(Dispatches ...)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Humans, it seems, aren't the only animals that speak in dialects. British researchers have recently discovered that ducks quack with regional accents. It seems that mallards settled in the tranquil English countryside have a more laidback ducky...

Penny-pinching.(endangered species)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... In the late 1970s the U.S. government allocated about 2.5 cents of every federal dollar to natural resources and the environment. Today that spending has dropped by almost half, to about 1.4 cents per dollar, as national defense and other...

Bruin brewskie.(Dispatches ...)(Baker Lake Resort)(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Wherever there are campers with slovenly habits, it's a good bet there are feasting bears nearby. And what better way to wash down a big meal than with a tall frosty? This summer, for example, employees at the Baker Lake Resort in Washington...

Born not to be free.(invasive species)
November 1, 2004... YOU MIGHT WANT TO THINK TWICE before liberating your pet goldfish in the local pond. Recent studies suggest that the release of aquarium fish into U.S. waterways is altering ecosystems and displacing--even eliminating--native species. ...

Find yourself in Arizona.(Special Advertising Section)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... There's no place on earth quite like the Grand Canyon State. Here, you'll easily find treasures of all kinds, like our gorgeous landscapes, our richly storied past, and our vibrant blend of cultures & traditions. So no matter what you are...

Follow the yellow web trail.(Dispatches ...)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Traffic in Knoxville, Tennessee, can be a bear anytime, but in late spring the slowdowns on Neyland Drive are often caused by Canada geese. Why do these adult geese shuttle their gangly goslings across this busy road when they are safe and...

How to prolong a drought.(climate change)
November 1, 2004... PERCHED AT 10,000 FEET ATOP COLORADO'S Mount Werner, the Storm Peak Laboratory in Steamboat Springs offers front-row seats to a meteorological reality show of sorts. "When winter storms come through, we actually watch what happens in the...

Freezing future generations.(Dispatches ...)(Natural History Museum)(Zoological Society of London )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... If only Noah had had cryogenic storage facilities aboard the Ark, who knows what species might be alive today? Millions of creatures have perished during earth's five great extinction periods, taking nearly all their DNA with them. Now, with...

A lifelong passion.(chapter spotlight)
November 1, 2004... IN 1921, WHEN WARREN HARDING WAS president and Babe Ruth was playing his second year with the New York Yankees, Audubon members visited the school of eight-year-old Jean Wattley, in Anderson, South Carolina. For five cents she received a pin...

Popping the Corkscrew.(migrations)(Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary)
November 1, 2004... It is by now almost, stating the obvious that the presence et rare and endangered birds in an ecosystem can lead to its preservation. Witness the Corkscrew Swamp Watershed Important Bird Area (IBA), near Naples in southern Florida. This diverse...

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November 1, 2004... FFaced with the pressing environmental problems of global warming, rapid deforestation, and polluted air and water, many of us are struggling to find ways to make a difference--to ensure that we lead a more sustainable life for the health of...

The founding symbol.(Great Egret)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 1910 The plight of the "plume birds" was the catalyst that sparked the Audubon movement. At the dawn of the 20th century, feathers from all manner of wild birds were being used in fashion, but the nuptial plumes of great egrets and snowy...

Hats off to Audubon.(Heritage)
November 1, 2004... In the late 1800s a group of Boston society women gathered over afternoon teas to save birds from being slaughtered for the hat trade. In the process they kick-started the conservation movement--and Audubon. An environmental scholar takes a...

A rosy outlook.(American Flamingo)(National Association of Audubon Societies)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 1922 Birds have no regard for international boundaries, a fact that Audubon has recognized from the very beginning. Until about 1900 flocks of wild flamingos from the Bahamas had wintered regularly in southern Florida. When those migrant...

Species of stature.(Whooping Crane)(Aransas National Wildlife Refuge)(Wood Buffalo National Park)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 1946 America's tallest bird, at nearly five feet, the magnificent but vulnerable whooping crane had been pushed to the edge of extinction by indiscriminate shooting and loss of its prairie marsh habitat. The last migratory flock was down...

Audubon milestones.(Timeline)(Calendar)
November 1, 2004... [1886] Conservation Takes Wing George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, invites readers to sign a pledge against harming any bird. Close to 40,000 people respond, and Grinnell (above) names this group the Audubon Society for...

Tally ho ho ho: each holiday season, for more than a century, thousands of volunteers have helped keep tabs on our nation's bird populations by taking part in Audubon's Christmas Bird Count. Now the census has headed south.(Citizen Science)
November 1, 2004... The Audubon Christmas Bird Count dates 1900, when Frank Chapman, the editor of Bird-Lore [later renamed Audubon], proposed it as an alternative to the "side-hunt," an American holiday tradition in which celebrants went to the woods with their...

Success story.(Bald Eagle)(The Continental Bald Eagle Project)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 1972 Inexpensive, potent, and long-lasting, the insecticide DDT became hugely popular for pest control after its use in World War II. But even during the war, Audubon experts, through the magazine and public comments, raised some of the...

Where it all began: on a farm in rural Pennsylvania, John James Audubon first glimpsed the curious birds of the New World that would become his lifelong passion. Now the Audubon Center at Mill Grove shares his home and his artistry with the conservation movement he continues to inspire.(Audubon Center)
November 1, 2004... This is where it all began: here at Mill Grove in eastern Pennsylvania, with its big farmhouse built of rough-cut local fieldstone, enveloped now in a century's growth of ivy and set discreetly into a slope on the eastern shore of Perkiomen...

A test of time.(California Condor)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 1987 Condors thrived in prehistoric times, soaring over vast wilderness areas and feeding on the carcasses of large animals, but they were ill-prepared to cope with the modern era in southern California. Illegal shooting, collisions with...

The bird that roared.(Spotted Owl)(Seattle Audubon Society)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 1991 Dependent on old-growth forest for its survival, the northern spotted owl had been losing ground for years to the relentless logging of the Pacific Northwest. It was federally listed as a threatened species in 1990, despite the timber...

Rising to the cause: linking Audubon's future to its past proves the enormous promise of people banding together in a common mission to save birds, wildlife, and habitat.(The Next Century)
November 1, 2004... In March 2003 the prospects for saving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from ruin looked grim indeed. Supporters of drilling for oil on the fragile Alaskan tundra had "moved within a single vote of guaranteeing President Bush one of his top...

The future of flight.(Red Knot)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... 2005 In the Western Hemisphere, red knots nest on tundra high above the Arctic Circle and winter on the coasts of southernmost South America, which moguls they have one of the longest bird migrations in the world. They matte but a few...

Panhandle Section adds third component to The Great Florida Birding Trail.(Special Advertising Section)(Advertisement)
November 1, 2004... With the opening of the Panhandle Section this past spring, three of the four components of The Great Florida Birding Trail (GFBT) are in place. The Panhandle Section joins the previously opened East and West Sections. Sites for the final...

Audubon directory: your quick guide to the National Audubon Society.
November 1, 2004... BOARD OF DIRECTORS CAROL M. BROWNER Chair of the Board LESLIE DACH W. HARDY ESHBAUGH RUTH O. RUSSELL Vice-Chairs JACK J. DEMPSEY Secretary CHRISTOPHER M. HARTE VIVIAN R. JOHNSON Assistant...

Portraits of a legend: John James Audubon's life was as dramatic as the birds he rendered on canvas. Three new biographies flesh out the man, the artist, and the lore.(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... John James Audubon: The Making of an American By Richard Rhodes Afred A. Knopf, 567 pages, $28.95 Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of The Birds of America By William Souder North Point Press, 367 pages, $25 Audubon's...

Stolen Water: Saving the Everglades From Its Friends, Foes, and Florida.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... Stolen Water: Saving the Everglades From Its Friends, Foes, and Florida By W. Hodding Carter Atria Books, 274 pages, $24 In 2000, after decades of haggling and political stalemate, Congress approved and President Clinton signed into law a...

Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation By Paul VanDevelder Little Brown and Company, 321 page, $25.95 In Coyote Warrior, Paul VanDevelder does far more than document another sad chapter in the plight of...

Tending Fire: Coping with America's Wildland Fires.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
November 1, 2004... Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires By Stephen J. Pyne Island Press, 226 pages, $25 Nobody knows fire better than environmental historian Stephen Pyne. He has written 12 books on the subject that, in sum, have explained how...

Art of the wild.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The zoo of your childhood memories probably doesn't resemble the one portrayed through Garry Winogrand's urban camera lens. That's okay. The stark black and white photographs in The Animals (The Museum of Modern Art, 48 pages, $21.95) aren't...

One picture.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... SPECIFICATIONS Title: Plate 771. "American eagle flying near the ground" Date: Circa 1880s WORKING AS A NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE 1950S, I ACQUIRED A UNIQUE 35MM camera--a marvelous piece of German engineering called a Robot...