Audubon articles from September 2002

Audubon archives from September 2002

Editor's note.
September 1, 2002... EDITORS LOVE TO USE THE VALUABLE REAL ESTATE IN THE magazine's front yard to show off. We celebrate our latest awards, our path-blazing stories, and our stellar writers and photographers. But we seldom acknowledge those who make it all...

Audubon view.
September 1, 2002... DEAR AUDUBON MEMBER: AS THE WORLD'S POPULATION SOARS PAST 6 billion people, few ecosystems on our planet remain natural. Most need to be restored and actively managed for the birds and wildlife--and people--that live there. The Maine coast...

Lynx Brouhaha. (Letters).(National Lynx Survey)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2002... TED WILLIAMS'S ARTICLE "LYNX, Lies, and Media Hype" [May-June] attempts to describe the furor over biologists submitting samples to the National Lynx Survey. In his zeal, Williams perpetuates almost as much misinformation as that which he...

Second crop. (letters).
September 1, 2002... AFTER RECEIVING THE MAY-JUNE issue of Audubon, we built the northern flicker house, put it up, and within two weeks had a beautiful pair of flickers ["Knocking on Wood," Backyard]. They have already thrown out much of the wood shavings and are...

Correction. (letters).
September 1, 2002... "Raising the Dead" [May-June] referred to "DNA's double helix of amino acids." It is actually composed of nucleotides.

The last frontier. (Marine Conservation).
September 1, 2002... THERE ARE FEW CORNERS OF THE GLOBE left to explore, but one of them risks being lost before it is ever found--the cold, dark realm far below the ocean waves. "The deep sea is the last frontier on earth," says marine biologist Elliot Norse,...

Trash surfers. (Reports).
September 1, 2002... Right now millions of tiny Kon-Tiki-like rafts--plastic bags, soda bottles, and other bits of trash--are drifting through the world's seas, carrying hitchhiking mollusks, hydroids, and other marine species as they go. After traveling thousands...

Dial that birdie. (Reports).
September 1, 2002... There's nothing birders love more than sharing news of a rare sighting with the similarly obsessed. Now a new mobile-phone service called the Bird Observation System (BOS), hatched by Hewlett-Packard in Finland, promises to enable them to gloat...

Coats of many colors. (Citizen Science).
September 1, 2002... WHAT WEIGHS LESS THAN A POUND, CLEANS the streets for free, mates for life, and has hung around with humans for at least 5,000 years? Answer: Feral pigeons--as ubiquitous in cityscapes as blades of grass are in the countryside. These...

Brooklyn goes first. (Education).
September 1, 2002... BROOKLYN HAS LONG CEASED TO BE A butt of jokes about everything from its mobbed-up neighborhoods to the funny way the people talk. Still, the boroughs 2.6 million residents--more than live in most American cities--have neither a newspaper, an...

When good birds go bad. (Reports).
September 1, 2002... For desperate owners of finger-chomping budgies, self-mutilating cockatiels, or macaws that shriek for hours, veterinarians--or, more precisely, "professional avian behavioral consultants"--have a new question: Have you considered therapy?...

P.U. (Reports).
September 1, 2002... In a handful of university towns, students, retirees, and other residents have found an unusual way to make extra cash: going nose to nose with the livestock industry. For roughly $8 an hour, they smell samples of air collected at large hog,...

Vehicular ecocide. (Recreation).
September 1, 2002... COVER YOUR EARS AND HOLD YOUR BREATH: OFF-ROAD VEHICLES (ORVs) ARE COMING TO public lands near you. From Florida to California, these recreational vehicles are ripping through the nation's ecological gems, spewing out noxious pollutants and...

Saving our bald spots: once maintained by mammoths, mastodons, and other Ice Age herbivores, and later tended by domestic grazers, the southern Appalachians' odd treeless summits afford a peerless view--of both the past and the future. (true nature).
September 1, 2002... THE ROUTE TO GRASSY RIDGE TAKES A DOGLEG SOUTHBOUND turn off the Appalachian Trail and then heads straight for the sky. I loosen the shoulder straps on my pack and begin my climb into one of the Southeast's stickiest ecological riddles. ...

Do what moves you. (Special Advertising Section).
September 1, 2002... If a rustle in the brush sends you scanning the trees for a rush of indigo feathers, if watching a leaf ride the eddies of a river makes you reach for a paddle or a shadowed path causes you to tighten your bootlaces, then you know the best...

Hand to hand: welcome to Bug Camp, where the kids of Milwaukee have close encounters with birds and bones. Learning has never been this much fun! (education).
September 1, 2002... WHEN YOU'RE OF A CERTAIN AGE, IT DOESN'T take long for the special charms of a rotting log to work their magic. "Oh, cool!" marvels eight-year-old Taylor Waldren. "A slug!" Never mind that it's fat and slippery; Taylor deftly scoops it up and...

Explore wild: Hawaii. (Special Advertising Section).
September 1, 2002... HAWAII, NATURE'S LITTLE LIFE RAFT. The Galapagos may have inspired Charles Darwin, but Hawaii would have convinced him. From the time they rose from the ocean in fiery volcanic eruptions, the Hawaiian islands have functioned as life rafts for...

Happy trails! Birding trails are being blazed across the nation, preserving land and promoting tourism along the way. Whether you're a seasoned birder or a novice, it's time to toss a map in the glove compartment, buckle up, and hit the road. (Travel).
September 1, 2002... LONG CAR TRIPS INEVITABLY MEAN TAKING LOTS OF BREAKS: SNACK BREAKS, RESTROOM BREAKS, fuel breaks--even breaks to gape at roadside wonders, like the world's largest wheel of cheese. But breaks to bird? You got it. These pit stops are even on the...

Birding at its best. (Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail).
September 1, 2002... Winged lightning--now that's my idea of a hummingbird. But at the Hummer/Bird Celebration in Rockport and Fulton, Texas, hummingbirds occasionally slow down and sit still. Last September I stood within 10 feet of a dazzling male rubythroat as...

Southern hospitality. (Georgia's Colonial Coast Birding Trail).
September 1, 2002... The tide was running out as I loafed on the beach, watching a flock of black skimmers do the same. Most of the birds seemed to be dozing in the early afternoon sun, their outlandish, scissorlike bills balanced just above the sand. Some of the...

Hidden treasures. (Great Florida Birding Trail).
September 1, 2002... The 35-minute drive from my home in central Florida to Lyonia Preserve, a site on the recently established Great Florida Birding Trail, was 35 minutes too long. As I passed glass-walled office buildings, gated housing communities, and a huge...

Scoping the Mississippi. (Great River Birding Trail).
September 1, 2002... Below the bluff where I was standing along the Great River Birding Trail, the Wisconsin River joined the Mississippi at Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin. I was mesmerized by cumulus clouds reflected in the dark waters where the two great...

Backseat birder: birding trails have emerged along thousands of miles of highway, leading anyone with a set of wheels and a pair of binoculars to wildlife hot spots, big and small. Many maps are fresh off the presses. Grab one, and come along for the ride! (The Audubon Guide To Birding Trails).
September 1, 2002... Lake Champlain Birding Trail Where: Vermont and New York. What: The first birding trail to cross state lines, the Lake Champlain trail loops for 300 miles to 87 birding sites in Vermont and New York. Besides tracing the 110-mile-long lake...

North by Northwest. (Great Washington Birding Trail).
September 1, 2002... Squish. Squish. The sound of your footfall can tell you much about where you are. Growing up in Chicago, I learned the Styrofoam-like crunch of dry snow; in southern California, the raspy whisper of desert sands. But squish--that sound is...

Flocking to fresh water. (Lake Champlain Birding Trail).
September 1, 2002... On the shoulder of Route 2 just north of Burlington, Vermont, from the causeway between Grand Isle and the mainland, I stood looking south across Lake Champlain, across a legion of fawn-colored marsh grass that rose out of the chop. I was in...

The [new] harvesters: across the country, people are using their food choices to save energy, preserve open space, and reduce harmful chemicals in the environment. They're part of a movement called community-supported agriculture. (Food).
September 1, 2002... ON A BRILLIANT BLUE DAY IN OCTOBER, Brookfield Farm is hopping. Bluebirds and sparrows and goldfinches peck through the dirt where the cucumber vines were recently plowed under. Apprentice farmer Sue Wasseluk is harrowing a field to prepare it...

A bird in the hand: a master photographer's provocative portraits bring into focus the way we look at wild things.
September 1, 2002... COMMON GRACKLE Audubon's Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary, Oyster Bay, New York BLACK & WHITE WARBLERS Audubon's Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary, Oyster Bay, New York SHORT-EARED OWL Raptor Trust, Millington, New Jersey ...

Voting green: midterm elections usually attract little voter interest and low turnout. But this year, when voters in a number of key contests around the country pull the lever, they could be shaping government environmental policies far into the future. (Policy).
September 1, 2002... Denise Huntley had to decide. A swift current was tugging at her whitewater kayak, sucking it into a boiling rapid on Georgia's scenic Cartecay River earlier this year. Waves jostled Huntleys tiny boat, already awash in foam, as she eyed...

Rolling on the river: riding a wave of concern for the Mississippi's future, the Audubon Ark keeps paddling downstream. At each stop on its colorful journey, the boat rallies another river town to the cause. (Conservation).
September 1, 2002... JUST AFTER DAWN ON A SEPTEMBER MORNING, A soupy fog settles in over the Mississippi River at La Crosse, Wisconsin. From the levee here on the river's eastern bank, visibility approaches zero. We can't see the opposite shore, or even the green...

Greater Naples, Marco Island & The Everglades: a classically Florida interaction between man and landscape. (Special Advertising Section).
September 1, 2002... There is a remarkable corner of the world, along the shores of Southwest Florida's Gulf Coast--a region where elegance, culture, history and nature's most incredible wonders exist side by side--Greater Naples, Marco Island, and The Everglades....

Think globally, hawk locally: at Militia Hill, migrating broad-wings remind neighbors to see the beauty in their Philadelphia state park--itself a natural diamond in the rough. (birds).
September 1, 2002... IT'S MID-MORNING ON A BALMY SEPTEMBER DAY, AND THREE broad-winged hawks are soaring just above the Militia Hill hawk-watch observation deck, which is perched at the edge of a small clearing on a hill in Fort Washington State Park, in suburban...

The Natural Resources Council of America, an organization dedicated to strengthening the conservation movement, has announced that Audubon will be honored for its role in the campaign to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Policy).
September 1, 2002... The Natural Resources Council of America, an organization dedicated to strengthening the conservation movement, has announced that Audubon will be honored for its role in the campaign to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife...

Audubon Minnesota, acting on evidence that much of the pollution blighting the state's lakes and rivers originates in phosphorous-fertilizer runoff from cities and agricultural land, joined other environmental groups to bring this issue to the attention of the state legislature. (Policy).
September 1, 2002... Audubon Minnesota, acting on evidence that much of the pollution blighting the state's lakes and rivers originates in phosphorous-fertilizer runoff from cities and agricultural land, joined other environmental groups to bring this issue to the...

Tapping the inner conservationist. (Vanguard Of The Volunteers).
September 1, 2002... ONE DAY IN 1991, SUZANNE KROM WAS IN A forest eight miles from downtown Seattle when she saw a bald eagle raid the nests of a great blue heron colony. In the coming days Krom watched the big gray birds fend off other attacks. Although only...

California is a land of superlatives, and the passage of Proposition 40 proves it. (Policy).
September 1, 2002... California is a land of superlatives, and the passage of Proposition 40 proves it. The state's voters have approved a $2.6 billion bond issue, providing money to preserve open space, improve water and air quality, protect wildlife habitat, and...

The wisdom of teamwork is made clear in Audubon at Home's new partnership with two federal agencies. (Science).
September 1, 2002... The wisdom of teamwork is made clear in Audubon at Home's new partnership with two federal agencies. The Wildlife Habitat Management Institute, a program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, will work with Audubon at Home to develop...

Carl Safina, founder of Audubon's Living Oceans program, recently released his eagerly awaited second book, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival (Henry Holt and Company). (Milestones).
September 1, 2002... Carl Safina, founder of Audubon's Living Oceans program, recently released his eagerly awaited second book, Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival (Henry Holt and Company). In the book's pages, Safina shares the unique perspective...

Stop, look, and listen. (Greenwich Audubon Center).
September 1, 2002... A GOLDEN BLANKET ALREADY COVERS THE Clovis Trail at the Audubon center in Greenwich, Connecticut. As yellow leaves continue to float down, it becomes nearly impossible to distinguish between where the leaves end and the soil begins. Only a few...

Audubon centennial celebrations were touched off this year from coast to coast. (Milestones).
September 1, 2002... Audubon centennial celebrations were touched off this year from coast to coast. North Carolina marks the 1902 birth of its Audubon Society with a rare exhibit of the works of John James Audubon at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh...

Ask Audubon.
September 1, 2002... How do balloons affect wildlife? Eileen Andreason, via e-mail AT BEST, FREE-FLYING BALLOONS become litter; at worst, they jeopardize wildlife. Once airborne, they can travel far afield and often end up joining the flotsam riding the...

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. (one picture).
September 1, 2002... LIKE THE HARDY, SYMBOLIC TREE OF HEAVEN (OR AILANTHUS)IN NOVELIST Betty Smiths 1943 masterpiece, t/Tree Grows in, Brooklyn, this astonishing tree grew in just four months in a lot in the borough s Red Hook section. Fifty feet tall and weighing...