NEW HOPE FOR RED KNOTS | YEAR OF THE BIRD: PUBLIC LANDS FOR ALL | WADING BIRD BOOM

S U MME R 2 01 8

SPECIAL ISSUE

2018 AUDUBON
PHOTOGRAPHY
AWARDS
Early Heroes of Bird Photography
William Lovell Finley (1876–1953) was a pioneer in using photography to
promote conservation. Beginning in the late 1890s, he and his colleagues
ventured into the wilds of Oregon and other Western states, capturing
thousands of images of wild birds in their habitats. These vivid portraits, and
his impassioned writing about key Oregon sites, helped persuade President
Theodore Roosevelt to designate Three Arch Rocks, Lower Klamath, and
Malheur among the first federal bird refuges in the West. Finley’s photos and
writings appeared in Bird-Lore—the predecessor to Audubon—as early as
1905, and he was a founding member of what is now the Audubon Society
of Portland. Throughout a long career, which included a stint as Oregon’s
first state game commissioner and years as an independent activist, he
continued to use photography to educate and entertain the public. The Oregon
Historical Society and Oregon State University recently collected and digitized
Finley’s earliest work, giving us a fascinating glimpse of the beginnings of the
conservation movement. To see more photos, visit audubon.org/Finley.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM L. FINLEY,
IR E NE FINL E Y, AND HER MAN T. B OHLMA N
Text by Kenn Kaufman | Photography research by Camilla Cerea

g On a 1905 expedition
to the Klamath Basin in
southwestern Oregon, at the
edge of a marshy lake, William
Finley sits writing notes
outside the umbrella blind
that he and his friend Herman
T. Bohlman rigged up for
bird photography. The three
downy young gulls wandering
around his feet may have
been temporarily removed
from a nearby nest to have
their portraits taken. Although
Finley and his colleagues
scorned “nature faking,” they
weren’t above posing baby
birds, too young to fly, in order
to photograph them.
 In 1910, Finley and his
wife, Irene, made an extended
trip through Arizona and New
Mexico with Phoebe, their
three-year-old daughter, in tow.
Near Tucson, they found a nest
of Black-throated Sparrows.
When the Finleys set up their
equipment to photograph the
chicks, the parent sparrows
gradually overcame their fear
and resumed feeding the
youngsters. In the image below,
an adult Black-throated Sparrow
perches on the front of one of
the cameras. Shortly after her
marriage in 1906, Irene (right)
began accompanying her
husband in the field, undeterred
by the challenges posed by
fashion standards of the day.
Within a few years, after
Bohlman’s family duties began
to limit his time for expeditions,
Irene became William’s
main field partner. A skilled
photographer in her own right,
she also wrote popular articles
about nature and coauthored
two books with her husband.
 Bohlman (with camera)
and Finley pursue a duckling
in a shallow marsh in the
Klamath Basin in 1905. Smaller,
inexpensive cameras using rolls
of film were widely available by
then, but higher-quality images
could be obtained with large-
format field cameras like the
one seen here. It was a laborious
process, exposing 5-by-7-inch
glass-plate negatives one at
a time—a task made even
more arduous in tough field
conditions. While Finley and
Bohlman often used tripods, in
this instance they seem to have
opted for handheld mobility.
This approach allowed them to
capture intimate portraits, like
the one below of a young Black
Tern swimming past a wapato
(arrowhead) plant in a Klamath
Basin lake. Finley’s photographs
and written accounts of such
avian treasures led to the
establishment of wildlife refuges
across the West that today
total almost 240,000 acres.
Eleven years after his death,
the William L. Finley National
Wildlife Refuge in west-central
Oregon was named in his honor.
CONTENTS SUMMER 2018, VOLUME 120, NUMBER 2

30
Trek The Secret Lives of Seabirds
On the island of Kauai, Newell’s Shearwaters and Hawaiian
Petrels burrow deep in the forested mountain terrain. Counting
them requires a helicopter, climbing gear, night-vision goggles,
and a scientist who’s full-on fearless.
By Paul Kvinta/Photography by Tom Fowlks

20
Gallery Audubon Photography Awards
We whittled thousands of images from hundreds
of photographers down to these eight spectacular
shots, including the one below.
By the Editors

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LIRON GERTSMAN/2018 AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS YOUTH HONORABLE MENTION; TOM FOWLKS; MAC STONE; COURTESY OF PETER LEE
36 40
NEW HOPE FOR RED KNOTS | YEAR OF THE BIRD: PUBLIC LANDS FOR ALL | WADING BIRD BOOM

SPECIAL ISSUE

2018 AUDUBON
PHOTOGRAPHY
AWARDS

Year of the Bird Public Lands for One and All Dispatch Breeding Boom
To build a conservation movement for the future, Wading birds are breeding in droves in the
we first need to diversify the outdoors. Here’s Everglades, signaling that, with our help, this
how we can push the transformation. iconic ecosystem can recover.
By Teresa Baker Cover: Cobalt- By Andy McGlashen/Photography by Mac Stone
winged Parakeets.
Photograph by
Liron Gertsman,
2018 Audubon
Photography
Awards Youth
Winner

6 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018


10 Audubon View
National parks and monuments host
hundreds of millions of visitors and
birds each year. So why are these
American icons under attack?
By David Yarnold
12 Field Notes
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TMI/ALAMY; MIKE FERNANDEZ/AUDUBON; MARY LUNDEBERG/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS; TREVOR PAULHUS
The Trump administration is trying to
silence climate science and policy—and
is succeeding; two artists take on the
avian world with bold, unique aesthetics;
the farm bill has major implications for
birds; a change by a pharmaceutical
giant is a boon to horseshoe crabs and
rufa Red Knots.
48 Field Guide
Birding Chicks are devilishly fun to study
on long summer days.
Travel Take a birdy vacation with your
non-birder partner.
Photography The concrete jungle ofers
edgy opportunities for bird photos.
56 Illustrated Aviary
An artist adds a modern touch to a design
style traditional to First Nations of the
Northwest Coast. By April Sgaana Jaad
White/Text by Julie Leibach
EDITOR’S NOTE
The Power of Pictures
Photography can communicate the beauty
and fragility of nature. It can also help build a
conservation movement to save it.
BY JENNIFER BOGO, VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT
M y mother is a librarian,
and I’m an unabashed nerd,
and so I relished the recent excuse
to dig deep into the hardbound
volumes that make up Audubon
magazine’s archives. I was looking
for the first issue I worked on when
I arrived as a senior editor, in 2001,
and when I found it, facts about
the perilous state of Florida’s Ever-
glades came rushing back.
At the time, this iconic eco-
system was in dire straits: Wading-
bird numbers had dropped 90
percent over the preceding century.
And while a multibillion-dollar
federal/state plan to restore the
wetland’s natural water flow had
just been passed, the Everglades’
future was very much an open
question. “No one knows if any
of this will really work,” we wrote
then, “whether the wildlife will
actually rebound.”
This issue holds—finally, tanta-
lizingly—evidence that the answer
is “yes.” As you’ll see in “Breeding
Boom,” on page 40, wading birds
have responded to last year’s heavy
rainfall, one that mimicked the
region’s past hydrology, in tremen-
dous numbers. The phenomenon,
as captured through the lens of pho-
tographer Mac Stone, is stunning.
It is this promise that brought
me back to Audubon recently, after
nearly a dozen years at other science
magazines: Birds and ecosystems
can rebound, if people understand
Birds and
their value and are motivated to
help save them. Environmental
journalism, of which this magazine
ecosystems
can rebound,
has long been a standard-bearer, if people
plays a critical role in securing that understand
future—as does the organization, their value.
with its impassioned staff and vast
network of members and partners.
In 2001, as now, Audubon knew
the power of compelling visuals
in making the case for protect-
ing birdlife and its habitat. The
Audubon Photography Awards, on
page 20, provides further proof of
that, while also demonstrating this
power is wielded not only by pro-
fessionals but also legions of young
and amateur photographers.
Of course, a sustainable con-
servation movement is not built
solely on pictures of animals (even
exquisite ones). In the very first
story I edited for Audubon, a couple
recounted that during visits to 14
national parks, they had seen only
two other African Americans.
Their experience is echoed in
“Public Lands for One and All,”
on page 36, in which Teresa Baker
points out that images in social
media can help make wilderness
more welcoming to everyone.
For all of these reasons, and
more, I am thrilled to return to a
publication and organization I have
long admired—and to be here, at
the helm of the content team, at a Send letters to
time when our work matters more audubonmagazine
than ever. A @audubon.org.
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 7
Board of Directors CEO & President Content Digital
Maggie Walker David Yarnold Jennifer Bogo John Mahoney
Chair of the Board Vice President, Content Vice President,
Executive Staf Digital Products
Susan Bell Jose Carbonell Editorial Andrew Del-Colle
Vice-Chair Chief Marketing Oicer Alisa Opar Site Director
David B. Hartwell Mary Beth Henson Articles Editor Hannah Waters
Vice-Chair Chief Financial Oicer Purbita Saha Senior Associate Editor
Joseph H. Ellis Susan Lunden Associate Editor
Secretary Chief Operating Oicer Benji Jones Marketing
Karim Al-Khafaji Sean O’Connor Editorial Fellow Claudio Ciprian
Assistant Secretary Chief Development Oicer Nell Durfee, Jillian Mock Manager, Digital Analytics
Terry L. Root David O’Neill Reporters and Production
Assistant Secretary Chief Conservation Oicer Kenn Kaufman Julisa Colón
Phil Swan David Ringer Field Editor Brand Partnerships
Assistant Secretary Chief Network Oicer Rene Ebersole Associate
George S. Golumbeski Frank Graham, Jr. Preeti Desai
Vice Presidents
Treasurer Melissa Groo Director, Social Media
Matthew Anderson
Ajay Shah Jane Braxton Little and Storytelling
John Beavers
Assistant Treasurer Susan McGrath Melissa Gonzalez
Olga Bellido de Luna
Jane Alexander T. Edward Nickens Senior Manager,
Shannon Callahan
Peter Alpert David Allen Sibley Audience Engagement
Stephanie Cook
Christian T. Brown Scott Weidensaul Eric Hertenstein
Kevin Dufy
Coleman Burke Ted Williams Director, Digital Platforms
Deeohn Ferris
Mike Connor Barry Yeoman Harmony Hamilton
Gail Gatton
Michele Crist Contributing Editors Audience Engagement
Greg Goldman
David B. Ford Molly Bennet Coordinator
Sarah Greenberger
Sara Fuentes Consulting Editor Lynne Hoppe
Heather Hahn
Jefrey Goodby Marketing Director
Jonathan Hayes Art
James C. Greenwood Christine Lin
Julie Hill-Gabriel Kristina Deckert
William Heck Social Media Producer
Chermia Hoefner Art Director
Sarah Jefords Elizabeth Sorrell
Alison Holloran Sabine Meyer
J. Drew Lanham Vice President,
Marshall Johnson Photography Director
Richard H. Lawrence, Jr. Audience Engagement
Brett Kincaid Mike Fernandez
Stephanie Little
Stephen W. Kress Video Producer Communications
Hector E. Morales, Jr.
Gary Langham Camilla Cerea Lisa Hardaway
Susan Orr
Suzanne Langley Photo Editor/Photographer Vice President,
R. Cynthia Pruett
Robbianne Mackin Lia Bocchiaro Communications
Heather Singh
Douglas Mefert Associate Photo Editor Nicolas Gonzalez
Jack Stewart
Brian Moore Melanie Ryan Media Relations Manager
Kathy Sullivan
Sonia Perillo Contributing Designer Martha Harbison
Stephen Tan
Karen Profita Alan Gottlieb Network Content Editor
Lili Taylor
Scott Pryor Digital Asset Chandler Lennon
Art Wang
Sharon Richardson Management Fellow Media Relations Manager
Sarah Rose Tebello Marumo
Production
Rebeccah Sanders Senior Marketing Manager
Felicia Pardo
Lorraine Sciarra Anne Singer
Content Production Manager
Stanley Senner Communications Director,
Ana Paula Tavares Policy
Brian Trusty
Peter Vincent
Nils Warnock
Chad Wilsey

Customer service: 844-428-3826 or customerservice@audubon.org. The observations and opinions expressed in Audubon magazine are those of the re-
spective authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official views of the National Audubon Society. Volume 120, Number 2, Summer 2018.
Audubon, ISSN 0097-7136, the magazine of the National Audubon Society, will be published quarterly in 2018 (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter). Editorial
offices: 225 Varick Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10014; 212-979-3000. Audubon does not accept unsolicited artwork or manuscripts and is not respon-
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 Honor
the Year of
the Bird
BELOW: LEAST TERN AND CHICK. PHOTO: URSULA DUBRICK/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

with a Git
MARSH WREN. PHOTO: CRAIG B. GOETTSCH/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS.

That Lasts
Generations
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AUDUBON VIEW
Stand Up for Your
Public Lands
Summer is the perfect time to visit America’s national
parks and monuments—but actions by the government
threaten to sell some of to the highest bidder.
BY DAVID YARNOLD, CEO/PRESIDENT
Ispending
n 2017, 330 million people
visited our national parks,
a record 1.44 billion
hours recreating there. Tens of
millions more stopped by state
and city parks, public beaches, and
lakes. These are not just places that
have inspired millions of people.
They are our public lands, an idea
first enacted by Republican Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt, set aside
to restore our souls and inspire our
love of the natural world.
10 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
I mention national parks for
two reasons. First of all, as part of
the Year of the Bird, we’re cele-
brating the great outdoors during
the months of July and August.
We’re focused on getting kids into
nature, and encouraging people
to visit our public lands. Read
through the pages of this issue for
ideas, tips, tools, and avenues of
discussion on how to pass along
your love of birds and the outdoors
to the next generations. Or down-
load our free Audubon Bird Guide
app, updated with guided identi-
fication, a map of recent sightings
near you, and easy comparisons
between similar-looking species.
And, of course, you’ll continue to
be able to record sightings and
save photos of the birds you do see.
My other reason for mention-
ing our national parks is this:
They’re the homes and migratory
stopovers for millions of birds. A
study conducted by Audubon’s
science team, in partnership with
scientists at the National Park
Service, shows that the birdlife
in our national parks will be
profoundly affected by climate
change. More importantly, many
of these parks will serve as havens
for more and different species as
the climate warms.
Because of that key role in sus-
taining bird populations, Audubon
wants to be a leader in protecting
Audubon these and other tracts of public
wants to be land. That’s where you can help.
a leader in The Department of the Interior
protecting continues to attack our shared
these tracts heritage. Last December, DOI
of public announced that it was shrinking
land. And a number of national monuments
that’s where in a headlong rush to appease oil
you can help. and mining companies. Worse, the
Secretary of the Interior’s med-
dling has potentially upended the
largest conservation agreement in
American history, one that protects
the Greater Sage-Grouse and the
unique sagebrush ecosystems of 11
states. Because of that unnecessary
and harmful interference, Audubon
has joined forces with The Wilder-
ness Society, National Wildlife
Federation, and Montana Wildlife
Federation to sue the Department
of the Interior. The goal: Make
the federal government respect the
partnerships in place to protect
FROM LEFT: TMI/ALAMY; CAMILLA CEREA/AUDUBON
sage-grouse.
All of this is simply to say:
Fight for what is yours and help
us to do the same. These are your
lands that the government wants
A hiker to sell off. These are your lands
stands under that birds need to survive and
Broken Arch, thrive. Audubon is committed to
taking in the protecting these precious resources
splendor of for future generations, and now,
Arches National more than ever, you are what hope
Park in Utah. looks like to a bird. a
 The new Audubon Bird Guide app is here!
PHOTO: CAMILLA CEREA/AUDUBON

Identify unknown species with the new bird ID feature.

Easily find birding hotspots and track your sightings.
Keep up to date with the latest on all things Audubon.

Download for free today. audubon.org/app


FIELD NOTES
TA B O O
A Climate of Censorship
By purging mentions of climate change,
federal agencies allow themselves to ignore
the cause of growing disasters.
BY HANNAH WATERS
IEmergency
n its new strategic plan,
published in March, the Federal
Management Agency
(FEMA) describes 2017 as an
“unprecedented” year of natural
disasters. Photos of FEMA staff
helping survivors of massive hurri-
canes in Texas, Florida, and Puerto
Rico pepper the 38-page document,
which notes that the average number
of major disaster declarations per
year has increased from an average
of 25 in the 1980s to nearly 90 per
year since 2010. “Due to rising
natural hazard risk,” the plan states,
“the need for forward leaning [sic]
action is greater than ever before.”
To an observant reader, these
are clear references to climate
change. Yet the document fails
to directly mention, even once,
climate change or the fact that it’s
likely to result in more frequent
and severe natural disasters. (The
2014–2018 plan cited climate
change as a source of risk.) This
omission is one of nearly 100
examples of censorship related to
global warming that have been
compiled since December 2016
by the Silencing Science Tracker,
a database run by Romany Webb,
a climate law fellow at Columbia
University’s Sabin Center.
“When you look at the tracker,
12 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
you see that the Trump adminis-
tration has undertaken a system-
atic attempt to silence science that
doesn’t support its policies,” Webb
says—namely, fossil fuel expansion.
Websites focused on climate change
have been deleted or rewritten.
The word “climate” has been erased
from program titles. Climate
scientists have been prohibited
from attending conferences or
otherwise speaking publicly about
their work. And scientific advisory
boards have been disbanded. So far,
Webb has documented censorship
at the White House, NASA, the
National Science Foundation, and
nine federal agencies, including the
Environmental Protection Agency.
In some cases, the purge appears
to have been ordered by senior
leadership; in others, scientists
censor themselves to avoid attention
or consequences. “The chilling
effect that this administration has
on the federal agencies—my clients,
I’ve never seen them so afraid,” says
Kyla Bennett, who represents gov-
ernment whistleblowers for Public
Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, a legal nonprofit.
To Bennett, the motive is clear:
“The more you remove [climate
change] from public documents and
the public eye, the less inclination
there is for people to worry about
it and want to do something about
it.” Pretending the problem doesn’t
exist also permits agencies to ignore
it in policymaking. For example,
in the months before the EPA
announced its repeal of the Obama
administration’s central carbon-
pollution-reduction policy in
October 2017, references to climate
change were wiped from many of its
websites. Some agency climate sci-
entists were also reassigned to new
departments, while others resigned.
“In the absence of climate change,
you don’t need something like the
Clean Power Plan,” Bennett says.
Still, the suppression hasn’t
stopped agencies from addressing
present impacts. In fact, only two
days after the FEMA strategic
plan was published, the agency
approved a $1.7 million grant to
relocate Alaskan climate refugees,
whose homes are collapsing as
melting sea ice, thawing perma-
frost, and rising ocean levels
combine to erode coastlines.
“They are willing to start
In some
cases, the
purge appears
addressing the effects because
they are becoming so severe and
so pressing,” Webb says, “but they
to have been really don’t want to admit the
ordered underlying cause of them and take
by senior steps to address it.”
leadership; It’s not only direct climate action
in others, that’s corrupted by censorship, but
scientists also all sorts of everyday govern-
censor ment decisions. Where we build
themselves. roads and housing, how we invest
public health resources, and which
natural areas we protect today will
determine our ability to adapt
in coming decades, says Sarah
Greenberger, Audubon’s senior vice
president for conservation policy.
“Climate change has to be a part of
those decisions,” she says. “If we’re
not doing that, it puts all of us and
all of our interests at risk.”
The ultimate effect of this cen-
sorship is to suppress scientific
information and research when we
need it most. “Climate change is
probably the biggest environmen-
tal issue facing us right now, and
ILLUSTRATION BY FELIX SOCKWELL
people will die. People are dying,”
Bennett says. “The only thing
that’s going to help us out of this
is science and political guts.” For
decades, we’ve been strong on sci-
ence and short on guts. If we can’t
even name the threat, we’ll soon
find ourselves strapped for both. A
ILLUSTRATION BY HANNA BARCZYK SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 13
FIELD NOTES: AVIAN ART
A Refuge Becomes Music
An eclectic performer captures the essence of
the Great Salt Lake in song.
BY LESLIE NEMO
W ading thigh-deep in the
reedy pools of northern
Utah’s Bear River Migratory Bird
Refuge, Conner Youngblood
gazes across the water as if it’s
just him and the grebes. In reality,
there’s a videographer standing
behind the Tennessee-based
musician, filming the music video
14 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
To watch the Bear River refuge music
video and other Songscapes, visit
Sustain’s YouTube channel. The track
is also available for download at
conneryoungblood.bandcamp.com.
Proceeds benefit nonprofit groups
working with Utah nature.
percussion, piano, and American
Coot calls, was produced with
the environmental-education
nonprofit Sustain, which pulls
music fans into the world of
conservation. (The collaboration
with Youngblood is the fourth
in the organization’s Songscape
series on treasured public lands.)
By layering ambient natural
sounds with the song’s instru-
mentation, Youngblood evokes
the mosaic that is Bear River, an
estuarine haven that hosts more
than 200 kinds of birds. That
includes more than 70 nesting
species such as White-faced
Ibises and Western Grebes. “It’s
just near and dear to our hearts,”
says Kandy Richards, the treasurer
of Great Salt Lake Audubon.
The chapter helped get the music
video off the ground—and in the
water—with a grant of $1,000.
“We thought it was a really
intriguing idea—a way to reach
a new generation of individu-
als who would be interested in
conservation and birds and the
environment,” Richards says.
As it turns out, Youngblood
is the ideal ambassador for this
Conner
mission. His mom has been an
Audubon member for close to five
Youngblood’s years, and he’s always relied on the
acoustic single outdoors to decompress. It’s the
(cover art above) best place for him to think clearly
pays tribute to about his music, he says.
the refuge and Now he counts Bear River as
its birdlife. one of his inspirations. Months
after the immersive visit to the
FROM TOP: TREVOR PAULHUS; ART: GREG DYSON
refuge, Youngblood, who recent-
ly wrapped up a tour with the
for Youngblood’s new track, “Bear
River Migratory Bird Refuge,”
a tribute to the unique beauty of
German band Milky Chance,
says his mind still wanders back.
It was one of the more beautiful
this ecological gem on the edge landscapes he’s been to, and the
of the Great Salt Lake. experience has made him con-
Youngblood’s ethereal stantly attuned to birds wherever
composition, which combines he is. “What I wouldn’t have paid
minimalist lyrics—“Like a attention to before, I do now,” he
flood, you come and go”—with says. “I see every single one.” a

The Bird Man’s Lairs
A dreamer and educator perches his larger-than-life
nests on the green clifs of Big Sur.
BY BRENT CRANE
Jensayson fann is not a bird—
but he does make nests. Doz-
of them, fantastically large,
with flowing, radial patterns
that take their forms from the
golden ratio and other mathe-
matical codes. In the hills around
California’s Big Sur, Fann collects
felled trees, branches, and twigs
and weaves them into aeries for
passersby, both winged and wing-
less. Nests are universal, he says.
“Every creature seeks shelter, a
place of protection and for bearing
BRIAN CAPOBIANCHI/COURTESY OF JAYSON FANN SPIRIT NEST CREATIONS
children. It’s a central part of the
cycle of nature.”
Tall, with soft features and a
fondness for fedoras, Fann is a
woodworker, an educator, and a
conservationist. He works almost
exclusively with eucalyptus, an
invasive species originally from
Australia that now dominates
swaths of California’s coastal
woodlands. In the mid-19th cen-
tury, the towering hardwoods were
planted there as windbreaks and a
source of timber; as they grew, they
A nest is shed potent fuel across a region
universal. already prone to wildfires. Just two
“It’s a central years ago, the mountains north of
part of the Big Sur saw the costliest blaze in
cycle of U.S. history.
nature,”
artist Jayson
Fann says.
With his small yet precise
operation, Fann helps clear away
that kindling. Sturdy against the
elements, eucalyptus is ideal for
his unconventional purposes. “I’ve
got nests that are 15 years old,” he
says. In more than two decades
of nest building, he estimates he’s
repurposed the detritus of several
hundred trees.
For the artist, the forestry aspect
adds more joy to an already thera-
peutic endeavor. Education is also
part of the mission; Fann regularly
engages children in the making of
the nests, collaborating with local
schools and youth organizations.
“I want to get young people excited
about the world that we live in and
passionate about how all things
are connected,” he says. Once the
Jayson Fann’s structures are finished, the helpers
eucalyptus nests set upon them, squirreling up the
serve as tools for ladders to explore while Fann fields
exploration for their questions, happy to oblige in
the public. all matters of the nest. a
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 15
FIELD NOTES: POLICY

The Farm Bill’s Birdy Side

From California rice fields to the Florida Everglades,
the farm bill is a powerful tool for protecting and
restoring avian habitat. As Congress rewrites the
legislation, birders should pay close attention.
BY ANDY MCGLASHEN

W ith more than two-thirds of

the land in the Lower 48 privately
owned, the fate of North American birds
is tied to that of farms, ranches, and pri-
vate woodlands. And the largest federal
funding source for conservation on those
lands is the U.S. farm bill. That’s right—
the mammoth federal legislation widely
known for crop insurance and food
assistance plays a critical role in restoring
wetlands, replanting native grasslands,
revitalizing forests, and more. “You
have to work with private landowners
to be successful when you’re talking
about migratory bird habitat,” says Julie
Grogan-Brown, Audubon’s working
lands policy manager. “And the farm bill
is really the federal mechanism for work-
ing directly with those landowners.”
As lawmakers hammer out the
2018 reauthorization of the legislation,
which expires in September, Audubon
and other environmental groups are g Under ideal
advocating for increased conservation habitat conditions,
funding, ensuring that programs that a pair of Northern
have already been a boon to birds not Bobwhites can
only continue, but grow. As these four produce two dozen
species show, the benefits of restoring ofspring in a single
and protecting habitat on private land breeding season.
extend far beyond a single fence line. a

More than 90 per- fields longer into the The farm bill gave the vegetation instead
cent of the wetlands winter, for example, Henslow’s Sparrow a of crops, the bird
in California’s Central attracts more than break it desperately began rebounding.
Valley have been three times as many needed. As its habitat “It’s almost entirely
drained for farming shorebirds per acre, was plowed under or driven by CRP,” says
and development, says Khara Strum, developed over the Jim Herkert, Illinois
devastating the Audubon California’s past century, its pop- Audubon Society’s
Black- region’s birds. So conservation project Henslow’s ulation plummeted executive director.
necked Stilt Audubon California manager. Since Sparrow by 8 percent annually, He has found that
and the California 2014, the Regional the steepest decline Henslow’s Sparrows
ILLUSTRATIONS: DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY

Regional Rice Commission are Conservation Part- Conservation of any songbird. Soon are now about 10
Conservation helping rice growers nership Program has Reserve Program after the 1985 farm times more abundant
Partnership manage their land to provided $7 million bill established the in Illinois than in
Program mimic historic wet- in farm-bill funds Conservation Reserve the 1980s, and their
lands. Simply keeping to improve habitat Program, which pays numbers swelled
floodwaters that on 100,000 acres, farmers to tempo- three times faster in
accumulate during benefitting birds like rarily plant acres counties with heavy
the rainy season on Black-necked Stilts. with wildlife-friendly CRP enrollment.

16 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

 About a Bill

1933
Year the first farm bill
was created

1985
Year conservation
programs were added

1.2 billion
Acres of private
farms, ranches, and
forests nationwide

$57.6 billion
Conservation funding
in the 2014 farm bill

23.8 million
Acres enrolled in
the Conservation
Reserve Program

1 million
Acres of Lesser
Prairie-Chicken
habitat protected via
the Working Lands for
Wildlife Program

2 million
Additional ducks
hatched annually in
the Prairie Pothole
region due to the
Conservation
Reserve Program

A century ago, an Program, says Brad The Northern with the National
estimated 100,000 Cornell, Southwest Bobwhite quail still Bobwhite Conserva-
Wood Storks nested Florida policy associ- sings its own name, tion Initiative believe
in the region around ate for Audubon Flor- bob-white!, across 36 that those programs,
Audubon Corkscrew ida. Permanent and states, but its num- if implemented on
Swamp Sanctuary 30-year conservation bers plunged by 85 all priority lands,
in the western Ever- easements provide percent from 1967 to could increase the
glades. Today, 400 farmers and ranchers Northern 2014, to 5.8 million. number of the birds,
Wood Stork nesting pairs at the with payments to Bobwhite Conservationists the only native quail
sanctuary is a good cover all or most of could never set in the east, by 55
Agricultural year. One important their land’s value and Working Lands for aside enough public million. “And if we
Conservation tool to restore habitat the cost of resto- Wildlife Program land to reverse the do this right,” says
Easement Program for storks and other ration. Today more decline, so programs initiative director Don
wading birds is the than 180,000 acres such as Working McKenzie, “every-
wetland component of Florida wetlands Lands for Wildlife, thing should be just
of the 2014 farm bill’s are under easement created in 2012, as valuable for other
Agricultural Con- through ACEP and its focus on private declining grassland
servation Easement predecessor. property. Scientists birds and pollinators.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY BYRON JORJORIAN/ALAMY SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 17

FIELD NOTES: CONSERVATION
New Hope for an
Ancient Animal
It took a dedicated birder to convince pharma giant
Eli Lilly to reduce horseshoe crab blood in drug
testing, providing a lifeline to migrating shorebirds, too.
BY DEBORAH CRAMER
Jarrival
ay bolden will never forget
the first time he witnessed the
of one of Earth’s oldest an-
imals in Delaware Bay. It was late
spring, “and the beach, seemingly
empty, suddenly filled with horse-
shoe crabs coming in from the
sea,” he recalls. “It was a religious
experience for me.”
Bolden, a longtime birder, knew
the importance of horseshoe crabs
to migrating shorebirds like Red
Knots. Every spring, each female
crab lays at least 80,000 eggs.
Many remain buried until they
hatch; others, churned up by waves,
are devoured by famished shore-
birds migrating north to Arctic
breeding grounds. Each Red Knot
must consume some 400,000 eggs
to fuel its flight to the tundra and
breed successfully.
For years, horseshoe crabs sup-
plied the billions of eggs needed
to feed hundreds of thousands
of shorebirds migrating through
Delaware Bay. But not anymore.
In 2014, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service listed the rufa
Red Knot as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act. Along
the western Atlantic, Semi-
palmated Sandpipers and Ruddy
Turnstones have also declined.
There are no longer enough
crabs to sustain, let alone rebuild,
18 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
shorebird populations.
What happened? Fishermen
kill some 600,000 crabs each year
along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard
to bait eel and whelk traps.
Another 500,000 are captured
along the same coast annually in
order to produce an all-important
medical test—known as LAL
(Limulus amebocyte lysate)—that
detects endotoxin, a potentially
life-threatening bacterial contam-
ination in vaccines and intrave-
nous medicines, as well as in joint
replacements, pacemakers, and
other implanted medical devices.
In short, the prehistoric sea dwell-
ers safeguard the health of almost
every one of us (and our pets).
To make the test, U.S. com-
panies bleed horseshoe crabs in a
laboratory and then return them
to the water, where between 5
and 30 percent die. (In Asia, most
bled crabs are ultimately killed.)
The loss of blood also reduces
their fitness and may contribute to
population declines. In 1991 New
Jersey’s beaches had 100,000 eggs
per square yard; today, that number
is closer to 5,000 or 6,000.
Five years ago, Bolden, a
senior biologist at pharmaceutical
giant Eli Lilly, realized he was in
a position to help birds and crabs
alike. That’s because, for almost
15 years, a synthetic alternative
to LAL—recombinant factor C,
or rFC for short—had been on
the U.S. market, and yet major
pharmaceutical companies had not
adopted it as their endotoxin test.
They had little reason to: LAL
was the gold standard, accepted by
regulatory authorities, and testing a
Each Red
Knot must
consume
newer, less familiar product would
cost time and money.
Bolden, though, had a compel-
400,000 ling reason. “I’m a birder,” he says,
horseshoe “so this hit close to home.” His
crab eggs to vocation and avocation coming
fuel its flight together, he decided to enact
to the tundra change from inside his company.
and breed In the lab, he painstakingly
successfully. compared LAL to rFC, compiling
evidence to convince Eli Lilly that
rFC was not only equivalent to
LAL, but better. “Here, I can have
an impact,” he recalls thinking. “I
Due to Jay can be part of conservation.”
Bolden’s hard In May Bolden stood before an
work, Eli Lilly will audience at New Jersey Audubon’s
use 90 percent Center for Research and Edu-
less horseshoe cation in Cape May to make an
crab blood. announcement. Thanks to his
efforts, Eli Lilly’s manufacturing
plants are now replacing LAL with
rFC to test the vast amounts of
water the company uses to make
drugs. When its eight manufac-
turing sites make the transition,
by 2020, the company will have
reduced its use of LAL by approxi-
mately 90 percent. If the rest of big
pharma follows Eli Lilly’s lead, half
a million horseshoe crabs could be
left untouched in the sea every year.
“It’s a win-win,” says Eric Stiles,
president of New Jersey Audubon.
“These companies can do well by
doing good.” a
 Horseshoe crabs’ blue blood,
exquisitely sensitive to endotoxin,
clots in its presence. Switching to a
synthetic compound could leave half
a million crabs in the sea each year.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIMOTHY FADEK/REDUX SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 19

2018 AUDUBON
PHOTOGRAPHY
AWARDS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
NATURE’S BEST PHOTOGRAPHY

THE MORE THAN 8,000 PHOTOS ENTERED in our ninth

annual contest by photographers from all 50 states,
Washington, D.C., and 10 Canadian provinces evoke
the splendor, resilience, and ingenuity of birdlife.
Because our selection process is blind, judges
realized only after casting their votes that for the first
time a photographer had swept an entire category,
youth. Congratulations to the winners and honorable
mentions featured here, and thank you to each and
every entrant for your dedication to birds.
ATTEND THE
AUDUBON
PHOTOGRAPHY
AWARDS TRAVELING
EXHIBITION,
SPONSORED BY
CANON. MORE INFO:
AUDUBON.ORG/
EXHIBIT

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Category: Professional
Photographer: Steve Mattheis
Species: Great Gray Owl
Location: Teton County,
Wyoming
Camera: Nikon D850 with Nikon
300mm AF-S f/4E PF ED VR lens;
1/1000 second at f/4; ISO 1600

Story Behind the Shot: After

a six-week drought, I finally
spotted a Great Gray flying
through the woods on a beautiful
fall evening. I ran to catch up, and
spent 80 minutes photographing
it flying from perch to perch,
hunting, and catching several
rodents. As I took this image,
I knew I was seeing something
special: The owl was fighting
for balance on a thin branch,
giving a very unusual, energetic,
asymmetric posture as it stared
directly into my lens.

Bird Lore: The Great Gray Owl

is a superb hunter. From a perch
it watches with eyes larger
than a human’s, listens with
ears so keen it can detect prey
beneath a foot of snow, and
attacks silently, due to sound-
dampening feathers.
AU DUBON
PHOTOGRA PHY
AWARD S
PROFESSIONAL HONORABLE MENTION
Photographer: Donald Quintana
Species: Red-winged Blackbird
Location: Merced National
Wildlife Refuge, California
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
with Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS
USM lens; 1/800 second at f/5.6;
ISO 1000
Story Behind the Shot: A trip to
Merced NWR is always a magical
event, no matter how many
times I visit. On this particular
day I was leading three fellow
photographers, and we heard the
wonderful gurgled-dee-glee of a
Red-winged Blackbird just outside
our vehicle, which we were using
22 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
as a blind. As it sang its aria from
the twigs of a nearby plant, we
clicked away, hoping to capture
the bright red epaulets on its wings
as it pufed up to serenade any
nearby prospective mates.
Bird Lore: During the breeding
season, the male Red-winged
Blackbird establishes and
vociferously defends his territory,
whether it’s on a sprawling prairie
or in an urban park. A single bird
might woo as many as 15 mates;
you can tell that a female has
taken up residence when she
sings in response to the male’s
rich, musical call.
PROFESSIONAL
WINNER
Photographer: Gary R. Zahm
Species: Black-necked Stilt
Location: Merced National
Wildlife Refuge, California
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
with Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II
USM lens; 1/1250 second at f/13,
EC -1/3; ISO 800
Story Behind the Shot: On a
27-degree December morning
I spotted a small flock of Black-
necked Stilts huddled together in
a seasonal wetland. Bills tucked
beneath their wings, the normally
hyperactive waders seemed in no
hurry to start foraging. Moving
slowly, I closed the distance
without disturbing their tranquility.
The soft light illuminated the wall
of weeds and the stilts’ striking
plumage. Their reddish legs
melded into the reflection. I felt
peaceful capturing the image,
knowing these birds have a
pristine home in our invaluable
national wildlife refuge system.
Bird Lore: With their needle-like
beaks, Black-necked Stilts snap
up insects and crustaceans on
mudflats and the surfaces of
shallow waters (they tend to avoid
getting their breast feathers wet).
As wetlands have disappeared,
the lanky waders have declined,
a trend that conservationists
are working to help reverse,
partnering with landowners who
flood fields to provide critical
breeding habitat.
AU DUBON
PHOTOGRA PHY
AWARD S

YO U T H W I N N E R

Photographer: Liron Gertsman

Species: Cobalt-winged Parakeet
Location: Yasuní National Park,
Ecuador
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II
with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-
5.6L IS II USM lens; 1/30 second
at f/13; ISO 250

Story Behind the Shot: Three

days in a row I waited in a blind
near a clay lick that Cobalt-winged
Parakeets and other birds of the
Amazon frequent. When hundreds
of the birds finally descended
from the tree canopy to the
mineral-rich forest floor on the
third morning, I was ready. I used a
slow shutter speed to accentuate
the blues in their wings. I don’t
think I’ll ever forget the sight of
the birds or the deafening roar of
parakeet chatter.

Bird Lore: Cobalt-winged

Parakeets inhabit the humid
forests east of the Andes,
from Venezuela to Bolivia. The
garrulous birds consume an
acidic diet of berries and fruits;
it's thought that the clay they
ingest, at formations like this one
on a riverbank in Yasuní, acts as a
natural antacid. Other parakeets,
as well as parrots and macaws,
also visit such sites regularly.

24 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

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AT AU D U B O N .O R G /2 01 8 TOP100

SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 25

AU DUBON
PHOTOGRA PHY
AWARD S

26 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

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A M AT E U R W I N N E R

Photographer: Diana Rebman

Species: Long-tailed Tit
Location: Akan-Mashu National
Park, Japan
Camera: Nikon D500 with Nikon
300 f2.8 lens; 1/5000 second at
f/6.3, EC -0.3; ISO 1600

Story Behind the Shot: On a

bitingly cold February day we
stopped to photograph Whooper
Swans, but the conditions were
not good: gray skies, whipping
winds, and the swans were dirty.
As I headed back to the van,
I noticed these darling tits taking
turns nibbling on the tip of an
icicle. I grabbed hand warmers,
a tripod, and my longest lens
and spent hours photographing
this amazing behavior. What an
adaptation! You have to be clever
to survive such harsh conditions. A M AT E U R H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N

Bird Lore: Like their distant
chickadee relatives in North
America, Long-tailed Tits are
highly social and adaptable
birds. In winter, they rove in
small flocks made up of family
members during the day and
roost together at night. Their
cooperative nature carries
through the nesting season,
with non-breeding kin pitching
in to help care for the young.
Photographer: Scott Suriano
Species: Wood Duck
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark II
with Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II
USM lens; 1/1000 second at f/4;
ISO 1000
Story Behind the Shot:
Undeterred by heavy snow on
the first day of spring, I navigated
slick roads to a nearby pond
where Wood Ducks had recently
returned. I donned my waders,
grabbed my camera, and slipped
into the frigid water. Trying to
keep a low profile, I went too far,
and icy water poured into my
waders. Soaked and freezing,
I stuck it out long enough to get
this shot of a Wood Duck drake,
whose expression seems to
capture how we both felt about
the weather.
Bird Lore: Wood Ducks are
named for the fact that they nest
in tree cavities. Their slim bodies
allow them to slip into the narrow
openings, and their large eyes
help them navigate the branches
as they fly through woodlands.
While both males and females
are born with brown eyes, males’
irises turn completely red by
around five months old.

SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 27

AU DUBON
PHOTOGRA PHY
AWARD S

YO U T H H O N O R A B L E
MENTION

Photographer: Liron Gertsman

Species: Fawn-breasted Brilliant
Location: Mindo, Ecuador
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark
II with Canon EF 100-400mm
f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens; 1/5000
second at f/5.6; ISO 500

Story Behind the Shot: While

observing this Fawn-breasted
Brilliant hummingbird in the
cloud forest, I noticed that it kept
returning to the same perch,
using it as a base for catching
flying insects. The sky was bright,
so the bird was beautifully
silhouetted, and I knew the exact
shot I wanted. I did my best to
time my shutter finger with the
bird taking of and landing, and
when I looked at the screen,
I was amazed by the transparency
of the feathers and the details
brought out by the backlight.

Bird Lore: Like most species

of brilliant, the Fawn-breasted
occupies humid montane forests
in the Andes of Ecuador, Peru,
and Colombia. The solitary
hummers feed primarily on
nectar, but also snatch small
insects out of the air. Males and
females look nearly identical,
though the pink throat patch on
the latter may be slightly smaller.

28 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

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SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 29

T RE K

THE
SECRET
LIVES OF
On the mountainous island of Kauai,
endangered seabirds burrow deep
in the forested terrain. Saving them
requires a radical efort, led by a
scientist who is no less extreme.

BY PAUL KVINTA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM FOWLKS

g Andre Raine
hikes through Hono
O Nā Pali Natural
Area Reserve to reach
the nests of Newell’s
Shearwaters and
Hawaiian Petrels.
O
n the first day of my jungle slog in
Kauai with seabird biologist Andre
Raine, I’m forced to devise a men-
tal glossary to interpret and survive
the man’s understated trail assess-
ments. When he announces, “This next section is a
bit slippery!” what he really means is “The already
terrifyingly steep descent trail has become a verti-
cal mud wall.” His refrain “This part has some
tricky bits” translates to “Only advanced spider-
monkey Jujitsu will prevent a 3,600-foot plunge
to certain death.” And the repeated phrase “It’s a
brief trundle away” more accurately means “It’s
a godforsaken marathon involving unrelenting
pain. You will cry.”
Earlier that June morning a helicopter had de-
posited us atop a towering and frighteningly skinny
forested ridgeline. It was an emerald knife slicing
the sky, one of hundreds crisscrossing Hono O Nā
Pali Natural Area Reserve in Kauai’s remote north-
west, alongside sweeping river valleys and dramatic
waterfalls. Raine heads the Kauai Endangered
Seabird Recovery Project, and two of his target
species, the Newell’s Shearwater and the Hawaiian
Petrel, have the unfortunate (for us) habit of nest-
ing in the sheer cliff faces and ridge tops of this
inaccessible fairyscape. In no way had this place
evolved for human locomotion. And yet there we
were, Raine, photographer Tom Fowlks, and I in
our spiked boots, waving goodbye to a helicopter
that might or might not return for us in three days.
It all depended on the skies, which, as the chopper
disappeared, began dumping nonstop rain.
True to his surname, Raine has no use for wet-
weather gear. “I’ve been up here hundreds of times,
and it hasn’t rained maybe twice,” he says as we
troop off into the bush. His philosophy: Raingear
ultimately fails. Don’t put off the inevitable.
In seconds we were soaked.
Our mission was to locate the 78 underground
32 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
g Scientists use acoustic
monitoring devices to
detect seabirds in the
dense forest of Kauai. The
terrain means Raine (right)
must rely on a helicopter to
deliver both his team and
their supplies.
Newell’s Shearwater and Hawaiian Petrel burrows
that Raine had previously documented in this part
of the reserve, an area called Pōhākea. At each bur-
row we would look for the presence of an adult,
an egg, and signs of predator intrusion. We would
gather video from motion-activated cameras, and
we would inspect song meters tactically positioned
to record birdcalls. Without these checks, which
Raine performs religiously each week from May
through December, these two endangered species
would move closer to extinction. Burrow monitor-
ing provides scientists with what little they know
about these mysterious birds; both species spend
most of their lives patrolling the open ocean un-
seen, and when they are inland to nest, they move
about only at night. Burrow numbers reflect popu-
lation numbers, and burrow activity reveals infor-
mation about behavior and health.
The other reason for monitoring is this: The
birds have evolved no defenses against the armies
of invasive predators occupying these peaks—rats,
cats, pigs, and Barn Owls. (The owls were intro-
duced to deal with the rats, and only made things
worse.) Monitoring yields intelligence. Intelligence
enables scientists to strike back strategically.
Our first day calls for hiking from the land-
ing zone down a precipitous drainage and then
up the other side, to a batch of burrows atop the
next ridge. Raine is tall and slender, with long,
spindly limbs that make his movement through
the bush appear fluid and effortless. Fowlks and
I trudge; Raine glides.
“This section is a bit steep!”
Fowlks and I tumble headlong down the
drainage, lurching, tripping, sliding, and flailing.
There are occasional synthetic straps tied to trees—
webbing, Raine calls it—that we use to rappel
down backward. But more often than not, we grab
frantically at ferns, roots, vines, anything halfway
attached to the mountain. Mostly, it’s one continu-
ous ass-slide, the forest flying by in a green, mud-
splattered blur, branches slapping our faces, except
when the ground crumbles away altogether, and we
find ourselves in waist-deep holes. The bottom of
the drainage, when it finally comes, is a primeval
wonder—a series of gurgling pools and gentle cas-
cades, everything laced with ferns and shrouded in
mist. We stop for a brief lunch in the steady drizzle
before Raine has us ascending the other side.
“It’s just a brief trundle away!”
When I finally reach the top of the ridge I find
Raine sprawled on his side, his arm extended inside
a hole beneath an ohia tree. A Hawaiian Petrel had
excavated its burrow in the moss-covered space be-
tween the tree’s exposed roots. Raine snaps a shot
with his camera, withdraws his arm, and shows me
the image, a little black-and-white face staring up
from the earthy darkness. He taps some data into
his iPad, and then we’re off again. At one point,
Raine warns that an upcoming burrow “is a bit
sketchy,” and he disappears around a bend. I next
catch sight of him dangling by one hand from
some webbing, his other hand clutching the iPad,
his feet pressed against a steep slope, and his gaze
MAP BY MIKE REAGAN
locked onto a burrow opening. Behind him the
Hanakāpı̄’ai Valley opens up in breathtaking fash-
ion, with the ruggedly famous Nā Pali Coast in the
distance. Beneath him is mostly air.
It’s a jaw-dropping tableau of a scientist at
work. Raine has trained a team of equally dedi-
cated, battle-hardened assistants, who at that very
moment were doing the same thing in other cor-
ners of Hono O Nā Pali, hanging from cliffs in the
rain. “There’s a small group of fanatics that like
this sort of thing, running around in the fog, in
the rain, on mountain tops, at night,” says conser-
vation biologist David Duffy, director of the Pa-
cific Cooperative Studies Unit at the University of
Hawaii, and Raine’s boss. “If they don’t have a bit
of fanaticism, they don’t last long.”
Saving species on the brink often requires ex-
traordinary measures, but everything about the
Newell’s Shearwater and the Hawaiian Petrel—
their enigmatic life cycles, their inaccessible
homes, their many invasive enemies—demands
something closer to Seal Team Six–level assis-
tance. That’s what Raine provides.
T
he chances of spying either of these birds
in the field, given their nocturnal habits, is
practically nil. So two days before ventur-
ing into the wilderness, Raine invites me to his
office to examine some stuffed specimens. At first
blush the two species look similar—dark backs
and heads with white undersides, each with long,
EVERYTHING cylindrical nostrils that are the signature of taxo-
nomic order Procellariiformes, or “tubenoses.”
ABOUT THE But the petrel has a generally sleeker shape, and
NEWELL’S Raine explains that it fixes its wings and soars in
SHEARWATER AND smooth, graceful arcs. The more cigar-shaped
Newell’s is a comparative goofball. “It doesn’t soar
THE HAWAIIAN
at all,” Raine says. “It flaps frantically like it might
PETREL DEMANDS crash at any moment.” We listen to recordings of
SOMETHING their respective calls, and, fittingly, the Newell’s
CLOSER TO SEAL sounds like a braying donkey, whereas the petrel
makes a more dignified oo-ay-oo. Raine explains
TEAM SIX–LEVEL that when hunting at sea, the Newell’s plunges
ASSISTANCE. right in, diving to depths of up to 150 feet to grab
prey, while the petrel waits for tuna and dolphins
to drive smaller fish to the surface.
Still, in terms of their life cycles and general cir-
cumstances, these species seem substantially more
alike than different. Both spend their initial years
entirely at sea, returning to land at age four or five
to find a lifelong mate, dig a burrow, and produce a
single egg. For several months the male and female
alternate incubating the egg and venturing off on
epic foraging trips for fish and squid, sometimes
traveling thousands of miles. The chick hatches
during summer, and by late fall it’s ready for its
maiden flight. Thousands of feet up, at night, it
scoots to the edge of its burrow, hurls itself into the
void, and bolts for the sea, where it remains until
breeding age. From December to April the adults
also stay at sea, but they’ll return to the same burrow
each spring to breed for the rest of their lives.
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 33
34 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
 Hawaiian lore holds that Newell’s Shearwaters
once “darkened the skies,” and fossils reveal that
Hawaiian Petrels once bred in sizable colonies on
seven of the state’s eight main islands. None of
that is true today. Sea surveys from the 1990s esti-
mated the Newell’s population at 20,000 breeding
pairs and the Hawaiian Petrel population at 4,500
pairs, but a recent study by Raine using radar
data concluded that both populations have since
crashed, the former by 94 percent, the latter by
78 percent. Today, nearly all of what’s left of the
Newell’s population breeds in the mountains of
Kauai. Hawaiian Petrels breed in small pockets on
just five of the main islands.
To explain why populations are plummeting,
Raine takes me to the Kauai Humane Society.
There we meet two seabird patients—one petrel,
one Newell’s—being treated for recent collisions
with power lines. Power lines are the biggest killer
of seabirds on Kauai. The second is artificial light.
Streetlights and stadium lights confuse fledglings
on their maiden flight, causing them to circle
wildly and plunge to the ground in exhaustion. If
the fall doesn’t kill them, dogs, feral cats, or speed-
ing cars will. From 1979 to 2015, Kauai’s Save
Our Shearwaters (SOS) program, which encour-
ages citizens to deliver fallen birds to rehab sites,
collected 30,522 Newell’s fledglings. In 2010, the
U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of envi-
ronmental groups began suing various entities on
Kauai under the Endangered Species Act for kill-
ing seabirds. One result was that the local utility
company—Kauai Island Utility Cooperative—
began ponying up millions for conservation, in-
cluding much of Raine’s funding.
At the Humane Society, Tracy Anderson, the
coordinator of the SOS program, is holding a
Newell’s wrapped in a towel. The weary little guy
pokes his head out. His eyes are a mess, one cloud-
ed over, the other already blind. “He’s not improv-
ing,” she tells us. Soon she will have to euthanize
him. The petrel, on the other hand, has staged a
fairly miraculous recovery—so much so that An-
derson and Raine decide that it can be fitted with
a satellite tag and released. We repair to a lab, and
while Anderson holds the wiggling petrel steady in
a towel, Raine uses forceps and blue suture thread
to stitch a $3,500 transmitter (courtesy of the util-
ity) to its back. The indignant bird bites Anderson
repeatedly through the towel with its powerful
bill, and she curses back at it. When the procedure
concludes, she’s got bruises up and down her fore-
arm, the petrel has an eight-inch antenna jutting
from its back, and everyone’s feeling feisty.
The movements of Hawaiian Petrels and New-
ell’s Shearwaters at sea remain cryptic to scientists,
and so, like burrow monitoring, satellite tagging
provides crucial basic information. Where are
their key feeding grounds? What are the potential
threats? Charting the birds’ dispersal with sat tags,
geolocators, and data loggers will play an impor-
tant role in conservation planning. Over four years,
Raine and Anderson have attached a total of 48 sat
tags to both species, and they’ve tracked birds as
AS PERILOUS far north as Alaska and as far west as Guam.
AS THE BIRDS To release our bird, we drive to Makahuena
Point, the southernmost tip of Kauai, and walk
HAVE IT IN POPU- out across the black volcanic cliffs. Huge waves
LATED AREAS, UP crash 30 feet beneath us. It’s windy. If the release
HERE IN THE succeeds, Raine will be able to track the petrel’s
flight on his phone for about 120 days, until the
MOUNTAINS,
tag falls off. Anderson places the bird on a rock. It
THEIR PRESUMED wobbles briefly like a drunken frat boy, and then,
REFUGE, THEY ARE with a huge gust of wind, WHOOSH, it shoots
UNDER RELENT- out over the gray-blue ocean and heads south.
Then it disappears over the horizon.
LESS SIEGE.
I
wake on the second day of our mountain trek
inside a wood-floored canvas shelter, a glori-
ously dry weatherport, staring at a hand-drawn
picture of a cat hanging on the wall. The cat is grin-
ning and extending an aggressive middle finger to
anyone who would dare try to catch it. This is the
feline that in 2014 and 2015 wiped out virtually
every Newell’s adult and chick in half a dozen bur-
rows in a corner of Pōhākea called Twin Pu’u, the
area where we are headed today. Raine’s team was
unable to nab the assassin, and it finally disappeared.
The drawing serves as a reminder that as perilous as
the birds have it down in Kauai’s populated areas,
amid the power lines and bright lights, up here
in the mountains, their presumed refuge, they are
under relentless siege. Two weeks ago Raine’s team
found the bodies of four birds, one slaughtered by a
cat, three by non-native Barn Owls.
Invasive predators have overrun every inch
of Hawaii, even its loftiest peaks. “Each one
g Left: Raine checks a has a particular kill signature,” Raine says, as we
Hawaiian Petrel burrow troop along a ridgeline. Cats chomp off the back
in the Pōhākea area of of a bird’s head, rip the meat out in chunks, and
the reserve, where a leave feathers and limbs strewn about. Barn Owls
weatherport ofers a methodically strip the flesh off the neck and breast.
welcome reprieve from Rats eat only chicks, chewing off their heads, and
tent camping. Satellite eggs. And pigs simply lay waste to everything—
tags (above) help unravel the burrow, the bird, the egg, total devastation.
the mystery of the birds’ All of this amounts to a hot ecological mess that
movements. Continued on page 54
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 35
 @outdoorafro
#findyourpark
Olympic National Park, WA

Public

@yosemitenps
#heritage4generations
Yosemite National Park, CA

for One
W
hen I was a kid, my brothers and I
would get kicked out of our house in
Richmond, California, and told to play
outside until further notice. In the sum-
mer months, that meant being outdoors for hours on
end; the only time we were called in before the night-
time deadline was for lunch and snacks. There were
never-ending games of chase, tag, and hide-and-seek
in the park across the street. Or we’d walk 30 minutes
to Point Richmond, where we’d hike the bayside hills,
stopping to daydream and enjoy the ocean views. It
wasn’t until I was much older that I realized it was
serenity that brought us back to these trails so often. ››

@everyoneshike
#hikingprincess #toughwomenonly
Eaton Canyon, CA

36 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

 @wanderdaughter
#brownpeoplecamping #outdoorfamilies
Mount Rainier National Park, WA

Lands
@wanderingvero
#explorerkids #latinooutdoors
Point Reyes, CA

@queerquechua
#forceofnature
#webelongoutside
#nativewomenswilderness
Yavapai, Hopi, and Western
Apache territories, AZ

and All
As a lifelong nature lover who’s empowered hundreds of new hikers,
Teresa Baker knows that representation matters. Without it, young people
of color might not feel welcome in national parks. And without them,
we won’t have an environmental movement that lasts generations.
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 37
 Years later, I felt the same sense of serenity under
the ancient sequoias in Yosemite National Park. Over
the course of a solo, weeklong trip across the park
valley in 2013, I ventured past towering evergreens,
soothing waterfalls, snowcapped peaks, and skittish
wildlife. While taking in the beauty around me, I
started paying attention to the people I encountered,
too. Among the droves of visitors, none looked like
me. The lack of color in the human landscape was
painfully obvious.
After returning home, the observation nagged at
me. So much that I reached out to an African Ameri-
can ranger at Yosemite to ask if he, too, had noticed
the low diversity on the trails. He explained that it
was an issue in most national parks across the coun-
try, and he encouraged me to do something to address
it. Thus began my quest to draw underrepresented
communities and youth into nature.
To diversify the outdoors, we must first get to the
heart of the issue: the history of our public lands,
which have traditionally been getaways for the
g Teresa Baker privileged. The founding of our national parks, for
spends much of instance, pushed Native Americans off lands, some
her time hiking in sacred, that they’d long inhabited. More recently, our
parks around the parks were segregated. Take Shenandoah National
country. But she Park: In the 1930s, signs directed “Negroes” to one
still feels the pull area, Lewis Mountain, while the rest of the park—
of the redwoods tens of thousands of acres—was exclusively for white
near her Bay people. The rule was finally lifted in 1947, but it sent
Area home. a message to African Americans that has lasted for
generations: Public lands do not welcome you. That
legacy affects how African Americans view our place
in the outdoors today. We tend not to venture out
to the places that society has deemed “wild spaces,”
like Yosemite. Staying closer to home offers a sense
of safety that these faraway locations don’t.
That has to change. We must loosen the grip of
historical exclusion. As climate change and other crises
threaten our parks, monuments, refuges, and resources,
we need to grow our ranks and build a conservation
movement that reflects our increasingly diverse na-
tion. It is time to dig in our heels, work diligently
to reconnect people of color with our natural areas,
and craft a new message for generations to come:
Public lands are everyone’s lands. And if we want
future stewards to adopt that tenet and to be moved
to protect wild places, they need to see themselves
reflected in wilderness—whether it’s on the trail, in
social media feeds, or in the pages of magazines.
Since my own eye-opening visit to Yosemite, I’ve
made it my mission to encourage people of color across
the United States to get out on public lands. Inspired
by my conversation with the ranger, I kicked off my
first campaign, the African American National Parks
Event, in 2013 to encourage families and individuals
to explore national parks on a designated weekend
in June. About 500 people took part that first year,
and participation has grown exponentially since. I’ve
received thousands of photos from individuals and
groups who’ve participated in the event, along with
stories of how they’d always wanted to visit Zion or
Yellowstone and had finally taken the leap.
38 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
More recently, I started Hike Like a Girl, which
PHOTO COURTESY OF CARLOS BERRUZ; DAVID HERMAN. THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT: VICTORIA REEDER; JILLIAN HANSON/GOLDEN EAGLE AUDUBON SOCIETY
encourages families and friends to hit the trails on
PREVIOUS SPREAD, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: TOM MIRON/YAKIMA RACKS; ASTRID VINJE; VERONICA MIRANDA; PINAR ATEŞ SINOPOULOS-LLOYD;
a chosen weekend in May and document their ad-
ventures on social media. It’s an open invitation for
women, many of whom have reached out to me over
the years, to embark on a hiking adventure that’s been
on their bucket list and, of course, inspire each other.
And though the campaign is targeted toward women,
men often join in as well to spend time with their kids.
I’m hardly alone in my endeavor to diversify the
trails. Groups such as Latino Outdoors, Outdoor Afro,
The Trail Posse, NativesOutdoors, Queer Nature, The
Joy Trip Project, and many others are working tirelessly
on matters of equity, racial diversity, and inclusion in
nature-based activities. They are providing underserved
communities across the country with invaluable oppor-
tunities to enjoy and protect open spaces.
As for young people, they aren’t just showing up;
they’re taking on active roles to lead. They are address-
ing environmental and political issues and are making
their voices heard, through protests, voter-registration
drives, and social media. Almost every week I learn
of more groups of students across the country band-
ing together to address issues of climate change and
social justice. Teenage activists such as Xiuhtezcatl
Martinez, the director of Earth Guardians and a
plaintiff in the Our Children’s Trust lawsuit, are set-
ting legal precedents to hold governments culpable
for defiling our air, land, and water.
We have to encourage these youth and include
them in our adult conversations on diversifying and
protecting the outdoors. The Crissy Field Center, a
major community hub at the Golden Gate Nation-
al Recreation Area, is doing exactly this by recruit-
ing middle school, high school, and college interns.
The candidates, who are mainly individuals of color,
get the opportunity to work and play in the second-
most-visited National Park Service unit in the country.
Internships and jobs are invaluable in creating a sense
of ownership of and responsibility for the land.
Progress is gradual, but the transformation has
already begun. A lot of the change has been driven
by the National Park Service, which is intentionally
making sites more accessible and secure for all. It’s
reaching across the table to leaders of marginalized
communities and increasing youth visits through the
Every Kid in a Park program. And it looks like the
efforts are working. During my recent trips to Yose-
mite, some of the very first faces I saw belonged to
people of color. They were a welcome sight.
The movement has seeped into the outdoor indus-
try as well. REI, for example, has increased its efforts to
show a more representative audience, especially on its
website and in its social media feeds. Publications such
as Outside have dedicated articles, magazine covers, and
podcasts to diversity heroes.
People ask me why I turn the conversation about
the outdoors into a conversation about race. Why can’t
a nature essay just be a nature essay? The answer is
simple. There are boundaries on communities of color,
AUDUBON IN ACTION
Into the Wild
These five programs reflect some of the numerous
opportunities Audubon ofers to connect kids
with nature, from paid internships to summer
camps. Go to audubon.org/audubon-near-you
to find more activities in your area.
WildLife Guards Program
Audubon Connecticut
WildLife Guards serve to protect by educating beachgoers
on “being a good egg” around nesting shorebirds. Based
along the Long Island Sound, this paid summer gig pro-
vides local high school students with hands-on experience
in protecting adorable plover and tern chicks. Monitors
share knowledge and tips for safe practices like picking up
trash, respecting string fences, and leashing pets.
Wild Indigo Nature Exploration
Audubon Great Lakes
Spanning nearly 70,000 acres, the forest-preserve network
around Chicago is one of the largest in the country, yet it
draws just a fraction of the city’s diverse population. Wild
Indigo seeks to change that. Through dozens of events, from
bird walks to native plantings, the program gets under-
served kids into nature just minutes from their homes.
Audubon Youth Leaders
Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary
They aren’t all bird nerds at the beginning. But by the end
of this nine-month internship—in which teens camp, plant
trees, and work in a native plant nursery—disadvantaged
youth from Marin County, California, develop an appre-
ciation for the environment and skills for conservation
careers, which some graduates have pursued.
boundaries that we’re now working diligently to erase. This summer,
It’s hard to convince someone they belong in a place join Audubon
that they’ve historically been excluded from. That’s in a yearlong
why I talk about equity, diversity, and inclusion with celebration of
such ferocity and consistency—not to divide a country birds by hiking
more than it already is, but to bridge a gap that’s been with a child
in place for far too long. and visiting a
My hope is that one day we can do away with this national park.
diversity movement. But until then, let’s work together
to be inclusive in empowering the next generation of Visit
environmentalists. Let’s do it so our kids can connect audubon.
with their land, learn their purpose, and redefine their org/yearof
own “wild spaces.” A thebird for
more monthly
A Bay Area native, Teresa Baker spends most of her time actions.
outdoors working to engage communities of color in natural
spaces and foster a shared sense of environmental responsi-
bility. Her writing can be found on The Trail Posse and her
blog, African American Explorations.
Birding 101
Tropical Audubon Society
Hot tip: Dissecting owl pellets is a great way to hook kids on
birds. That’s the point of this six-week elementary school pro-
gram in Miami designed to inspire a new generation of avian
aficionados. As the final lesson, students put their knowledge
to the test by ID'ing species at the Steinberg Nature Center.
New Roots Summer Camp
Golden Eagle Audubon Society
Public lands are just a stone’s throw from downtown Boise—
yet for the city’s humming refugee community, they can still
be out of reach. That’s why Idaho’s biggest Audubon chapter
started a free camp (above), where young immigrants spend
two weeks shadowing scientists, visiting reserves and parks,
and engaging in environmental action. —Benji Jones
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 39
DI S PATC H

BREEDING

g A small sliver of the massive colony

of Great Egrets, Wood Storks, Roseate
Spoonbills, and White Ibises that formed
in Everglades National Park in an area that
transitions from marsh to mangrove.
BOOM
Wading birds are breeding in huge
numbers throughout the Everglades
this year, showing that, given a chance,
the ecosystem can bounce back from
a century of abuse.

BY ANDY MCGLASHEN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAC STONE
g Wood Storks thrive in the cypress domes
and sloughs next to Big Cypress National
Preserve, raising multiple young in nests that
are often built adjacent to each other. Right:
A Great Blue Heron spears a blue tilapia
in Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

For millennia in the Everglades
south-flowing water filled up
wetlands, which swelled with
juvenile fish and crayfish.
In the cypress woods of Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp
Sanctuary, the ponds seemed to be boiling. It was a devilishly
hot April day in the western Everglades, but it wasn’t heat roil-
ing the water—it was fish: juvenile bowfin, catfish, and other
freshwater species trapped in shrinking seasonal pools.
A who’s who of wading birds had descended on the ban-
quet from nearby nest-laden trees. Great Egrets, Great Blue
Herons, and Tricolored Herons stalked and stabbed. Roseate
Spoonbills swung their beaks like metal detectors through the
muck. White Ibises probed methodically, while Wood Storks
line-danced through the shallows, bills ajar, snapping them shut
when they bumped a morsel.
It’s a scene that played out across South Florida this spring,
when abundant water created ideal breeding conditions. From
coastal mangroves to tree islands in inland marshes, forest cano-
pies dripped with pink and ivory as wading birds nested in some
of the biggest numbers in recent memory. It’s too early for a final
tally, but this year is poised to far surpass a solid 2017, when more
than 46,000 nests of seven wading bird species were recorded.
Biologists have taken to the air, land, and water to search for
nests in the Everglades Protection Area, which includes Ever-
glades National Park and conservation areas to the north. When
Audubon went to press, surveyors had counted 3,141 Wood Stork
nests, more than double the 10-year average, and some 8,000
Great Egret nests, about 25 percent above average. White Ibises
were breeding in droves, with 34,400 nests tallied, 50 percent more
than usual. At one ibis rookery called Alley North, up to 18,000
pairs congregated, a possible record for the site. Viewed from a
Cessna circling at 1,000 feet, ibises appeared as white sprinkles
among the broccoli-colored willows; for miles around the colony,
they clustered in pools dotting the sawgrass prairie, filling up on
fish and crabs before winging it home.
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 43
g Cattle Egrets return to roost on Little
Everglades Ranch in Dade City, Florida.
These cypress islands, surrounded by water
and devoid of predators, ofer safe harbor
to nesting and roosting birds.
 The Everglades are North America’s most important breed-
ing area for wading birds, which have declined nearly 90 percent
in the region since the early 20th century. As massive efforts
continue to restore the hydrology of this iconic ecosystem, ex-
perts are hopeful this year’s resurgence of long-limbed waders
proves that they have the resiliency to bounce back. “Every-
thing is not lost,” says Mark Cook, an avian ecologist with the
South Florida Water Management District who edits an annual
wading-bird nesting report. “We can still restore the system,” he
says. “This shows how rapidly things can change when we get
the water right.”

Last year South Florida experienced its wettest rainy

season in more than eight decades, from biblical downpours
in June through Hurricane Irma’s ire in September. Flooding
damaged homes and property, but the soggy summer had an
upside: It recharged shallow wetlands, mimicking historical
habitat conditions that supported vast flocks of wading birds.
Over the past century humans have drained half of the
Everglades’ original 4,000-plus square miles for development
and agriculture. The wide, shallow river that flowed south from
Lake Okeechobee into today’s Everglades National Park and out
to Florida Bay has been heavily engineered with canals, pumps,
and dikes that divert water east and west. Drainage projects made
room for farms and homes, but they also strangled the flow of
water into the Everglades, robbing wading birds of wetland
habitat—and, as a result, food sources.
For millennia in the Everglades rain-fed south-flowing
water filled up wetlands, which swelled with juvenile fish and
crayfish. As water levels receded during the dry season, prey
became stranded in shallow ponds. While that fish-in-a-barrel
concentration isn’t so important for Great Egrets and other
birds that hunt by sight, spoonbills, storks, and ibises find food
by probing the shallows with their bills. They rely on these prey-
dense pockets to feed their young and teach them to forage.
Today many shallow wetlands never fill up, forcing waders to
breed elsewhere, or to wait until deeper pools retreat enough to
make foraging possible, which can result in late-fledging chicks
that are less likely to survive. Or wetlands may dry up too fast,
leaving nestlings vulnerable to raccoons that alligator-filled wa-
ters would otherwise keep at bay.
Last summer’s heavy rains, followed by the gradual draw-
down during the dry season, created ideal nesting conditions
echoing the past. The flush of fresh water also helped dilute
salinity and jumpstart prey-fish production in Florida Bay, the
Everglades-fed estuary that lies between the mainland and the
Florida Keys. Up to 400 pairs of Roseate Spoonbills nested
there beginning in November—months earlier than in recent
years and in line with their traditional breeding schedule, says
Jerry Lorenz, Audubon Florida’s director of research.
The striking birds also resumed nesting on mangrove is-
lands, bucking their trend of colonizing inland areas to avoid
salty, rising seas driven by climate change. “When your bill is
nine inches long and you have six inches of sea-level rise, you
don’t have any place to forage,” Lorenz says. Ocean currents,
which slightly lowered local sea levels, appear to have provided
a temporary reprieve this year, he says.
Rising waters may eventually put those islands off-limits for
spoonbills, but that’s not what started their decline. “It was the
lack of freshwater flow from the Everglades into Florida Bay,”
Lorenz says, and only by replenishing that flow can we counter-
act the saline ocean water entering the bay. “It’s imperative that
we restore the Everglades to counteract sea-level rise, to keep
that salt out.”

SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 45

g Prey-rich pockets of water draw birds
from around the watershed to forage for fish.
Right: A Great Egret in breeding plumage is
backlit by a rising sun in Audubon’s Corkscrew
Swamp Sanctuary.

“A restored system would
lead to getting the water right
to support the thousands
of wading birds that
characterized the Everglades.”
Restoring the Everglades will require far more than a
single spectacular rainy season. A $16 billion state and fed-
eral restoration program encompassing 18,000 square miles has
begun to undo a century of damage, and several large projects
to increase water flowing south are slated for the next few years.
These efforts to replenish wetlands and restore hydrology pat-
terns, experts say, could reset the historical timing of nesting and
see the boom of 2018 become the new normal. “A restored Ever-
glades means a resilient South Florida,” says Celeste De Palma,
Audubon Florida’s Everglades policy director. “A restored system
would lead to getting the water right to support the thousands of
wading birds that characterized the Everglades. That’s why we
need to ensure restoration efforts don’t lag behind.”
Eighteen years into what was expected to be a 30-year effort,
the work is nowhere near half done. Underfunding, political
bickering, and sluggish bureaucracy have left many Floridians
frustrated with the pace of restoration. But projects at last near-
ing completion will soon open the floodgates and begin fulfilling
the effort’s promise. “It’s slower than we would have hoped,” De
Palma says, “but I know we’re going to build momentum with all
of these ribbon cuttings we foresee over the next five years.”
Renewing the flow of water will not only boost numbers in
current breeding areas, it could also draw more waders back to
traditional sites. A century ago early Audubon leader Thomas
Gilbert Pearson reported seeing 100,000 Wood Storks in the shal-
low wetlands at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, historically home
to North America’s largest colony. Since then, an estimated 80
percent of the wetlands have been drained or filled, and in most
of the past 10 years none of the federally threatened birds have
nested at Corkscrew. Instead they’ve opted for marshes and man-
aged wetlands in Georgia and South Carolina.
Downpours last summer, the rainiest on record at Corkscrew,
replenished the shallow wetlands, luring the birds back. Most of
the 400 nests counted since December held two or three chicks,
and sanctuary director Jason Lauritsen says that about half are
expected to fledge. “It’s so uplifting to see them,” he says. “This
year is exceptionally exciting. It shows that if conditions are right,
they will nest, and nest successfully.”
Lauritsen says weather alone won’t ensure the storks’ return. It’s
essential to preserve wetlands that act as natural flood-controlling
sponges—especially shallow wetlands where waders forage early in
the nesting season. Despite Everglades restoration efforts, the Big
Cypress Swamp watershed, which includes Corkscrew, lost more
than 43 square miles of wetlands to agriculture and development
from 1996 to 2010, federal data show.
To help counter that trend, Lauritsen’s team is actively restor-
ing hundreds of acres where storks have again started to for-
age, and they’re hoping to partner with the state to acquire and
manage thousands of additional acres. These efforts complement
the broader Everglades restoration plan’s focus on replenishing
wetlands. The Picayune Strand project, for example, will rehab
more than 50,000 acres not far from the sanctuary. “We need to
do our part and govern, restore, and manage accordingly,” says
Lauritsen. “The birds will respond.”
Clamorous fluffballs that in April were just beginning to re-
semble storks, spoonbills, and ibises have since ventured out of
their nests. They’re learning to forage for themselves in wetlands
where they may one day return to gather food for their own
chicks. Like their new Everglades home, they are full of promise. A
Freelance journalist Andy McGlashen writes about environmental
issues in Michigan and beyond.
Air support provided by Gary Lickle in collaboration with LightHawk.
SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 47
 FIELD
GUIDE
BIRDING Three squeals for baby-watching season.

Growth
Spurt
American Robins
are practically
everywhere in
summer. You
might even have
a few nesting
on your window
ledge. Use this
easy access to
study the chicks’
development.

Hatchlings (0-3
days) are babies
just out of their
eggs, completely what’s so great about baby birds? they eat; they poop; they squawk like
naked and blind. there’s not enough food left on this green Earth to stuff their gizzards with. But take
Nestlings (3-5
some time to study these neophytes, and you’ll see how complex and diverse avian
days) are basically behavior can be. The little ones and their parents are a testament to the incredible sur-
pre-teens covered vival mechanisms that ensure hyper-helpless chicks make it to adulthood unscathed.
in awkward pin
feathers. Their Plus, most happenings in the nest are confidential, so you might discover something
new to science. Or just enjoy the real-life soap opera that’s about to unfold.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: EASTERN PHOEBES, ROBYN NEWMAN/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS;
eyes are open, but

CAMILLA CEREA/AUDUBON; AMERICAN ROBIN, JEANETTE TASEY/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

they’re still stuck
in the nest.
TH E BIR DIST
Senior Nestlings
(7-10 days) start
Too Close for Comfort
growing tail birds express to help people avoid attacks. The sparrows, will conspicuously run
feathers, but most their umbrage truth is, though, that this behavior through the grass like a mouse.
can’t fly just yet. in many ways, but none quite so is most dangerous for the birds: But the simplest displays are
The best they ardently as when you venture too They’re spending energy trying to vocal. Adult birds can issue a
can do is squirm close to their babies. scare you away instead of feeding quick call when a potential threat
around (adorably). Tons of birds dive-bomb. If and caring for their young. approaches, so that baby birds
you live in the suburban United Some species resort to more intuitively know to sit still and
Once the birds States, you may have encountered creative (and less harrowing) be quiet. When everyone in the
can wing it out aggressive Northern Mocking- methods of deflecting attention nest is frozen, the parent can head
of the nest, at birds in recent weeks. I’ve even from their nest sites. The most elsewhere and divert the predator
about two weeks, heard of Northern Goshawks— famous distraction display is with vocalizations.
they’re oicially yes, goshawks—swooping down the Killdeer’s “broken wing” act, As a rule, when a bird’s conduct
fledglings. But the and leaving big gashes in people’s where the parent feigns an injury seems oddly conspicuous, it’s
parents will tend heads. And in Victoria, Australia, to grab the intruder’s attention. probably trying to deter or distract
to them for two territorial Australian Magpies are Other species, including some you. So steer clear. Distressing an
more weeks. so prevalent that the government shorebirds such as Piping Plovers entire family is just not worth it.
—Nell Durfee provides maps of nesting birds and certain grassland birds such as —Nicholas Lund

48 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

 Number of Gather more
eggs in a chick tricks at
species’ nest CALIFORNIA AMERICAN REDSTART WOOD DUCK
audubon.org /
each year CONDOR birding

4
I N T H E FIEL D

Birdhood
From helpless chicks to sassy fledglings, baby birds
make quite the journey as they grow. I’ve observed
some fascinating behaviors while watching them in Nest Types
the Adirondack wilderness of New York. to Know
While viewing a pair of Common Loons on a small
lake, I realized one had a bulge in its wing. Out popped Scrapes
a brand-new chick, bobbing on the water like a cork. Many ground
After the family leaves the nest, parents literally take dwellers,
the young under their wings to brood and protect including grouse
them. As the babies grow, turning from dark to light, and woodcock,
they spend a lot of time riding on their parents’ backs. make shallow
Canada Jays (formerly known as Gray Jays) nest indentations lined
in late winter, so they often have to contend with with vegetation.
harsh weather. One freezing, rainy day, I found a Those seen near
female with her wings and tail splayed over her four water may belong
TOP SECTION, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COMMON LOONS, RICHARD PICK/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS; CANADA JAYS, MELISSA GROO; NORTHERN GOSHAWKS, BLICKWINKEL/

nestlings—a remarkable little “umbrella.” Another to a sandpiper

dramatic fact about Canada Jays: The dominant or, if they’re larger,
ALAMY. BOTTOM SECTION, FROM LEFT: HADKHANONG THAILAND/ISTOCK, HARRI TAAVETTI/FLPA/MINDEN PICTURES; STEVE BYLAND/ISTOCK; MONTIPAITON/ADOBE STOCK

juvenile kicks its siblings out of their territory within a Mallard.

a couple months of fledging. the bird’s favorite prey—to one of its chicks without
For Northern Goshawks, dinner with the family is slowing down. After about a half hour of letting the Cavities
a rushed afair. I’ve seen a goshawk zoom through ofspring feed on the grouse, the adult carried it of, Woodpecker holes
the forest like a rocket and drop a Rufed Grouse— likely to finish the leftovers. —Joan Collins are first used by
their makers:
Northern Flickers,

Coming of Age Pileateds, Hairies,

Downies, and
Why are some baby birds adorable while others look like dragons? The diference comes down to how much others. Once they
energy parents put into laying or raising them. vacate, chickadees,
nuthatches, and
owls may move in.

Rock Pigeon
There’s an urban legend
that baby pigeons don’t
actually exist, but that’s
only because the adults
tuck them away to cater
to their every need. One
look at these little divas
proves how vulnerable
they are—they’re lumpy,
naked, and googly-eyed.
In fact, Rock Pigeons are
one of the most common
avian examples of altricial
development, which
means chicks are utterly
dependent until fledging.
Earthy Pockets
Mossy projections
beneath a house’s
eaves could spell
phoebes. If the
structure is mostly
Caspian Tern Anhinga American Coot mud, swallows
Further along the growth With serpentine necks The precocial baby or robins are the
spectrum are semi- and gaping mouths, coot is divisive likely architects.
precocial chicks—those these altricial babes among Audubon staf.
that emerge with downy look less like waterbirds Some think it’s cute, Scafolds
feathers and open eyes and more like the while others deem it Crows build
and are able to scamper extraterrestrial from radioactive. But the platform-style
soon after hatching. For Predator. For weeks, the flaming-red feathers on nests high in
instance, Caspian Terns parents vomit up fish its face are part of an trees. Herons
can leave the house into the chicks’ fleshy important survival tactic: make larger ones,
by week two to swim bill pouches—a feature Mother coots dote more and the largest
and duck predators. that remains prominent on ofspring with bright belong to eagles
By producing well- until the juvenile feathers feathers than the drabber and hawks. The
developed young, parent come in. Once the young siblings. The surplus of widest Bald Eagle
terns can put less energy are weaned of their diet, fluf also helps the chicks nest on record
into showing the babies they get to show of their remain buoyant in muck. was 9.5 feet.
the ropes of adulthood. slick diving skills. —Martha Harbison —Brandon Keim

SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 49

 FIELD
GUIDE
TRAVEL Bring your better half along for the ride,
binoculars optional.

ahead and discuss both

of our priorities.”

Be Realistic
On their second day in
Australia, The Birdist
writer Nicholas Lund
dragged his wife Liz to
the top of Mt. Lewis.
While great for birding,
it’s remote and there’s
no cell service. “Try-
ing to convince Liz to
wander this jungle path
with me after all we’d
read about how many
deadly creatures were
around—it was just too

5
much,” he says. Now
Non- you are a birder. your beloved is not. he takes it back a notch
Birders’ Competing passions can make planning a

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: GALLERY STOCK; ATLANTIC PUFFINS, ANDREA87PN/ADOBE STOCK; TOM BEAN/ALAMY
when Liz joins him.
Survival trip that satisfies both of you—and the rest Bonus navigation tip:
Guide of your clan—challenging. So we turned to Non-birders have far
five couples, each made up of one dedicated Strategies for less patience for numer-
“Set firm birder and one...well, not necessarily avian- Making Sure ous stops to ID birds,
boundaries. Be much less getting lost.
honest about averse partner, but someone who wouldn’t Your Relationship
what you can choose a locale based on birdlife alone. Weathers Beat the Clock
tolerate. Look They’ve got a combined 50 years of balanc- Your Trip One of the most luxuri-
at the birder’s ing wanderlust, life lists, and relationships, ous aspects of vacation-
itinerary and and they’re here to help you navigate this Prioritize ing is not setting an
if it looks “Finding a destination alarm clock—for those
unpleasant,
potentially fraught terrain. that makes both of you who don’t bird, that is.
don’t do it.” happy is the key,” says Many birders say that
—Bill Stiteler Andrew Del-Colle, while their spouses sleep
Audubon site director. late, they wake in the
“Bring your To hit upon that sweet wee hours to find avian
own binoculars spot, adds his fiancée, targets. Getting up early
and don’t be Emily Roof, they discuss isn’t the only option, says
worried about what they each want John Rowden, Audubon’s
not being able from the trip, like lazing director of community
to see as much on a beach, hiking to conservation. On a sum-
as your birding phenomenal vistas, or mer trip to Iceland, he’d
partner.” eating fantastic food: bid his husband, Kenny
—Kenny Lao “We make sure to plan Lao, good night and then

50 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

 10% UPDATE YOUR MATCH.COM PROFILE For more birding
If you’re pining for a birding vacation PLAN A MIX OF ACTIVITIES
vacation tips and
but your partner isn’t a birder, Audubon 22% TRICK YOUR DARLING
46% INTO BIRDING hot spots, go to
Twitter followers suggest: LEAVE YOUR LOVER 22% audubon.org /
*483 respondents AT HOME
travel

go bird under the mid-
night sun until 2 a.m.
Mix It Up
Kristin Brzeski loves the
contagious excitement
her husband, ornitholo-
gist Jared Wolfe, has for
birding, and she’s always
up for joining him—on
avian adventures they’ve
agreed upon ahead of
time, that is. The pair
plan a “magical mix”
of birding outings and
more traditional vaca-
tion activities, says Wolf.
On a trip to Brazil,
for example, they dedi-
cated half of the trip
to birding and the rest
to snorkeling, hiking,
and dining.
PICTURES; CASTLEPHOTOGRAPHY/ALAMY; MICHAEL WILSON/ARIZONA/500PX; HERO IMAGES INC.
4
Bird Solo
Bill Stiteler, husband
of Birdchick blogger
Sharon, once accused
her of loving birds more
than him. “I gave the
second-worst answer Tips for
I could by saying, ‘It’s First-
apples and oranges, timers
really,’ ” she recalls. “We
can laugh about it— Start Small
now.” She recommends When plan-
not pitting your loves ning your first
against each other: They vacation with
create separate daytime a non-birder,
itineraries and then share consider taking
their adventures over a shorter trip or
dinner. And while they condensing the
acknowledge that it isn’t birding portion.
for every couple, they’ve
found it most satisfying Share Bins
to take separate vaca- Binoculars can
tions. —Alisa Opar O H T H E P L AC E S YO U MI GH T GO completely
change your
Megafauna Meccas experience in
Seeing big, charismatic animals in their native habitat will wow the outdoors.
anyone with a smidge of interest in nature—and there are Ofering to let
certain to be birds nearby. Our experts held up marsupial-rich your partner
Australia, tortoise-filled Galapagos, and South Africa’s Kruger look through
National Park, home to lions and elephants, as can’t-go-wrong your optics
destinations. And, hey, you might even zoom out to admire might help
the impala that the oxpecker you’re glassing is perched upon. him appreci-
ate nature, and
Family Destinations possibly even
Disneyworld, New York City, and birds, more.
Hawaii are go-to family spots because

there’s plenty to keep everyone enter- Stay Close

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: RED-BILLED OXPECKER AND IMPALA, RICHARD DU TOIT/MINDEN

tained, from toddlers to grandparents. While your

FA MILY TIME These locations also boast excellent birding: Wetlands and partner lounges

Traveling with Tykes natural areas surround Epcot, and Jamaica Bay Wildlife
Refuge is just a 50-minute subway ride from Manhattan’s the-
by the pool or
the kids nap,
There’s nothing like 500,000 Sandhill Cranes landing ater district. As for Hawaii, well, you’ll find birds on beaches, scout for novel
on the banks of Nebraska’s Platte River to make a kid volcanic peaks, and everywhere in between. species in your
put down the iPhone. “Big birds—and lots of them” is immediate
a surefire way to spark interest in nature and birding, National Treasures surroundings:
says Pete Marra, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Our country’s vast network of parks in hotel parking
director. But the spectacles of massive cranes in Ne- and wildlife refuges ofer so much lots, around
braska or colonies of charismatic Atlantic Puffins in to experience that no traveler has campgrounds,
Maine aren’t the only inroad. “The No. 1 thing is to to compromise. Rocky Mountain and on resort
avoid forcing anything,” Marra says. “It has to be fun National Park, for instance, boasts incredible vistas and forest golf courses.
and an adventure.” The quest can even begin before birds. Arizona’s Saguaro National Park is home to Gila mon-
you leave home; a book about North American birds, sters, desert tortoises, and brash Gila Woodpeckers that dine Breathe Deep
for example, might kindle curiosity about species at on cactus fruit. If you’re more into the coast, Florida’s J.N. Ding Accept the
an upcoming destination. In the field, ask young kids Darling National Wildlife Refuge, on Sanibel Island, is ideal for fact that you
about bird behavior to fan interest. And it’s never too kayaking through mangroves where Tricolored Herons live, and won’t see every
early to start, says Ted Floyd, editor of Birding maga- the island’s gorgeous beaches are perfect for sipping cocktails species on your
zine: “Just pack the diaper kit.” —Rene Ebersole while manatees and dolphins frolic in nearby waters. —A.O. wish list. —A.O.

SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 51

 FIELD
GUIDE
PHOTOGRAPHY Birds abound in urban jungles—
you just need to know where to look.

when the sidewalks

start to heat up and the
scent of spring blooms is
replaced with the stench
of warm garbage, most
urbanites plan an escape
to greener pastures. But
for bird photographers,
a staycation in the city
offers its own rewards—
namely, the opportunity
to document the many
species that live alongside
throngs of humans,
adapting manmade
structures for their
nesting needs or taking
advantage of pockets of

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PEREGRINE FALCON, LUKE MASSEY; BELTED KINGFISHER, ROCK PIGEONS, JAYMI HEIMBUCH; ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY
habitat in the concrete
jungle. So skip the Friday
afternoon traffic out of
town, grab your camera,
and hit the pavement.

HOTSP OTS

Urban Oases
Parks are a no-brainer. But cities
are full of other bird magnets, if you
know where to look.
Grail Bird
Monk Parakeet Bridges
Native to South With their vantage point above
America and the water, bridges offer two vistas
popular as cage for the price of one, allowing you
birds, these to capture swallows, swifts, and while the strong lines, patterns, Don’t actually get in the water.
sociable creatures songbirds at eye level, or ducks, and contrasting highlights and These are city drainages, after all.
have escaped herons, and egrets below. Using shadows lend themselves to bold,
and established a single long lens will force you graphic images. Marinas
feral colonies in to think more about strategy, Provided you’re willing to get
cities from New including framing, tracking, and Irrigation Ditches creative and stay patient with
York to Houston. recognizing the decisive moment While not necessarily the most passers-by, marinas provide a
The contrast of to take your shot. scenic of spots, these small canals unique opportunity to capture a
colorful parakeets mimic wetland habitat and can plethora of human-tolerant water-
against an urban Cemeteries attract wading birds and even birds in a high-energy setting. Lean
setting provides The patchwork of lawns and trees wrens and other songbirds. Try into the hustle and bustle by adding
intriguing photo in cemeteries provide habitat for using a short telephoto lens such foot traffic and human structures
possibilities. species such as robins, sparrows, as a 70–300mm so you can get a to your composition for a storytell-
—Kenn Kaufman finches, juncos, and flycatchers, tight bird-in-habitat snap. A tip: ing shot. —Jaymi Heimbuch

52 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

 SAN FRANCISCO:

NEW YORK CITY:

NEW ORLEANS:
Total number For more urban
bird photogra-

340 SPECIES
410 SPECIES
477 SPECIES
of bird species
recorded on eBird phy tips, go to
(each bird = 10 species)
audubon.org /
photography.

Hometown Heroes
When it comes to bird life, each city’s got its own unique profile. We asked five photographers about some
of their favorite species to shoot on their home turf.
3
Pigeon
Pointers
Andrew Garn,
the photographer
behind the recent
book The New
York Pigeon, ofers
tips on how to
capture these
American Kestrel, Chimney Swift, Black-crowned Peregrine Falcon, urban stalwarts.
New York Lincoln Night-Heron, Cleveland
To track down wary By day, these birds feast Oakland Peregrines evolved to Follow the Sun
American Kestrels, on insects; by night, they These waders hunt along nest on clifs, but high- There’s an irides-
Francois Portmann roost in chimneys and Oakland’s waterfront rise ledges and other cent rainbow in
scouts old buildings towers. Michael Forsberg, and nest downtown, but urban aeries suit them that gray plum-
crowned with cornices— who has spent many an the most reliable place fine. Chad and Chris age. “Get your
prime nesting spots. He’s evening documenting to view their behavior is Saladin photograph the lighting 90 de-
taken some of his best swifts as they funnel into Lake Merritt, says Ingrid birds at nest sites all grees to camera,
shots with a 500mm Irving Middle School’s Taylar. Their clashing over Cleveland. Chris and it will pick up
lens from a roof near a brick chimney, suggests light and dark plumage recommends having the texture of the
nest. Joining photography slowing the shutter renders metering tricky, a photographer friend feathers and a lot
groups online and talking down to 1/30th of a but cloud cover can help positioned nearby to of the coloration,”
with building supers can second or so, to “let the smooth out the contrast. maximize sightlines. Garn says.
help get rooftop access. swirling vortex become a Where else to find them: Where else to find them:
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FRANCOIS PORTMANN; MICHAEL FORSBERG; INGRID TAYLAR; CHAD AND CHRIS SALADIN; SAM HOBSON

Where else to find beautiful blur, almost like Many cities that have Most cities with tall Look Up
them: In cities coast to a wispy smoke.” stands of trees close to buildings throughout the “Pigeons are
coast, including Denver, Where else to find water, including New Northeast, mid-Atlantic, made to live on
Milwaukee, and Los them: Most towns and Orleans, Detroit, and and Midwest. architecture,” says
Angeles, to name a few. cities east of the Rockies. Washington, D.C. —Andy McGlashen Garn. Use a tele-
photo lens to pick
out birds camped
B E HI N D THE SHOT high above the
ground in building
Stealth Approach crevices.
Sam Hobson knew what he wanted: an
“iconic species in an iconic location.” Speed Play
Namely, the European Robin, the unoffi- Pigeons are
cial national bird of the United Kingdom, natural acrobats.
at Cabot Tower, in the heart of Bristol. Garn suggests
Once he had located his subject—a robin upping your
that periodically left its perch on a rock shutter speed to
for a wormy snack—it was a matter of at least 1/2000th
strategy and patience. To get this close- of a second to
up, Hobson took advantage of the bird’s freeze the action,
brief absences to inch his tripod closer or lowering it to
and closer to the rock, always stepping around 1/500th
away in time for the bird’s return. After of a second and
about half an hour, the camera (equipped panning with
with a remote shutter) sat mere inches the birds for an
from the robin’s perch, allowing Hobson in-focus subject
to nail this shot pairing an urban bird with and a blurry
an urban historical treasure. —Benji Jones background.

SUMMER 2018 | AUDUBON 53

KAUAI CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35
Raine seems uniquely suited to address.
Raised by English parents in Bermuda,
he worked summers for the ornitholo-
gist David Wingate, who famously saved
the Bermuda Petrel from extinction. One
of Raine’s uncles wrote and illustrated
A Guide to the Birds of Bermuda, while
another spent a notable career saving
sea turtles and shore- and seabirds along
the Texas coast. After earning degrees in
Canada and England, Raine led a series of
difficult conservation projects in remote
locations, including Kafue National Park
in Zambia and the Peruvian Amazon.
But the four years he spent in Malta
perhaps best illustrate Raine’s gritty deter-
mination. Malta is a flyway for approxi-
mately 170 species between Europe and
Africa, and hunters indiscriminately blast
anything, protected or not. “They’ve got
these powerful hunting organizations, and
guys drive around with bumper stickers
that say, ‘If it flies it dies—bats, swallows,
dragonflies,’ ” Raine says. His team entered
“no-go” zones in public reserves dominated
by hunters and filmed evidence later used
to prosecute them. “Andre was all-in for
the fight,” says Nicholas Barbara, conser-
vation manager for BirdLife Malta. “He
was inspiring.” But success came at a cost.
Raine was threatened repeatedly, and his
colleagues had cars and farms firebombed.
He took the Kauai seabird job in 2011 in
part because, compared with the confron-
tations in Malta, it was a walk in the park.
We’re trudging along a ridgeline when
Raine abruptly freezes. “This is a total
kill zone,” he mutters. He points directly
ahead of us. The next 30-some feet of trail
are lined with booby traps. Had Fowlks or
I barreled on, we could have ended up in
a circular wire snare suspended above the
trail, a device designed to capture pigs. Two
different kinds of traps for cats sit farther
along. Finally, attached to a wooden stake,
there’s a Goodnature rat trap—a CO2-
fired, tube-like contraption with scented
bait. The traps had been set not by Raine
but by his allies, the predator control team
of Hawaii’s Natural Area Reserve System.
Following Raine’s lead, Fowlks and I shim-
my carefully over and around each.
Raine assigns me to rat patrol, and
I spend the day testing traps, changing
baits, and sweeping rat carcasses off ridges.
At one point he tells me, “I’m optimistic.
We know more about predator control
now. We’re getting better at it. As long as
we’ve got funding, we can turn this thing
around.” In Pōhākea, cats killed 12 birds in
2014, but just one in 2016. Pigs killed five
birds in 2013 and none three years later. In
54 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018
2013 rats destroyed eggs or chicks in 4.2
percent of the monitored burrows; that fig-
ure fell to 2.5 percent in 2016. The steady
improvement reflects better technology
(they started using Goodnature rat traps
in 2014), along with increased savvy with
regard to where to place all of the various
kinds of traps they use. In 2017, for the
first time ever, no birds in Pōhākea were
taken by predators. There are similar traps
at the other seven sites the team moni-
tors, and they’ve seen declines in predation
across the board.
Still, waves of predators keep coming.
From our sky-high perch at one burrow, we
can see Hanakāpı̄’ai Beach in the distance.
A year earlier I had hiked to that beach and
nearby Hanakāpı̄’ai Falls. In both places
I saw feral cats lurking about and tourists
happily feeding them. An estimated half
million feral cats prowl Hawaii, many of
them aided by people. But the Hanakāpı̄’ai
cats specifically concern Raine. “That’s an
especially damaging colony,” he says. “From
there they come up into the mountains.”
By late afternoon, as we’re working our
way back to the weatherport, and I sense
that I’ve reached my daily limit of slipping,
falling, burning, bashing, and cramping, I
remind myself that things could be worse.
Sometimes just initially locating burrows
can be like something out of Apocalypse
Now. For example, in 2015, acting on a
hunch, Raine packed a song meter inside
a sturdy, bright orange case and chucked
it out of a helicopter in another corner
of Pōhākea. A month later, dangling out
of the helicopter, he fished the case from
the forest with a rope and grappling hook.
After the device acoustically verified that
the place was lousy with petrels, the heli-
copter inserted Raine and two colleagues
into the jungle, where they split up. At
the time there was no weatherport. There
were no trails. For four rainy days by him-
self, Raine scoured the ridges and valleys
on foot and ultimately found 58 burrows.
“It was like the lost city of petrels,” he says.
That evening, Raine and I don night-
vision goggles and sit on a ridge near the
weatherport. Typically, his team would
wear these to conduct surveys in the wee
hours, noting where birds are flying and
calling, and then use that data to find new
burrows during daylight hours. But tonight
we’re simply enjoying some grainy green
entertainment. I see a bird approaching,
then hear a “swoosh.” “Petrel,” Raine says.
“The wings are longer, and he’s not flap-
ping, he’s soaring.” We watch petrels chase
each other, swishing, circling, darting all
over. It’s courting behavior. We never see
a Newell’s, but we do hear their distinctive
barnyard call. Later, I doze off to the pecu-
liar sound of jackasses singing in the jungle.
O
n the final morning of our mis-
sion, Raine pulls out his phone
and shows me a red squiggly line
extending from Kauai to French Frig-
ate Shoals in the northwestern Hawaiian
Islands. It’s our little friend, the petrel we
saved and tagged three days earlier, send-
ing us satellite data. He’s already flown 450
miles. He’s free as the wind and doing his
thing. This clearly pleases Raine. It’s the
reason he does this work.
Still, as we spend our last hours bush-
whacking and burrow hopping, Raine
concedes that the future for these birds
remains precarious, despite his best efforts.
Along with all the maneuvers up here in
the mountains, his team is experimenting
with lasers to provide a visual barrier in
front of power lines in town. They’re plac-
ing song meters all over Kauai to record
the distinctive TWANG that results when
a bird strikes a power line, in order to iden-
tify the island’s most lethal areas. They’re
relocating Newell’s and petrel fledglings
down to Kilauea Point on the coast, in
hopes of establishing a lowland colony.
“We don’t know what will work, but we
have to try everything,” he says. “There are
no silver bullets with these birds.”
Even though the helicopter will be here
soon, Raine wants to check a few more
burrows. They’re just a trundle away, he
insists. But I can’t feel my legs, and Fowlks
clearly needs traction. “Right,” says Raine.
“You guys stay here, rest up, I’ll be back in
a few.” Then he spiders off down the slope
and disappears into the bush. a
Paul Kvinta writes often about wildlife, and
his recent work was included in The Best
American Science and Nature Writing
2018. This is his first story for Audubon.
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share your love of birds.

As a member of the Great

GREAT EGRET. PHOTO: JOHN-PAUL STANISIC/AUDUBON PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

Egret Society you will receive

insider updates from Audubon
leadership, a Great Egret
Society pin, and invitations to
special events. You’ll also know
that you are doing all you can
to help protect birds and the
places they need.

Become a charter member of the Great Egret Society

today! Go to audubon.org/GreatEgretSociety
 THE ILLUSTRATED AVIARY

Reimagining John James Audubon’s “Birds of America”

AMERICAN WHITE IBIS BY APRIL SG _ AANA JAAD WHITE

while artist april sg_ aana jaad white has depicted many birds that are significant to her See all of John
people of Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off British Columbia, the White Ibis, a species common James Audubon’s
across Florida, was a novel challenge. Yet in its body and beak, White, who belongs to her people’s Birds of America
BOTTOM (DETAIL): JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

Raven clan, saw shapes and colors compatible with formline, a design style traditional to First at audubon.org/
Nations of the Northwest Coast. The technique demands a minimalist aesthetic, but “from there, birds-of-america.
there’s a lot of freedom to make it your own,” she says. With the ibis, she eschews symmetry—
a classic formline tenet—but retains a sense of visual balance. The central bird fits within the curves
of a human eye, and the echo of the ocular motif elsewhere hints that “we should be a lot more
aware of what’s around us.” Other shapes represent the cycle of life: A juvenile ibis consumes a fish
close to its mother’s breast, while its father peers through her wing. To inform her work, White
researched ibis mythology and ecology. A former geologist, she admires John James Audubon’s
keen naturalist’s eye: “He looked at the birds very scientifically, and I do as well.” —Julie Leibach

56 AUDUBON | SUMMER 2018

Audubon
Welcomes Canon
as the Official Sponsor of the 2018 Audubon Photography Awards Exhibition

Protecting the Great

Egret was one of the
main sparks behind the
early bird conservation
movement. Photo by
Melissa Groo, Grand
Prize Winner of the 2015
Audubon Photography
Awards, using a Canon
EOS 1D Mark IV with a
Canon 500mm f/4 II lens
plus a 1.4x teleconverter.