 | | |  Birds are on the move! May is peak migration month and in this issue of RCC's Bird Watch and Wonder, we highlight movement in the avian world. Key bird species continue a decline that is an indicator of wider trouble. The whimbrel, that shorebird with the long, curved bill that was celebrated in Rachel Carson’s Under the Sea-Wind, is suffering a global decline. But these remarkably resilient birds are able to seek out new habitats and thrive in local ecosystems, as in South Carolina, where Scott Weidensaul reports that 20,000 whimbrels have found refuge on a small sandy island.
Other species, like the fabled Peregrine Falcon, were brought back from the brink of disaster by the efforts of Rachel Carson and her friend and colleague Shirley Briggs, the first head of the Rachel Carson Council, who worked to ban DDT. Today, the peregrine continues to rebound. It can even be watched tending the chicks at its nest atop the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where in our April issue you were able to watch them as eggs being laid. Pennsylvania is one of a growing number of states that have enacted laws to protect birds, especially when migrating at night, from the dangers of collisions with tall city buildings. And this spring, Maryland also moved toward safer cities for birds with the passage of the Maryland Sustainable Buildings Act. (HB6). The birding world is also moving forward, continuing to grow, become racially inclusive, and attract a new, younger generation of environmentalists who see birdwatching as part of a trend toward critical citizen science, as you can read in RCC Presidential Fellow Joy Reeves’ latest contribution and in an essay on the status of urban birds by RCC Stanback Fellow Ana Young. We also report on Black Birders’ Week, and the wonderful celebrations of young Black birders at the historic Philadelphia Academy of Science run by Drexel University.  As if to symbolize the bird world’s movement forward, we now have a premiere, historic, non-slaveholding American bird artist, Rex Brasher, to admire and learn from. Brasher, who was recently rediscovered, will undoubtedly take the limelight away from John James Audubon whose slave-holding and pro-slavery views continue to generate controversy.
Even the often maligned, scary Common Raven of Edgar Allan Poe fame is now moving to its rightful place in bird lore as a smart, inventive, even regal bird, as Ross Feldner reveals in his typically surprise-packed, entertaining essay “Quoth the Raven.”  May is also packed with events and film festivals that we help you find, as well as the long-awaited new release from one of the finest science and bird writers of our time, Jennifer Ackerman. In her new book, What the Owl Knows, it is Ackerman herself who migrates, following and observing owls across the country and the world, as she did in her previous bestsellers, The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way. And because both the birds, the bird world, and bird lore keep moving, when you have finished What the Owl Knows, you can sign right up for the upcoming release of Christian Cooper’s, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. Cooper, who was “arrested while birding” in Central Park, recounts his journey as a Black man in the natural world and the joys and lessons of following the birds wherever they may lead us.
-Bob Musil | | | | | | | |  Bob Musil is the President & CEO of the Rachel Carson Council and author of Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s Environment (Rutgers, 2016) and Washington in Spring: A Nature Journal for a Changing Capital (Bartleby, 2016). He is also the editor of the forthcoming annotated edition from Rutgers University Press of Rachel Carson’s Under the Sea-Wind with his Introduction, updated marine science, and historic and contemporary illustrations and photographs. | | | | | | A Win for Birds in Maryland At midnight on Monday, April 10, the Maryland legislature concluded its 445th legislative session. In the last half-hour of the meeting, lawmakers passed the Maryland Sustainable Buildings Act (HB6), which mandates all newly built, acquired, or renovated state-owned buildings use state funds to use bird-friendly windows and lighting. On the Senate floor that day, Sen. Malcolm Augustine, a Democrat representing the 47th district of Prince George’s County, spoke on behalf of the bill, fielding questions and criticism from several Republican colleagues. | | | | | | | | Your Garden’s Birds and Insects Need Water Too. Here’s How to Help. The sight of a drooping flower head is often all it takes to prod us to unravel the hose and turn on the spigot. We’re less attuned to the water preferences and needs of birds and insects, though, and we may unintentionally leave them high and dry. That’s probably at least in part because no one water source meets all their needs. “When we talk about water in a garden, we need to not just picture a bowl of water or a birdbath or a pond,” says Matthew Shepherd. | | | | | | | | Audubon’s Women in Conservation Luncheon Honors Susanne Durst, Kathleen Finlay, and Laura O’Donohue with Rachel Carson Award The 20th annual event focused on New York-based leaders in organic farming and sustainability. The National Audubon Society celebrated the legacy of female leadership in conservation yesterday by presenting three women with the Rachel Carson Award at the 20th Women in Conservation Luncheon. | | | | | | | | The Greatest Bird Artist You’ve Never Heard Of Rex Brasher painted more birds than Audubon, and he never owned slaves On a gray day in March, Rex Brasher’s place looks a bit forlorn. The farmhouse is empty and the little shop made of cinder blocks feels derelict. But the leaders of the Rex Brasher Association who have gathered to show off the place see only possibilities for the 116-acre property. | | | | | | | | | | Incredible Bird Photographer Shares Her Secret Tips Bird photography is one of the most beloved subgenres of the craft and one of the most difficult. In this video, a professional bird photographer goes through her best tips on how you can capture some beautiful images of our feathery friends. Nigel Danson is joined by Rachel Bigsby, an incredible wildlife photographer here in the U.K., to discuss some tips and tricks for capturing birds. Bigsby has a breathtaking portfolio that is really worth taking the time to enjoy! | | | | | | | | Shorebird Species Along the Atlantic Are in Decline, Study Finds, Telling the Story of a Planet in Peril Each summer, like clockwork, thousands of whimbrels, an elegant shorebird with a long, thin beak, hatch along the Arctic tundra. Their parents soon depart, and when the hatchlings are old enough, they make their way, too — guided by intuition to stop on Cape Cod to feed and rest before continuing on to Brazil. It’s a migration as steady as the tide. No one tells them where to go, they just go. | | | | | | | | Alaska Oil and Gas Projects Harming One of World's Most Vital Bird Nesting Areas "In the face of current uncertainty, to protect migratory birds, the U.S. government should ensure the most important bird areas continue to be set aside," the co-author of a new study asserted. Migratory bird nest survival "decreased significantly" near fossil fuel extraction sites in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, a study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society revealed Tuesday. | | | | | | | | Falcon Eggs Hatch at Harrisburg Nesting Site The babies mark a spark of hope for Pennsylvania. Once endangered at the state and federal levels, peregrine falcons are no longer considered threatened. Harrisburg is now home to three more once-endangered peregrine falcons. The three eggs, offspring of mated pair 85/AK and 09/BS, all hatched within a 7-hour period overnight from May 9 to 10. Bert Myers, director of environmental education at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, says the eggs hatching so close together is unusual but not unheard of. | | | | | | | | A Miracle of Abundance as 20,000 Whimbrel Take Refuge on a Tiny Island Vast flocks of Whimbrels were thought to be a thing of the past, until a wildlife biologist discovered nearly 20,000 of these declining shorebirds on a tiny South Carolina island. I am waiting on a sandy island along the South Carolina coast, on a late evening in May when the low light has gilded everything around me—the waving cordgrass where Marsh Wrens sing, the beach where plovers and sandpipers scurry, the flocks of Black Skimmers that row by with mothlike wingbeats and peevish calls. | | | | | | | | Drab but Fab: Woodcocks Wear the Whitest Whites in the Avian Wardrobe Though mostly camouflaged, Eurasian Woodcocks have brilliant patches much whiter than any feathers previously measured, a recent study finds. Think of the whitest bird you can imagine. Is it an egret? A swan? Maybe an owl? A woodcock, its body mostly covered in browns and grays, might not seem like a contender. But it turns out that the whitest plumage known to science is found on the tip of a Eurasian Woodcock’s tail, according to a recent study. | | | | | |  | Quoth the Raven The Common Raven, a large member of the Corvus family which also includes crows, occupies a unique place in bird lore. The raven is well known throughout the world with a personality that many find strange or even somewhat creepy as made famous in Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven. Here’s an excerpt. Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven, | | | | | | | | | | Can the Clark’s Nutcracker Help Its BFF, the Whitebark Pine, Recover from Disaster? Clark's Nutcrackers and whitebark pine have deeply intertwined lives. If and when the pine is listed under the Endangered Species Act, the tree's recovery could depend on its birdy best friend. Some pairings are so iconic that one is not complete without the other: Macaroni and cheese. Abbott and Costello. Peanut butter and jelly. | | | | | | | | Recent Condor Deaths from Avian Flu Are a Reminder of the Species' Precarity This year, 2023, marks the 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. Amidst the lists of accomplishments and celebrations, all of which are warranted, is a news story that stands in stark contrast: Nearly one-tenth of the wild population of federally Endangered California Condors died in April. On April 17, 2023, Idaho-based conservation group The Peregrine Fund confirmed that 20 California Condors from the Utah-Arizona flock had died. | | | | | | | | Smallest Shifting Fastest: Bird Species Body Size Predicts Rate of Change in a Warming World Birds across the Americas are getting smaller and longer-winged as the world warms, and the smallest-bodied species are changing the fastest. The study combines data from two previously published papers that measured body-size and wing-length changes in a total of more than 86,000 bird specimens over four decades in North and South America. | | | | | | | | All Hands on Deck: Citizen Science and Climate Change? The sun peeks over the horizon, just enough to toss lemon-colored rays blindingly in my face and illuminate exhales like puffs of smoke. After a moment of holding my breath, I catch the sound again. A twip twip and taw-wee, followed by tussling dry leaves. The bird I was hunting, the Eastern Towhee, emerges from the cane break, scratching sand on his peachy belly and dusting black feathers gray. Others join the sand bath, picking mites off one another and playfully nipping beaks. | | | | | | | | For the Birds: Memory and Endangered Species Holding a $2 hotdog and wearing a wool scarf and fedora bought from a street vendor, my 11-year-old self was perfectly equipped for April in New York City. My mom's friend was taking me on a tour of the city, and we had just spent several hours gaping our way through the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) where I was fascinated by the Leonard C. Sanford Hall of North American Birds. I was surrounded by realistic dioramas with birds in their natural habitat, including one by noted ornithologist Frank Chapman. | | | | | | | | Rose-breasted Grosbeak Male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are unmistakable with their graphic black and white plumage and brilliant rose-pink breast feathers. They get the “grosbeak” part of their name from the French term grosbec, meaning “large beak” and exhibit what is called sexual dimorphism meaning the male and female have very different plumage. They stay hidden for the most part, seeking shelter and food in leafy tree overstories but will visit feeders, streams and bird baths. | | | | | | | | Springs Into New LIfe A dead tree, in a quiet swamp, was the stage for this joyful reunion of two blue herons. From a soggy shoreline, I felt the power of spring grow in me as I watched this love drama unfold. | | | | | | | | What an Owl Knows The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds By Jennifer Ackerman From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific investigation into owls—the most elusive of birds—and why they exert such a hold on human imagination.
For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Though our fascination goes back centuries, scientists have only recently begun to understand in deep detail the complex nature of these extraordinary birds. Some two hundred sixty species of owls exist today, and they reside on every continent except Antarctica, but they are far more difficult to find and study than other birds because they are cryptic, camouflaged, and mostly active in the dark of night. Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific discoveries about their brains and behavior. She joins scientists in the field and explores how researchers are using modern technology and tools to learn how owls communicate, hunt, court, mate, raise their young, and move about from season to season. We now know that the hoots, squawks, and chitters of owls follow sophisticated and complex rules, allowing them to express not just their needs and desires but their individuality and identity. Owls duet. They migrate. They hoard their prey. Some live in underground burrows; some roost in large groups; some dine on black widows and scorpions. Read more and purchase | | | | Better Living Through Birding:
Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World By Christian Cooper  Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video that shocked a nation and into a world of avian adventures, global excursions, and the unexpected lessons you can learn from a life spent looking up.
"Wondrous . . . captivating."--Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World
Christian Cooper is a self-described "Blerd" (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-oldracial tensions. Cooper's viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.
In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself. Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper's story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper's journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen. Read more and purchase | | | | | | | | Jennifer Ackerman — What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds — at Conn Ave Monday, July 10, 2023 - 7:00pm For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? | | | | | | | | Black Excellence in Birding Join us for Black Excellence in Birding, our second annual black-tie Black Birders Week event. Meet some of the country’s most well-known Black birders, go behind the scenes of the Academy to interact with our world-class Ornithology Collection, join the panel discussion on Black women in birding and meet local poets and artists as they share their expressions throughout the night. Tweet an invite to a fellow bird lover, fluff up your plumage for a feathery date night or simply sip cocktails and savor delicious appetizers as you enjoy good conversation with fellow Black birders. | | | | | | | | Birding Festivals and Events A great way to enjoy bird watching is by going to festivals—they’re organized to get you to great birding spots at a great time of year, and they’re a great way to meet people. Experts and locals help you see more birds, and you’ll meet other visitors who share your hobby. While you’re there, keep an eye out for Cornell Lab representatives, as we do attend several festivals each year. | | | | | | | | The May 2023 issue of Bird Watch and Wonder was produced by Ross Feldner. | | | | | |  The Rachel Carson Council Depends on Tax-deductible Gifts From Concerned Individuals Like You. Please Help If You can. | | | |  Sign Up Here to Receive the RCC E-News and Other RCC Newsletters, Information and Alerts. | | | | | | | | | | | |
