history

Great Missoula Flood - Scablands and Plunge Pools

During the last ice age, a lobe of the ice sheet covering western Canada dammed the Clark Fork River, creating a vast lake in what is now northwestern Montana. Several times during the past 15,000 years, the ice dam broke, sending hundreds of cubic miles of water roaring across the inland... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history

50th Anniversary of Silent Spring

September 27th marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The book awakened the public to the dangers of DDT and other pesticides. But many weren't ready to listen. Her opponents called her "an hysterical woman." Even people who could see the effects of the... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  environmental champion, history

Condors in the Pacific Northwest

In 1805, members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, while exploring north of the Columbia River, came upon a California Condor. David Douglas, the English naturalist, collecting the flora and fauna of the Columbia River country in the mid-1820s, found the great birds abundant along the lower... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history
Related bird:  California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)

An Evening in Sapsucker Woods - With A.A. Allen

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology maintains the largest collection of bird sounds in the world. In 1958, Arthur Allen, the lab’s founder, described An Evening in Sapsucker Woods: “There is a charming spot in the Finger Lakes country of central New York that we know as Sapsucker Woods. Friends have... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history, recording

James Swan's Willapa Bay

In 1852, James Swan took up residence in what we now know as Willapa Bay on the southwest coast of Washington State. In his book The Northwest Coast, Swan described the birds he observed on the bay: “white and black swans, white geese, Canada geese, brant, Sheldrake, cormorants, loon, mallard... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history
Related bird:  Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)

Kipukas and Akis

One of Hawaii’s rarest forest birds is this ‘Akiapola’au. Some of the roughly 1,000 Akis left on earth live and breed in kipukas on the lower slopes of Mauna Loa, Hawaii’s largest active volcano. A kipuka is an island of native forest surrounded not by water but by recent lava flows - a green... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history
Related bird:  Akiapola'au (Hemignathus munroi)

Mark Twain and Tropicbirds

When Mark Twain visited Hawaii in 1866, he was able to inspect a live volcano, Halema’uma’u, which he described as “a crimson cauldron.” Twain concluded his impressions of the hellish scene by writing, “The smell of sulfur is strong, but not unpleasant to a sinner.” That eruption came to an end... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history
Related bird:  White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus)

European Starling Nightmare

You can find European Starlings in huge flocks from coast to coast, and from Northern Canada deep into Mexico. Yet not one of these iridescent-black, yellow-billed starlings is native to the Americas. One hundred starlings were released in Central Park in New York City in 1890. From that small,... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history
Related bird:  European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Myth of the Wren

December 26th is known in the British Isles and elsewhere as St. Stephen's Day, in honor of the first Christian martyr. Beginning in the 16th Century, local lads would go forth for a yearly wren hunt. The wren was protected the rest of the year, but the day after Christmas, the "Wren Boys" would... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history, myth
Related bird:  Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis), Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus)

The Day of the Turkey

The Wild Turkey, from which the domestic variety has been bred, is native to North America. Noted as a table delicacy, the four-foot long Wild Turkey was hunted by both Native Americans and the Europeans who populated our country. Wild Turkeys are social and stay in family groups often numbering... read more »

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Topics & Themes:  history
Related bird:  Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

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