#audobon

secretary bird, audobon society

trees at the Audobon in Westport, CT

Latest for Audobon Society

Tricolored Blackbirds Once Faced Extinction—Here’s What’s Behind Their Exciting Comeback

For a decade Audubon California and partners have worked with farmers to delay harvests where the birds nest, solving what was once the biggest threat to the species.

Not long ago, dairy producers routinely motored their harvesters through fields where the blackbirds were nesting, sometimes killing thousands of flightless chicks in minutes. This carnage threatened the survival of the species, whose numbers, historically 2 million to 3 million, plunged through the 20th century, bottoming out at an estimated 145,000 in 2014.

Now a decade old, the initiative—which has received additional funding from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife—has probably prevented the deaths of at least half a million chicks. Last spring the buyout program protected an estimated 235,000 adults in San Joaquin Valley fields alone. This year’s preliminary tally sits at around 200,000 nesting adults. (Alastair Bland).

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Interiors from the Old Main Library. Cincinnati, Ohio.

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A bit of January 5th history...

1709 - The Great Frost begins during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe’s coldest winter ever; thousands are killed across the continent and crops fail

1905 - National Association of Audobon Society incorporates

1914 - Industrialist Henry Ford announces his $5 minimum per day wage, doubling most workers pay

1945 - Pepe LePew debuts in “Odor-able Kitty”

1972 - US President Nixon signs a bill for NASA to begin research on a manned space shuttle