Round Robin

Lost Bird Project: One artist’s meeting with Audubon’s $8 million tome

January 26, 2012 – 12:29 pm

When the gavel fell last week at the auction of John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America” the price for the rare first edition was almost $8 million—the third highest sum ever paid at auction for a book. But what a book! Its phenomenal size and heft simply doesn’t come through in photos, but the 435 life-size portraits Audubon painted are enormous, reproduced on “double elephant” stock to create a tome that’s some four feet on a side.

Few people get to see one of these first editions in person (only 120 remain), but among them is Cornell art professor Todd McGrain. As part of his initial research for his Lost Bird Project, McGrain was allowed to view Cornell University’s copy, held in the Carl A. Kroch Library. The project is McGrain’s ongoing effort to memorialize, through a range of art forms, birds that have been driven to extinction. In the video above, you can get a feel for the size and beauty of the volume as you watch two white-gloved librarians carry it out for McGrain and carefully turn the pages. For McGrain, it was an opportunity to reflect on Audubon’s artistry, and on a curious and poignant alteration that time has made to Audubon’s great work. Here’s Todd:

artist Todd McGrain, Cornell University

I arrived at the library with high expectations, but I still wasn’t prepared for the book’s profound beauty. Not only are the individual images much larger and more colorful than I had expected, they are also more handcrafted. Loose brush marks rest fluidly within the intricate black printing. These marks, made by professional colorists, are at the same time gestural and assured with an ease that only comes with great mastery. The book as a whole is a marvel. Leather binding with gold leaf trim offers the prints a context of grandeur and authority. Read More »

By Hugh | Posted in Birds, conservation, Uncategorized, video | Tagged art, Audubon, birding, Birds, birdwatching, conservation, endangered species, Great Auk, Lost Bird Project, Todd McGrain, video | Comments (1)

Sharpen Your Skills and Help Train Merlin™

January 23, 2012 – 8:03 pm

We’re in the midst of creating a free, online bird ID tool that can answer everyone’s first birding question, “What is that bird I saw?”—and we need your help to train the system.

The project, called Merlin™, combines artificial intelligence with input from everyday birders and bird occurrence data from eBird. By using observations from birders like you, Merlin will be able to account for the many different ways that people interpret the size, color, and patterns of birds. That’s why it’s so important to get your input. To do that we’re creating online activities that let you practice your observation skills, enjoy beautiful bird photos, and train Merlin at the same time.

Our latest activity, launched this week, is Mark My Bird—a set of 18 questions about what a bird looks like. Play once or play a hundred times—every answer you give us gets Merlin closer to completion. You’ll be guided to estimate the size and shape of each bird, along with describing the size, colors, and patterns of each of its parts. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Birds, News, what you can do, you tell us | Tagged All About Birds, birding, Birds, birdwatching, identification, labs, Mark My Bird, Merlin, photos, sightings | Comments (0)

Chick photos renew hope for endangered Caribbean seabird

January 13, 2012 – 10:14 pm

Black-capped Petrel chick by J. Volquez of Grupo Jaragua Scientists working in Haiti have obtained the first-ever photos of an endangered Black-capped Petrel chick—a little ball of gray fluff that was discovered at its nest inside a mountaintop cave. The finding helps answer questions about this secretive species’ life cycle.

These crow-sized seabirds nest only in the Caribbean and feed as far away as Gulf Stream waters off the Mid-Atlantic United States. Best estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs remain, and the data collected at this nest have already been incorporated into a new conservation plan for the species (available as a PDF).

“Finding this nest shows both that gems of biodiversity are yet to be found in Haiti, despite its environmental and economic troubles, and that there’s still time to save rare species if we act swiftly,” said James Goetz, a Cornell Lab of Ornithology graduate student who helped lead the project. The nest was found on March 3, 2011, by a team from Grupo Jaragua, a nonprofit from the Dominican Republic. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Birds, conservation | Tagged Birds, Black-capped Petrel, Caribbean, conservation, Cuba, endangered species, Haiti, seabirds, tropics | Comments (2)

Beginnings: A Young Birder Tells Us How She Got Started

December 19, 2011 – 11:44 pm

All through our lives we draw inspiration from our elders, but there comes a point when we can turn around and start drawing inspiration from the young people coming up behind us. At a recent meeting of the Ohio Young Birders Club, we had a chance to hear from Rachael Butek, a recent high-school graduate who combines great birding skills with keen powers of observation and interest in the world around her.

Rachael gave the keynote address at the meeting and shared her story of how she got started, the pioneering bird watcher who gave her inspiration, and her pursuit of the American Birding Assocation‘s Young Birder of the Year award. We found her presentation so enjoyable and inspiring that we asked her to retell it on our blog. Here’s Rachael:

Rachael Butek I first got interested in birds when I was 16, all because of a sparrow in my Wisconsin backyard.

It was just a “little brown bird” at first sight, but when I took a closer through my grandparents’ binoculars, I saw it was a delightful blend of buff and chestnut and stripes. And that was about all it took—just one simple little bird to change my life. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Birds, you tell us | Tagged birding, Birds, birdwatching, Blue Jay, fieldwork, Margaret Morse Nice, Rachael Butek, sightings, Song Sparrow, Sora, young birders | Comments (7)

Arts and Nature Workshop youth scholarships: apply by Dec 31

December 16, 2011 – 5:09 pm

The Cornell Lab’s Celebrate Urban Birds project will host an Arts and Nature Workshop in Ithaca, New York on February 1–2, 2012. We’re awarding a limited number of travel scholarships to attend. The workshop will be bilingual (English and Spanish), and project leader Karen Purcell encourages Latino and other underserved youth to apply. “We are trying to reach youth that have not had access to these opportunities before,” she said.

Learn more and apply by filling out a short online form before the December 31 deadline. We’ll choose 10 applicants to receive awards for travel costs up to $1,000 plus accomodations. Applicants must be aged 10 to 18 and must have a chaperone. The scholarships are open to anyone, whether in the U.S. or abroad.

The workshop will focus on teaching students how to use art to teach and inspire people about the natural world. It willfeature classes with our professionally trained science illustration interns. We’ll also introduce participants to people who have made a career out of their love for science and art, explore some of the Cornell Lab’s extensive collection of bird art, and offer ideas about how art can inspire others.

(Image: Wire-tailed Manakin by science illustration intern Evaristo Hernández-Fernández.)

By admin | Posted in Birds, citizen science, conservation, education, what you can do | Tagged Birds, birdwatching, Celebrate Urban Birds, citizen science, CUBs, students, workshop, youth | Comments (0)

New book Science on Ice offers penguins and more [video]

December 14, 2011 – 4:06 pm

In addition to our suggestions for 12 gifts that give back, there’s a gorgeous new book on the shelves called Science on Ice, by Chris Linder. It’s the story of four scientific expeditions to the polar regions—and the video above previews the first chapter, on the life of Antarctica’s Adelie Penguins. In addition to Linder’s descriptions, the video features a few comments from yours truly (including my description of what a colony of 500,000 penguins smells like). I was the lucky science writer who got to accompany Linder to Antarctica in 2007 and in 2011, and I wrote the Science on Ice chapter about penguins.

The book tells the story of scientific research at the extremes of the earth: at the southernmost penguin colony in the world; during spring thaw in the Bering Sea; in the unexplored depths of the Arctic Ocean; and amid the blue lakes and rushing moulins that sit atop the Greenland ice sheet. It’s a picture book, stuffed from cover to cover with Linder’s signature photos, which are at once beautiful and insightful in their illustration of scientists at work in their surroundings.

But it’s also a detailed telling of science and nature, with each chapter recounted by the science writer who accompanied Linder and the scientists into the field (freelancer Helen Fields, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution writers Lonny Lippsett and Amy Nevala). In the telling, they recapture some of the spirit of adventure that still inspires scientists, but that seems to have vanished from the stereotype of white-coated men wielding beakers.

We hope Science on Ice helps recalibrate that image. And if the taste of wildness—or the odor of penguins—inspires a few young people to pursue science themselves, so much the better. We’ll look for them in Linder’s next set of photos.

(To learn more about the journey, visit the Polar Discovery website or like Science on Ice on Facebook to see extra photos and footage.)

By admin | Posted in Antarctica, Birds, products, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged Adelie Penguin, Antarctica, arctic, Birds, birdwatching, Chris Linder, fieldwork, penguins, science, travel, video | Comments (0)

12 Ideas for Birdy Gifts That Give Back, From $2

December 12, 2011 – 7:30 pm

As you’re making your lists and checking them twice, consider holiday gifts that give twice—thoughtful gifts that are fun to receive and also help birds by supporting conservation, research, and education here at the Cornell Lab. We’ve put together a varied list of gift suggestions—from apps on your phone to trips into the field—that will delight nature lovers. A win-win!

1. Bird Apps from $1.99
Find more birds with BirdsEye, enhance your knowledge with the Cornell Lab Bird Q&A, or discover 24 North American birds in 4 games for kids with My Bird World.

2. The Birds of North America Online $5 or $42
A boundless gift for anyone who loves to learn more about birds. $5 stocking stuffer (30-day subscription) or $42 for an entire year.

3. Bird Cards That Sing $7.99
Open these colorful greeting cards to hear authentic bird sounds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library.

4. Birds & Beans Coffee from $11.70
Your purchase supports organic shade-grown coffee farms in Latin America that give shelter and sustenance to more than 60 species of migratory birds, including thrushes, warblers, and tanagers. $11.70 and up. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Birds, conservation, Uncategorized, what you can do | Tagged Birds, books, citizen science, conservation, gift ideas, holidays | Comments (0)

Teachers and students in Mexico and the U.S. connect over birds

December 7, 2011 – 3:47 pm

On a recent trip in Jalisco, Mexican and U.S. teachers planned to connect their science classes so their students can share in learning about birds.

If a half-ounce songbird can visit eastern North America’s woods and Mexico’s tropical forests in a single year, why shouldn’t the students who study them—at least virtually? The Cornell Lab’s director of education, Nancy Trautmann, just returned from a visit to Mexico where teachers laid the groundwork for having students from both countries share what they know about their homes as they learn about birds and science. Here’s her story:

Children today are our planet’s hope for the future, but only if they grow up with an interest in nature and a sense of responsibility for the environment. In our Crossing Boundaries project, we aim for students to gain global perspectives on nature and conservation. One strategy is by connecting U.S. and Mexican classrooms, giving students the chance to send projects back and forth or even hold videoconferences over the Internet.

As part of this effort, I recently traveled in Jalisco, Mexico, with two New York teachers, Roberta Palmiotto and Jamie Hefti. We visited classrooms, met teachers, and talked about connecting distant students through talking about birds and teaching each other about their local species and issues.

We’ve found that when students share their work with peers, they stop worrying so much about getting a good grade and focus instead on relevant, real-world communication. Teachers have long used classroom pen pals as a way to bridge cultures and inspire students, but the Internet has made that approach more powerful than ever. Two years ago, our BirdSleuth project helped middle school students in Florida and Oregon peer review each other’s science projects. We’re hoping soon to be able to do something similar with Mexican classrooms, getting the students talking about and studying bird species that we share across countries and others that are unique to one setting or the other. Read More »

By admin | Posted in Birds, conservation, education, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged Birds, BirdSleuth, Crossing Boundaries, education, Jalisco, Jamie Hefti, Mexico, Nancy Trautmann, Roberta Palmiotto, students | Comments (3)

Cornell Artist’s “Lost Bird Project” Comes to the Screen

November 30, 2011 – 4:56 pm

An art project memorializing five extinct species has been made into a feature-length film that will be shown in New York City on Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. The Lost Bird Project consists of five sleek bronze sculptures, each as tall as a person. Conceived and created by Todd McGrain, a sculptor and Cornell University art professor, they stand as memorials to loss as well as reminders of our ability to change the world.

The five pieces—a Great Auk, Passenger Pigeon, Labrador Duck, Carolina Parakeet, and Heath Hen—stood in the Cornell Lab’s Morgens Observatory for part of 2009 before McGrain embarked on a quest to place each sculpture near the spot where the species was last seen in the wild. That quest is the subject of the new film (see the trailer, above), which casts the loss of extinction against the artist’s determination to see his vision through—a neat and ultimately hopeful parallel to the resolve that’s required of conservationists.

I was there when the sculptures were installed at the Cornell Lab—I even helped move one or two of the 500-pound pieces into their final position. Walking up to them, you can look right into their eyes; their smooth curves invite you to make contact with them, to touch extinction; their flat black finish reminds us that the details of these birds are gone forever, and this revives the thought that with enough effort, we can make sure the birds we have left in the world keep their brightness and motion. It’s this thought, and the sculptures’ mute but somehow reassuring presence, that manages to give the project an air of hope.

If you’re in New York City this Friday evening, Dec. 2, the free screening will be held at the SVA Theater at 333 West 23rd St. A reception begins at 7:00 and the film starts at 7:30. Click here to register for a ticket.

By admin | Posted in Birds, conservation | Tagged art, Birds, Carolina Parakeet, conservation, film, Great Auk, Heath Hen, Labrador Duck, Lost Bird Project, Passenger Pigeon, sculpture, Todd McGrain | Comments (3)

Great Backyard Bird Count Photo Winners Announced

November 28, 2011 – 10:37 pm

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a continent-spanning attempt to count birds over a single weekend in February that draws nearly 100,000 checklists from bird watchers all over the U.S. and Canada. People also send us thousands of pictures for our annual photo contest, which is sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited and Droll Yankees.

Once again this year the photos were stunning, from an elegant American Tree Sparrow to an acrobatic, snake-snatching Red-shouldered Hawk. Our judges have now made their choices and we are delighted to present the 2011 winners and runners-up, chosen from nearly 6,000 images submitted. The photos are beautiful, and the data from all those checklists help scientists get a picture of bird populations across North America.

This year’s overall winner is Lesley Mattuchio with her American Tree Sparrow image (above, with the other four winners in the Overall category). We judge photos in five other categories, too. This year the winners were:

Habitat: Norm Dougan, British Columbia
Group: Jeannette Tasey, Montana
Behavior: Harold Izenwasser, Florida
People: Donna Salko, Pennsylvania
Composition: Cathy Willis, Texas

Visit the GBBC website to see the top five photos in each of the six categories (my own favorite is the Red-breasted Nuthatch raiding Douglas-fir cones). This annual announcement also serves as a reminder that the 2012 GBBC is less than three months away. Mark your calendars now for Feb. 17–20!

Congratulations to all the finalists and to everyone who took the time to send us photos. Thanks to Wild Birds Unlimited and Droll Yankees for donating great prizes. The bar has been set very high—we look forward to your lenswork for the 2012 GBBC!

(Images are the winners in the Overall category of the 2011 Great Backyard Bird Count photo contest: American Tree Sparrow by Lesley Mattuchio, Common Poorwill by Allan J. Sander, Northern Saw-whet Owl by Nick Saunders, Northern Flicker by Gary Mueller, Pine Grosbeak by Norm Dougan. Visit the GBBC site to see the rest of the winners.)