a review by Rosemary McKinnon In 2018 I visited an old school friend in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The weather was auspicious and we decided to take a boat to the offshore islands of Skomer and Skokholm. Puffins were returning to nest in their burrows after spending the winter feeding in the mid-Atlantic. Gannets and skuas circled…

By Denny Olson In what now seems like a geologic epoch ago, I was going to graduate school on a teaching assistantship, working summers at my first interpretive naturalist job in a Minnesota state park. The park’s main attraction was a beautiful gorge with rapids and waterfalls, but there was also an 8,000 acre wild…

by Cindy and Tom Roberts, Flathead Audubon Education Committee Co-Chairs In the works!  The Flathead Audubon Conservation Educator, Denny Olson, is in the process of converting a number of power point presentations that he has shared with local students to stand-alone, audio-narrated presentations that teachers can share with students. These video/audio presentations will include: Cranes…

by Cindy and Tom Roberts, Flathead Audubon Education Committee Co-Chairs Available Now!  The Flathead Audubon Education Committee and our conservation educator, Denny Olson, have had to retool how we provide educational opportunities to the public.  As announced in previous articles, Denny, with the help of committee members, created three videos encompassing the most significant ideas…

by Denny Olson In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to take our Conservation Education Program in a “virtually” entertaining direction, with a both light-hearted and serious video series, with our primary bird education messages front and center.  Professor Avian Guano, Bir.D. is our eccentric, slightly off-the-wall narrator — doing his own brand of “edu-tainment”…

By Denny Olson “Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine down on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other — no matter how difficult…

by Denny Olson You have heard a lot of us Audubon-types referring to the 29% drop in North American bird numbers in the last 50 years. We have also mentioned that we think climate change is real, and because of it, our grandchildren may be missing somewhere between 26 and 63 bird species in the…

by Denny Olson Our COVID-cancelled Birds of Prey Festival — which has often gathered 800-plus people on a single day, was spread this year over a week, with smaller, or virtual, groups gathered for educational events. Kathy Ross did two small-group presentations with live birds at Wild Wings (see page 4). Montana Audubon’s Amy Seaman…