The Roots of Bird Conservation in Penn’s Woods

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on The Roots of Bird Conservation in Penn’s Woods   Native naturalists and immigrant ornithologists who began their celebrated careers in Penn’s Woods played a pivotal role in establishing America’s enduring romance with the continent’s fabled feathered tribes. Their fieldwork and studies also helped assemble and strengthen the natural science from which bird conservation emerged in the United States. Birdsong, species diversity and the...
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Editor’s Letter

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Editor’s Letter As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, we continue our series of articles on Pennsylvania in the American Revolution. Three features in this edition focus on individuals of the era and their contributions to the new nation. British emigrant Thomas Paine arrived in Philadelphia in November 1774 and soon began working as the editor of Pennsylvania Magazine. In January 1776, he...
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Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Posted by on Mar 17, 2023 in | Comments Off on Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is a 2,600-acre forested conservation area in eastern Pennsylvania run by the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association for ornithological education and research. Located on the border of Berks and Schuylkill counties at the crest of the Kittatinny Ridge, the sanctuary is on one of the world’s largest migratory flyways for raptors and other bird species. The Lenape Indians who...
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John James Audubon by Gregory Nobles

Posted by on Aug 22, 2017 in | 0 comments John James Audubon The Nature of the American Woodsman by Gregory Nobles University of Pennsylvania Press, 330 pp., cloth $34.95, The 10 chapters of this excellent book review the life and times of John James Audubon (1785–1851) in a refreshingly honest manner, detailing Audubon’s development as a brilliant bird artist and scientist and, most importantly, his careful creation of an image of...
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Biographer of the Feathered Tribes: Alexander Wilson and American Ornithology

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Biographer of the Feathered Tribes: Alexander Wilson and American Ornithology “As it has fallen to my lot to be the biographer of the feathered tribes of the United States,” Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) wrote to William Bartram (1739–1823) on August 4, 1809, “I am solicitous to do full justice to every species; and I would not conceal one good quality that any one of them possesses.” At the age of 43 Wilson – weaver, peddler, poet, teacher and...
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Baird of the Smithsonian

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Baird of the Smithsonian “You see sir, I have taken (after much hesitation) the liberty of writing to you. I am but a boy, and very inexperienced, as you no doubt will observe from my description of the Flycatcher.” In this way, young Spencer Fullerton Baird, seventeen years of age, introduced himself by letter to John James Audubon. His accurate description and measurements of the flycatcher enabled Audubon...
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John James Audubon, Squire of Mill Grove and Genius of Art and Science

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on John James Audubon, Squire of Mill Grove and Genius of Art and Science In Pennsylvania, a beautiful state … , my father, in his desire to prove my friend through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful “planta­tion,” refreshed during the summer heat by the waters of the Schuylkill River, and traversed by a creek named Perkioming. Its fine woodlands, its extensive acres, its fields crowned with evergreens, offered many subjects to my pencil....
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