How your backyard feeders can help migrating and wintering birds this autumn As fall migration gets underway, backyard birders sometimes wonder: Should I take down my feeders? Could all that easy food convince birds not to migrate? Migration burns an amazing amount of energy. Birds traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles need to put on fat before leaving and replenish those reserves whenever they get the opportunity. Migration is driven mainly by ingrained natural cues

A legendary bird illustrator passes away In My Wild Life, my recent memoir, I chronicled the many influential figures in my life. One of those icons, Guy Tudor, recently passed away, leaving behind a legacy of bird and wildlife illustration. Guy was the first person to paint all South American birds. He illustrated the first field guides to the birds of Venezuela and Colombia along with major handbooks on all the songbirds of South America. He was also formed and hosted the N

Fifty years of data reveals a warning for us all Removing Garlic Mustard to help birds, bugs, and native forests thrive. On a still summer morning on Squam Lake, the sound arrives before anything else: a long, wavering wail. It is unmistakably the Common Loon —one of North America's most ancient and recognizable birds. With its jet-black head, dagger-sharp bill, and boldly checkered back, the loon carries an air of prehistoric authority. Squam Lake, nestled among the foothill

A spring tradition with muddy boots included Removing Garlic Mustard to help birds, bugs, and native forests thrive. By Peter Alden For the past five years, I have helped the Concord Department of Natural Resources map infestations of Garlic Mustard along all 100 miles of roads in Concord. Invasive plants are becoming one of the greatest ecological threats in New England, and I have watched their spread accelerate dramatically over my lifetime. These mostly Eurasian plants we

An excerpt from Peter Alden's memoir: My Wild Life On one shore excursion, when we noticed a huge polar bear watching us from around a large rock we had to quickly load into our zodiacs. Around the early 1970s, I began organizing a large number of bird and mammal safaris in Africa. The part of the continent that most intrigued me was the southern region, where bird tours were virtually nonexistent, but the politics of promoting tourism in that area were problematic. The count

An excerpt from Peter Alden's memoir: My Wild Life On one shore excursion, when we noticed a huge polar bear watching us from around a large rock we had to quickly load into our zodiacs. Popular culture has presented attractive images of both the Arctic and Antarctica—with the result that many people sign up for cruises to one or the other not even knowing the difference. Some expect to see polar bears in Antarctica, which they will not; and penguins in the Arctic, also an im

Photos and Field Trip Notes Great Meadows, Woodcock, and Dinner Talk, March 28, 2026 An intrepid group of Spark Birders led by Peter Alden and Lillian Stokes braved a cold, clear, but beautiful late afternoon and evening to find ducks and woodcocks. We started at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, which was cock-full of newly arrived Red-winged Blackbirds whose singing males posed on cattails every 1/4 acre staking out their territories, ever hopeful that soon-arriving f

An excerpt from Peter Alden's memoir: My Wild Life, Chapter 8 Macaws in Peru's Manu National Park lick and eat clay from riverbank "collpas" primarily to detoxify their diet of poisonous seeds and to obtain essential sodium, which is scarce in their diet. My first book, Finding Birds in Western Mexico , was published in 1969. The illustrator was a young ornithologist and artist from Louisiana State University named John O’Neill. Working on that project together, I got to know