Taking Us To High Places

National Wildlife, Feb-March, 1999

Les Line has been fascinated with bird migration and seasonal changes in avian populations ever since the early 1960s, when he first volunteered to band birds attracted to his feeders in Michigan. "The more I learned, the more amazed I was by the abilities of these small creatures," says Line, who for 25 years served as editor of Audubon magazine. "One little tree sparrow from the Arctic arrived at my house on the same date three years in a row."

Today, the fascination continues for Line, who is now a field editor for National Wildlife. "Our knowledge of bird movements and where they go when they leave their nesting places is increasing at a phenomenal pace," he says. "Who would have thought three de- cades ago that we would be tracking those movements from outer space?"

As Line explains in this issue's article "How to Spy on an Albatross," satellites and tiny transmitters are increasingly helping scientists solve many of the mysteries regarding birds. "You could say that satellites are taking the science of ornithology to new heights," quips the upstate New York-based writer.

Another New Yorker, Ralph Ginzburg, took himself to a high place to photograph a peregrine falcon for the article "Why Birds Love the Big Apple." The 70-year-old photojournalist ventured to the top floor of a 59-story Manhattan skyscraper that was adjacent to a building where the raptor was nesting. Then, leaning out a window with his camera, he waited until the bird took to the air.

"To photograph the world's fastest-flying bird, I used ultra high speed film and a camera that was equipped with a super-fast motor drive," says Ginzburg, whose collection of images appears in his new book, I Shot New York. "Even then, I had only a nanosecond to get the bird just right." To see the results of his efforts.