Northern Flicker. Courtesy of Gary Mueller (rights reserved). National Audubon Society

Audubon Magazine’s  entire March/April issue addresses the question of why birds make a difference – from the practical to the philosophical – in a terrific series of pieces.

E.O. Wilson wrote an entire book Biophilia on why we love wild things. He was spot on!

My personal favorite in the issue  is Mission of Mercy by Thomas Urquhart on how he found a gannet tangled in fishline and scooped it up. It’s a story with a happy ending — read on and enjoy.

His story reminded me of a rescue that my husband and I performed one fall on the Susquehanna River (in Pennsylvania).  A female wild duck was shoreside, tangled in fishline with a hook piercing the breathing hole in her beak. She could not move, and surely would have starved to death.  We ran to my dad’s tool shed and got a pair of metal-cutting pliers. It was a mighty struggle – we had no gloves, and she resisted the two of us every step of the way. We snipped through the hook, got the entangling fishline off her, and she took flight. An important reminder to everyone who fishes – clean up after yourself!

Link to the March/April 2013 issue (all articles) 

Mission of Mercy by Thomas Urquhart (article)

E.O. Wilson on Biophilia (PBS)

Cover of Audubon Magazine March 2013