This week’s SI cover is out and it features … Seals in the Pacific. Oh wait, that was Feb. 1958. My bad. twitter.com/si_vault/statu…

— Andy Gray (@si_vault) April 24, 2012

Gray’s tone betrayed a pretty common assumption: ‘Nature isn’t sports. That’s ridiculous!’

But SI, long the standard-bearer of American fandom, didn’t always feel that way. This was something I knew vaguely, having perused old-timey back issues as a kid, but I never tried to quantify it until today.

At its 1954 inception, Sports Illustrated recognized that getting out and interacting with nature could be sport—in fact, it represented some of our most hallowed sports traditions. That first year, three of the magazine’s 20 issues featured outdoor activities on the cover, including two wildlife-only covers (for our purposes, I counted anything involving hunting, fishing, hiking, birdwatching and general wilderness exploration as an ‘outdoors’ cover. Skiing, sailboat racing, bike racing and the like were left out since they do sometimes rate significant media coverage nowadays and are more structured…and because it’s my admittedly arbitrary system).

Throughout the 1950s, nature shared cover time with baseball, football and boxing. Between 1954 and 1959, SI averaged five nature covers per year, including nine in 1958. Standouts included this 1955 bird-watching cover, which could easily pass for a ‘wonders of biodiversity’ mural, a Chukar Partridge (“Six Pages of Game Birds in Color”) and the seals pictured above.

A TV-Driven Shift?

In the 1960s, things started to change. There were still three nature covers in 1963, but from that point on, the decade featured just two—one being 1965′s power boating feature, which I included with some hesitation only because it includes the line “the most luxurious fishing machine.” It seems that as television was becoming more ingrained in the American consciousness, and its signature sport—football—was exploding in popularity, our conception of sport took a distinctly couch-bound turn. More and more, the sports that SI was illustrating were highly structured activities performed by other people.

True, this cover DOES feature ducks...but not wildlife. SI covers featuring the outdoors have almost disappeared since the 1950s. (flickr | Sports Illustrated)

Children ages 3-12 spend 1% of their time outdoors, and 27 % of their time just watching TV. A recent report from Common Sense Media (PDF ) found that more than half of all American children between the ages of 0-8 now have access to one of the newer mobile devices at home, and nearly one-third have a TV in their bedroom. Overall, it indicates that ‘screen time’ is higher than ever for kids (as has been mentioned frequently here, that shift carries myriad consequences, from increased likelihood of poor eyesight to heart disease). Given all this, is it any wonder that televised stars like Brett Favre have replaced brook trout in the popular imagination?

Remembering Our Outdoor Heritage

What’s important to note is that outdoor recreation isn’t dead in America—not by a long shot. In fact, according to the 2012 Outdoor Recreation participation Topline Report, 2011 saw outdoor recreation (which includes fishing, hunting, birdwatching, et al.) among Americans at the highest participation level in the last five years.

And yet, to quote my colleague Miles Grant, “can you imagine Sports Illustrated ever putting wildlife on the cover today? Today, unless it takes place in designated arenas laden with ads that we drive to, it’s not a real sport.”

Sports Illustrated has seemingly confirmed that: since the year 1986, outdoors or nature have not been featured on the cover even once. It may be time to shift our idea of  recreation so that it includes both the Chicago Blackhawks and the Common Black-Hawk once again. If we return to thinking of the outdoors as ‘sports,’ it may help even more Americans see our natural places the way they once did—as the greatest stadiums we’ve ever had.

UPDATE:

After I bothered Andy Gray with a link to this post, he responded:

@MaxTGreenberg @SInow thought you did a great job with this story. I’ll show the boss. Maybe he’ll be up for a wildlife cover.

— Andy Gray (@si_vault) April 26, 2012

My sincerest thanks go to @si_vault for paying attention and running the ‘wildlife’ cover idea up the chain. Stay tuned—maybe someday soon we’ll see wild bison sharing cover space with the Buffalo Bills (though the latter might be more far-fetched).

My daughter and I went to see the “sky dance of the American woodcock.” Here is a video about our adventure:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sky Dance Made Famous by Aldo Leopold

Conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote about the sky dance of the American woodcock in his book, A Sand County Almanac. He called the “meep” sounds “peents.” Here is his description of what we saw:

Up and up he goes, the spirals steeper and smaller, the twittering louder and louder, until the performer is only a speck in the sky. Then, without warning, he tumbles like a crippled plane, giving voice in a soft liquid warble that a March bluebird might envy. At a few feet from the ground he levels off and returns to his peenting ground, usually to the exact spot where the performance began, and there resumes his peenting.

Facts about the American woodcock

• Its Latin name is Scolopax minor and some people call it the timberdoodle.
• It looks like a sandpiper – very short and round with a very long beak.
• It lives in swampy areas where it can easily pick out earthworms from the soil.
• The naturalists said its large eyes are located behind its ears, which allows it to see all around.

Thank you to the Environmental Studies on the Piedmont and the Bull Run Mountains Conservancy for hosting this event! An extra special thank you to naturalist Dr. Tom Wood, who is in this video. He was very patient with the children and made them feel at home in nature.

Look for naturalist-lead events near you with our Nature Find tool.

Report your wildlife sightings with our Wildlife Watch program.

National Wildlife Federation’s Storytelling Video Diary Series shares the candid tales of nine NWF staffers from around the country; armed with their cameras in the Great Lakes, California, South Dakota, the Pacific Northwest, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC, these nine staffers will share with you their individual trials, epiphanies and stories as they unfold in their daily adventures.

I read to my kids each night, but this week, we read a book that really made a difference to us.

Wild Wings by Gill Lewis

My friend Helen took this photo near Sanibel Island, located off the west coast of Florida.

How an Osprey Brought Our Family Together

I started reading this book to my daughter Nora. Nearby, my husband and son worked on a puzzle. Often I read one book to Nora and one to my son Russell because they like different topics. But this time, the book was so interesting; soon I could see that all of them were listening.

The evenings passed. It has never happened that all four of us were completely enthralled with a book, and it felt very cozy. We would sit in the living room with only a few lamps on, feeling warm in the winter night.

We came to the final chapters. There was a part that was particularly moving (which I won’t give away) and I felt tears come to my eyes. I looked up at my husband and there were tears in his eyes too. I cry easily, but it was surprising to see this on my husband’s face. My kids were looking back and forth between us. I managed to read the book to the end.

When we looked at each other, this pause felt like a different type of “wildlife moment.” Our family spends time outside and cultivates our love of nature. But I realized this moment was special in its own way. Children remember and internalize values when their parents show vulnerability or pause. Life can be a rush of tasks and decisions. That look across our family told the perfect unspoken story.

Here is a related quote that I love:

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other is wings.” — Hodding Carter, Jr.

I would suggest reading the book Wild Wings, or more importantly, slow down with those you love. It’s winter, it’s time to snuggle.

Osprey Activities for Your Family

• Purchase Wild Wings through this link and support National Wildlife Federation.
• Download this coloring page and fact sheet about ospreys.
• Check out this Ranger Rick Adventure comic when he learns about ospreys in the Everglades.
• At my kids’ school, the grade five class is watching osprey migrations via the DFYI Osprey project.
• Get tips on watching birds of prey during Hawk Watch each fall.
• Download this activity worksheet about birds of prey.
• Purchase a bird watching kit from National Wildlife Federation and support our work.

How NWF is Helping Ospreys:

• Chesapeake Bay- NWF works to protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, home to many ospreys.
• Gulf of Mexico – NWF works to address the BP Oil Spill in osprey habitat such as Bon Secour Refuge.
• Michigan – NWF works to address the Enbridge oil spill, which affected osprey habitat.
• North Carolina – NWF certified a Community Wildlife Habitat where they built osprey platforms.
• Tribal Lands – NWF’s Tribal Lands program works with tribes to protect osprey habitat, such as the White Mountain Apache.

What You Can Do for Ospreys:

Ospreys rely on healthy waterways for their diet of fish. Take action to protect America’s waterways for ospreys and other water-loving wildlife.

Information about Ospreys:

• Read this National Wildlife article about the status of ospreys in North America.
• The Red Lake Band of the Chippewa has made conserving wildlife and habitat one of its top priorities, including osprey habitat.

Osprey Photos from the 2011 National Wildlife^® Photo Contest

See more osprey photos from the photo contest.

Photo by Anne Senft

To catch up on this blog series, please read My Messy Garden Part I and Part II.

Oh, how I love the birds that visit the feeder on my deck!

Oh, how I hate the “love” they leave for me to clean up!

I’m a neat freak. So, when the mourning doves arrive in droves, I know my deck will receive a natural, but unwelcome “whitewashing”. And, to add insult to injury, the blue jays insist on nicking up the wood railing in their aggressive attempts to open seeds with their beaks.

Birds also have their own ideas on what plants should be added to our garden. While they might point their accusatory wings at the wind (and, they would be partially right), it’s likely that some of the weeds in our backyard can be blamed on the seed dispersing skills of these clever avians.

Ok, ok.  I’m not really angry at the birds for the chaos they leave behind.  To be honest, I’m a little jealous. Can I sing like a goldfinch?  Dance like a hummingbird?  Turn heads like a cardinal?  No, no and no.

I can’t do any of those things.  But, I can sit and enjoy all of our feathered friends when they visit me on a lazy Sunday morning. And, as we celebrate this last stretch of Garden for Wildlife Month, I can stop and reflect on the constant joy they have brought me over the years.

Let’s face it.  I can clean the deck next weekend.  It will probably rain by then anyway.

It’s not too late! Learn how to attract birds and other wildlife to your backyard and create a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat^® site today! >>

An American robin feeds its chicks in northwestern Ohio's Magee Marsh. Photo by Robert Palmer.

It’s finally spring, and no bird symbolizes springtime quite like the American robin. As the soil warms up across much of the country, robins by the dozens are hopping across farm fields and suburban lawns feasting on earthworms that have been dormant for months.

In fact, in most parts of North America, robins are present year round. During winter, the popular backyard birds retreat to forests, where they feed on a variety of fruits and berries and roost together in large numbers. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, their winter roosts can contain up to a quarter-million birds.

Harbingers of Spring

Come spring, robins emerge from the woods and begin running across lawns, golf courses, agricultural fields and other open areas, energetically hunting down worms and other invertebrate prey. The birds also start singing in springtime and compete for breeding territories, pair up, mate and build their nests. While one pair of robins can produce three broods in a year, on average only 40 percent of the birds’ nests successfully yield young.

Widely considered birds of towns and suburbs, American robins also are at home in wild shrub lands, pine forests, deciduous woodlands, mountain forests and tundra.

Robins and Global Warming

American robins are among many species already being affected by climate change. One study conducted at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory found that the birds are arriving at this high-altitude breeding ground about two weeks earlier than they did in the late 1970s, apparently in response to warmer temperatures in their low-altitude winter habitat.

But because conditions at the 9,662-foot biological laboratory have not changed as rapidly as in the lowlands, many robins now show up while snow still covers the ground. This means the birds must wait before beginning to feed and breed—a delay that could decrease production and survival of offspring.

Voice: Song is a series of two or three modulated whistles broken by brief pauses, often remembered as cheery cheerily cheery-up, repeated for hours. Common calls are a low tup or a higher, emphatic teep, sometimes in rapid series.

Backyard Tips: Robins do not eat birdseed, but they will feed on fruit such as blueberries, raisins or chopped apples if placed on tray feeders. Better yet, plant native trees and shrubs that produce berries; these plants also will provide shelter and potential nesting sites. Because robins forage on lawns, they are particularly vulnerable to predation by domestic cats and pesticide poisoning.

Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America and “Out of Sync” by Laura Tangley, National Wildlife, April/May 2005.

Make your yard inviting to robins and other birds by creating an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Learn more about how global warming is affecting wildlife.

The green jay is a striking bird that ranges from the southern tip of Texas to Bolivia. Photo by James Hyden.

Whenever I find the time to travel, I tend to head for the Tropics, in part to enjoy the exotic and unfamiliar birdlife. Four years ago, however, I spotted in a dense thicket one of the most exotic-looking birds I’ve ever seen—right here in the continental United States.

Colorfully clad in shades of brilliant blue, green and yellow, trimmed with a neat black mask and bib, the bird hopped energetically from branch to branch beneath the shade of a Texas ebony at the Valley Nature Center in Weslaco, Texas. Checking a field guide confirmed that the bird, a green jay, was indeed a tropical species that ranges as far south as Bolivia. In the United States, it is found only in the southernmost tip of Texas.

There are two distinct populations of green jays separated by 900 miles. The first extends from just north of Texas’s Rio Grande River south to central Honduras. The second stretches from Colombia and Venezuela through Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, South American green jays are larger, differently marked and colored—and may turn out to be a separate species.

The two groups of birds also differ in social behavior. In Texas, green jays live in flocks made up of a breeding pair, the current year’s nestlings and one-year-old, non-breeding adults from the prior year’s nest. While these nonbreeding jays assist in guarding the flock’s territory, they do not help feed their younger siblings. After the nestlings fledge, the parents expel the previous year’s offspring from the flock.

In South America—or at least Colombia, where the birds have been studied—the jays stay with their parents for several years, and they do bring food to nestlings. Green jays feed on arthropods, small vertebrates, fruit and seeds.

Voice: A harsh ji-ji-ji-ji and shk-shk-shk-shk, reminiscent of blue and Stellar’s jays.

Backyard Tips: Although they tend to be shy, green jays will readily visit bird-feeding stations that offer fruit or seeds.

Travel Tips: Visiting southern Texas, particularly the Lower Rio Grande Valley (or “Texas Tropics”) is a great way to see tropical birds without leaving the United States. In addition to green jays, common sightings include Altamira orioles, plain chachalacas, great kiskadees and buff-bellied hummingbirds. Living at the northern limits of their ranges, most of these species occur nowhere else in the country.

Sources: “Birding in the Texas Tropics” by Laura Tangley, National Wildlife, February/March 2007; Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Make your yard inviting to birds and other wildlife by turning it into an NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat.

An adult gray jay, also known as the "whiskey jack" or "camp robber." Photo by Minette Layne.

The gray jay is a widespread inhabitant of boreal and sub-alpine forests across the northern United States and Canada. This bold and frequently tame songbird is as much an icon of northern forests as is the moose or the wolf.

Campers visiting popular recreational areas such as the Adirondacks, Green Mountains or White Mountains are no doubt familiar with the gray jay, which is well known for audacious attempts to nab food from humans. A permanent resident of many campgrounds, the big gray bird is so daring that it often takes food from a human hand—not to mention stealing it off picnic tables or even from inside of tents. One of the species’ nicknames, in fact, is  ”camp robber.” Another is “whiskey jack,” said to come from the Algonquin Indian name for a mischievous forest spirit.

Procuring food—a lot of food—and storing it for lean times is key to the species’ success. Unlike most birds, which migrate south or simply hunker down for the winter, the gray jay begins its breeding season as early as February. This month, on well-hidden nests surrounded by snow, some females already are sitting on clutches: three or four pale, green, speckled eggs.

These early breeders maintain themselves with stored food collected during summer and fall —up to 50 pounds per robin-sized bird. Their fare of choice? Insects, berries, mushrooms and bits of flesh picked from animal carcasses.

Though still common throughout much of their range, a long-term study has found that gray jays are declining in Canada’s Algonquin Provincial Park. Over the past 25 years, the birds’ population has dropped by half. Some park habitat that once supported breeding jays is now abandoned.

Scientists suspect global warming is the cause. Annual air temperature in the park has been increasing by about 0.7 degrees F. per decade. That may be just enough to cause the birds’ perishable food to rot. Researchers have found that gray jays lay fewer eggs in winters following particularly warm falls. And jays that have access to artificial food sources—bird feeders—seem to be doing fine.

Backyard Tips: Though they inhabit only a small part of the country, gray jays are common and familiar at backyard feeders many places within their range. They will eat practically anything, whether you want them to or not. Take this summer 2010 posting from the blog of Minnesota’s Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center in Grand Marais:

“Compared with delicate chickadees and songbirds, this fairly large bird is the equivalent of the ‘rude dinner guest’ amongst the birds you’ll commonly find at your feeder in northern Minnesota. If the gray jay has one virtue, it’s that they’re not particularly picky. They’ll eat just about anything: from bird seed to bread crumbs to French fries. More than anything, they’d like to have a bit of whatever you happen to be eating.”

Voice: Some calls resemble the blue jay’s familiar daaaay, but mostly gentler cook calls; groups give chattering and fussing calls.

Sources: “Winter’s Early Birds” by Cynthia Berger, National Wildlife, February/March 2008. Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds, and National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Birds of North America.

Find out how to keep jays and other aggressive birds from dominating your feeders.

Make your yard inviting to birds by turning it into a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Learn more about how global warming is affecting birds and other wildlife.

The sponsors of the event describe it as follows: “The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in cou”nting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds.” To learn more or participate: