The Best Writing from Audubon’s Owl Expert

Environmental writer Scott Weidensaul's decades-long career has produced some of the best bird writing in the business—not only has he written extensively for Audubon and National Wildlife, he's also authored a Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds. Out in the field, Weidensaul is one of the biggest owl experts in the Western Hemisphere: He founded an extensive project that bands, tracks, and monitors Snowy Owls every winter, and recently published an exhaustive guide to owls of North America and the Caribbean. On November 4, Weidensaul received Audubon New York's Inaugural Audubon Award for Environmental Writing for his continued effort to preserve birds and their ecosystems through science and journalism.

In honor of his award, here are some of our favorite stories he’s contributed to Audubon over the years:

In Awe of Avians

Weidensaul responds to the staggering question, "Why do birds matter?" in graceful fashion:

"Even the smallest bird is a miracle that needs no further vindication or defense—which by its very existence demands our attention and respect. Remember this: Each of the birds that makes the leap into the void is a treasure. Remember this: There are no trash birds. Every one of the hundreds of virtually identical immature Sharp-shinned Hawks that comes down the ridge on a long, cold October day; each of the innumerable Song Sparrows sulking in the hedgerow like brown mice; every single one of the great horde of mud-gray Semipalmated Sandpipers out on that shimmering tidal flat, as alike as photocopies—every damned one of them is of great and surpassing worth."

The Grand Return of the Snowy Owl

The owl man defines a natural phenomenon that has stunned bird lovers and sparked new research on the elusive Snowy Owl:

"By now it was dark. A nearly full moon shining through high clouds cast everything in silver light as we walked the owl out through the loblolly pine forest and into the dunes, the sound of waves crashing in the darkness not far ahead. 'Okay, guy, show us what you can do,' Lanzone said to the owl, lofting him into the air. Two flaps of the powerful wings and he was gone, enveloped by the twilight."

Saving the Southern Wetlands

In this piece, Weidensaul framed the worst oil spill in U.S. history as a reason to recommit to the environment:

"The Deepwater Horizon spill was just the latest and most blatant assault on this region, which for decades has been beset by wetlands loss, overfishing, barrier island erosion, and hypoxic “dead zones” created by agricultural runoff. Yet the spill could—paradoxically—mark a turning point. In 2012 legislation known as the RESTORE Act was signed into law, creating a federal-state oversight council and mandating that the billions of dollars from penalties levied against BP and its contractors under the Clean Water Act be spent on environmental and economic restoration in the five Gulf states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. "

Oh, the Places Birds Go

Weidensaul reveals his dogged fascination with the secret world of bird migration:

"Last August a female Whimbrel took off from the treeless tundra of Southampton Island, which guards the iceberg-choked entrance to Hudson Bay in the Canadian subarctic, and set a course southeast. Long-limbed and gray-brown, she was the size of a small duck, bearing the field marks that make this shorebird instantly identifiable—dark stripes on the crown of her head, and a long, thin, drooping crescent of a bill. It gives the Whimbrel its genus name: Numenius, Greek for 'new moon.' "