Front side of tri-fold sheet. Have you ever heard Snowy Owls described as “friendly”? One of my favorites, the Kestrel, made the cover.
We enjoy a lot of raptor sightings during these bleak winter months, but it has been a struggle for decades to save these birds from extermination. (For more details, see my “Tales From the Library” BAS blog post #3 from 2018, “From Rejection to Protection“) Our Audubon chapter has always supported every effort to help birds of prey, both here and abroad.
Note the last line! We must have hamburgers, at all costs!
In 1970, National Audubon’s annual convention was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and some of our members attended. This flyer was collected at that event, and preserved in our scrapbooks. I thought it deserved viewing as a poignant reminder of how lucky we are to have any raptors left at all! And you can see that we are still struggling with many of the issues raised in this wonderful little brochure.
Some of its best lines: “More guns and modern transportation account for an increasing number of dead and crippled birds…population pressures destroy needed habitat. Non-degradable pesticides add the finishing touches…Education of the “trigger happy” youth with his rifle, the irresponsible hunter who must bag anything that flies is needed…”. YOUR COOPERATION PLEASE!
-Elizabeth Stoakes, BAS Historian