National Audubon Society

On Friday, July 7, 2006, SCOTTDOUGLASS "Kniff" KNIFFIN, at age 34, while in Las Vegas, NV; beloved son of James D. Kniffin and the late Diana F. Kniffin; devoted brother of Daryl A. Kniffin; cherished step-son of Patricia D. Kniffin; loving fiance of Cynthia A. Meyersburg. Also survived by other loving family members and friends. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, August 12, 11 A.M. at Sacred Heart Parish, 65 Sacred Heart Lane, Glyndon, MD. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the National Audubon Society, Deptartment W, 700 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

The National Audubon Society has sold a 950-acre wildlife sanctuary it was given on the Eastern Shore to former Anne Arundel County executive Robert A. Pascal, who said Friday he plans to raise organic cattle and hay on part of it. Pascal and Audubon both declined to disclose the purchase price, though state assessment records valued the land and six homes there at $8.5 million. The waterfront estate near Bozman in Talbot County was once a hunting preserve for the DuPont family.

Richard Pough, 99, author of the National Audubon Society's popular bird guides and a tireless advocate for conservation, died Tuesday at his home on Martha's Vineyard of complications from brain cancer. Mr. Pough's training was in chemical engineering, but his lifelong passion was the outdoors. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1926, he volunteered for the night shift at his job at a Texas sulfur processing plant so he could watch Gulf Coast bird migrations by day. One of his first battles came on Hawk Mountain, Pa., where hunters in the 1930s were slaughtering the hawk population as vermin.

The bald eagle is a grand bird, so it made sense that when a young one landed on a Baltimore sidewalk yesterday afternoon and idled for more than an hour, it chose a block in upscale Bolton Hill. There, in the 1300 block of Bolton St., the bird was tended to by an entourage of gawking neighbors who watched over their visitor gingerly, snapping photographs, ensuring that it was not bumped by cars being parked and calling the authorities to see about a rescue. But, after standing still and walking about in a seemingly calm and unperturbed fashion from about 1:30 to 3 p.m., bobbing its head from left to right, the brown-feathered eagle flew away, leaving neighbors and authorities mystified by the bird's visit.

The National Audubon Society has sold a 950-acre wildlife sanctuary it was given on the Eastern Shore to former Anne Arundel County executive Robert A. Pascal, who said Friday he plans to raise organic cattle and hay on part of it. Pascal and Audubon both declined to disclose the purchase price, though state assessment records valued the land and six homes there at $8.5 million. The waterfront estate near Bozman in Talbot County was once a hunting preserve for the DuPont family.

On July 26, 2003, DOROTHY WINDSOR (nee Gladstone); beloved wife of the late Roger Gilbert Windsor Sr. M.D.; devoted mother of Linda W. Siecke of Flemington, NJ, Francis A. Windsor of Durham, NH, and Roger G. Windsor, Jr. of Durham, NC. Also survived by five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held Sunday, 1 P.M. at Pickersgill, 615 Chestnut Avenue, Towson, MD. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Three Arts Club of Homeland, 3 Wyndhurst Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21210 or the National Audubon Society, 700 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9562.

Robert H. Hahn, a former Baltimorean, retired educator and noted bird-watcher who was responsible for counting the birds at the White House during the National Audubon Society's annual Christmas census, died of cancer Sunday at home in Reston, Va. He was 70.Mr. Hahn's passion for bird-watching began during his childhood in Irvington in Southwest Baltimore.In later years, the quiet, bearded, bespectacled man with a scholarly manner often could be found at Dorchester County's Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge or at Lake Roland in Baltimore County or in the back country of northwestern Maine, patiently setting up his telescope and waiting for a particular species of bird to appear.

Tomorrow morning, children will crawl out of bed to watch cartoons, and other people will sleep until noon. But for some, it will be a morning for the birds. Columbia resident Elaine Pardoe, the field trip chairwoman for the Audubon Society of Central Maryland, said she hopes to lure dozens of bird enthusiasts to Howard County's Centennial Park to participate in the National Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count. The count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society and its partner, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will take place nationally, starting today and ending Monday.

Howard County residents in the mood to visit a nature center have to drive somewhere else - there isn't a single one in the burgeoning suburb. But before long, it could have three. As the Howard County Conservancy prepares to build a long-envisioned environmental education building on its Woodstock farm, county officials are seriously discussing the idea of similar centers at the future Blandair Regional Park in east Columbia and the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in west Columbia.

The bald eagle is a grand bird, so it made sense that when a young one landed on a Baltimore sidewalk yesterday afternoon and idled for more than an hour, it chose a block in upscale Bolton Hill. There, in the 1300 block of Bolton St., the bird was tended to by an entourage of gawking neighbors who watched over their visitor gingerly, snapping photographs, ensuring that it was not bumped by cars being parked and calling the authorities to see about a rescue. But, after standing still and walking about in a seemingly calm and unperturbed fashion from about 1:30 to 3 p.m., bobbing its head from left to right, the brown-feathered eagle flew away, leaving neighbors and authorities mystified by the bird's visit.

On Friday, July 7, 2006, SCOTTDOUGLASS "Kniff" KNIFFIN, at age 34, while in Las Vegas, NV; beloved son of James D. Kniffin and the late Diana F. Kniffin; devoted brother of Daryl A. Kniffin; cherished step-son of Patricia D. Kniffin; loving fiance of Cynthia A. Meyersburg. Also survived by other loving family members and friends. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, August 12, 11 A.M. at Sacred Heart Parish, 65 Sacred Heart Lane, Glyndon, MD. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the National Audubon Society, Deptartment W, 700 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

On July 26, 2003, DOROTHY WINDSOR (nee Gladstone); beloved wife of the late Roger Gilbert Windsor Sr. M.D.; devoted mother of Linda W. Siecke of Flemington, NJ, Francis A. Windsor of Durham, NH, and Roger G. Windsor, Jr. of Durham, NC. Also survived by five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held Sunday, 1 P.M. at Pickersgill, 615 Chestnut Avenue, Towson, MD. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Three Arts Club of Homeland, 3 Wyndhurst Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21210 or the National Audubon Society, 700 Broadway, New York, NY 10003-9562.

Howard County residents in the mood to visit a nature center have to drive somewhere else - there isn't a single one in the burgeoning suburb. But before long, it could have three. As the Howard County Conservancy prepares to build a long-envisioned environmental education building on its Woodstock farm, county officials are seriously discussing the idea of similar centers at the future Blandair Regional Park in east Columbia and the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in west Columbia.

Richard Pough, 99, author of the National Audubon Society's popular bird guides and a tireless advocate for conservation, died Tuesday at his home on Martha's Vineyard of complications from brain cancer. Mr. Pough's training was in chemical engineering, but his lifelong passion was the outdoors. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1926, he volunteered for the night shift at his job at a Texas sulfur processing plant so he could watch Gulf Coast bird migrations by day. One of his first battles came on Hawk Mountain, Pa., where hunters in the 1930s were slaughtering the hawk population as vermin.

Tomorrow morning, children will crawl out of bed to watch cartoons, and other people will sleep until noon. But for some, it will be a morning for the birds. Columbia resident Elaine Pardoe, the field trip chairwoman for the Audubon Society of Central Maryland, said she hopes to lure dozens of bird enthusiasts to Howard County's Centennial Park to participate in the National Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count. The count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society and its partner, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, will take place nationally, starting today and ending Monday.

Do you have any idea how many people are for the birds? How many watch them, feed them, house them, provide bathing facilities for them, and even -- for various reasons -- count them? We're talking about birds in the wild of course, and here's one answer: About one-third of the adult population of North America puts out about a billion pounds of birdseed every year. Among outdoor activities, bird watching has eclipsed golfing, hiking and skiing in the United States. And birding -- the all-encompassing term for watching and caring for wild birds -- is a $14 billion a year business.

A Florida woman has donated a 948-acre Talbot County farm, with eight miles of Chesapeake Bay waterfront, to the National Audubon Society, which will use it as a wildlife sanctuary and an ecological education center."

Do you have any idea how many people are for the birds? How many watch them, feed them, house them, provide bathing facilities for them, and even -- for various reasons -- count them? We're talking about birds in the wild of course, and here's one answer: About one-third of the adult population of North America puts out about a billion pounds of birdseed every year. Among outdoor activities, bird watching has eclipsed golfing, hiking and skiing in the United States. And birding -- the all-encompassing term for watching and caring for wild birds -- is a $14 billion a year business.

A Florida woman has donated a 948-acre Talbot County farm, with eight miles of Chesapeake Bay waterfront, to the National Audubon Society, which will use it as a wildlife sanctuary and an ecological education center."

CHESTERTOWN -- David Holmes can find a bird anywhere, even in midsentence."This is the West Fork of Langford Creek and -- ooh, there's an eagle," he said yesterday at the annual Christmas Bird Count in Kent County, as he looked across a glittering creek edged with snow and filled with geese.So it went for much of the day, as he counted ducks, geese, vultures, swamp sparrows, bluebirds, herons, pigeons and hundreds more.Holmes, a music teacher and part-time ornithologist who drove to Kent County from his home in Columbia, was one of 22 bird-watchers taking part in the annual survey.