True Nature
Stepping Out
Mangroves are steamy and buggy, and a torture to navigate. But these twisted, tangled coastal ecosystems offer some very straightforward benefits to birds and a host of other wildlife.
By Christopher R. Cox/Photography by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Photo Gallery
Spinning Their Spell
A photographer’s sharp eye and a writer’s long-held passion lead to a guided tour, via spectacular images and lyrical words, of a hidden, spider-filled saltmarsh in Maine.
Photography by Piotr Naskrecki/Text by Frank Graham Jr.
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Habitat
Ghost Dogs
They’re on the prowl at night, melting in and out of the shadows. It’s not likely you’ve seen them, but if you live in a city anywhere in America, these four-footed specters have probably moved into your neighborhood.
By Alisa Opar

Food
Gold Standard
When it comes to protecting neotropical migrants, it’s as important to safeguard their winter homes in southern latitudes as their northern breeding grounds. For the golden-winged warbler, the shade-grown-coffee plantations of Nicaragua’s rugged mountains make a perfect brew. 
By T. Edward Nickens/Photography by Jen Judge

Editor’s Note
By David Seideman

Audubon in Action
David Yarnold on wind power and wildlife. Plus: The Gulf oil spill, a year later; welcome back, Sabal Palm; more.

Letters

Field Notes
An act for neotropical birds; James Watson, of double helix fame, birds in the Galápagos; walrus woes; more.

Currents
Bear Essentials
A proposed wildlife corridor would be a lifeline for Florida’s isolated, threatened black bears.
By Mel White

Audubon Living
Bug Off!
They show up every year. Here’s how to fend off those uninvited garden visitors.
By Lee Reich

Incite
Bad Shot
America’s sportsmen resist the switch from lead, and our most majestic birds pay the price.  
By Ted Williams

Earth Almanac
Mad hares; sun-baked lizards; pretty poison; twist and sprout; more.
By Ted Williams
 
Reviews
Making the Grade
The case for a new approach to environmental education. 
By Michele Nijhuis

One Picture
Beauty and the Beast
An airborne artist records the scars on a Louisiana landscape, and other industrial insults.
Photograph by J Henry Fair/Text by Julie Leibach

On the cover: A male black bear—his breath creating a vapor cloud in the cool night air—is caught by a motion-sensitive camera in Highlands County, Florida. Photograph by Carlton Ward Jr.

Banner images: Mangroves, by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel; black bear in Florida, by Carlton Ward Jr.; leafcurling sac spider (left) and female crab spider, by Piotr Naskrecki; coyote imprint, by Dylan Menges.