A More Perfect Union
探花精选 plus 探花精选 equals a spectacular new website.
I鈥檓 not sure why this feels like a confession, but here goes: Somehow I鈥檝e recently gotten addicted to solving jigsaw puzzles. My latest effort, which I only just finished assembling, piece by infernally interlocking piece, is based on an image of the Purple Heron, as painted by John James 探花精选. At a certain point鈥攑robably when I was mired somewhere among the infinitesimally slight gradations of a milky skyscape鈥擨 broke down and consulted the picture on the puzzle box, but then became so frustrated with its lack of clarity and detail that I nearly threw it across the room. I stopped myself only when I remembered that I knew just where to find a much more detailed, high-resolution version.
All I had to do was head to the new , which features gorgeously rich scans of every one of JJA鈥檚 Birds of America watercolors, all available to be downloaded鈥攆or free! It鈥檚 true! I鈥檓 not lying! Go check it out for yourself: .
While you鈥檙e there, you might also want to lose yourself in our completely reworked online Bird Guide, with text by renowned bird authority (and 探花精选 field editor) Kenn Kaufman, illustrations by the great David Allen Sibley, and dazzling new photography of more than 800 North American birds (not to mention recorded songs and sounds for almost every one of them, from Lang Elliott). Or catch up on the latest news and perspective on conservation, policy, and advocacy. Or get connected with your local 探花精选 chapter and discover all the ways you can deepen your own involvement with birds. Or simply enjoy beautiful, thoughtful writing about birds and the natural world.
A year ago in this space, I announced that we were working on a completely reinvented , and I solicited your input and suggestions. (I also declared that the new site would make its debut 鈥渢his summer,鈥 a bit of hubris I鈥檒l chalk up to irrational exuberance.) We may have missed our target date, but I believe we have delivered on our vision, which was to unite two once-separate sites (the organization鈥檚 and the magazine鈥檚) into a single online home that fuels and rewards your passion for birds, conservation, and the outdoors, and that makes it easier to understand what the 探花精选 is doing to preserve birds鈥 habitat and ensure their future.
I hope you鈥檒l take a look, and please let me know (markjannot@audubon.org) if you think we鈥檙e on the right track, and what more we can do to improve. This is only the beginning.