Taking to the Air

Each year we make a couple of trips that require flying. Invariably on those flights I flip through the in-flight magazine. I mean, c'mon, it's right there, it's glossy, there are crosswords and sudoku, and you can find out what advertisers are trying to sell to business executives (answer: steak houses, matchmaking services, golf courses, vacation resorts, a Ph.D. lady selling pheromones, and some seminar to teach you the art of negotiation).

But just now I learned of something I would actually read in one of those magazines: David Sibley announced the publication of an essay he wrote for Delta-Sky magazine. Yes, that David Sibley, and yes, a real airline that probably gets dozens of readers a year! Thousands of travelers a year, but how many break away from their laptop or DVD player to read?

Regardless, it's not a fluff piece about how cute birds are. David lays out the wonderment of migration, the challenges birds face on their epic journeys, and gives the non-birding reader something to think about:

You travel for a reason, and with some assurance that your travel will be successful, but what if you flew from Portland, Oregon, to Springfield, Missouri, only to find that the Springfield airport had been turned into a shopping mall and there was nowhere to land? What would happen to the Baird’s sandpipers if that lake in Ecuador was drained for agriculture?

Maybe David's piece will make an inroad to not-yet-conservation-minded, captive-audience readers who haven't really "got it" yet, and it's all about winning those hearts and minds, isn't it? Read the full article here.

• Illustration by Gary Overacre