This collection represents a small sampling of winged miracles (both bird and insect) that inhabit the Delaware River watershed for a few months each year. Some are well-known, like the monarch butterfly, but others may escape notice. Whether summer breeders, winter visitors, or just passing through on their way elsewhere, these species’ life cycles include movement over varying distances, from a few 100 km in some cases (e.g., the wood duck) to 1000s of km in others (e.g., the red knot). Throughout these migrations, they remain closely connected with particular habitats, from shorelines to grasslands, forest, wetlands, and agricultural land. Stewardship and preservation of these habitats and their inhabitants is vital, if we are to continue to live in a world “graced by the curving wing of a bird in flight,” as Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring.

Thom Cooney Crawford