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It was a pleasure to make these observations at the same time I was reading The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think , Jennifer Ackerman’s new book about the diversity and complexity of bird behavior. Yet, the research projects are never the whole story. It’s fascinating stuff.
It’s a big subject that has been embraced by biologists Barbara Ballentine and Jeremy Hyman in Bird Talk: An Exploration of Avian Communication, a largish, book recently published by Comstock Publishing Associates, an imprint of Cornell University Press. I do wish there was more about research on female bird song.
Schulman [not from the book!]. ” are the big questions at the heart of Vagrancy in Birds by Alexander Lees and James Gilroy, an impressive, fascinating book about what ornithologists and wildlife biologists have found out about avian vagrancy so far and their theories explaining this phenomenon. “How did that bird get here?”
I wish I had read this book. Galápagos: A Natural History, Second Edition by John Kricher and Kevin Loughlin gives the traveling naturalist the tools needed to fully appreciate and experience the Galápagos Islands. The book was originally published in 2006 as Galápagos: A Natural History with John Kricher as the sole author.
It’s the subject of the eleventh essay in this collection, almost smack in the middle of the 22 pieces that comprise the book. and then the life and writings of Harriet Mann Miller, a New York State native who under the name Olive Thorne Miller wrote eleven books and hundreds of articles about nature in the mid- and late 19th century.
His second book on migration is a tale of many birds and many research studies all connected by the theme of migration and by his thoughtful narrative voice. The book is organized into ten chapters, framed by a Prologue and Epilogue focused on Weidensaul’s banding experience in Denali National Park.
Penguins are cartoons, emoticons, animated films, children’s books (though owls really take first place here), sports teams, a book publisher, and a Batman villain (a rare example of penguin negativity, though Burgess Meredith did bring an endearing attitude to his 1960’s TV portrayal).
Taking inspiration from Matthiessen’s 1967 book (long out of print), which combined his natural history essays with species accounts by Ralph S. It is pointedly not an identification guide, though there is a lot of identification information in it, and it is not a coffee table book, though every page is illustrated.
The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent focuses on this last question, but you might find yourself fascinated by the first two, which come early in the book but linger on in the imagination as author Danielle J. ” (p. 241) that contribute to a bird’s odor.
This, 2022, has been a curious year for books about birds and birding. Despite the absence of two major publishers—Lynx and HMH–from the new title publishing scene (hopefully not permanently), we were happily surprised to read and peruse many excellent books. But this is more than a coffee table book. Highly recommended.
It took me a while to wrap my mind around the concept of Birds and People , Mark Cocker and David Tipling’s book that, in 592 pages, explores the intersection of just that—birds and us. Still, I found it a little disjointing that a book has been written about our relationship with birds. So, I just sit here, amazed at this book.
This added layer elevates Birding Under the Influence: Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery from a book of fun birding and travel adventures to a more complex memoir about the ways in which birding spurs self-reflection, motivates life change, feeds a need for wonder, and creates community. There are also surprises.
This is the book you will want to give to everyone in your life who has said ‘I’d like to bird too, but ….(fill Not only is Nate a birding and blogging colleague, but Mike Bergin, 10,000 Birds co-publisher, has written the Foreword and I have been threatened with all sorts of birder-type punishment if I give this book a bad review.
Solid Air: Invisible Killer- Saving Billions of Birds from Windows is the summation of Dr. Klem’s expertise, experience, and professional life–what we scientifically know about bird and glass collisions, a handbook on how to prevent them, and, not insignificantly, the story of a remarkable career.
This shouldn’t have to be stated, especially in a book on bird evolution by an evolutionary biologist with a Ph.D. Futuyma is a synthesis of theory and research about evolution and birds. But, ‘synthesis’ is a dry word, and this is a book with a quiet yet firm personality underlying its words.
One of the reasons I enjoy about reviewing books is the opportunity to read titles I wouldn’t ordinarily encounter, not because they aren’t good but because they don’t fall easily into a category. Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record by Errol Fuller is one of these books. I understand why Fuller created this book.
Life Along the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Gateway to a Million Shorebirds , by Lawrence Niles, Joanna Burger, and Amanda Dey, is a book with a mission. The numbers, as detailed in this book, are alarming: the horseshoe crab harvest grew from less than 100,000 in 1992 to over 2.5 million in the late 1990’s.
Experiments in the field (the famed Asa Wright Nature Center veranda) involving Bananaquits and bananas came up with numbers ranging from 7 to 16, but a tanager always came along to interfere with Bananaquits’ noisy appreciation of their namesake fruit. There are two editions of the Kenefick book, the field guide. I was confused.
Journeys With Penguins: Tracking the World’s Most Extreme Penguin is a different type of penguin book. It’s all about the improbable intersection of human beings and Emperor Penguins, and if I can’t make it to an Emperor Penguin colony (highly unlikely), reading this book has been the next best thing. Author Gerald L.
It’s the warbler that is often the last unchecked species on birders’ life lists and, whether you list or not, for most of us observing it is a once in a lifetime experience. Previously, even researchers had problems getting access to nesting Kirtland’s Warblers. photo by Lynn C.
This is the charm of Lima’s book. The book focuses on two listing events: her 2012 Louisiana Big Year and her 2016 Louisiana 300 Year. The book is structured in a way that made much more sense after I read it than as I was reading it. But, in Chapter Three the book takes on more shape. ” I wondered.
There is a long list of articles and books on how to feed birds in your yard. So, I was happy to see the publication of a book on all aspects of wild bird feeding—history, culture, and economics. It is a serious book with a friendly attitude. There was cleaning, lots of cleaning of feeders and yard. And squirrels.
Fortunately, with a prescience that’s a little scary, David Allen Sibley has created a book perfect for beginning birders (and the rest of us): What It’s Like to Be a Bird: From Flying to Nesting, Eating to Singing–What Birds Are Doing, and Why. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley.
Bird Day is a lovely, little jewel of a book. Hauber and artist Tony Angell fulfills this goal beautifully and was the factor that motivated me to review this book. Hauber Hauber’s mini-essays focus on specific behaviors, enhanced by references to recent research yet written in a relaxed, personal way.
For endangered species, red and gray tabs at the top of the page indicate level of threatened status from the IUCN and the Libro Rogo de los Vertebrados Cubanos (Red Data Book for Cuban Vertebrates). The book includes lots of space for Notes. This means that it has some interesting features, which may or may not work in practice.
GISS—general impression, size, shape—is intuitive, the result of an unconscious cognitive process derived from experience in the field. The result is a different kind of book. The main question for me isn’t whether this is indeed a revolutionary approach, but rather: what does this book offer that is different? .*
And so, I turn to Better Birding: Tips, Tools & Concepts for the Field , the new book by George L. This is a very different book from what I expected, less of a handbook and more of a comprehensive identification text on 24 groups of birds, presented in words and photographs. Armistead and Brian L. Authors George L.
It’s never too late or too early to buy a children’s book about birds. It’s been a few years since my last roundup of children’s bird books, and children’s book writers, illustrators and publishers continue to produce picture books that feature avian protagonists. First, the board books.
Her experiences are framed within the larger scientific histories how once common species become endangered, and of how people and organizations have strategized and explored controversial paths to bring their numbers up and nurture them till they fill our skies. Endangered. Extinction. Conservation.
Suzie wrote about her experiences as a bird rehabber in Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings (2009) and used those experiences as the source for her fictional children’s book, Hawk Hill (1996). How did you come up with the idea for the book? photo by John Huba. Read Carl Hiaasen.”.
That sentence really doesn’t begin to describe this very smart and highly readable book. The ‘little green book’ was now over 450 pages long! Photographic credits are given with each photo, which I like better than a listing at the back of the book. Press, 2011). Please–do not read this section only!
It’s time for some short book reviews. Two books are part of series I’ve reviewed previously (and you may want to reread those posts for more detailed info), one is a handbook that I’ve been wanting to review for a long time, but thought that a shorter piece would work better than the long ones I always seem to end up doing here.
On my last trip to Greece, I carried and studied this book, hoping for the Audouin’s Gull (no such luck yet, actually I saw very few gulls). My first impression is that the book is somewhat large and heavy (2.05 True, the book is called an identification guide and not a field guide, though in my mind those are synonyms.
Now, on to the books. The cover designs, like the parent book, are cheerily colorful; the Eastern guide is green, featuring a photo of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the Western guide is blue, featuring a White Pelican just landing onto the water. A detailed index is located at the back of the book, listing scientific and common bird names.
That piece of information, along with many others, comes from Kroodsma’a new book, Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist : Your Guide to Listening — and you have to love the “nearly.” And that’s part of the point of the book, and its charm – how much there is still to be discovered in the realm of birdsong. Except he doesn’t!
And the book is about much more, ripple effects from what happens when part of a living thing becomes the central ingredient to a highly visual, social, profitable business. As a librarian and women’s studies scholar, I greatly appreciate the research. It is reprinted in the book, though without artist credit or date. .
Bondar is globally recognized for her pioneering contributions to space medicine research, fine art photography, and education on the environment. Aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-42 in 1992, she conducted experiments in the first International Microgravity Laboratory, a precursor to the International Space Station.
How to Be a Better Birder is a very different kind of birding book, and, once you think about it, the perfect book to be written at this particular moment in the birding universe. The cover of the book (not of Derek Lovitch) gives you some idea of the tools the better birder needs in the early 21st-century.
This is essentially a survey of ornithological marine research told in the voice of one of its most passionate and experienced participants. Mostly, as you can probably tell from the last paragraph, I learned how a marine ornithologist thinks, and how challenging this research can be. Bruce Pearson is the book illustrator.
We always love reading books about animals, and from time to time we get to review new books to share with our readers! This book explores the special connection and bond between humans and dogs. It’s a very interesting read, and anyone who has had a love of dogs, or any other animal for that matter, will enjoy this book.
Written in the tradition of the classic Hawks in Flight , but very much a product of the experiences of its birder authors, this is a groundbreaking book that offers a new way of identifying migratory birds at sea to all of us who observe the waters of eastern North America with expectation and excitement.
A breeding bird atlas is a special kind of book. For birders, it’s the extremely large book, shelved in a place where it can’t crush the field guides, used to research the history of a bird in their area. The resulting book, 616 pages in length, 6.4
It isn’t in your book of seabirds? (It But, to Elizabeth Gehrman, the author of Rare Birds: The Extraordinary Tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the Man who Brought it Back from Extinction, and to David Wingate, the man who Gehrman profiles in this excellent book, the Bermuda Petrel is always the cahow. You’ve never heard of the cahow?
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