Download or read book A World on the Wing The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds written by Scott Weidensaul and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.
Download or read book Life on the Wing written by Brutus Östling and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A visual guide to how birds have become the masters of the air
Download or read book Birds Without Wings written by Louis de Bernieres and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his first novel since Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières creates a world, populates it with characters as real as our best friends, and launches it into the maelstrom of twentieth-century history. The setting is a small village in southwestern Anatolia in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Everyone there speaks Turkish, though they write it in Greek letters. It’s a place that has room for a professional blasphemer; where a brokenhearted aga finds solace in the arms of a Circassian courtesan who isn’t Circassian at all; where a beautiful Christian girl named Philothei is engaged to a Muslim boy named Ibrahim. But all of this will change when Turkey enters the modern world. Epic in sweep, intoxicating in its sensual detail, Birds Without Wings is an enchantment.
Download or read book On the Wing written by Dr. David E. Alexander and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "On the Wing is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the evolution of flight in all four groups of powered flyers: insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats."--Book jacket.
Download or read book Brave Birds written by Maude White and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Brave Birds, cut-paper artist and writer Maude White presents an entirely new collection of sixty-five stunning cut-paper birds. As a source of inspiration, each bird is paired with an original message of kindness and strength associated with its particular traits to encourage bravery and perseverance. Inside, you’ll find birds for experiencing Joy, Creativity, Patience, Kindness, Resilience, Communication, Strength, Awareness, Action, and Transformation, and each composition reflects thousands of intricate cuts, lending an astounding level of texture to these delicate and ethereal birds. Appealing to any bird lover or collector of bird art, Brave Birds is a beautiful resource for those wishing to practice a life of kindness and empathy.
Download or read book The Bird Is on the Wing written by James R. Hansen and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The airplane ranks as one of history's most ingenious and phenomenal inventions--and surely one of the most world-shaking. How ideas about its aerodynamics first came together and how the science and technology evolved to forge the airplane into the revolutionary machine it became is the epic story James R. Hansen tells in The Bird Is on the Wing. Just as the airplane is a defining technology of the twentieth century, aerodynamics has been the defining element of the airplane. Hansen provides an engaging, easily understandable introduction to the role of aerodynamics in the design of such historic American aircraft as the DC-3, X-1, and 747. Recognizing the impact individuals have had on the development of the field, he conveys not only a history of aircraft technology, but also a collective biography of the scientists, engineers, and designers who created the airplanes. From da Vinci, whose understanding of what it took to fly was three centuries too early for practical use, to the invention of the airplane by the Wright brothers, Hansen explores the technological matrix from which aeronautical engineering emerged. He skillfully guides the reader through the development of such critical aerodynamic concepts as streamlining, flutter, laminar-flow airfoils, the mythical "sound barrier," variable-sweep wing, supersonic cruise, blended body, and much more. Hansen's explanation of how vocabulary and specifications were developed to fill the gap between the perceptions of pilots and the system of engineers will fascinate all those interested in how human beings have used aerodynamics to move among, and even beyond, birds on the wing.
Download or read book Taking Wing written by Pat Shipman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1999-01-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1861, just a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, a scientist named Hermann von Meyer made an amazing discovery. Hidden in the Bavarian region of Germany was a fossil skeleton so exquisitely preserved that its wings and feathers were as obvious as its reptilian jaws and tail. This transitional creature offered tangible proof of Darwin's theory of evolution. Hailed as the First Bird, Archaeopteryx has remained the subject of heated debates for the last 140 years. Are birds actually living dinosaurs? Where does the fossil record really lead? Did flight originate from the "ground up" or "trees down"? Pat Shipman traces the age-old human desire to soar above the earth and to understand what has come before us. Taking Wing is science as adventure story, told with all the drama by which scientific understanding unfolds.
Download or read book Animals in Flight written by Robin Page and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2005-05-30 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wings carry tiny insects, fluttering butterflies, and backyard birds, and they even once propelled some dinosaurs up and through the skies. Find out how, when, and why birds and beasts have taken to the air, and discover how wings work in this informative and brilliantly illustrated book about flight.
Download or read book Arctic Wings written by Stephen Charles Brown and published by Braided River. This book was released on 2006 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two hundred color images celebrating the birds that journey to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge each year are accompanied by essays by noted biologists and conservationists.
Download or read book Vesper Flights written by Helen Macdonald and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author of H is for Hawk explores the human relationship to the natural world in this “dazzling” essay collection (Wall Street Journal). In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
Download or read book Bright Wings written by Billy Collins and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this beautiful collection of poems and paintings, Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, joins with David Allen Sibley, America's foremost bird illustrator, to celebrate the winged creatures that have inspired so many poets to sing for centuries. From Catullus and Chaucer to Robert Browning and James Wright, poets have long treated birds as powerful metaphors for beauty, escape, transcendence, and divine expression. Here, in this substantial anthology, more than one hundred contemporary and classic poems are paired with close to sixty original, ornithologically precise illustrations. Part poetry collection, part field guide, part art book, Bright Wings presents verbal and visual interpretations of the natural world and reminds us of our intimate connection to the "bright wings" around us. Each in their own way, these poems and pictures honor the enchanting creatures that have been, and continue to be, longtime collaborators with the poet's and painter's art. Poet and bird pairings include: Wallace Stevens and the Blackbird; Emily Dickinson and the Robin; Marianne Moore and the Frigate Pelican; Thomas Hardy and the Goldfinch; Sylvia Plath and the Pheasant; John Updike and the Seagull; Walt Whitman and the Eagle; Billy Collins and the Sparrow.
Download or read book The Bird with the Golden Wings written by Sudha Murty and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poor little girl is rewarded with lovely gifts when she feeds a hungry bird all the rice she has. What happens when the girl’s greedy, nosy neighbour hears the story and tries to get better gifts for herself? Why did the once sweet sea water turn salty? How did the learned teacher forget his lessons only to be aided by the school cook? And how did the king hide his horrible donkey ears from the people of his kingdom? For answers to all this and more, delve right into another fabulous collection of stories by Sudha Murty.
Download or read book A Bird on the Wing written by Osho and published by Osho Media International. This book was released on 2013 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the inner search and personal transformation, sharing insights that address our deepest question of life, introducing 11 teaching stories from different Zen masters. At the conclusion of each talk, Osho responds to questions from his international audience, providing direct guidance on matters of love, understanding, and ?the search.” The body and the soul are discussed as the two aspects of importance. Our bodies can be used to reach to the stars, but they must have strong roots here on Earth first. Osho highlights how one's life can be transformed through integrating meditation into daily life. He also bypasses the rational mind and speaks directly to the heart. The Zen stories Osho uses illustrate the mysterious yet simple world of Zen, where any situation can be used to become more aware, more conscious, more alive.
Download or read book The World Record Paper Airplane Book written by Jeff Lammers and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents step-by-step instructions for folding twenty different kinds of paper airplanes and provides illustrated papers for 112 planes.
Download or read book Taking More Birds written by Dan Carlisle and published by Lyons Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complex art of wing shooting and an analysis of the skills needed for accuracy.
Download or read book Living on the Wind written by Scott Weidensaul and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-04-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scott Weidensaul follows hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, Bar-tailed Godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and the Myriad Songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years.
Download or read book Take Wing and Fly Here written by Priyanka Kumar and published by . This book was released on 2013-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J.K. is juggling a Big Year race - to see the most number of bird species in L.A. County in one year - with trying to complete a doctorate in physics. Rick, the president of the bird society, is nipping at J.K.'s heels in the Big Year count, always just two or three bird sightings behind him. As Trip Chair, J.K. is also under pressure to organize birding trips for the society. A Big Year is a "race against time," and as the year unfolds, J.K. finds it harder to concentrate on the last important paper he needs to publish to get his Ph.D. Yet he desires a postdoctoral position at Princeton, which would also keep his East-Coast girlfriend Anne Marie happy. With the Alpena Bird Society near bankruptcy as it stumbles into its Centennial year, and its members interested only in gawking at birds, Hospitality Queen Karen decides that the senseless killing of cowbirds in Joss Canyon, Alpena's last remaining wild land, must stop. Karen starts out with the bird society as an outlet for her ten-year-old son who has a birding mania, but as the novel progresses she's more and more frustrated by the society's lackadaisical approach to its Centennial and to bird conservation. That J.K.'s girlfriend is not a birder hasn't been a big problem so far, but as the Big Year draws to a close, the stresses on their relationship begin to show. J.K. counts on his physics supervisor to mentor his postdoctoral search, but his job prospects grow bleak. Rick's problem is that his wife Meg is suspicious of Karen's interest in Rick and jealous of the time he spends Big Year birding. Rick spends much energy on Machiavellian ruminations about how to indulge his passion for the Big Year while placating Meg. Karen does have a special fondness for Rick, but she's busy saving the cowbirds in Joss Canyon, which is now threatened by developers. Meanwhile J.K.'s "safety net" begins to dismantle until he discovers that he doesn't have the support structure to achieve the success he'd hoped for. Disappointed, J.K. retreats to the mountains. But he has one last promise to keep - to attend the bird society's Centennial.
