Download or read book The Geese of Beaver Bog written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When award-winning writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich became the unwitting -- but doting -- foster parent of an adorable gosling named Peep, he was drawn into her world. And so, with a scientist's training and a nature lover's boundless enthusiasm, he set out to understand the travails and triumphs of the Canada geese living in the beaver bog adjacent to his home. In The Geese of Beaver Bog, Heinrich takes his readers through mud, icy waters, and overgrown sedge hummocks to unravel the mysteries behind heated battles, suspicious nest raids, jealous outbursts, and more. With deft insight and infectious good humor, he sheds light on how geese live and why they behave as they do. Far from staid or predictable, the lives of geese are packed with adventure and full of surprises. Illustrated throughout with Heinrich's trademark sketches and featuring beautiful four-color photographs, The Geese of Beaver Bog is part love story, part science experiment, and wholly delightful.
Download or read book Scarlet Experiment written by Jeff Karnicky and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emily Dickinson’s poem “Split the Lark” refers to the “scarlet experiment” by which scientists destroy a bird in order to learn more about it. Indeed, humans have killed hundreds of millions of birds—for science, fashion, curiosity, and myriad other reasons. In the United States alone, seven species of birds are now extinct and another ninety-three are endangered. Conversely, the U.S. conservation movement has made bird-watching more popular than ever, saving countless bird populations; and while the history of actual physical human interaction with birds is complicated, our long aesthetic and scientific interest in them is undeniable. Since the beginning of the modern conservation movement in the mid-nineteenth century, human understanding of and interaction with birds has changed profoundly. In Scarlet Experiment, Jeff Karnicky traces the ways in which birds have historically been seen as beautiful creatures worthy of protection and study and yet subject to experiments—scientific, literary, and governmental—that have irrevocably altered their relationship with humans. This examination of the management of bird life in America from the nineteenth century to today, which focuses on six bird species, finds that renderings of birds by such authors as Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Don DeLillo, and Christopher Cokinos, have also influenced public perceptions and actions. Scarlet Experiment speculates about the effects our decisions will have on the future of North American bird ecology.
Download or read book The Naturalist s Notebook written by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and published by Storey Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Become a more attentive observer and deepen your appreciation for the natural world. The unique five-year calendar format of The Naturalist’s Notebook helps you create a long-term record and point of comparison for memorable events, such as the first songbird you hear in spring, your first monarch butterfly sighting of summer, or the appearance of the northern lights. Biologist Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and best-selling author Bernd Heinrich teach nature lovers of all ages what to look for outdoors no matter where you live, using Heinrich’s classic illustrations as inspiration. As you jot down one observation a day, year after year, your collected field notes will serve as a valuable record of your piece of the planet. This deluxe book, with a three-piece case, gilt edges, a burgundy ribbon bookmark, and a belly band with gold foil stamping, is a perfect gift for all nature lovers.
Download or read book Introduction to Birds of the Southern California Coast written by Joan Easton Lentz and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This easy-to-use handbook is a must for anyone who wants to leave behind Southern California's noisy freeways and crowded beaches in search of the wild places where birds can be found. A perfect companion for excursions from San Luis Obispo County to the Mexican border, it is designed to familiarize birdwatchers, hikers, naturalists, residents, and travelers with the appearance and behavior of 120 of the most common coastal birds. 120 color plates.
Download or read book The Nesting Season written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world’s great naturalists and nature writers, Bernd Heinrich shows us how the sensual beauty of birds can open our eyes to a hidden evolutionary process.
Download or read book One Man s Owl written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging chronicle of how the author and the great horned owl "Bubo" came to know one another over three summers spent in the Maine woods--and of how Bubo eventually grew into an independent hunter--is now available in an edition that has been abridged and revised so as to be more accessible to the general reader.
Download or read book Ravens in Winter written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: New York: Summit Books, 1989.
Download or read book Songbird Journeys written by Miyoko Chu and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until recently, little was known about the lives of songbirds during their travels from autumn until spring. Now scientists have documented mass migrations over the Gulf of Mexico, identified the voices of migrants in the night sky, and showed how songbirds navigate using stars, polarized light, and magnetic fields. Miyoko Chu explores the intricacies underlying the ebb and flow of migration, the cycle of seasons, and the interconnectedness between distant places. Songbird Journeys pays homage to the wonder and beauty of songbirds while revealing the remarkable lives of migratory birds and the scientific quest to answer age-old questions about where songbirds go, how they get there, and what they do in the far-flung places they inhabit throughout the year.
Download or read book Evolving God written by Barbara J. King and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion has been a central part of human experience since at least the dawn of recorded history. The gods change, as do the rituals, but the underlying desire remains—a desire to belong to something larger, greater, most lasting than our mortal, finite selves. But where did that desire come from? Can we explain its emergence through evolution? Yes, says biological anthropologist Barbara J. King—and doing so not only helps us to understand the religious imagination, but also reveals fascinating links to the lives and minds of our primate cousins. Evolving God draws on King’s own fieldwork among primates in Africa and paleoanthropology of our extinct ancestors to offer a new way of thinking about the origins of religion, one that situates it in a deep need for emotional connection with others, a need we share with apes and monkeys. Though her thesis is provocative, and she’s not above thoughtful speculation, King’s argument is strongly rooted in close observation and analysis. She traces an evolutionary path that connects us to other primates, who, like us, display empathy, make meanings through interaction, create social rules, and display imagination—the basic building blocks of the religious imagination. With fresh insights, she responds to recent suggestions that chimpanzees are spiritual—or even religious—beings, and that our ancient humanlike cousins carefully disposed of their dead well before the time of Neandertals. King writes with a scientist’s appreciation for evidence and argument, leavened with a deep empathy and admiration for the powerful desire to belong, a desire that not only brings us together with other humans, but with our closest animal relations as well.
Download or read book One Wild Bird at a Time written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unique encounters with wild birds from the acclaimed scientist and “a dedicated watcher happy to knock down the fourth wall of zoology” (The Wall Street Journal). In his modern classics One Man’s Owl and Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich has written memorably about his relationships with wild ravens and a great horned owl. In One Wild Bird at a Time, Heinrich returns to his great love: close, day-to-day observations of individual wild birds. There are countless books on bird behavior, but Heinrich argues that some of the most amazing bird behaviors fall below the radar of what most birds do in aggregate. Heinrich’s “passionate observations [that] superbly mix memoir and science” lead to fascinating questions—and sometimes startling discoveries (The New York Times Book Review). A great crested flycatcher, while bringing food to the young in their nest, is attacked by the other flycatcher nearby. Why? A pair of Northern flickers hammering their nest-hole into the side of Heinrich’s cabin deliver the opportunity to observe the feeding competition between siblings, and to make a related discovery about nest-cleaning. One of a clutch of redstart warbler babies fledges out of the nest from twenty feet above the ground, and lands on the grass below. It can’t fly. What will happen next? Heinrich “looks closely, with his trademark ‘hands-and-knees science’ at its most engaging, [delivering] what can only be called psychological marvels of knowing” (The Boston Globe). “An engaging memoir of the opportunities for doing scientific research without leaving one’s own backyard.”—Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book Inside Animal Hearts and Minds written by Belinda Recio and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Charles Darwin suggested more than a century ago, the differences between animals and humans are “of degree and not of kind.” Not long ago, ethologists denied that animals had emotions or true intelligence. Now, we know that rats laugh when tickled, magpies mourn as they cover the departed with greenery, female whales travel thousands of miles for annual reunions with their gal pals, seals navigate by the stars, bears hum when happy, and crows slide down snowy rooftops for fun. In engaging text, photographs, and infographics, Inside Animal Hearts and Minds showcases fascinating and heart-warming examples of animal emotion and cognition that will foster wonder and empathy. Learn about an orangutan who does “macramé,” monkeys that understand the concept of money, and rats that choose friendship over food. Even language, math, and logic are no longer exclusive to humans. Prairie dogs have their own complex vocabularies to describe human intruders, parrots name their chicks, sea lions appear capable of deductive thinking akin to a ten-year-old child’s, and bears, lemurs, parrots, and other animals demonstrate numerical cognition. In a world where a growing body of scientific research is closing the gap between the human and non-human, Inside Animal Hearts and Minds invites us to change the way we view animals, the world, and our place in it.
Download or read book White Feathers written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2020 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising, rich life of tree swallows in nesting season--with Heinrich's beautiful illustrations and photographs--by the acclaimed naturalist. Heinrich is sparked one early spring day by a question: Why does a pair of swallows in a nest-box close to his Maine cabin show an unvarying preference for white feathers--not easily available nearby--as nest lining? He notices, too, the extreme aggressiveness of "his" swallows toward some other swallows of their own kind. And he wonders, given swallows' reputation for feistiness, at the extraordinary tameness and close contact he experiences with his nesting birds. From the author of the beloved books Ravens in Winter and A Naturalist at Large, this richly engaging view of the lives of wild birds, as always with Heinrich, yields "marvelous, mind-altering" insight and discoveries. --Los Angeles Times
Download or read book Your Inner Zoo written by Belinda Recio and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What might we learn about our own human natures from the friskiness of a young goat, the focus of a hawk, the transformation of a butterfly, or the hibernation of a bear? How can animals—through their natural and cultural histories—offer us ideas that could help us better understand ourselves, navigate a relationship, or change an aspect of our lives? Do the animals that we admire or fear reveal something about us? What about the animals who appear in our dreams, visions, and creative inspirations? These are some of the questions addressed in Your Inner Zoo: A Guide to the Meaning of Animals and the Insights They Offer Us. You can use Your Inner Zoo: • to explore yourself through animals • to approach animals as teachers and guides • to explore the possible meaning of animal encounters • to connect with animals through their natural and cultural histories • as an animal symbolism dictionary By exploring animal biology and behavior, as well as the cultural roles that animals play in symbolism, mythology, and traditions, Your Inner Zoo invites you to approach animals as a source of provocative ideas that can lead to self-discovery and a deeper sense of connection with the more-than-human world.
Download or read book Life Everlasting written by Bernd Heinrich and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2013 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beetles to bald eagles, ravens to wolves, Heinrich reveals the fascinating and mostly hidden post-death world that occurs around us constantly, while examining the ancient and important role we humans, too, play as scavengers, connecting death to life. --
Download or read book The Homing Instinct written by Bernd Heinrich and published by HMH. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A noted naturalist explores the centrality of home in the lives of humans and other animals . . . A special treat for readers of natural history” (Kirkus Reviews). Every year, many species make the journey from one place to another, following the same paths and ending up in the same places. Every year since boyhood, the acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has done the same, returning to a beloved patch of western Maine woods. Which led him to wonder: What is the biology in humans of this primal pull toward a particular place, and how is it related to animal homing? In The Homing Instinct, Heinrich explores the fascinating mysteries of animal migration: how geese imprint true visual landscape memory; how scent trails are used by many creatures to locate their homes with pinpoint accuracy; and how even the tiniest of songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. And he reminds us that to discount our human emotions toward home is to ignore biology itself. “A graceful blend of science and memoir . . . [Heinrich’s] ability to linger and simply be there for the moment when, for instance, an elderly spider descends from a silken strand to take the insect he offers her is the heart of his appeal.” —Julie Zickefoose, The Wall Street Journal “Deep and insightful writing.” —David Gessner, The Washington Post
Download or read book Animal Friendships written by Anne Innis Dagg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research into social behaviour in animals has often focused on aggression, yet members of social species are far more likely to interact with each other in a positive way. Animal Friendships explores non-sexual bonding behaviours in a range of mammalian and avian species. Through analysis of factors which trigger and deepen friendships, Dagg uncovers a world of intricate and complex social interactions. These factors include sources of food, formation of coalitions, playdates for infants, mutual grooming and the apparent pleasure of simple companionship. Chapters cover different types of friendship: from those between two individuals, such as male-female or parent-offspring friendships, to those within family groups and even inter-species friendships. Not only does the book explore how and why friendships form, it also showcases the ingenious field techniques used by researchers enabling the reader to understand the scientific methodology. An invaluable read for both researchers and students studying animal social bonding.
Download or read book The Fragile Edge written by Julia Whitty and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2007 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mesmerizing, scientifically rich portrait of the teeming coral reefs of Rangiroa in French Polynesia and the island of Mo'orea in the South Pacific.
