Conversations with Birds

Conversations with Birds PDF Author: Priyanka Kumar
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 1571317457
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
“An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, acclaimed filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a teenager, she found herself increasingly distanced from nature and discouraged by the civilization she saw contributing to its destruction. It was only in her twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that she began to rediscover her place in the landscape—and in the cosmos—by way of watching birds. Tracing her movements across the American West, this stirring collection of essays brings the avian world richly to life. Kumar’s perspective is not that of a list keeper, counting and cataloguing species. Rather, from the mango-colored western tanager that rescues her from a bout of altitude sickness in Sequoia National Park to ancient sandhill cranes in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and from the snowy plovers building shallow nests with bits of shell and grass to the white-breasted nuthatch that regularly visits the apricot tree behind her family’s casita in Santa Fe, for Kumar, birds “become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.” Kumar’s reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of her suggestion that “seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”

Birdtalk

Birdtalk PDF Author: Alan Powers
Publisher: Frog Books
ISBN: 1583940650
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
For the last 20 years, Alan Powers, who lives near Cape Cod, has experimented with birdcalls--mimicking and answering the calls he hears around his country home, in cities, and abroad in France and Italy. In BirdTalk, he celebrates this connection with entertaining allusions to history, literature, travel, linguistics, and other fields. The result is a charming and erudite stroll through an area of interest sometimes lost in the urban din. Powers reveals "birdtalk" by mapping the history of ornithological studies, quoting such bird fanciers as Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson and discussing specific techniques. In one of the most amusing chapters, he describes his attempts to teach the birds new symphonic riffs on their own calls. This illustrated literary inquiry into birdcalls is a nature book with a gift-book look.

Conversations with Birds

Conversations with Birds PDF Author: Priyanka Kumar
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
ISBN: 1571317457
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
“An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, acclaimed filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a teenager, she found herself increasingly distanced from nature and discouraged by the civilization she saw contributing to its destruction. It was only in her twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that she began to rediscover her place in the landscape—and in the cosmos—by way of watching birds. Tracing her movements across the American West, this stirring collection of essays brings the avian world richly to life. Kumar’s perspective is not that of a list keeper, counting and cataloguing species. Rather, from the mango-colored western tanager that rescues her from a bout of altitude sickness in Sequoia National Park to ancient sandhill cranes in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and from the snowy plovers building shallow nests with bits of shell and grass to the white-breasted nuthatch that regularly visits the apricot tree behind her family’s casita in Santa Fe, for Kumar, birds “become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.” Kumar’s reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of her suggestion that “seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”

Take Wing and Fly Here

Take Wing and Fly Here PDF Author: Priyanka Kumar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781890932442
Category : Bird watching
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
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.

HOW ANIMALS TALK

HOW ANIMALS TALK PDF Author: WILLIAM J. LONG
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description


Let's Talk About the Birds and the Bees

Let's Talk About the Birds and the Bees PDF Author: Molly Potter
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472946448
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
From the author of How Are You Feeling Today? and Will You Be My Friend? comes a brand new picture book all about the birds and the bees (sex education). It's natural for young children to have questions about their bodies and where they came from, but it can seem a daunting task to answer honestly so that they understand the subtleties of puberty, sex, reproduction and relationships, and are comfortable with their bodies. This books uses clear, easy to understand language to answer complex questions about sex and relationships, and covers all manner of tricky subjects from puberty to consent with delicate accuracy and honesty. Filled with bright, fun illustrations and helpful advice for parents and carers, Let's Talk About the Birds and Bees is the perfect book for explaining the facts of life to small children.

Bird Talk

Bird Talk PDF Author: Ann Jonas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780688141738
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
When children get their hands on this book, they are sure "to really read it, to really really read it." Or so says the magnolia warbler.And the magnolia warbler is not the only one with an opinion. There are sixty-three bird species talking their way through this funny backyard story.

Conversations with Birds

Conversations with Birds PDF Author: Alan Powers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1591434521
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
An exploration of communicating with birds and the lessons they can teach us • Discusses specific birdtalk techniques and offers insights into many species • Looks at the long-standing tradition of “avitherapy” throughout history and in literature and the arts • Explains how song-talk with birds restores peace, calms anxiety, and enhances health For decades Alan Powers has studied bird vocalizations, developing the remarkable ability to imitate birds’ songs and get them to respond and even change tunes. Through his years of study, he has discovered that birds can teach us important lessons about the world and about ourselves. As Powers explains, by communing cross-species we reach out to the timeless interconnected web of all life past and present--what Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno called in Latin the Uni-versus, the “Whole turned into One.” Sharing his journey to learn birdtalk and his profound observations about the poetic, spiritual, and healing influences of birdsong, Powers explores the ancient language of birds and the depth of meaning birds convey. He explains how bird speech sounds like song to us, but birdtalk is urgent and nuanced, whether about predators or the weather. He details how he began learning birdtalk, listening to one bird each summer, learning their many vocalizations and variations. Discussing specific techniques, he shares insights into the birdtalk of many species, including the complex and intelligent speech of Crows, the emotional depths of Loons, the mimicry of Blue Jays, and the beautiful song of the Wood Thrush. Exploring the intertwined metaphysics of bird and human languages, Powers looks at the long-standing tradition of “avitherapy” throughout history, literature, and the arts. He shares insights into birds from Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, reveals how birds appear in love songs throughout the world, and examines how famous writers such as Keats, Catullus, St. Francis of Assisi, and the French historian Jules Michelet found that talking to birds improved their state of mind. He also explores how song-talk with birds restores peace, calms anxiety, and enhances health.

Dirty Birds

Dirty Birds PDF Author: Morgan Murray
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781550818086
Category : Bildungsromans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In late 2008, as the world's economy crumbles and Barack Obama ascends to the White House, the remarkably unremarkable Milton Ontario - not to be confused with Milton, Ontario - leaves his parents' basement in Middle-of-Nowhere, Saskatchewan, and sets forth to find fame, fortune, and love in the Euro-lite electric sexuality of Montreal; to bask in the endless twenty-something Millennial adolescence of the Plateau; to escape the infinite flatness of Saskatchewan and find his messiah - Leonard Cohen. Hilariously ironic and irreverent, in Dirty Birds, Morgan Murray generates a quest novel for the twenty-first century-a coming-of-age, rom-com, crime-farce thriller-where a hero's greatest foe is his own crippling mediocrity as he seeks purpose in art, money, power, crime, and sleeping in all day.

Conversations with an Eagle

Conversations with an Eagle PDF Author: Brenda Cox
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781550548112
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
?Nothing in the world prepares you for an eagle leaping to your arm,” says the author of this moving memoir. When Brenda Cox found Ichabod, a ten-week-old female bald eagle blown out of her nest, a profound relationship began. Cox experienced many exhilarating moments and more than a few close calls during the time she trained the bird for falconry and forged a deep bond with one of the most beautiful and elusive creatures. This story recalls that unusual relationship which spanned eight years.

Bird Talk

Bird Talk PDF Author: Lita Judge
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1596436468
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
An illustrated tribute to birds of all kinds and the funny, fascinating things that they do.