Diary of a Left-handed Birdwatcher

Diary of a Left-handed Birdwatcher PDF Author: Leonard Nathan
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
With charm, wit, and "luminous clarity" (KIRKUS REVIEWS), an award-winning poet reveals the complexities of birdwatching. Leonard Nathan is on a quest to spot the elusive Snow Bunting and, as with all obsessions, it rules his hours, both waking and sleeping. In DIARY OF A LEFT-HANDED BIRDWATCHER, he invites us along on his lively personal journey.

Diary of a Left-handed Birdwatcher

Diary of a Left-handed Birdwatcher PDF Author: Leonard Nathan
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN:
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
With charm, wit, and "luminous clarity" (KIRKUS REVIEWS), an award-winning poet reveals the complexities of birdwatching. Leonard Nathan is on a quest to spot the elusive Snow Bunting and, as with all obsessions, it rules his hours, both waking and sleeping. In DIARY OF A LEFT-HANDED BIRDWATCHER, he invites us along on his lively personal journey.

Birdscapes

Birdscapes PDF Author: Jeremy Mynott
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400832837
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
What draws us to the beauty of a peacock, the flight of an eagle, or the song of a nightingale? Why are birds so significant in our lives and our sense of the world? And what do our ways of thinking about and experiencing birds tell us about ourselves? Birdscapes is a unique meditation on the variety of human responses to birds, from antiquity to today, and from casual observers to the globe-trotting "twitchers" who sometimes risk life, limb, and marriages simply to add new species to their "life lists." Drawing extensively on literature, history, philosophy, and science, Jeremy Mynott puts his own experiences as a birdwatcher in a rich cultural context. His sources range from the familiar--Thoreau, Keats, Darwin, and Audubon--to the unexpected--Benjamin Franklin, Giacomo Puccini, Oscar Wilde, and Monty Python. Just as unusual are the extensive illustrations, which explore our perceptions and representations of birds through images such as national emblems, women's hats, professional sports logos, and a Christmas biscuit tin, as well as classics of bird art. Each chapter takes up a new theme--from rarity, beauty, and sound to conservation, naming, and symbolism--and is set in a new place, as Mynott travels from his "home patch" in Suffolk, England, to his "away patch" in New York City's Central Park, as well as to Russia, Australia, and Greece. Conversational, playful, and witty, Birdscapes gently leads us to reflect on large questions about our relation to birds and the natural world. It encourages birders to see their pursuits in a broader human context--and it shows nonbirders what they may be missing.

Facing It

Facing It PDF Author: M. Jimmie Killingsworth
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623491452
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Blending memoir, cultural history, and a literary perspective, Facing It bears witness to controversies like Tellico and Chernobyl, global warming and local drought. But rather than merely drowning readers in waves of ecological angst, M. Jimmie Killingsworth seeks alternative images and episodes to invoke presence without crippling the hope for survival and sustenance in places and communities of value. In deft, highly accessible prose, Killingsworth takes the reader through a Cold-War childhood, an adolescence colored by anti-war and ecological activism, and an adulthood darkened by terrorism and climate change. Inviting us on walks through tame suburbias (riddled with environmental abuse) and wild deserts and mountains (shadowed by industrial development), he celebrates the survival of natural beauty and people living close to the earth while questioning truisms associated with both economic advancement and environmental purity. Above all, this book invites the reader to face it: to look with wide-open eyes on a new nature that will never be the same, but that continues to offer opportunities for renewal and advancement of life.

Club George

Club George PDF Author: Bob Levy
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429906502
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
Club George is a witty tale about one man's adventures with George, a particularly charismatic Red-winged Blackbird. Wryly humorous and brimming with affection for birds in general and George in particular, this book combines solid natural science with stylish prose and endearing photographs. The cast of characters includes creatures of all kinds, both human and not, and supporting roles are played by Pale Male and Lola, the famous Red-tailed Hawks whose nest was unceremoniously removed from their fancy Fifth Avenue building to a worldwide furor of protest. Both useful and entertaining, Club George covers everything from how to buy binoculars to fascinating trivia about New York's most famous park. This amusing gem will be welcomed by book-buying bird-watchers, Central Park enthusiasts, and armchair nature lovers everywhere.

The Gift of Birds

The Gift of Birds PDF Author: Larry Habegger
Publisher: Travelers' Tales
ISBN: 9781885211415
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
An anthology of essays and short stories exploring the ways that birds enrich our lives. Contributors include top naturalists Kenn Kaufman and Pete Dunne, as well as well-known authors Alice Walker, Louise Erdrich, and Peter Matthiessen. They tell of the lengths birders go to catch a glimpse of their favorite bird, and of lessons birds teach about human relationships, taking readers to locations from Central Park to Bali. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ornithologies of Desire

Ornithologies of Desire PDF Author: Travis V. Mason
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1554583713
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
Ornithologies of Desire develops ecocritical reading strategies that engage scientific texts, field guides, and observation. Focusing on poetry about birds and birdwatching, this book argues that attending to specific details about the physical world when reading environmentally conscious poetry invites a critical humility in the face of environmental crises and evolutionary history. The poetry and poetics of Don McKay provide Ornithologies of Desire with its primary subject matter, which is predicated on attention to ornithological knowledge and avian metaphors. This focus on birds enables a consideration of more broadly ecological relations and concerns, since an awareness of birds in their habitats insists on awareness of plants, insects, mammals, rocks, and all else that constitutes place. The book’s chapters are organized according to: apparatus (that is, science as ecocritical tool), flight, and song. Reading McKay’s work alongside ecology and ornithology, through flight and birdsong, both challenges assumptions regarding humans’ place in the earth system and celebrates the sheer virtuosity of lyric poetry rich with associative as well as scientific details. The resulting chapters, interchapter, and concordance of birds that appear in McKay’s poetry encourage amateurs and specialists, birdwatchers and poetry readers, to reconsider birds in English literature on the page and in the field.

Feathers

Feathers PDF Author: Thor Hanson
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465023460
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
As seen on PBS's American Spring Live, one of America's great nature-writers explores the magic and science of feathers Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us? Engineers call feathers the most efficient insulating material ever discovered, and they are at the root of biology's most enduring debate. They silence the flight of owls and keep penguins dry below the ice. They have decorated queens, jesters, and priests. And they have inked documents from the Constitution to the novels of Jane Austen. Feathers is a captivating and beautiful exploration of this most enchanting object.

Birding Journal

Birding Journal PDF Author:
Publisher: Adventure Publications
ISBN: 9781591933182
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Record your favorite birding moments inside this perfect birding companion. Note which birds you see, and when and where you saw them. Document the birds eating at your feeder. Compare first arrivals from year to year. Keep track of your life list and more. Whether you're a beginning bird watcher or a seasoned birder, this beautiful journal - with its sophisticated art and elegant style - is a book you'll use again and again.

The Potato Eaters

The Potato Eaters PDF Author: Leonard Nathan
Publisher: Orchises Press
ISBN: 9780914061755
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
After co-translating Cees Nooteboom's The Captain of the Butterflies and co-writing a monograph on Czeslaw Milosz, Nathan returns to poetry with this collection of self-revealing, hermetic little lyrics, which have been appearing regularly in the New Yorker and elsewhere.

Restarting the World

Restarting the World PDF Author: Leonard Nathan
Publisher: Orchises Press
ISBN: 9781932535068
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 102

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Book Description