Chimney Swift Towers

Chimney Swift Towers PDF Author: Paul D. Kyle
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603445900
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
Chimney Swifts, birds that nest and roost in chimneys, have been historically abundant in North America. But by the late 1980s, the number of swifts migrating to North America from the Amazon River Basin had declined. A growing number of people across North America are now constructing nesting towers and conducting Chimney Swift conservation projects in their own communities. With Chimney Swift Towers, concerned bird conservationists have a step-by-step guide to help them create more habitat for these beneficial, insect-eating birds. Chimney Swift experts Paul and Georgean Kyle give directions for building freestanding wooden towers, wooden kiosk towers, masonry towers, and other structures. Included are - design basics, - lists of materials needed, - useful diagrams and photographs, - and detailed instructions on site preparation, tower construction, installation, and maintenance. Anyone with basic woodworking or masonry skills and an interest in wildlife conservation will find this publication helpful. That includes do-it-yourselfers, homeowners involved in creating backyard habitat for wildlife, landscape and structural architects, park and wildscape managers, wildlife management area professionals, nature centers, garden centers, scout troops, and other civic organizations in search of community service projects.

Chimney Swift Towers

Chimney Swift Towers PDF Author: Paul D. Kyle
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603445900
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 95

Get Book

Book Description
Chimney Swifts, birds that nest and roost in chimneys, have been historically abundant in North America. But by the late 1980s, the number of swifts migrating to North America from the Amazon River Basin had declined. A growing number of people across North America are now constructing nesting towers and conducting Chimney Swift conservation projects in their own communities. With Chimney Swift Towers, concerned bird conservationists have a step-by-step guide to help them create more habitat for these beneficial, insect-eating birds. Chimney Swift experts Paul and Georgean Kyle give directions for building freestanding wooden towers, wooden kiosk towers, masonry towers, and other structures. Included are - design basics, - lists of materials needed, - useful diagrams and photographs, - and detailed instructions on site preparation, tower construction, installation, and maintenance. Anyone with basic woodworking or masonry skills and an interest in wildlife conservation will find this publication helpful. That includes do-it-yourselfers, homeowners involved in creating backyard habitat for wildlife, landscape and structural architects, park and wildscape managers, wildlife management area professionals, nature centers, garden centers, scout troops, and other civic organizations in search of community service projects.

Chimney Swifts

Chimney Swifts PDF Author: Paul D. Kyle
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585443710
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The Kyles share their knowledge and provide a peek into the secret life of these beneficial, insect-eating birds, and practical guidelines for homeowners to coexist peacefully with these remarkable birds.

Swifts in a Tower

Swifts in a Tower PDF Author: David Lack
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Apodidae
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The swift has greater mastery of the air than any other bird, but is one of the least known, as it nests inaccessibly in holes. The Author studied a colony in an Oxford tower, by substituting glass-backed nesting boxes for the ventilators in which they were nesting ; after which the birds could be watched from a few inches away, thus providing unique means of studying them. Their flight (which may last five hours), courtship and nesting behaviour were fully studied, and have been illustrated with unique photographs by electornic flash by H. N. Southern. Behaviour in the air was also observed, swifts being the only birds known to mate on the wing. They also drink, bathe and collect their food and nesting materials without alighting, and even spend the night on the wing. Swifts migrate to South Africa, but the old story that they hibernate contains some element of truth. The races of swifts are described, their birth-rate and death-rate analysed, and comparisons are made with the many tropical swifts, some of which (such as those whose nests provide 'Birds-nest soup') have habits as remarkable as those of our British bird. When first published in 1956, this book was the first full-length study of perhaps the most remarkable of all British birds, and now seventeen years later has become a classic in its field. Not only is it an invaluable text for ornithologists, but its non-technical language makes it suitable for readers with a general interest in natural history. Just below the tower where the swifts nested, Samuel Wilberforce and T. H. Huxley held their famous debate on evolution, and adaptation forms a recurrent theme in the book, its wider implications being considered in a final chapter. -- from dust jacket.

Vesper Flights

Vesper Flights PDF Author: Helen Macdonald
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802146694
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
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.

Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky

Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky PDF Author: Sarah Gibson
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008350647
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Swifts live almost entirely in the air. They eat, drink, sleep, mate and gather their nesting materials on the wing, fly thousands of miles across the world, navigating their way around storms, never lighting on tree, cliff or ground, until they return home with the summer.

Rare Birds of North America

Rare Birds of North America PDF Author: Steve N. G. Howell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691117969
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The first comprehensive illustrated guide to North America's vagrant birds Rare Birds of North America is the first comprehensive illustrated guide to the vagrant birds that occur throughout the United States and Canada. Featuring 275 stunning color plates, this book covers 262 species originating from three very different regions—the Old World, the New World tropics, and the world's oceans. It explains the causes of avian vagrancy and breaks down patterns of occurrence by region and season, enabling readers to see where, when, and why each species occurs in North America. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features, taxonomy, age, sex, distribution, and status. Rare Birds of North America provides unparalleled insights into vagrancy and avian migration, and will enrich the birding experience of anyone interested in finding and observing rare birds. Covers 262 species of vagrant birds found in the United States and Canada Features 275 stunning color plates that depict every species Explains patterns of occurrence by region and season Provides an invaluable overview of vagrancy patterns and migration Includes detailed species accounts and cutting-edge identification tips

Birds of an Iowa Dooryard

Birds of an Iowa Dooryard PDF Author: Althea R. Sherman
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 158729219X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Now available in paperback with a new foreword by Marcia Myers Bonta, Birds of an Iowa Dooryard contains Althea Sherman's often caustic, always careful studies of the phoebes, wrens, cuckoos, rails, catbirds, owls, flickers, and many other species that inhabited her Acre of Birds in northern Iowa. Birds of an Iowa Dooryard, first published in 1952, is full of Sherman's meticulous observations of species both avian and human. Her paintings, her notebooks and publications, and her innovative chimney swift tower form a remarkably rich legacy to be valued by naturalists and researchers alike.

The Life of the Robin

The Life of the Robin PDF Author: David Lack
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781843681205
Category : Robins
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Robin has now been voted Britain's favorite bird--a friendly presence in thousands of gardens, year round. Its life was hardly understood when David Lack--who has been called Britain's most influential ornithologist--started his scientific observations of robins while a schoolteacher at Dartington. It was Lack who established that robins sing to defend their territory; that males will fight to the death but will also feed injured opponents; that couples will court and mate but then ignore each other; that most robins will die in any given year. The book he wrote is a landmark in natural history, not just for discoveries that changed ornithology, but because of the approachable style, sharpened with an acute wit. It reads as freshly and as fascinatingly today as when it was first written. No one who has ever enjoyed the company of a robin in their garden or on a walk will want to be without this book. Unavailable for many years, this classic work includes postscripts by the author's son, Peter Lack, and by the doyen of robin studies today, David Harper. The former explains the genesis of the book and situates it in the hugely important lifetime's work carried out by his father, while the latter describes recent advances in robin studies in the context of each chapter.

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels PDF Author: Beth Lincoln
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593533259
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The critically lauded, wickedly smart whodunit with a “Knives Out feel by way of Lemony Snicket,” now in paperback. On the day they are born, every Swift child is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name, and a definition. A definition it is assumed they will grow up to match. Meet Shenanigan Swift: Little sister. Risk-taker. Mischief-maker. Shenanigan is getting ready for the big Swift Family Reunion and plotting her next great scheme: hunting for Grand-Uncle Vile’s long-lost treasure. She’s excited to finally meet her arriving relatives—until one of them gives Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude a deadly shove down the stairs. So what if everyone thinks she’ll never be more than a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can become whatever she wants, even a detective. And she’s determined to follow the twisty clues and catch the killer. Deliciously suspenseful and delightfully clever, The Swifts is a remarkable debut that is both brilliantly contemporary and instantly classic. A celebration of words and individuality, it’s packed with games, wordplay, and lots and lots of mischief as Shenanigan sets out to save her family and define herself in a world where definitions are so important.

The Tower Treasure

The Tower Treasure PDF Author: Franklin W. Dixon
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
While riding their motorcycles into town, Frank and Joe Hardy are nearly run off the road by a roadster that they later realize belongs to their friend Chet. As they set out to solve the mystery of the stolen car, the tower mansion is broken into and robbed. Are the crimes related? The Hardy boys will do their best to figure it out. This book is the first in the Hardy boys series of novels, first published in 1927. It was updated and rewritten in 1959, but this Standard Ebooks edition follows the first edition text. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.