How does a bird experience a city? A backyard? A park? As the world has become more urban, noisier from increased traffic, and brighter from streetlights and office buildings, it has also become more dangerous for countless species of birds. Warblers become disoriented by nighttime lights and collide with buildings. Ground-feeding sparrows fall prey to feral cats. Hawks and other birds-of-prey are sickened by rat poison. These name just a few of the myriad hazards. How do our cities need to change in order to reduce the threats, often created unintentionally, that have resulted in nearly three billion birds lost in North America alone since the 1970s? In The Bird-Friendly City, Timothy Beatley, a longtime advocate for intertwining the built and natural environments, takes readers on a global tour of cities that are reinventing the status quo with birds in mind. Efforts span a fascinating breadth of approaches: public education, urban planning and design, habitat restoration, architecture, art, civil disobedience, and more. Beatley shares empowering examples, including: advocates for “catios,” enclosed outdoor spaces that allow cats to enjoy backyards without being able to catch birds; a public relations campaign for vultures; and innovations in building design that balance aesthetics with preventing bird strikes. Through these changes and the others Beatley describes, it is possible to make our urban environments more welcoming to many bird species. Readers will come away motivated to implement and advocate for bird-friendly changes, with inspiring examples to draw from. Whether birds are migrating and need a temporary shelter or are taking up permanent residence in a backyard, when the environment is safer for birds, humans are happier as well.
Feathers of Color What it was like playing the Famous BigBird An American Icon is about the journey of a man who became one of the worlds biggest stars. In this book Lionel Douglass shares the days before he reached stardom as the Sesame Street character, and the book will touch on several phases of his life, giving you a glimpse of his lifes paths. This book will make you realize that we all have a destiny. Part of Lionels destiny was to secure a spot in history, and join the ranks of those who have been affiliated with one of the biggest television shows for children. This book touches upon the life of a middle-class, small-town boy with dreams, which were answered as a young-adult by becoming one of the famous Bigbirds, on stage and screen. Learn the interesting story of how Lionel became one of the famous Bigbirds, and how Jim Henson, Caroll Spinney, Anita Mann, as well as Kermit Love helped school and condition him to represent and portray the work of this Muppet great! Travel along with Lionel and find out how he was snubbed by members of the Sesame Street organization despite his vital contributions to the shows survival. Ride with him, and share his journey as he tells the world about a dreamer who embraced the opportunity to become one of the worlds largest icons, and some of his fascinating adventures along the way. Just sit back and relax, and enjoy Lionel Douglass story of an African American who relished the chance to portray such a world-renowned icon.
From nineteenth-century paintings of fires raging through New York City to scenes of Manhattan engulfed by a gigantic wave in the 1998 movie Deep Impact, images of the city’s end have been prolific and diverse. Why have Americans repeatedly imagined New York’s destruction? What do the fantasies of annihilation played out in virtually every form of literature and art mean? This book is the first to investigate two centuries of imagined cataclysms visited upon New York, and to provide a critical historical perspective to our understanding of the events of September 11, 2001. Max Page examines the destruction fantasies created by American writers and imagemakers at various stages of New York’s development. Seen in every medium from newspapers and films to novels, paintings, and computer software, such images, though disturbing, have been continuously popular. Page demonstrates with vivid examples and illustrations how each era’s destruction genre has reflected the city’s economic, political, racial, or physical tensions, and he also shows how the images have become forces in their own right, shaping Americans’ perceptions of New York and of cities in general.
Meet one of your favorite Sesame Street friends in this bright, adorable photographic board book! Say hello and learn all about Big Bird, the iconic Sesame Street character, in a new Sesame StreetFriends board book illustrated with bold, bright photographs. As babies and toddlers pore over the many sturdy pages, they will be delighted to see Big Bird have fun with friends, cuddle his teddy bear, chat with Snuffleupagus, and much more. It's a book they'll go back to again and again.
In 365 day-by-day sketches, Laura Erickson brings more than 250 birds right into your living room-from rare hawk owls to elusive sedge wrens to plastic lawn flamingos. Light-hearted, yet authoritative, For the Birds is brimming with fascinating birdlore. Did you know that you can mail three chickadees with a single stamp? That Black-billed Cuckoos flourish on a diet of army worms? That winter finches are especially attracted to feeders offering grit and eggshells? Enjoy Laura's entertaining observations and record your own in For the Birds-an uncommon guide.
An inspiring message for all ages: Find your inner bird. If you’re looking for wisdom and joy in your life, go straight to Sesame Street and heed the words of its most beloved and profound resident, Caroll Spinney, who has spent the past thirty-four years in a bird costume (and a trash can) as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Three decades inside a giant puppet have taught Spinney a valuable and surprising lesson: Being a bird can make you a better person. In The Wisdom of Big Bird, the living legend of Sesame Street describes how we can all find our inner bird (or grouch). Each chapter illustrates a piece of useful wisdom Spinney has gleaned from a career in feathers. The lessons Big Bird teaches children every day on Sesame Street are the same ones that have brought Spinney success and satisfaction in his own life. Warm, witty, and affirming, Caroll Spinney’s memoir proves that being a bird can make you a better and happier person. “Every day on Sesame Street, we strive to give our innocent young audience the basis of a lifelong education. It is no accident that spending the past thirty-four years in the Bird suit teaching these lessons to others has taught me a few things, too.”—from The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch)