Scott Weidensaul follows hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, Bar-tailed Godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and the Myriad Songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years.
Looks at bird migration, following birds such as hawks and songbirds on their paths, and describes habitat degradation and deforestation that threaten migration
New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.
A close look at one season in one key site that reveals the amazing science and magic of spring bird migration, and the perils of human encroachment. Every spring, billions of birds sweep north, driven by ancient instincts to return to their breeding grounds. This vast parade often goes unnoticed, except in a few places where these small travelers concentrate in large numbers. One such place is along Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio. There, the peak of spring migration is so spectacular that it attracts bird watchers from around the globe, culminating in one of the world’s biggest birding festivals. Millions of winged migrants pass through the region, some traveling thousands of miles, performing epic feats of endurance and navigating with stunning accuracy. Now climate change threatens to disrupt patterns of migration and the delicate balance between birds, seasons, and habitats. But wind farms—popular as green energy sources—can be disastrous for birds if built in the wrong places. This is a fascinating and urgent study of the complex issues that affect bird migration.
"Part primer, part parable, part elegy for the depth and decency we sacrifice daily to the order of self-possession, The Wind invites us to enjoy it inventively .... A philosopher coming up against the limits of philosophy's forms of communication ("Philosophy, without being in touch, is always abstract"), Bendik-Keymer courts a thoughtfulness in which wonder practically circumvents theory. Energized by "utopian anger," he invokes the clearing, shaking energies of wind against the violent social rigidities we accept as normal. The wind, impersonal, is the figure through which to keep the dynamic inter-personal in view. ... I admire this book's inventiveness, its willingness to break with discipline in pursuing a wider vision of accountability." (Sarah Gridley, author of "Weather Eye Open" and "Loom") A process begun in Pisa, Italy in April of 2016 during a workshop on political theory in the Anthropocene, The Wind An Unruly Living is a philosophical exercise (askêsis, translated, following Ignatius of Loyola, as "spiritual exercise"). In his exercise, Bendik-Keymer throws to the void: the ideology of self-ownership from a society of possession. By using the Stoic kanôn, the rule of living by phûsis, he follows an element. Unhappily for the Stoic and happily for us, the wind is unruly. A swerve of currents through a social fabric, it's full of holes, all holely. Stretch and stitch as you want, it might settle more shapely tattered into light, but it will never become whole. The wind's only holesome.
Explores the remarkable lives of migratory birds and answers such questions about songbirds as where do they go, how do they get there, and what do they do in the places that they inhabit throughout the year.
The New York Times bestseller “The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.” —Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice) “One gorgeous read.” —Stephen King Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
USA TODAY BESTSELLER “Lt Colonel Dan Rooney is a true patriot who serves our country with courage and honor.”—George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States F-16 fighter pilot, American hero, Folds of Honor founder, PGA professional, and inspirational family man Dan Rooney delivers a motivational code for living to help ordinary people ascend to their highest level in life. Part spiritual guide and part call-to-action, Fly Into the Wind combines Lt Colonel Rooney’s fighter pilot stories with his discovery of faith and purpose in order to help each reader achieve a philosophy he calls CAVU, after the Air Force acronym that stands for “ceiling and visibility unrestricted.” CAVU describes the perfect conditions for flying a fighter jet, when steel-blue skies invite pilots to spread their wings like supersonic eagles. In today’s world of identity politics, fractured racial relations, and external turmoil, Rooney’s book will show how all of us are connected by God in more ways than we realize, and that the path to fulfillment begins with changing ourselves in order to better one another. From the outside, Lieutenant Colonel Dan “Noonan” Rooney was living the American Dream: he was an F-16 fighter pilot, PGA Professional, husband to his college sweetheart, and father of five daughters. His position in life should have been a blessing. But a near-tragic mishap while piloting his F-16 triggered an ominous life storm that altered his trajectory and filled him with self-doubt. Realizing that a jet takes off into the wind because it requires resistance over its wings to fly, Lt Colonel Rooney’s attitude toward the resistance he encountered in his life changed from resentment to humble introspection. Hyper-focused on the precise areas that are immediately under your control, CAVU is a disciplined approach to each day that will help you reshape, motivate, prioritize, and ultimately thrive. In Fly Into the Wind, Lt. Colonel Rooney breaks down CAVU into ten unique lines of effort (LOE), with each LOE building upon the previous one to provide a positive vector toward a new way of living. Along this enlightened path, readers will discover a renewed belief in themselves and the art of the possible. The time for self-discovery and ultimate achievement begins now.
“Nature, rightly questioned, never lies.” —A Manual of Scientific Enquiry, Third Edition, 1859 Scott Huler was working as a copy editor for a small publisher when he stumbled across the Beaufort Wind Scale in his Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. It was one of those moments of discovery that writers live for. Written centuries ago, its 110 words launched Huler on a remarkable journey over land and sea into a fascinating world of explorers, mariners, scientists, and writers. After falling in love with what he decided was “the best, clearest, and most vigorous piece of descriptive writing I had ever seen,” Huler went in search of Admiral Francis Beaufort himself: hydrographer to the British Admiralty, man of science, and author—Huler assumed—of the Beaufort Wind Scale. But what Huler discovered is that the scale that carries Beaufort’s name has a long and complex evolution, and to properly understand it he had to keep reaching farther back in history, into the lives and works of figures from Daniel Defoe and Charles Darwin to Captains Bligh, of the Bounty, and Cook, of the Endeavor. As hydrographer to the British Admiralty it was Beaufort’s job to track the information that ships relied on: where to lay anchor, descriptions of ports, information about fortification, religion, and trade. But what came to fascinate Huler most about Beaufort was his obsession for observing things and communicating to others what the world looked like. Huler’s research landed him in one of the most fascinating and rich periods of history, because all around the world in the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in a grand, expansive period, modern science was being invented every day. These scientific advancements encompassed not only vast leaps in understanding but also how scientific innovation was expressed and even organized, including such enduring developments as the scale Anders Celsius created to simplify how Gabriel Fahrenheit measured temperature; the French-designed metric system; and the Gregorian calendar adopted by France and Great Britain. To Huler, Beaufort came to embody that passion for scientific observation and categorization; indeed Beaufort became the great scientific networker of his time. It was he, for example, who was tapped to lead the search for a naturalist in the 1830s to accompany the crew of the Beagle; he recommended a young naturalist named Charles Darwin. Defining the Wind is a wonderfully readable, often humorous, and always rich story that is ultimately about how we observe the forces of nature and the world around us.