Shortly after Sol hatches, his parents and nestmates discover the young crow is a gifted "thinker-linker": able to communicate with distant birds, with the souls of dead birds - and even with humans! As Sol masters flight and makes his first migration, he learns many members of the Great Flock - birds all over the world - are suffering from terrible catastrophes. Fewer insects, murdered forests, even the lack of krill in the oceans: these are all caused by the ever-growing number of humans. The ancient wisdom, "Adapt or die," is no longer enough, and Sol leads the hunt for a way to save birdkind from extinction. Hunters of the Feather is the first of a series, the Crow Nickels (chronicles), in which Sol joins other daring birds in a quest to save the planet.
As heard on NPR's This American Life “Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever.” —Christian Science Monitor A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief. On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them—and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
An avid hunter and wildlife preservationist, the Field & Stream contributor explores these seemingly opposed passions in this “beautifully written” memoir (The Bloomsbury Review). After traveling the globe on expeditions with world-class sportsmen, Guy de la Valdéne purchased an eight hundred–acre farm outside Tallahassee and set out to raise and hunt his favorite game bird, bobwhite quail. But de la Valdéne is also a naturalist at heart, and as he planted trees and divided fields, he found that running the farm compelled him to operate as both hunter and protector. Along the way, de la Valdéne gets pulled into some eye-opening adventures: to a masterpiece of controlled burning performed by a Vietnam veteran in a helicopter with three hundred gallons of napalm, and to his own experiences building a dam to fill his pond. For a Handful of Feathers reconciles a passion for hunting with a deep sentiment for the wild. With sensitivity and patience, de la Valdéne searches for his, and our, place in the natural world. “A classic that compares well with Turgenev’s A Sportsman’s Notebook.” —The Bloomsbury Review “An American classic . . . A book as unapologetic as it is thoughtful about blood sport . . . [It] has the verbal spark and pace of a fine novel.” —Gray’s Sporting Journal “A gem that will appeal not only to hunters but to all readers who love the land.” —Publishers Weekly “Valuable for its insight into quail behavior and its thoughtful address of hunting ethics.” —Kirkus Reviews
A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point. As an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist–all things that the firearms industry was built on–Ryan Busse chased a childhood dream and built a successful career selling millions of firearms for one of America’s most popular gun companies. But blinded by the promise of massive profits, the gun industry abandoned its self-imposed decency in favor of hardline conservatism and McCarthyesque internal policing, sowing irreparable division in our politics and society. That drove Busse to do something few other gun executives have done: he's ending his 30-year career in the industry to show us how and why we got here. Gunfight is an insider’s call-out of a wild, secretive, and critically important industry. It shows us how America's gun industry shifted from prioritizing safety and ethics to one that is addicted to fear, conspiracy, intolerance, and secrecy. It recounts Busse's personal transformation and shows how authoritarianism spreads in the guise of freedom, how voicing one's conscience becomes an act of treason in a culture that demands sameness and loyalty. Gunfight offers a valuable perspective as the nation struggles to choose between armed violence or healing.
A Chukar Hunter's Companion will help get you ready for a successful hunting trip, then go along to make sure you enjoy it. Pat Wray has the heart of a hunter, the gift of a writer and his ever-present sense of humor sparkles throughout the text. This is not just a hunter's book; it is a reader's pleasure. Companion opens with well-researched information about the bird itself, then launches in to the book's underpinning, the how-to section. Wray takes you from physical conditioning through the gear you'll need, then into the hunt itself. He looks carefully at the entire hunting process, from deciding on a location to caring for your birds. Wray's essays, sprinkled lightly throughout the text, are funny, introspective, heartwarming and thought-provoking. They are the spice on a wonderfully fulfilling reading experience.
