This special edition of the award-winning Just Loons features a new introduction by David Evers, PhD, a leading researcher of loons, and an interpretive bound-in CD of the haunting calls for which loons are so admired and beloved. The audio CD runs approximately 25 minutes and contains various calls that are referenced on the CD jacket. Featuring stunning photography and insightful natural history text, Just Loons, with its new and extraordinary audio component, remains the ultimate guide to finding, watching, and understanding loons.
A gorgeously illustrated, lyrical non-fiction picture book about loons. It’s summertime, and as darkness falls there is a haunting sound from the lake — Ooh-hoo-oo, ooh-hoo-oo. It is a loon calling to its family across the water. This lyrical story follows the life cycle of two loon chicks. We see them breaking out of their eggshells, then learning to swim, find food and avoid predators such as snapping turtles and big bass fish. After they learn to fly, they migrate to the ocean. And when their striking black-and-white feathers finally emerge, they fly inland, each to find a new lake territory and mate. Accompanying Susan Vande Griek’s poetic text are Karen Reczuch’s gorgeous illustrations, which show the loons as they grow from tiny downy chicks to majestic adult birds. An afterword provides more information on loons, including their amazing diving ability, the meanings of their calls, and the environmental threats that they face. Also illustrated are five different types of loons and other animals that can be found in their lake habitat. The illustrations were researched in the Ornithology Collections at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Ron Ridout of Bird Studies Canada consulted on the text. Key Text Features illustrations author’s note further reading labels Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
The nature of the common loon, from biology to behavior, from one of the world’s foremost observers of the revered waterbird Even those who know the loon’s call might not recognize it as a tremolo, yodel, or wail, and may not understand what each call means, how it’s made, and why. And those who marvel at the loon’s diving prowess might wonder why this bird has such skill, or where loons go when they must leave northern lakes in winter. For these and so many other mysteries, Loon Lessons provides evolutionary and ecological explanations that are curious and compelling. Written by one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject, the book is a compendium of knowledge about the common loon and an engaging record of scientific sleuthing, documenting more than twenty-five years of research into the great northern diver. James D. Paruk has observed and compared loons from Washington and Saskatchewan to the coasts of California and Louisiana, from high elevation deserts in Nevada to mountain lakes in Maine. Drawing on his extensive experience, a wealth of data, and well-established scientific principles, he considers every aspect of the loon, from its plumage and anatomy to its breeding, migration, and wintering strategies. Here, in the first detailed scientific account of the common loon in more than thirty years, Paruk describes its biology in an accessible and entertaining style that affords a deeper understanding of this beautiful and mysterious bird’s natural history and annual life cycle.
"Ah, I'm Pingree. We meet again. Splendid. Won't you sit down?"I looked around David's room. Short of the library stacks, I had never seen so many books piled into a single room. Where could I sit down? Every square inch of horizontal surface was covered. Books, papers, notes, manuscripts-all congregated in random and chaotic disorder.This small en
The body of a young woman is discovered buried in the vineyard at St. Peter Seminary. Within hours the Chief Investigator for the Boulder County Sheriff's Office identifies the remains and announces that he'd put the killer behind bars years ago. Case Closed But did he? Doc Martini follows a trail of rumors and clues that at first cast doubt on the deputy's claim and then point suspicion at the priests living in the protective arms of the seminary. What dark secrets are the Sheriff and the seminary hiding? A dozen or more priests exiled behind the stone walls. Secrets or Rumors? That's the puzzle Doc and his partners must piece together in spite of a local politician intent on keeping some of the pieces off the playing board. Larry D. Bergsgaard retired after nearly thirty years in law enforcement where he served as a Special Agent with the United States Department of Treasury and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Mr. Bergsgaard's experiences as a law enforcement officer span from SWAT to international corporate fraud inquiries; from dignitary protection to covert operations; from undercover narcotics probes to domestic terrorist investigations. Since retiring, Mr. Bergsgaard volunteers with the Pima County Sheriff's Department. During all those years, Agent Bergsgaard truly was as Theodore Roosevelt termed it, "the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood." Mr. Bergsgaard writes from an inspiring lake view in Northern Minnesota and from a winter home overlooking the splendid Santa Rita Mountains in Southern Arizona. He is the author of the Doc Martini series which has met with outstanding success and comments from readers and critics such as, "this novel elevates Bergsgaard to the level of great espionage writers, the likes of John Le Carre and Fredrick Forsyth." (Ned Lord) "There are writers who aspire to be cops; there are cops who would like to become writers. Rarely is either successful at both. If he was as good at law enforcement as he is at writing, Bergsgaard would appear to be the exception." (Bill Henry)
Lobsters, blueberries, moose, and rugged coastlines dotted with lighthouses are emblematic of the state of Maine. But underlying these simple icons is the rich natural heritage of Maine that drives the economy and shapes the state's culture. The history of Maine’s natural heritage has been co-produced by the both the natural and human worlds. The essays and photographs gathered here paint a vivid portrait of Maine's wild places and wild creatures, as well as of human impacts and the way the state's heritage has changed.
"Erik Reece is obviously a writer to be reckoned with."—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature In Erik Reece's stunning collection of essays, ideas are the main characters. Written over a period of ten years, and revealing Reece's continued obsession with religion, family, and the natural world, in many ways these essays represent a sequel to his stirring memoir, An American Gospel. In that book, Reece intimitately describes his conflicted relationship with Christianity in the context of the death of his father, and Reece's own journey since then to find meaning and balance in the material and spiritual worlds. Practice Resurrection continues that exploration through essays that take the reader to Norway, New England, London, the Adirondacks, Appalachia, and back to Reece's native Kentucky River. "With his singular wit and pith, environmental writer Reece explores issues such as God, Christianity, the environment (of course), and his father's suicide in essays rife with sentient turns of phrase and exceptionally insightful passages . . . Few are better than [Reece] is at discussing a personal crisis of faith." —Booklist (starred review)
In British Columbia's remote and exotic Cariboo Plateau, "Everything is slow. Everything is happening at the same speed, which is no speed at all." Harold Rhenisch has spent eleven years watching birds every day from his house on the shore of 108 Lake—at this speed, but you wouldn’t know it from reading Winging Home. Known as "one of Canada's master prose stylists," Rhenisch dissects avian behaviour with the ear of a poet and the mouth of a standup comedian. His blackbirds are a jug band in full flight, his robins drunken bachelors on a jag, and his eagles decrepit, stumblebum scavengers. With lively illustrations by noted bird artist Tom Godin, Winging Home: A Palette of Birds is more than just writing about the natural world. It is a lyrical, evocative memoir of life in the Cariboo that crackles with humorous, often startling observations of birds and men set amidst the wild beauty of British Columbia.
Backpacker brings the outdoors straight to the reader's doorstep, inspiring and enabling them to go more places and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active adventure, Backpacker is the world's first GPS-enabled magazine, and the only magazine whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish. Backpacker's Editors' Choice Awards, an industry honor recognizing design, feature and product innovation, has become the gold standard against which all other outdoor-industry awards are measured.
