Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests by Arnette Heidcamp

I have been at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library for over twenty years and weeded/inventoried the nature books several times. So I must have held Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests by Arnette Heidcamp several times before I plucked it from the shelf early in February. I did not recognize it. I wondered why I had not read it yet. I checked it out.

Over the years, I have read several bird rescue books, including The Bluebird Effect by Julie Zickefoose and Corvus: A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson. I am always charmed and fascinated by stories in which caring people nurse injured birds back to health, whether for returning to the wild or for adoption into a human households when release is not possible. These stories usually have everything you want in good stories: tragedy, comedy, and unforgettable character (usually of the avian kind).

In her third hummingbird book, Heidcamp is the bird rescuer. She is known in her New York community and into New England for her unique calling and recalls that various members of the local police had started calls to her asking if she were "Hummingbird 911." In Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests, she takes four hummers (two ruby-throats and two rufous) into her sunroom for the duration of a winter. The little birds may be cute, but they do not get along.

Heidcamp's book is nearly 20 years old at this point, and few libraries still have it, but it does not seem dated. The color photos are remarkable, freezing the energetic birds hovering over flowers and feeders, showing their brilliant feathers, and documenting their previously unobserved interactions. It is just the kind of book a bird watcher loves.

Heidcamp, Arnette. Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests. Crown Publishers, 1997. 204p. ISBN 0517708841.

Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife by John M. Marzluff

As soon as I saw a review of Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife by John M. Marzluff in the Chicago Tribune in November, I knew I wanted to read it. I had noticed in the past couple of years, as I became more dedicated to bird watching, that we have a great number of bird species in our neighborhoods and parks. I saw goldfinches and cedar waxwings in our yard for the first time in 2014. It probably helps that Bonnie and I are adding bird-friendly plants to our yard annually. Still, I assumed that birds are more populous in the woods, prairies, and other environments that are more natural than the suburbs.

According to the author, many birds actually do quite well in Subirdia, as there is a wealth of food and shelter to be found. While plants that provide seeds, berries, and nectar draw some birds, others come to feast at bird feeders and water features. The diversity of plants also attract insects on which birds feed. If species can find safe nesting locations, the breeding is great for some, but not all birds in Subirdia.

There are concerns. As cities and their suburbs become more alike, they support the same species and some diversity is lost. Marzluff points out five birds that are found in abundance in many metropolitan area worldwide: rock pigeons, house sparrows, European starlings, mallards, and Canada geese. They may displace some native species, but the consequences are not always that simple.

The latter part of Welcome to Subirdia is about what individuals and communities can do to promote bird and other wildlife diversity. I am thinking of replacing even more of the lawn with tall grasses, thistles, and shrubs. I am also eager for the spring migration to see what other birds might come through our suburb.

Marzluff, John M. Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife. Yale University Press, 2014. 303p. ISBN 9780300197075.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

When I see articles about nonfiction readers' advisory or attend a workshop on that topic, I invariably notice a plug for the now considered-classic title Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, published in 2002. Even librarians who mostly tout fiction seem to say they enjoyed it. It has been on my wishlist for years, and I finally borrowed it as an audio download in the final days of 2014. Was it really going to be as good as everyone said?

One positive for the audiobook is that it is read by the very talented Scott Brick. I have listened to numerous books by him. He can put life into a telephone directory. Luckily for Brick and for listeners, Kurlansky has filled his wide-ranging book with history from seemingly every place and period, noting many interesting facts, making intelligent observations, and providing recipes for food items that most people just buy at the store. Can you imagine adding 12 and a half ounces of salt to 25 pounds of sturgeon eggs to make your own caviar? Much of the text is entertaining, and the idea that salt has played a large role in agriculture, industry, commerce, cuisine, diplomacy, and empire-building is fascinating.

Still, I found the book at times more a historical litany than a plot-driven story. I considered dropping out at several points, but then I would be re-engaged by some country, person, or issue in which I have continuing interest.

I am glad to have stuck with Salt: A World History as the final chapters are some of the most engaging, including a section on the Morton Salt company of Chicago. Kurlansky addresses our current salt economy at the end. Another good reason staying the course is seeing that l there is a consistent thread through world history - something that is more than salt but revealed by salt.

I am sure that I will be noticing links to the salt trade in history books and in my travels for years.

Kurlansky, Mark. Salt: A World History. Walker and Company, 2002. 484p. ISBN 0802713734.

Audiobook: 14 compact discs. Phoenix Books, 2006. ISBN 1597770973.

Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel

I had never heard of the African explorer Paul Du Chaillu. According to author Monte Reel, few people have, which was part of the appeal for him to write a book. Writing about Du Chaillu also gave Reel a vehicle for exploring the Victorian Age and its controversies and prejudices. The result of his research is Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm.

That Du Chaillu is called an African explorer can be interpreted a couple of ways. The obvious is that he explored Africa. He took two extended journeys into the interior from coastal Gabon in the 1856 and 1863 and is thought to be the first European to see a live gorilla. Before that only gorilla skeletons and skins had been collected and sent to the scientific societies in the capitals of Europe, where there was much skepticism of such an animal truly existing. After his first expedition, Du Chaillu took preserved gorillas to New York and London to both great acclaim and charges of fraud.

Du Chaillu's origins were obscure. His father was French and his mother was rarely mentioned. He said at different times that he was born in France, in New Orleans, and in French colonies. Many of his supporters believed him to be dark skinned from his years in the Africa sun. In fact, he was part African, born on the island of Reunion east of Madagascar. The author poses that perceptions of Du Chaillu's race factored in his failure to impress men of science with his observations, stories, and specimens. Though his books sold well initially, his fame was short-lived.

Reel's sympathetic account of Du Chaillu's brief career is filled with big names in science, including Sir Richard Burton, Richard Owen, Roderick Murchison, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Henry Huxley. They and others used Du Chaillu's accounts in their arguments over evolution. The explorer tried to stay neutral but others implied his allegiance or opposition. After two African trips, he gave up gorilla studies and devoted himself to less volatile Scandinavian topics.

Readers who enjoy history of exploration and science will appreciate Between Man and Beast. If you library does not have it, request an interlibrary loan.

Reel, Monte. Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm. Doubleday, 2013. 331p. ISBN 9780385534222.

The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl by Martin Windrow

Martin Windrow considered writing a book about his owl Mumble for over twenty years. Grief among other factors held him back. He needed a bit of distance and perspective before he could write openly about his subject, which he has in The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl.

Windrow is a bit of a rule breaker. When he wanted an owl to live with him, British conservation laws had already forbad capturing wild species for pets. He found someone who could give him a fledgling tawny owl born of captive parents and completed the necessary official application and assurance papers. Upon receiving his owl, he then took her into a London-area apartment building where pets were specifically prohibited, hiding her from the landlord for about three years before moving into the countryside.

In The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar, Windrow lovingly describes the relationship that he developed with Mumble, including all of his special accommodations to make her residence first in his apartment and then in his country home work. He also had to buy a lot of frozen mice. One of my favorite parts explains her moulting (British spelling), the long, slow annual replacement of feathers during which birds are vulnerable to predators - if they are in the wild. He also tells how wild owls were able to locate Mumble despite her initial urban setting.

Though Windrow sometimes compares Mumble to a domestic cat, The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar is not a gentle read. Readers should expect some gore and excrement. Still there is a good dose of compassion in this don't-try-this-in-your-own-home book. Readers might also like Corvus: A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson and The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose.

Windrow, Martin. The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. 302p. ISBN 9780374228460.

The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman

I do not recall how The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman landed on my reading list. Did I read its Chicago Tribune review last may? Did I spot it in a University of Chicago Press ad or catalog? I just recently borrowed it through interlibrary loan, expecting it to be academically scientific but was surprised to find it a sort of travel memoir with pictures.

The pictures are the primary reason for the writing and publishing of the book. They show, as the title specifies, the world's oldest living things. They are almost all plants, and being really old, most are not really very pretty. Many of the oldest trees and shrubs are rough, twisted, broken, and balding, unless the oldest part is actually underground. In contrast, the quaking aspen of the Pando colony who are 80,000 years old look fresh and new; the 106-acre root system is of a great age, but it sprouts new trees constantly. The DNA of every piece is identical, and it is considered a single organism.

Getting the pictures was the reason for all of Sussman's travels. With each picture or set of pictures about a specific old thing, the author tells us how she got to it and took the picture. In some ways, it is like a National Geographic article with its author describing his or her journey and encounters. Sussman is a bit more personally revealing about herself than a typical NG writer, but not enough to call the book a straight memoir. The writing may interest some readers more than the photographs.

I recommend reading The Oldest Living Things in the World at a desk or table. It is pretty heavy and hard to manage with a cat in your lap. At a desk, you will be able to write notes for your travels. Not all of the sites photographed are open to the public, but some of the ones that are would be great to see.

Not many libraries have The Oldest Living Things in the World. You may have to request it through your library's interlibrary loan.

Sussman, Rachel. The Oldest Living Things in the World. University of Chicago Press, 2014. 269p. ISBN 9780226057507.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Throughout most of Earth's history, the rate of species extinction has been very slow. For mammals, it has been calculated as one species disappears once every 700 years. This is such a slow process that no human could notice. In extraordinary times, many species die off rapidly. Our planet's fossil records suggest that this has happened five times in the distant past, most recently when an asteroid slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula sixty-six million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs. According to science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, we are again in an extraordinary time, as many species are disappearing. She explains in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.

The idea of extinction is historically new, first proposed by French naturalist Georges Cuvier two hundred years ago to explain fossils that resembled no living animals. Up to that point, scientists and people in general had assumed that all life was current, abundant, and inexhaustible. (Some people still believe this despite the many cases of specific extinctions that have been proven.) Once the extinction idea was accepted, scientist identified five mass extinctions, but the explanations for these were not clear. Some appeared to have resulted from quick and catastrophic environmental events, such as monstrous volcanoes or asteroids. Our current extinction seems to be caused by environmental changes brought on by the actions of humans.

In each chapter of The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert recounts the disappearance of a species or genus or even a family of animals or plants. She describes her visits all over the planet with scientists in the field who are documenting the disappearance of frogs, mastodons, ammonites, giant auks and other flightless birds, Neanderthals, and coral reefs. Some of the missing were hunted to extinction. Non-native species or diseases introduced by humans did in others. Fossil-fuel-created global warming is the newest threat.

Comments about The Sixth Extinction from our church book club were mostly positive. Many agreed that the subject is ultimately depressing but the book is fair and very readable. It will surely be on many of the best books lists that should proliferate soon.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Henry Holt and Company, 2014. 319p. ISBN 9780805092998.

My Wild Life: A Memoir of Adventures within America's National Parks by Roland H. Wauer

Readers with a taste for books about national parks and wildlife will know Roland H. Wauer for his 25 books and many articles published in journals, such as Southwestern Naturalist, Condor, and Summit Magazine. His titles are often very specifically focused on wildlife of a park or region. He has long had an interest in birds and recently has devoted much time and writing to butterflies. When I read The American Robin four years ago, I learned that he had been a ranger with the National Park Service, but I never realized how varied and important his work for the service had been. He recounts his career in My Wild Life: A Memoir of Adventures within America's National Parks.

For most of his career, Wauer had a job that most of us can only dream about. He spent many of his days hiking park lands, sighting, identifying, counting, and recording the birds and other wildlife along paths that he would retrace in another two weeks or a month. He also presented countless ranger talks and led park visitors along trails in some of America's most beautiful places. He also got to meet and work with leading naturalists to learn how to protect those places and their natural inhabitants. He must have suffered hot, cold, wet, sunburn, mosquito-bites, and soreness, but he does not complain about the physical hardships.

Wauer's biggest troubles were bureaucratic and political. He mentions them slightly without brooding in his mostly chronological account of his career, which began at Crater Lake National Park in 1957 and lasted until 1989 after he worked for three years in the Virgin Islands. Most of the time in between was spent in parks, like Death Valley, Zion, Big Bend, and the Great Smoky Mountains. For about five years during the Carter and Reagan administrations, he worked at park headquarters in Washington, DC, from which he was sent to many international conferences.

You know a book is effective when it moves you to action. Since having finished reading My Wild Life, I have read more of Wauer's books, worked on my bird lists, and pledged to visit more national parks, especially Big Bend. I read from an uncorrected proof. I look forward to seeing the finished book with Wauer's color photos.

Wauer, Roland H. My Wild Life: A Memoir of Adventures within America's National Parks. Texas Tech University Press, 2014. 288p. ISBN 9780896728851.

Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top by Carol Bradley

The campaign to educate the public about the ethical treatment of animals has been long and difficult. Humankind has not been kind to the rest of the animal world. Many people believed that people had the assignment from God to dominate and use animals however they chose. Anyone who argued against this position was belittled as either soft or radical. Still, a growing concern for the treatment of animals has grown over time. In this light, journalist Carol Bradley recounts the relationship of humans and elephants in her recent book Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top.

Like Topsy, Last Chain on Billie is a book that will challenge many readers to rethink their love of circuses. Our American society has uncritically celebrated the fun of attending traveling animal shows since the early 19th century. From the beginning their have been dissenters who have reported on the harsh treatment of elephants and other animals by circus trainers. Topsy tells how the reports were ignored. Last Chain on Billie recounts some of the that story and brings us to the present, a time at which the reform cause has advanced but has still not stopped the abuse of elephants.

What is shocking in this book? First, the stories of training elephants as young as six weeks old to do tricks that endanger their health. Second, how hardhearted circus owners and employees, such as John Cuneo, can be; many insist that elephants enjoy their lives in chains. It sounds much like the argument for 19th century slavery. Third, how often the U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed to act when it has much clear evidence of violations of animal protection laws.

Last Chain on Billie is a surprisingly positive book in spite of the history of elephant abuse. The author recounts the increasing effective efforts of individuals and nonprofit organizations to expose cruelty to animals. Through the stories of individual circus and zoo elephants, Bradley shows how intelligent and loyal these animals are and tells how they can recover. Her book is definitely one with a mission.

Bradley, Carol. Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top. St. Martin's Press, 2014. 320p. ISBN 9781250025692.

On the Wing by David Elliott with Illustrations by Becca Stadtlander

There are several ways that one may read On the Wing by David Elliott.

As an adult who reads everything at hand, one can zip right through this thin book of poetry for children in ten minutes or less.

As an adult who appreciates clever poetry and beautiful illustrations, one can pleasantly linger and absorb.

As a birdwatcher, one can study the shapes and colorful markings of the birds.

As an adult reading aloud to children, there can be the joy of sharing well-chosen words with eager listeners, committing poems to memory, and looking at the artful illustrations with younger eyes. I can imagine On the Wing becoming a favorite for naptime or bedtime.

Elliott, David. On the Wing. Candlewick Press, 2014. ISBN 9780763653248.

Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide by Gary W. Vequist and Daniel S. Licht

My travel list gets longer. I have just finished reading Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide by Gary W. Vequist and Daniel S. Licht, another fine nature book from Texas A and M University Press. I already knew before reading that I wanted to go to the Everglades, though I am more interested in the birds than the alligators. I now know about the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota for viewing bison. I also now know that if I am ever in Minneapolis-St. Paul in February (which is likely) that I should bundle up and go look for bald eagles and waterfowl along 75 miles of the Mississippi River which administered as a National River and Recreation Area.

The authors selected 12 national parks to highlight in separate chapters, one for each month. For each park, they selected a key species to feature, such as gray wolves in Yellowstone and prairie dogs in the Badlands. They describe the parks, point out key viewing spots, and identify species behaviors. They then list other national parks at which visitors may see the featured species.

I read Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks as an ebook downloaded from eRead Illinois on my MacBook Air using Adobe Digital Editions. I discovered it while preparing to teach an ebook class at the library. I see that no libraries in my library's consortium have added the title in print, but it can be found through our catalog which now includes our ebook holdings. I enjoyed reading it on my MacBook as all the illustrations were in full color and I got to choose my own comfortable font size. It is probably even better on a tablet, as I did tap the down key a lot.

Vequist, Gary W. and Daniel S. Licht. Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide. Texas A and M University Press, 2013. 246p.

The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature by Jonathan Rosen

"Some days, of course, there's nothing but starlings." Jonathan Rosen 

Sometimes I come upon books without seeking, just finding them, similar to Gene Spandling spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker (he thinks) when he was just enjoying a outing in a cypress swamp. I came across a positive reference to The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature and borrowed it. For some reason, I expected the book to be more scientific, detailing what can be found in the atmosphere. Instead, I found it to be a literary history of birdwatching infused with Rosen's own story of becoming a birdwatcher (a term he seems to like better than birder).

The Life of the Skies is also a travel memoir. Rosen describes outings in the swamps of Louisiana, the woods of Central Park, and the valleys in Israel, all places with important environmental stories. Often in the company of local experts, he sought birds of note. His essays about these outings explain how global geopolitics and individual efforts for conservation have determined what birds birdwatchers see. He also populates his book with stories about famous birdwatchers, including John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Russell Wallace, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Frost, Roger Tory Peterson, and E. O Wilson. He also quotes songwriters Lucinda Williams, Chris Hillerman, and Gram Parsons.

Rosen is an essayist for the New Yorker and the New York Times and has written other books that examine current life in philosophical, religious, and ethical terms. This book continues his diverse scholarly interests. In it I found many quotable passages, like one above.

In the world of books, The Life of the Skies is not common like a starling. It is also not an ivory-billed woodpecker of a book, for you will successfully find it in some libraries, if you look. I will call it an indigo bunting, an uncommon and delightful find.

Rosen, Jonathan. The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. ISBN 9780374186302.

Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems from the Water Hole by Irene Latham

When you go to Africa for camera safari, (which you should - don't let the fear of malaria, yellow fever, or ebola stop you) visit water holes. Almost all animals have to drink water at some point in the day or night, and water holes are where they find water in the drier seasons. These low pools are gathering spots for many species. Watching the wildlife traffic is entertaining and exciting, as Irene Latham attests in Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems from the Water Hole. This bright children's book is illustrated by Anna Wadham.

If you have been to savannah lands in Africa, you can vouch for Latham's descriptions of the animals and their behaviors. Impala do literally spring high into the air when frightened, as Latham says in "Impala Explosion"; it is quite a sight to see. Vultures, storks, jackals, and hyenas do squawk and snarl around the remains of dead animals, as she describes in "Calling Carcass Control." Drinking from a water hole is a risky necessity for giraffe, as she explains in "Triptych for a Thirsty Giraffe."

I thought "Oxpecker Cleaning Service" was the funniest poem. I'd enjoy reading it to a child.

An explanatory paragraph accompanies each poem. Latham includes a glossary of words that may be new to young readers in the back of her book. There was even a word that I didn't know (volplane), proving that this is a book that will benefit young and old.

Latham, Irene. Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems from the Water Hole. Millbrook Press, 2014. 33p. ISBN 9781467712323.

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke

No one should be surprised that I read Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke. On this blog I have reviewed at least six elephant books, including The Elephant Scientist and The Elephant Whisperer recently. Also, I have featured news about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which operates elephant preserves in Kenya. Elephants, pandas, and birds are high on the scale of our interests in our household and at this book review.

Closer inspection of the three titles above reveals that the books are also about people who study, protect, and work with elephants. In Elephant Company, the subject is Billy Williams, who went to Burma in 1920 to work with Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, a British company that harvested teak logs from rain forests. Williams had always loved and worked with animals in his native England and quickly developed the skills of an elephant veterinarian. Working closely with the mahouts who road the elephants as they hauled logs, Williams introduced more humane treatment of elephants, lengthening their lives and saving the company having to capture more wild elephants - dangerous work that often involved injury and death of elephants and humans.

Elephant Company compares well with the other elephant books that I have read. The author tells a story that seems new to contemporary readers but would have been known to many newspaper readers in the 1930s and 1940s. She vividly describes life in a remote region of the waning British Empire and recounts a horrific period of Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia. She also celebrates the relationship between Williams and an elephant known as Bandoola. I enjoyed several happy days of reading.

Croke, Vicki Constantine. Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II. Random House, 2014. 343p. ISBN 9781400069330.

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Miyoko Chu

The fall migration of birds is in full swing now. Not wanting to miss any of it, I am eager to leave the house with our binoculars and camera to see what I can see and photograph. But I do want to stop for a moment to say I just read a great book on bird migration, Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Miyoko Chu. The author tells fascinating stories about little birds who take incredible journeys and about some of the people who follow them. She also identifies some of the best locations for witnessing the glories of the migrations. More places go on my travel list.

.......................

Later. I am back from the Morton Arboretum. I saw lots of birds today, but they were mostly resident birds instead of migrants. Many of the birds who need to go south have already started doing so. In Songbird Journeys, the author tells how dates and routes of migrations can vary from year to year, but the result is often the same - birds arriving in the same locations, maybe even the same nests. This may be a year for early cold. Birds can sense this, but their decision-making as to when to migrate is not perfect. Sometimes great numbers of birds die in storms.

I enjoyed Chu's stories about bird researchers. In 1965, Richard Graber from the Illinois Natural History Survey tried to follow a gray-cheeked thrush on which he had tied a tiny radio transmitter. Small birds need tiny transmitters to keep from weighing them down. At dusk when the bird rose for its nighttime journey, Graber took off from the Urbana, Illinois airport to follow. Little did he know that he'd get as far as Lake Superior before losing the bird a little before dawn. The bird burned a couple of ounces of body fat. Graber had to land once and refuel his plane.

Another story involved a researcher who banded a warbler near Lake Erie in late summer. When he travelled to the Dominican Republic to study warbler, the first bird he caught in his net was the same bird.

Chu emphasizes how much there is still to learn about bird migrations. Where some of the birds spend winters has not yet been discovered, which worries conservationists. The loss of habitats in both North and South America is the major threat to the survival of songbirds.

I am glad to have read Songbird Journeys. It would be great winter reading for many North American birders.

Chu, Miyoko. Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds. Walker & Company, 2006. 312p. ISBN 9780802714688.

The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M. Jackson

Elephants continue to surprise us. In her field studies in Namibia, zoologist Caitlin O'Connell noticed that when elephants warily stop to assess the safety of a situation, the matriarch holds a front foot bent so that the front toes firmly contact the earth. She had seen similar behavior in insects and recognized it as hearing vibrations through feet (signals sent from toes to ear). In her book for young readers The Elephant Scientist, she recounts research and field experiments that she and a team of naturalists conducted to verify her observation.

I particularly liked the section of the book showing O'Connell and others building and inhabiting a scaffold-like four-story observation station. The station overlooks a water hole that attracts elephants, giraffe, and zebras. And an occasional lion, of course. Wrapped in boma cloth, the electrified perimeter fencing keeps the team safe from the wildlife and let them observe elephant behaviors without disturbing the elephants. The boy in me that always longed for a tree house thinks it would be really cool to live and work in an observation tower in Namibia.

As a title in the Scientists in the Field Series from Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, The Elephant Scientist, which was a Robert F. Siebert Honor Book, is filled with photos of the wildlife and the scientists at work. The chapters are concise and fairly quick reading, and the authors include a glossary and reading list in the back of the book. The Elephant Scientist is an attractive book for elephant lovers of any age. Thanks to Bonnie for bring it home.

Connell, Caitlin and Donna M. Jackson. The Elephant Scientist. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011. 72p. ISBN 9780547053448.

Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects by Roland H. Wauer

The title pretty much says it all. Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects by Roland H. Wauer is a great model of the kind of book you will find in National Park Service bookstores. It provides a history of Big Bend National Park and identifies many of the plants and animals in the park - with hints where to find them. It will be very helpful to have read when I finally make it to the park.

The surprise here is that I grew up in West Texas and never went to Big Bend. The distances in that region are vast, but that really is not a good excuse. I should have made an effort as an adult to go before now. I still don't have a plan to get there, but I am thinking of it more and more. There is so much there to see, as the author tells us.

In the chapter on fish, there is a great story about the saving of the only population of Big Bend Gambusia on the planet. I have heard the story before about how the fish were all captured and moved into a safe pool until their own pond could be cleared of invading species. I was happy to read Wauer's account, which included a bit about his role.

There are many birds and wildflowers, as well as cacti, reptiles, and insects in Big Bend. Wauer's observations make the litanies of plant and animal species enjoyable.

You may notice if you read this blog that I have been highlighting books from the University of Texas Press recently. This book is from the rival Texas A & M University Press. It appears they both have a tradition of publishing useful natural history titles. I need to retire so I can read more of them and travel to some of the great parks described.

Wauer, Roland H. Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects. Texas A & M University Press, 1980, 1973. 149p. ISBN 0890960704.

Return of the Whooping Crane by Robin W. Doughty

I am very glad I borrowed and read Return of the Whooping Crane by Robin W. Doughty. While the book is at this point 25 years old and there must be more of the whooping crane story to tell, I was totally absorbed by the details of the story from which I come to two conclusions

The first is that whooping cranes in the wild are not really saved yet. There is stability in that the flock that migrates between the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories has in recent decades constantly grown. It was up to 278 cranes in 2011 (International Crane Foundation) There were at the same time 321 whooping cranes in other locations, including preserves, zoos, and a recent East Coast migratory flock. But the Florida non-migratory flock is shrinking, and the Rocky Mountain flock has already failed.

The second point is that it is really difficult to reintroduce cranes to the wild. Doughty documents years of trying to get sandhill cranes to foster whoopers to start that Rocky Mountain flock. The sandhill parents usually did well-enough to hatch and raise the whooping crane chicks, but mature whooping cranes never seemed to mate even when they found each other. Also, many birds raised in captivity and released into the wild died in bad weather, in accidents with electric lines, or in predation by wolves, coyotes, foxes, cougars, and eagles. At least for whooping cranes through 1989, reintroductions resulted in more dead cranes than survivors.

Despite these difficulties, Return of the Whooping Crane is a hopeful book. It tells how laws were passed just in time to stop the feather trade and how low the world's population fell. It recounts extreme efforts by conservationists in the U.S. and Canada over many decades to save the species. It also tells much about crane biology and behavior and includes many beautiful color photographs of whooping cranes. This beautiful book is dated but succeeds still in instilling appreciation and devotion for the cranes.

Doughty, Robin W. Return of the Whooping Crane. University of Texas Press, 1989. 182p. ISBN 0292790414.

Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America's Own Backyard by Mary Kay Carson and photographs by Tom Uhlman

America's National Parks were created to preserve wilderness and wildlife. To succeed in this mission, they have also become places of scientific inquiry, much of it being conducted by park scientists. Author Mary Kay Carson and photographer Tom Uhlman travelled to three of the country's national parks to meet "Scientists in the Field" and learn about their import work. They report in Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America's Own Backyard.

Their first reports focus on Yellowstone National Park, which stretches across a might volcanic caldera in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Carson and Uhlman followed geologists who monitor the ever-changing eruptions of geysers on the western side of the park. Then they joined biologists who study the park's population of grizzly bears.

Saguaro National Park in Arizona was their second stop. Here they worked along side the scientists who study large lizards called Gila monsters before joining scientists and local students conducting a census of the park's saguaro, who may live up to 200 years.

Then they crossed the country to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles Tennessee and North Carolina. After spending days with biologist Amy Luxbacher finding endangered salamanders in the park, they turned their attention to night-time research of Photinus carolinus, a rare type of firefly that blinks in sync with others of its kind, putting on amazing light shows.

Being a big kid who has been to two of the parks, I enjoyed learning more about the parks, the wildlife, and the people who work there. If I were a kid, I might be inspired to become a nature scientist. In any case, I would understand and learn to care about the conservation of the great places.

Carson, Mary Kay. Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America's Own Backyard. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. 76p. ISBN 9780547792682.

Books About Birds from the University of Texas Press

When I was in library school at the University of Texas, one of my classes toured the University of Texas Press. It had recently retooled, if I remember correctly, incorporating new automated technology. I remember huge metal plates for printing pages. It was the late 1970s, so I am sure much has changed since, but I was impressed. I did not at the time have the foresight to realize that many years later I would be reading many books published there.

Several years ago I read The Robin by Roland H. Wauer, which is in the Corrie Herring Hooks series of natural history books from the University of Texas Press. At the time, I noticed that there were other books to add to my to-read list. Now I am finally moving a few titles to my books-I've-read list.

The first I read this month was The Cardinal by June Osborne with photographs by Barbara Garland. Osborne describes the seasonal life of the easy-to-identify redbird, starting with January and progressing through the year. In the process, she tells how the species has flourished, much like the robin, as Americans altered the environment. Once the species was a southern bird but now it inhabits much of the U.S. and parts of Canada year round. This is after cardinals were threatened in the late 19th century by people trapping them for the caged bird trade. Luckily legislation in southern states and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 saved them.

While 19th century Americans people caged cardinals for their beauty, they caged the mostly drab northern mockingbird for its song. According to Robin W. Doughty in his The Mockingbird, the master mimic has benefited from human migration as much as the cardinal. The northern mockingbird was also once a southern bird but now is found across much of the United States and has been found in Canada. It is the only member of its genus in the United States; there are 7 to 9 other species (depending on how you define the species) in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. My Texas friends will enjoy this book as much of the described field work was in that state.

I have started reading Return of the Whooping Crane, which is also by Robin W. Doughty and published at the press. I had intended to describe it here, but it is a longer book and deserves much more attention. Look for a review in an upcoming post.

As I get more serious about birding, I may be turning to more titles from the University of Texas Press. Some are a couple decades old and apparently out of print, but they are provide good basic descriptions, insightful history, and colorful photos. They may still in many library collections.

Osborne, June. The Cardinal. University of Texas Press, 1992. 108p. ISBN 0292711476.

Doughty, Robin W. The Mockingbird. University of Texas Press, 1988. 80p. ISBN 0292750994.