An ornithologist's account of his youthful, year-long, cross-country birdwatching adventure: "A fascinating memoir of an obsession." — BooklistAt sixteen, Kenn Kaufman dropped out of the high school where he was student council president and hit the road, hitching back and forth across America, from Alaska to Florida, Maine to Mexico. Maybe not all that unusual a thing to do in the seventies, but what Kenn was searching for was a little different: not sex, ...

A close study of one season along Lake Erie that reveals the amazing science and magic of spring bird migration, and the perils of human encroachment."Kenn Kaufman knows his birds and their miraculous journeys—and he feels them deeply, too. An enlightening, thought-provoking, and poignant read." —Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Genius of BirdsEvery spring, billions of birds sweep north, driven by ancient instincts to retur...

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 migratio...

True life essays that show how a son's connection with birds helped him reconnect with his mother, from the ornithologist and author of Kingbird Highway.At age sixteen, Kenn Kaufman left home to travel the world in search of birds. Now a grown man and a renowned ornithologist, he has come back to visit his ailing mother and explain to her what drove his obsession with bird life. His explanation forms a series of interlocking tales from the frontier where t...

Avid North American birders share wit, wisdom, advice, and what fuels their passion for birds.Birding gets you outside, helps you de-stress, exercises your body and mind, puts your day-to-day problems in perspective, and can be lots of fun. Birders know this, and in this collection of thirty-seven brief essays, birders from diverse backgrounds share their sense of wonder, joy, and purpose about their passion (and sometimes obsession).From the Pacific Ocean ...

Renowned naturalist Kenn Kaufman examines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers in this fascinating “blend of history, science, art, biography, and memoir” (Booklist, starred review).Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s,...

David Sibley, Don and Lillian Stokes, and many more share their inside tips—and witty observations—on the birding life.The biggest names in birding dispense advice to birders of every level—on topics ranging from feeding birds and cleaning binoculars to pishing and pelagic birding—in these lighthearted essays accompanied by illustrations. Whether satirizing bird snobs or relating the traditions and taboos of the birding culture, this collection of wisdom is as choc...

Once in a great while, as the New York Times noted recently, a naturalist writes a book that changes the way people look at the living world. John James Audubon’s Birds of America, published in 1838, was one. Roger Tory Peterson’s 1934 Field Guide to the Birds was another. How does such insight into nature develop?Pioneering a new niche in the study of plants and animals in their native habitat, Field Notes on Science and Nature allows readers to...

Inspired by Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher's book Wild America, recent high school graduate M. Ralph Browning embarked on a tightly budgeted, year-long trip in the US looking for birds. The year was 1962. His 1955 VW Beetle broke after nine months, which forced a premature end to the journey. In 2005, after matters of military duty, college, a family, and a career in birds at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, the author resumed the interrupted trip. This time, he was ...

The story of how the associate editor of Birding magazine set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world's birds in one year.In 2015, for 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, Noah Strycker traveled across forty-one countries and all seven continents, eventually spotting 6,042 species—by far the biggest birding year on record. This is no travelogue or glorified checklist. Noah ventures deep into...

One of the Guardian's Best Paperbacks of November'Astonishing ... If by chance you can't meet these 6,042 species yourself, this book is a close second' Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Genius of Birds'Even readers who wouldn't know a marvellous spatuletail from a southern ground hornbill will be awed' Publishers WeeklyNoah Strycker set himself a goal: to become the first person to see hal...