Best Bird Watching

Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous—two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hidden yet vast world of animal minds. Alex's brain was the size of a shelled walnut, and when Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Together, Alex and Irene uncovered a startling reality: We live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures. Alex missed Irene when she was away. Alex and Irene stayed together through thick and thin—despite sneers from experts, extraordinary financial sacrifices, and a nomadic existence from one univer­sity to another. Alex is the African gray parrot whose ability to master a vocabulary of more than 100 words and answer questions about the color, shape and number of objects—garnered wide notice during his life as well as obituaries in worldwide media after his death in September 2007. While this book inevitably covers some of the same ground, it is a moving tribute that beautifully evokes the struggles, the initial triumphs, the setbacks, the unexpected and often stunning achievements during a groundbreaking scientific endeavor spent uncovering cognitive abilities in Alex that no one believed were possible, and challenging science's deepest assumptions about the origin of human cognitive abilities.

-All of North America in one volume. -Over 800 species and 600 range maps. -Arthur Singer's famous illustrations featuring male, female, and juvenile plumage. -Sonograms that picture sound for easy song recognition. -Migration routes, feeding habits, and characteristic flight patterns. -American ornithologists' classifications. -Convenient check boxes to record birds you have identified. -Color tabs for quick references. Golden Guides first appeared in 1949 and quickly established themselves as authorities on subjects from Natural History to Science.

The wings of turkey buzzards influenced the Wright brothers’ flight design; the chickadee’s song is considered by scientists to be the most sophisticated language in the animal world and a “window into the evolution of our own language and our society”; and the quietly powerful presence of eagles in the disadvantaged neighborhood of Anacostia, in Washington, D.C., proved to be an effective method for rehabilitating the troubled young people placed in charge of their care. “In this deeply felt and well-supported argument for avians’ value to humankind, science writer Robbins hits the full trifecta for engrossing and satisfying nature writing.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review). “Using enchanting stories and rich historical references, Jim Robbins explores the role of birds on the evolution of human self-awareness.” —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “ The Wonder of Birds provides a great and well-timed gift: a portrait of the quiet miracles around us on each day of our ordinary lives.” —Michael Punke, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant. “Jim Robbins writes masterfully, with lucid prose and deep insight into the human psyche and natural world.” —Peter Stark, author of Astoria. “In this deeply felt and well-supported argument for avians’ value to humankind, science writer Robbins ( The Man Who Planted Trees ) hits the full trifecta for engrossing and satisfying nature writing. He displays a personal involvement with and ‘soul-stirring wonder’ about his subject, a fondness for the sometimes-obsessed researchers who dive deeply into specifics of anatomy and behavior, and a smooth and engaging writing style through which he conveys a huge amount of factual information while keeping his narrative flowing. The world ‘is fantastically rich and alive with meaning,’ Robbins reminds readers, offering correctives to ‘our inability to sense it’ as well as pointers on where to look.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review). By sharing his perspective and insights, Robbins reminds us to slow down and to appreciate—and ultimately to protect—a natural world that is essential for both our physical and our spiritual well-being.” —Michael Punke, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant. “Jim Robbins’s insight has brought even more perspective into a world I have been discovering most of my life and career with birds.” —Steve Malowski, aviculturist, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. “A must-read, conveying much necessary information in easily accessible form and awakening one’s consciousness to what might otherwise be taken for granted…The Wonder of Birds reads like the story of a kid let loose in a candy store and given free rein to sample. “Engaging, thoughtful…this work is worthy of a place alongside David Attenborough’s documentary The Life of Birds or Graeme Gibson’s The Bedside Book of Birds…Of wide-ranging significance, this offering will appeal to naturalists, anthropologists, linguists, and even philosophers as well as to lay readers.”. ―Michael Punke, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant and Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West. “In this deeply felt and well-supported argument for avians’ value to humankind, science writer Robbins (The Man Who Planted Trees) hits the full trifecta for engrossing and satisfying nature writing. He displays a personal involvement with and ‘soul-stirring wonder’ about his subject, a fondness for the sometimes-obsessed researchers who dive deeply into specifics of anatomy and behavior, and a smooth and engaging writing style through which he conveys a huge amount of factual information while keeping his narrative flowing…The world ‘is fantastically rich and alive with meaning,’ Robbins reminds readers, offering correctives to ‘our inability to sense it’ as well as pointers on where to look.”.

Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous—two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hidden yet vast world of animal minds. Alex's brain was the size of a shelled walnut, and when Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Together, Alex and Irene uncovered a startling reality: We live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures. Alex missed Irene when she was away. Alex and Irene stayed together through thick and thin—despite sneers from experts, extraordinary financial sacrifices, and a nomadic existence from one univer­sity to another. Alex is the African gray parrot whose ability to master a vocabulary of more than 100 words and answer questions about the color, shape and number of objects—garnered wide notice during his life as well as obituaries in worldwide media after his death in September 2007. While this book inevitably covers some of the same ground, it is a moving tribute that beautifully evokes the struggles, the initial triumphs, the setbacks, the unexpected and often stunning achievements during a groundbreaking scientific endeavor spent uncovering cognitive abilities in Alex that no one believed were possible, and challenging science's deepest assumptions about the origin of human cognitive abilities.

Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. *Starred Review* If this book were packaged like a loaf of bread, its Nutrition Facts box would list high percentages of graphic descriptions of factory farm methods of animal breeding, mass confinement, and assembly-line slaughter as well as the brutality and waste of high-tech fishing methods; fresh studies of animal (fish included) intelligence and their capacity for suffering; and undiluted facts about industrial animal agriculture’s major role in global warming. He presents assiduously assembled facts (supported by70 pages of end notes) about the miserable lives and deaths of industrialized chickens, pigs, fish, and cattle and about agricultural pollution and how factory farming engenders species-leaping flu pandemics.

The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes — and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. When this American transplant to Britain decided to return home, he made a farewell walking tour of the British countryside and produced Notes from a Small Island . Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. As Bryson and Katz haul their out-of-shape, middle-aged butts over hill and dale, the reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance.

This is the preliminary book to help you understand fundamental concepts such as MOA vs Mils and external ballistics, that can be like a trusted resource at the range. The author has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to take seemingly complex areas of long range shooting and breaking them down so that they're easy to understand. The author has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to take seemingly complex areas of long range shooting and breaking them down so that they're easy to understand. "Whether you're looking to dip a toe into the complex world of long range shooting, or you're a seasoned shooter with years of trigger time, Ryan Cleckner's book will prove to be excellent reference material. Whether you're looking to dip a toe into the complex world of long range shooting, or you're a seasoned shooter with years of trigger time, Ryan Cleckner's book will prove to be excellent reference material. Author Ryan Cleckner is unmatched in long distance accuracy and in this fantastic book, he tells us how it's done. While the subject of this book is hitting a target way out there with a heavier caliber super accurate rifle a small game hunter could even be blessed by this information. For law enforcement and citizens who want to be prepared for any long distance occasion, this book is absolutely a must read. Ryan Cleckner served as a special operations sniper team leader with the U.S. Army's elite 1st Ranger Bn. Ryan has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to explain complex topics in a simple and digestible way.

Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book… [His] investigation runs deep, summoning…the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world."

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends--and their amazing links to recent discoveries.