Birds and Books

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Birds & Books Reading Group - 2007 schedule

LAS Birds & Books Reading Group
Meets - 3rd Tuesday of the month-7:00-8:30 pm
Sundance Bookstore, 1155 W. 4th Street, # 106-Keystone Square Shopping Center

For more information, please contact coordinator Kenn Rohrs at karohrs@charter.net or 775-849-9530.

See below for a short description of each of the below books .

January 11 - Hoot, Carl Hiaasen
February 20 - Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds, Miyoko Chu
March 20 - Made For Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines, Ronald M. Lanner
April 17 - 100 Birds and How They Got Their Names, Diana Wells
May 15 - Condor: To the Brink and Back, John Nielsen
June 19 - Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies about Birds, Warner Shedd
July 19 - The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year, Pete Dunne
August 21- The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time-A True Story about Birdwatching, Sean Dooley
September 18 - The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction, David Quammen
October 16 - Restoring North America's Birds: Lessons from Landscape Ecology, 2nd Edition, Robert A. Askins
November 20 - The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes, Peter Matthiessen
December 18 - The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Tim Gallagher

Book Descriptions

February 20

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds, Miyoko Chu
Songbird Journeys is the first book devoted to songbird migration. Until recently, little was known about the lives of songbirds during their autumn and spring travels or in their winter habitats. Aided by modern technology, however, scientists have documented mass migrations over the Gulf of Mexico, identified the voices of migrants in the night sky, and showed how songbirds navigate using stars, polarized light, and magnetic fields. Miyoko Chu explores the intricacies underlying the ebb and flow of migration, the cycle of seasons, and the interconnectedness between distant places. Songbird Journeys pays homage to the wonder and beauty of songbirds while revealing the remarkable lives of migratory birds and the scientific quest to answer age-old questions about where songbirds go, how they get there, and what they do in the far-flung places they inhabit throughout the year.

Miyoko Chu is a Ph.D. ornithologist and staff writer at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She is editor of the Lab's BirdScope newsletter and assistant editor of Living Bird magazine. Chu lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband and bird watching partner Mark Chao, and their two children. Songbird Journeys is her first book.

March 20

Made For Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines, Ronald M. Lanner
In Made for Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines , Ronald M. Lanner details for the first time this fascinating relationship between pine trees and Corvids (nutcrackers and jays), showing how mutualism can drive not only each others' evolution, but affect the ecology of many other members of the surrounding ecosystem as well. Lanner explains that many of the world's pines have seeds not adapted to wind dispersal. Fortunately, their seeds are harvested from the cone and scattered over many miles by seed-eating jays and nutcrackers who bury millions of seeds in the soil as a winter food source. Remarkably, these "pine nut" dependent birds can find their caches even through deep snow. Seeds left in the soil germinate, perpetuating the pines and guarantee future seeds for future birds. Moreover, the newly "planted" whitebark pine groves encourage further tree growth, such as Engelmann spruce, and eventually the patches of open-grown woodland coalesce, forming a continuous forest. Large forest stands offer cover for large animals like bear, elk, and moose, and provide territories for Red Squirrels. These squirrels also depend on pine seeds as a food source, storing large quantities of seeds on the ground, piled up against fallen logs or stumps, or buried in the forest litter.

In the fall both black and grizzly bears are preparing to hibernate and must increase their stores of body fat. The seeds of whitebark pine are large and very rich, containing sixty to seventy percent fat, and are an ideal food for this purpose. The large seed reserves created by the squirrels become a feasting ground for these bears. Meanwhile, the sun-loving trees shaded out by the maturing decay offer housing for cavity-nesters like woodpeckers and nuthatches, as well as a breeding ground for fungi which are eagerly devoured by mule deer and red squirrels in search of protein. Eventually, when the forest is ignited in one of the thunderstorms so common and so violent in the high country, an open area is created, attracting nutcrackers in need of a new cache site, and the cycle begins again.

Focusing on the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest, and ranging as far a field as the Alps, Finland, Siberia, and China, this beautifully illustrated and gracefully written work illuminates the phenomenon of co-evolution.

Ronald M. Lanner is Professor Emeritus of Forest Resources at Utah State University. He is the author of a number of books, including The Piñon Pine , Trees of the Great Basin , Autumn Leaves: A Guide to the Fall Colors of the Northwoods , and the forthcoming, The Conifers of California .

April 17

100 Birds and How They Got Their Names, Diana Wells How did cranes come to symbolize matrimonial happiness? Why were magpies the only creatures that would not go inside Noah's Ark? Birds and bird imagery are integral parts of our language and culture. With her remarkable ability to dig up curious and captivating facts, Diana Wells hatches a treat for active birders and armchair enthusiasts alike. Meet the intrepid adventurers and naturalists who risked their lives to describe and name new birds. Learn the mythical stories of the gods and goddess associated with bird names. Explore the avian emblems used by our greatest writers--from Coleridge's albatross in "The Ancient Mariner" to Poe's raven.

Diana Wells holds an honors degree in history from Oxford University and is the author of 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names and 100 Birds and How They Got Their Names. She is a contributing editor to the journal Greenprints and lives with her husband and their dog, Nemo, on a farm in Pennsylvania.

May 15

Condor: To the Brink and Back, John Nielsen
The California condor has been described as a bird "with one wing in the grave." Flying on wings nearly ten feet wide from tip to tip, these birds thrived on the carcasses of animals like woolly mammoths. Then, as humans began dramatically reshaping North America, the continent's largest flying land bird started disappearing. By the beginning of the twentieth century, extinction seemed inevitable.

But small groups of passionate individuals refused to allow the condor to fade away, even as they fought over how and why the bird was to be saved. Scientists, farmers, developers, bird lovers, and government bureaucrats argued bitterly and often, in the process injuring one another and the species they were trying to save. In the late 1980s, the federal government made a wrenching decision -- the last remaining wild condors would be caught and taken to a pair of zoos, where they would be encouraged to breed with other captive condors.

Livid critics called the plan a recipe for extinction. After the zoo-based populations soared, the condors were released in the mountains of south-central California, and then into the Grand Canyon, Big Sur, and Baja California. Today the giant birds are nowhere near extinct.

The giant bird with "one wing in the grave" appears to be recovering, even as the wildlands it needs keep disappearing. But the story of this bird is more than the story of a vulture with a giant wingspan -- it is also the story of a wild and giant state that has become crowded and small, and of the behind-the-scenes dramas that have shaped the environmental movement. As told by John Nielsen, an environmental journalist and a native Californian, this is a fascinating tale of survival.

John Nielsen is an environment correspondent for National Public Radio and a fourth-generation Californian who grew up in the condor's rangelands. As a reporter, he has come to specialize in stories about endangered species and changes to the natural landscape. He lives in Washington, D.C.

June 19

Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies about Birds, Warner Shedd
Have you ever seen a flying squirrel flapping through the air, watched a beaver carrying a load of mud on its tail, or ducked when a porcupine started throwing its quills? Probably not, says Warner Shedd, debunking these and many more popular myths about our animal friends in Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind. In this charming and eminently readable biology lesson, Warner Shedd, former regional executive for the National Wildlife Federation, offers scientific evidence that refutes many of the most tenacious and persevering folklore about wild animals. Full of humorous anecdotes and fascinating facts about more than thirty North American species, Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind is an entertaining dose of scientific reality for any nature enthusiast or armchair adventurer.

Did you know that "flying" squirrels are incapable of true flight? Were you aware that opossums don't "play dead," as in the common folk saying "playing possum"? In this fascinating and gorgeously illustrated new book, wildlife expert and enthusiast Warner Shedd, former executive for the National Wildlife Federation, uncovers the scientific realities obscured by our numerous long-held misconceptions of wild animals. Setting the most tenacious of these age-old superstitions against evidence that he and other biologists and naturalists have gleaned from careful observation and investigation, Shedd refutes such popular myths as beavers can fell trees in a desired direction, gray squirrels remember where they bury nuts, wolves howl at the moon, and cougars are an endangered species.

Warner Shedd, a former regional executive for the National Wildlife Federation, holds an advanced degree in biological sciences. A lifelong outdoorsman, he is the author of The Kids' Wildlife Book, and his articles have appeared in Sports Afield, Vermont Life, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and other publications. He lives on a mostly wooded farm in northern Vermont.

July 17

The Feather Quest: A North American Birder's Year, Pete Dunne
When a flash of pink was spotted in a cloud of gray gulls over Newburyport, Massachusetts, ten thousand people descended on the town in hopes of seeing a rare Ross's gull from Siberia. Among them were Pete and Linda Dunne, who set off from there on a year-long odyssey. Dunne had poured the most remarkable stories, birds, and characters into this unforgettable book about their once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

PETE DUNNE is the author of nine books, including Pete Dunne on Bird Watching, Hawks in Flight, and The Wind Masters. He is the vice president of the New Jersey Audubon Society and the director of its Cape May Bird Observatory and has written columns and articles for virtually every birding magazine as well as the New York Times.

August 21

The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time-A True Story abou Birdwatching, Sean Dooley
As a self-proclaimed twitcher-a birdwatching extremist who travels around the country trying to catch a glimpse of as many species of birds as possible-the author took a year off in 2002 with the goal of seeing 700 birds and thereby breaking the national record for most birds seen in one year. In this amusing memoir, he recounts his quest, including how he spent all of his inheritance from the untimely death of his parents to make his dream a reality. Populated by unusual characters and interesting species of birds, this part confessional-part travelogue for both bird nerds and the general population follows the author as he works out what it means to be normal despite his unusually avid compulsion toward twitching.

Sean Dooley is a comedy writer for television. He has worked as a stand-up comedian and has performed a one-man show about birdwatching.

September 18

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction, David Quammen
David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders.

In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries. We trail after him as he travels the world, tracking the subject of island biogeography, which encompasses nothing less than the study of the origin and extinction of all species. Why is this island idea so important? Because islands are where species most commonly go extinct -- and because, as Quammen points out, we live in an age when all of Earth's landscapes are being chopped into island-like fragments by human activity.

Through his eyes, we glimpse the nature of evolution and extinction, and in so doing come to understand the monumental diversity of our planet, and the importance of preserving its wild landscapes, animals, and plants. We also meet some fascinating human characters. By the book's end we are wiser, and more deeply concerned, but Quammen leaves us with a message of excitement and hope.

David Quammen was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at Yale and Oxford. In 1973 with a "fly rod and a Volkswagen bus" he headed west, landing in Montana where he currently resides. Mr. Quammen is perhaps best known for "Natural Acts," a column he wrote for Outside magazine for fifteen years. During this time, he gained a reputation with readers for making natural science understandable and relevant, and with scientists for getting it right. His columns are collected in Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, and The Flight of the Iguana: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature.

October 16

Restoring North America's Birds: Lessons from Landscape Ecology, 2nd Edition, Robert A Askins
This accessible book draws on recent research on bird species and their habitats to explain how basic principles of bird ecology and landscape ecology can help us create scientifically sound plans for protecting and restoring the rich diversity of North American birds. This edition includes an afterword that reviews noteworthy literature that has appeared since the first edition was completed in 1999. This new material-on such key issues as the importance of preserving large expanses of natural habitat, the importance of maintaining early successional habitats, and the habitat requirements of neotropical migrants-shows how the research on landscape ecology of birds has shaped conservation policy more rapidly than most would have predicted.

Won second place in the 2000 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in the Environment category

Robert A. Askins is professor of zoology and director of the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College

November 20

The Birds of Heaven: Travels With Cranes, Peter Matthiessen
In legend, cranes often figure as harbingers of heaven and omens of longevity and good fortune. And in nature, they are an "umbrella species" whose well-being assures that of the ecosystem at large. The Birds of Heaven chronicles Peter Matthiessen's many journeys on five continents in search of the fifteen species of cranes. His telling captures the dilemmas of a planet in ecological crisis, and the deep loss to humankind if these beautiful and imposing creatures are allowed to disappear.

Peter Matthiessen is a writer, naturalist, environmental activist, and wilderness traveler whose many works of nonfiction include The Snow Leopard, and whose most recent novel is Bone by Bone, which concludes his powerful Watson trilogy.

December 18

The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Tim Gallagher
What is it about the ivory-billed woodpecker? Why does this ghost of the southern swamps arouse such an obsessive level of passion in its devotees, who range from respected researchers to the flakiest Loch Ness monster fanatics and Elvis chasers? Since the early twentieth century, scientists have been trying their best to prove that the ivory-bill is extinct. But every time they think they've finally closed the door, the bird makes an unexpected appearance. It happened in the 1920s, and it's happened in almost every subsequent decade. For more than 60 years, each sighting has been met with ridicule and scorn. Respected researchers and naturalists have been branded as quacks just for having the temerity to say that the ivory-bill still exists. Yet the reports still trickle in. Is there any truth to these sightings, or are they just a case of wishful thinking, misidentification, or outright fabrication? To unravel the mystery, author Tim Gallagher heads south, deep into the eerie swamps and bayous of the vast Mississippi Delta, searching for people who claim to have seen this rarest of birds and following up sometimes more than 30 years after the facton their sightings. He meets a colorful array of characters: a cigar-chomping ex-boxer who took two controversial pictures of an alleged ivory-bill in 1971; a former corporate lawyer who abandoned her career to search for ivory-bills full time; two men who grew up in the ivory-bill's last known stronghold in a final remnant of primeval forest in Louisiana. With his buddy Bobby Harrison, a true son of the South from Alabama, Gallagher hits the swamps, wading through hip-deep, boot-sucking mud and canoeing through turgid, mud brown bayous where deadly cottonmouth water moccasins abound. In most cases, they are clearly decades too late. But when the two speak to an Arkansas backwoods kayaker who saw a mystery woodpecker the week before and has a description of the bird that is too good to be a fantasy, the hunt is on. Their Eureka moment comes a few days later as a huge woodpecker flies in front of their canoe, and they both cry out, "Ivory-bill!" This sighting the first time since 1944 that two qualified observers positively identify an ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States quickly leads to the largest search ever launched to find a rare bird, as researchers fan out across the bayou, hoping to document the existence of this most iconic of birds.

Tim Gallagher is a lifelong bird fanatic. An award-winning writer and photographer, he is editor in chief of Living Bird magazine, the flagship publication of the renowned Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. For many years Tim has traveled to faraway places, from the high Arctic to the tropics, to study and photograph birds and report on research.