A World On The Wing The Global Odyssey Of Migratory Birds

Author : Scott Weidensaul
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393608913
Total Pages : 383 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds written by Scott Weidensaul and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.

Author : Scott Weidensaul
Publisher : Pan Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1509841040
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A World on the Wing written by Scott Weidensaul and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A vaulting triumph of a book’ Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'A master storyteller, Weidensaul communicates so much joy in the sheer act of witnessing and such exhilaration in the advances of the science behind what he sees that we are slow to grasp the extent of the ecological crisis that he outlines.' Observer Bird migration remains perhaps the most singularly compelling natural phenomenon in the world. Nothing else combines its global sweep with its inherent ability to engender wonder and excitement. The past two decades have seen an explosion in our understanding of the almost unfathomable feats of endurance and complexity involved in bird migration – yet the science that informs these majestic journeys is still in its infancy. Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted writer-ornithologist Scott Weidensaul is at the forefront of this research, and A World on the Wing sees him track some of the most remarkable flights undertaken by birds. His own voyage of discovery sees him sail through the storm-wracked waters of the Bering Sea; encounter gunners and trappers in the Mediterranean; and visit a forgotten corner of north-east India, where former headhunters have turned one of the grimmest stories of migratory crisis into an unprecedented conservation success. As our world comes increasingly under threat from the effects of climate change, these ecological miracles may provide an invaluable guide to a more sustainable future for all species, including us. This is the rousing and reverent story of the billions of birds that, despite the numerous obstacles we have placed in their path, continue to head with hope to the far horizon.

Author : Scott Weidensaul
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 176098616X
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A World on the Wing written by Scott Weidensaul and published by Picador. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘A vaulting triumph of a book' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding Bird migration remains perhaps the most singularly compelling natural phenomenon in the world. Nothing else combines its global sweep with its inherent ability to engender wonder and excitement. The past two decades have seen an explosion in our understanding of the almost unfathomable feats of endurance and complexity involved in bird migration – yet the science that informs these majestic journeys is still relatively in its infancy. Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted writer and ornithologist Scott Weidensaul is at the forefront of this cutting-edge research, and A World on the Wing sees him track some of the most remarkable flights undertaken by birds around the world. His own voyage of discovery sees him sail through the storm-wracked waters of the Bering Sea; encounter gunners and trappers in the Mediterranean; and visit a forgotten corner of northeast India, where former headhunters have turned one of the grimmest stories of migratory crisis into an unprecedented conservation success. As our world comes increasingly under threat from the effects of climate change, these ecological miracles may provide an invaluable guide to a more sustainable future for ourselves. This is the rousing and reverent story of the billions of birds that, despite the numerous obstacles we have placed in their path, continue to head with hope to the far horizon.

Author : Scott Weidensaul
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780865475915
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Living on the Wind written by Scott Weidensaul and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-04-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scott Weidensaul follows hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, Bar-tailed Godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and the Myriad Songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years.

Author : Peter Berthold
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3662059576
Total Pages : 601 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Avian Migration written by Peter Berthold and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: P. Berthold and E. Gwinnd Bird migration is an intriguing aspect of the living world - so much so that it has been investigated for as long, and as thoroughly, as almost any other natural phenomenon. Aristotle, who can count as the founder of scientific ornithology, paid very close attention to the migrations of the birds he ob served, but it was not until the reign of Friedrich II, in the first half of the 13th century, that reliable data began to be obtained. From then on, the data base grew rapidly. Systematic studies of bird migration were introduced when the Vogelwarte Rossitten was founded, as the first ornithological biological observation station in the world (see first chapter "In Memory of Vogelwarte Rossitten"). This area later received enormous impetus when ex perimental research on the subject was begun: the large-scale bird-ringing experiment initiated in Rossitten in 1903 by Johannes Thienemann (who was inspired by the pioneering studies of C. C. M. Mortensen), the experiments on photoperiodicity carried out by William Rowan in the 1920s in Canada and retention and release experiments performed by Thienemann in the 1930s in Rossitten, the first experimental study on the orientation of migratory birds. After the Second World War, migration research, while continuing in the previous areas, also expanded into new directions such as radar ornithology, ecophysiology and hormonal control mechanisms, studies of evolution, ge netics, telemetry and others.

Author : Jonathan Elphick
Publisher : Firefly Books Limited
ISBN 13 : 9781554079711
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Atlas of Bird Migration written by Jonathan Elphick and published by Firefly Books Limited. This book was released on 2011 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses how birds migrate and provides information on migrations in each region of the world and on the migrating habits of hundreds of species of birds.

Author : Scott Weidensaul
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1429931922
Total Pages : 557 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Return to Wild America written by Scott Weidensaul and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2006-10-31 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1953, birding guru Roger Tory Peterson and noted British naturalist James Fisher set out on what became a legendary journey-a one hundred day trek over 30,000 miles around North America. They traveled from Newfoundland to Florida, deep into the heart of Mexico, through the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and into Alaska's Pribilof Islands. Two years later, Wild America, their classic account of the trip, was published. On the eve of that book's fiftieth anniversary, naturalist Scott Weidensaul retraces Peterson and Fisher's steps to tell the story of wild America today. How has the continent's natural landscape changed over the past fifty years? How have the wildlife, the rivers, and the rugged, untouched terrain fared? The journey takes Weidensaul to the coastal communities of Newfoundland, where he examines the devastating impact of the Atlantic cod fishery's collapse on the ecosystem; to Florida, where he charts the virtual extinction of the great wading bird colonies that Peterson and Fisher once documented; to the Mexican tropics of Xilitla, which have become a growing center of ecotourism since Fisher and Peterson's exposition. And perhaps most surprising of all, Weidensaul finds that much of what Peterson and Fisher discovered remains untouched by the industrial developments of the last fifty years. Poised to become a classic in its own right, Return to Wild America is a sweeping survey of the natural soul of North America today.

Author : Jason W. Smith
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469640457
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book To Master the Boundless Sea written by Jason W. Smith and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-04-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the United States grew into an empire in the late nineteenth century, notions like "sea power" derived not only from fleets, bases, and decisive battles but also from a scientific effort to understand and master the ocean environment. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and concluding in the first years of the twentieth, Jason W. Smith tells the story of the rise of the U.S. Navy and the emergence of American ocean empire through its struggle to control nature. In vividly told sketches of exploration, naval officers, war, and, most significantly, the ocean environment, Smith draws together insights from environmental, maritime, military, and naval history, and the history of science and cartography, placing the U.S. Navy's scientific efforts within a broader cultural context. By recasting and deepening our understanding of the U.S. Navy and the United States at sea, Smith brings to the fore the overlooked work of naval hydrographers, surveyors, and cartographers. In the nautical chart's soundings, names, symbols, and embedded narratives, Smith recounts the largely untold story of a young nation looking to extend its power over the boundless sea.

Author : Les Beletsky
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1426206402
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Global Birding written by Les Beletsky and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated with 30-40 photographs and artwork and a map, this book helps you discover where the birds are whether in Mexico and southern Europe or in the distant, mythic Galapagos, Korea, and Antarctica.

Author : Robert M. Thorson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674728408
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Walden's Shore written by Robert M. Thorson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-06 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walden's Shore explores Thoreau's understanding of the "living rock" on which life's complexity depends--not as metaphor but as physical science. Robert Thorson's subject is Thoreau the rock and mineral collector, interpreter of landscapes, and field scientist whose compass and measuring stick were as important to him as his plant press.