books
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Bärenfähigkeit
On the liturgical calendar, today is St. Martin’s Day. In the late Middle Ages, “Martin” was often the name given to bears abused and belittled in circuses and other equivalents of side-shows. This is not coincidental, Michel Pastoureau shows in his fascinating The Bear: History of a Fallen King. The Church waged a long war…
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Three Books
Sometimes I find the perfect description about what I’m up to here: “In an age when the ecological integrity of our planet is threatened on so many levels, anything that strengthens those connections, or makes meaningful our daily arrangements with the world around us, is a form of resistance, a kind of love forged with…
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Animal Sex
It turns out that one of the best ways to tell species apart is to examine their genitals. There’s an incredible variety of forms of male and female sex organs, even within the species gathered together in a genus, and so for years biologists have been separating, for example, beetles that otherwise look rather similar,…
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Notes for Further Reading and Doing
Reading: Rob Jett’s ebook The Red-tailed Hawk Journals: A City Birder in Brooklyn is now available. Rob has been documenting the Red-tails of Brooklyn for more than a decade and tells how he first came to these adventures. It’s a great story. Liam Heneghan has written a fine essay on the #1000UrbanMiles project he instigated.…
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Strand Birds
The bird section at Strand Books is quite worth reviewing. There are actually two nearby sections, the other for over-sized volumes, jammed with photo books and some very fine references; there’s a third section if you count field guides. The prices are, well, Bass-y — père et fille Bass are pirates from way back. I…
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Stung!
Is it too early for a couple of quick ones? Non-Russian vodka, with Bloody Mary camouflage, if you please. This book is unrelievedly depressing and despairing. It makes you want to jump in the ocean and drown… but you’ll probably be stung dead by jellies before that happens. Should your grandchildren ever get ahold of…
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Unreal Nature
On a recent trip to Croton Point, a friend noted how much he has been conditioned by television nature shows to expect spectacular close-ups, stunning cinematography and photography, and dramatic incidents in the wild. The real world is something quite different. Missing in those shows are the hours of footage, sometimes the days and even…
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The Age of Wonder Is Perpetual
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, by Joseph Wright “of Derby,” 1768. The painting is in the National Gallery, London, where I saw it in the oil this summer. Dramatically lit by a single candle, this tableau shows a scientist conducting the eponymous experiment and freaking out the children. Actually, in 1768,…
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Books
It’s never too late to get some books for Christmas. Here are two excellent choices for gifts: Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast: A Natural History, by Carol Gracie. Gracie, a reader of this blog, profiles 30 species of wildflowers (with variations) that herald the spring in our woodlands. The lovely (Spring Beauty, Lady’s Slipper) and…
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The Unfeathered Bird
This remarkable book goes well with chicken and, I would think, a nice dry white wine that hasn’t seen the inside of an oak barrel. Because a chicken is the closest most of us ever get to a featherless bird. Or, given the season, you could go with a turkey. Both of these birds are…
Backyard and Beyond 