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The Wild Life of Frogs by Camilla de la Bedoyere (2014) 24 pages. 5-10 year o———————————————————— AR POINTS: 0.5 READING LEVEL: 3.3 ————————————————————
The Wild Life of Frogs by Camilla de la Bedoyere (2014) 24 pages. 5-10 year olds, grade level 2-3 (Amazon)
I ran across this AWESOME interactive book on Internet Archives website. This book makes learning so much fun with frog facts and photos, frog jokes, meanings of a few frog words, test your frog knowledge, a short princess and frog story, glossary of words, frog arts and crafts and even a recipe for a healthy green “frog” smoothie. Fun, fun, fun!
9/9/2023 UPDATE: I decided to take my time and go ahead and get through this book. Although still very hard to understand her writing and philosophica9/9/2023 UPDATE: I decided to take my time and go ahead and get through this book. Although still very hard to understand her writing and philosophical word salad, I actually do have a new appreciation for her as a person, and I like the subject matter. I bumped the star up to 1-1/2 stars, rounded to 2. Still, a little too philosophical for me.
Annie Dillard is actually very intelligent in all things pertaining to nature and literature. I do love her way of “researching” in the field: sitting still, calmly and quietly, for hours on end just to, by chance, see something unusual in nature taking place…and she usually does. That’s what this book is basically all about, while spending time at Tinker Creek.
Then, her mind wonders about more peculiar things, such as when the beetle bug is slurping out the brains of a frog, does the frog begin to feel a pull before his brain is sucked dry? When the tide changes, if you sit still enough, is it possible you could actually feel the slight pull in your lungs? She definitely has a unique way of viewing the world around her.
She did reference a book that sounded pretty interesting, “The Strange Lives of Familiar Insects” by Edwin Way Teale (1962). On page 168, Annie claimed she couldn’t live without this book. I’m happy to say, I purchased a copy and will look forward to reading next year.
END OF UPDATE
2023 - ‘70’s Immersion Reading Challenge
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (1974 1st ed.) 271 pages.
SETTING: Tinker Creek, Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
This so-called “memoir” is partly a reflection of author’s memories of the fleeting seasons while living on Tinker Creek, but it’s mostly her philosophical thoughts regarding different things pertaining to nature as she saw it. This book is listed as a must read in the 1000 Books To Read Before You Die by James Mustich (2018). Really?
By page 9, I wondered what the hell I got myself into.
“After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down eons of emptiness, heaping profusions on profligacies with ever-fresh vigor.”
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
She seemed to have a fascination with strange odd facts and deaths of insects. The praying mantis who chomps away at the male’s head while staying intertwined sexually for hours, even without his head. Or the giant water bug that sucks the life out of frogs. The cicadas that live for 13 years underground sucking on roots before finally seeing the light of day.
Now, all that is very interesting, but that was such a minuscule piece of her writing. I, literally, couldn’t hardly understand anything she was trying to purvey around all that pompous writing. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t finish it. I gave her a chance up to 103 pages to change her tune, but she didn’t, so I closed the book for good.
I thought this was a memoir. I do not like philosophical writing at all! I understand black and white. I don’t read in riddles and won’t waste my time with word salad...more
The Alligator: King of the Wilderness by William and Ellen Hartley (1st ed. 1977) 175 pages.
3-1/2 stars rounded up
Most Americans of an earlier period were greedy and often cruel to all wild animals. They probably still are, but it is not as obvious since there are fewer wild animals available to be injured, mutilated, or killed. p. 86)
This is mostly what you will find in this book…activists…a husband and wife team. They do, however, make their points valid in this easy and interesting read that is not all about the politics.
Years between 1955 and 1965, alligators were nearly wiped out for their hides. The Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 was passed, protecting many creatures, including the alligator, except from poachers. So, a stronger act was passed in 1973.
Alligator hunting had become completely illegal in the early seventies, trying to eliminate or control poaching. You couldn’t even sell alligator products or ship it to other states. But, somehow poachers would still find ways to smuggle and ship hides to France and Japan, where they were just as highly prized. If caught, you were facing a year in jail and a $20,000 fine. Today, gators are off the endangered list and now considered on the “threatened” list of animals and can be hunted on very limited and strict guidelines set by each state. And because of alligator farms that popped up in the ‘70’s, you can now buy the heads for home decor, wear alligator boots, purses, etc., and even eat it in restaurants and purchase some gator tail in some meat markets.
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2023 Alligator Hunting Laws, Rules and regulations from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) :
Any hunting license, except for non-resident turkey or bird license, may be used to hunt alligators in Orange County, Texas, but you can only hunt a 1/2 hour before sunrise to sunset. And only gators on private property can be killed.
Open season for alligator hunting in and around my county in Southeast Texas, which is considered a core county (meaning prime historical habitat for the American alligator), is September 10-30. You must have a CITES tag for every gator you kill, issued from the private property owner where you are hunting. Firearms are not allowed. There are many strict rules for line setting, which only one per person is allowed and, of course, it must be on private property. The line has to be marked with your full name, address and hunting license number. It can’t be set a day before open season and must be removed by sunset on the last day. Lines have to be inspected daily, and alligators removed and tagged.
In other non-core counties not on the core list, open season is from April 1-June 30. You are allowed to hunt with firearms. You are allowed one alligator per person per license year. You must immediately affix a Wildlife Resource Document (WRD), which can be filled out online. Then, fill out the Non-Core Alligator Hide Tag Report (PDF format online), and, along with a $21.00 check, mail to TPWD in Austin, who will send you a CITES tag to place permanently 10” from the tip of the alligator tail.
Only lawfully harvested alligators can be sold, and sold only to licensed wholesale dealers or alligator farmers. It is against the law to shoot an alligator from in, on, across or over public water.
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It doesn’t seem like anything has ever been definitively proven about the habits of alligators as of the printing of this book in 1977. There were so many disagreements on even the minor points. Where one person might say one thing, another believes the opposite…throughout the whole book. So, I would say this book is probably outdated. Surely, they’ve learned a thing or two by now…46 years later.
The one thing that is proving true is with, even back in the ’70’s, as more and more people moved to Florida, and farmlands kept creeping just inches from the Everglades, dams being built to stop flooding for farmers, and many other changes to the little creeks and rivers and jungles being wiped out for new development, the Florida Everglades has changed a lot, endangering many animal and fish species. They were worried back then, how about now?
1970 Florida population - 6,789,443 2022 Florida population - 22,244,823
NOTES ON THE AMERICAN ALLIGATOR
Pro: Alligators build small ponds (holes) about 30 feet wide with their tails. These become lifesavers and homes for fish, birds and other wildlife during years of drought. A specific tiny one-inch fish, the gambusia, eat mosquito wrigglers. In turn, birds and larger fish feed off the gambusia.
Crocodiles have long, pointed noses, and when their mouths are shut, you can see their lower fourth tooth jutting out. They are more aggressive than the ‘gator. But, you won’t see hardly any, if any at all, here in the U.S….possibly just a few down at the tip of Florida…and that was back in 1970’s.
Alligators have broad and blunt nose and smooth belly scales. Caimans, are only found in Mexico and South America. They are just a little different from ‘gators, have warty bumps on their belly and have brown or greenish bands around its tail. The spectacled caiman has a bony ridge between his eyes.
True alligators are only found in the U.S. and China. The Chinese alligator only grows to five feet long, and was either extinct or close to being extinct at the printing of this book in 1977.
That leaves the American alligator, which males grow upwards from 10-15 feet long and females up to 8 feet. They live up to 50 years. They are very territorial, except when raised on alligator farms where they are separated by size and very well fed. Each male will usually have a one mile territory, with about a half dozen females out and about in the area.
They are nocturnal, preferring to hunt and eat at night, beginning at dusk. That’s when Sharon Holmes was swimming (see story below). And you can always spot a lurking gator by shining a light. If you see two red ruby devil eyes glowering at you, then there’s no mistaken, run or swim for your life...and good luck. Early spring is mating season. You just don’t want to be anywhere near gators during this time. They are more aggressive!
If calm, alligators can stay under water anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. If struggling, or fighting, they can die pretty quickly, in just a few minutes, just like any human-being who might be panicking under water. Gators can swim up to 15 miles per hour and run 35 miles per hour in short distances. They have thin lids that close over their eyes when swimming under water. But, still can’t see very well in mucky brown waters. It is believed they respond to vibrations, just as a shark does.
The author pulled some interesting abstracts and quotes from miscellaneous quarterlies and bulletins from earlier explorers, as early as 1564, describing their experiences with alligators, some utterly ridiculous, saying ‘gators prefer black people over white’. Ha! My gosh! Another guy wrote that when he witnessed two large male gators fighting, he saw clouds of smoke coming from their nostrils. Ha! Never happened!
It appears the study of gators was still inconclusive at the time this book was published. There were still a lot of unknowns regarding the gator.
THE SHARON HOLMES STORY
In 1973, 16-year-old Sharon Holmes was pulled under the water at Oscar Scherer State Park and killed by a 10-foot alligator. Her father swam out to her and grabbed her by her hair but was unable to pull her free. Some hours later, they found her mutilated body on the shore of the lake with a 10-foot ‘gator standing guard. (p. 44)
See a newspaper photo of Sharon and burial info online at Find a Grave:
The expression “crocodile tears” comes from a long ago legend of people believing they saw tears and sorrow in the crocs eyes as he gulped down its victim. Gators and crocs have glands that make their eyes water when their mouth is full. So, those are fake tears.
Florida’s Tamiami Trail (pronounced Tam-ee-am-ee) is a state highway, completed in 1928, that crosses through the Everglades connecting Miami and Naples. Before then, to get from west to east coast, or east to west coast, one had to travel by boat around Key West.
Beware of the manchineel trees, which are very poisonous and found in the Florida Everglades. They will usually have a red ring painted on the trunk as warnings. Their white sap causes blisters. They also produce little green poisonous apples. (p. 14)
A small field guide for identifying caterpillars and the butterflies they become. Published in 1993 (with 128 pages). I picked up this awesome little A small field guide for identifying caterpillars and the butterflies they become. Published in 1993 (with 128 pages). I picked up this awesome little book for $.25 at our local public library book sale on 9/1/2022. The pictures are quality colored drawings, not photos. ...more
Picked up this awesome little book published in 2001 (with 128 pages) for just $.25 at our local public library book sale on 9/1/2022. Has BEAUTIFUL pPicked up this awesome little book published in 2001 (with 128 pages) for just $.25 at our local public library book sale on 9/1/2022. Has BEAUTIFUL photos to help identify 106 different kinds of butterflies. LOVE IT and can’t wait to start using it. ...more
The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by Tim Gallagher (2005), 1st Month of March 2022 - Nature
Originally published in 2005.
The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by Tim Gallagher (2005), 1st edition, hardcover (no jacket), 272 pages.
I happened to be in the right place, at the right time, on the right day, for 10 seconds on one hot summer day in 1979. I was 14 years old and living on Cow Bayou, in Southeast Texas, when I saw it fly and land on our neighbor’s cabin window…the largest woodpecker I had ever seen, with a black and white body and red on its head. As he admired himself through the mirrored window, I admired him while standing between two sweet gum trees.
Little did I know that would be the last time I’d ever see what I now know was most likely the “Good God”, pileated woodpecker, not actually the “Lord God”, ivory-billed woodpecker, since, according to this book, the ivory-billed woodpecker was nearly extinct, even back then in 1979, with only a handful sightings ever recorded since 1935. Even the pileated woodpecker has become a rare sighting around here. My mom last seen one land across the bayou, on an old dead cypress tree, about 3 years ago.
There has been only one recorded sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker in Texas back in April 1966 in the Big Thicket National Preserve. It is interesting to note that, in October 1974, the 84,550-acre Big Thicket National Preserve was created due to that one sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in 1966 by John V. Dennis, even though it was not believed and the sighting renounced by Ornithologist Jim Tanner. (p. 21)
The search for the ivory-billed woodpecker was real and it was serious cut-throat business among the enthusiast birdwatchers and the Ornithologists out there. Without solid proof of sighting a rare bird, the credibility of their whole profession could hang in the balance. At the same time, if you spotted one, you kept it secret and tried to get the photos or the sound recordings yourself or risked someone else getting the credit, or worse case scenario, finding hundreds of birdwatchers flying in from all over the world to see this bird, destroying the habitat.
This list shows just how elusive the ivory-billed woodpecker really was: 1944 - a pair in the Singer Tract, Madison Parish, Louisiana 1950’s - east of Pensacola, Florida 1955 - a pair in Florida 1958 - one in Thomasville, Georgia 1971 - a pair in the Atchafalaya Swamp, west of Baton Rouge, Louisiana (polaroid photo shot by Fielding Lewis) 1975 - one crossing a highway in the Atchafalaya Swamp 20 miles west of Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1977-78 - a pair east of Catahoula, in the Atchafalaya Basin 1987 - Atchafalaya Basin by Fielding Lewis, guy who shot polaroid in 1971 1999 - Pearl River Wildlife Management area near Slidell, in southeastern Louisiana, an hour’s drive from new Orleans 2000 - one at Pearl River, Louisiana (Mary) 2000 - one at Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area, Louisiana (within a couple weeks of each other-same person, Mary) 2003 - Arkansas’s White River National Wildlife Refuge (Mary) 2004-2005 - one or possibly two ivory-billed woodpeckers sighted only a handful of times (about 7) very briefly flying here or there by teams of Ornithologists and bird watchers, including the author and his friend, Bobby, over a period of 2 years at Bayou de View in the Cache River National Park (eastern Arkansas)...still no photographs, no videos and no sound recordings, except for maybe a couple double drums that were inconclusive.
So, only 3 pictures of the ivory-billed woodpecker ever recorded in the whole wide world of this bird from the Singer Tract in 1935, Cuba in 1948 and a questionable polaroid snapshot from the Atchafalaya Basin in 1971? Only one 1935 sound recording and one 00:31 second video? (which are online, see below)
What is the status of the ivory-billed woodpecker today, seventeen years after this book has been published?
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region Louisiana Ecological Services Field Office Lafayette, Louisiana, Recovery Plan report dated April 16, 2010, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is considered “extinct”. There have been no sightings or signs anywhere in the U.S. since 2005; therefore, there can be no recovery plan.
Other books mentioned that might be worth looking into:
“Eskimo Year” “Iceland Summer” “Birds in the Wilderness” (p. 10, all by George Miksch Sutton)
“Wild America” by Roger Tory Peterson
“Tales of a Louisiana Duck Hunter” by Lewis Fielding (a.k.a. Chief who lived in Atchafalaya Basin and who took the 1971 polaroid picture of the ivory-billed woodpecker. (p. 107)
“The Land of the Giants” by Greg Guirard…a Cajun author and photographer (on pgs. 136-139 in “The Grail Bird”, the author provides interesting info on the village of Bayou Chene and how the levees built in the 1930’s rerouted yearly flood waters into the village, forcing the people to desert the area. Today, homes lie under sediment washed in year after year after year. The only thing kept dug out and cared for is the village cemetery. He then makes it to Fausse Point, land of my Cajun ancestors. In summer of 2017, we made the drive around and about that levee and got road blocked a couple of times, just like the author claimed. We’d drive up some private road to the tops of the levee and drive the top for a while, then head down a dirt road to the bottom again and drive that a while. I didn’t know there were TRAILS! We drove to Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, but it was still closed down at that time due to what they called an “inland tropical depression”..not even a hurricane, from the summer before, in August 2016. It caused one of the highest recorded floods of all time for that area.
WEBSITES
All About Birds Website (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), link to hear a 1935 recording of the sound and a little short 00:31 second video, both provided by Arthur Allen, along with photos and facts about the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker:
Mary gave up being a corporate lawyer and became a Web Designer so she can work from home or anywhere while she went ghost-bird chasing, looking for some of the most rare and potentially extinct birds, including the ivory-billed woodpecker.
NOTES ON THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKERS IN 2005
* Nomadic by nature, a “disaster species”, showing up in areas with a lot of recently killed trees. * Holes are larger and more oval than ones created by the pileated woodpecker * Large lateral grooves in the bark of trees, signs of the woodpecker trying to remove the bark to get to the insects behind, especially fond of the beetle larvae * Woodpeckers are more active and vocal in spring and winter, and more visible because of trees being bare. * Sightings were crossing I-10 somewhere along the 20-mile Atchafalaya Swamp Bridge between Baton Rouge and Lafayette...back in 2005 * Sightings in the Atchafalaya Basin NOTE: What you see today is nearly 100% 2nd growth. The basin had been pretty much clear-cut by the middle of the 20th century beginning right after the Civil War when “a lot of land and lumber companies in the North were practically given the land down here.” (per author Greg Guirard, p. 138). * Believed to have thrived in “virgin” forests before clear-cutting became the norm * About 6 square mile territory
PERSONAL NOTES
On page 143, the author writes, as he’s driving around the levees and back-roads of Louisiana: “I’d hate to get nailed for trespassing and have some police chief with a fifty-two-inch gun belt run my ass out of town or shoot me in the foot and leave me for dead.”
How funny! That is the stigma of Louisiana people, in general. My Uncle James used to say, “You never want to get stopped by those Louisiana policeman. They’ll have two or three stopped at one time and they want cash right then and there or they’ll haul your ass to jail.” And after his brother died (my Uncle Shelton), someone came and disassembled his covered parking and rode off with it, while everyone was away attending the funeral. Haha...how crazy! His death had been reported as an accidental death, even though he was extremely weak and riddled with severe osteoarthritis, when they found his heavy dresser on top of him. My Aunt Robbie told me that his Rolex watch and other gold pieces also went missing. That was back in 2002, so yes, that’s the stigma of Louisiana.
PHOTO TAKING TIP USING YOUR CELL PHONE & BINOCULARS
P. 169-70: Use a pocket size digital camera, hold it to the eyepiece of a spotting scope or binoculars…take a telephoto shot. WHAT? And he says he’s seen pictures good enough to publish in books or magazines. I’m sure this can be done on a Samsung, but definitely not the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The quality of my photos from my phone SUCK compared to my son’s Samsung cell phone. See the YouTube on exactly how to do this:
This is an autobiography on the author’s life search and study of bats worldwide. I actually would give it 3.5 stars, betteMonth of March 2022: Nature
This is an autobiography on the author’s life search and study of bats worldwide. I actually would give it 3.5 stars, better than average yet not a great read. Some parts were really exciting and adventurous and some parts were really bogged down with his descriptions of what exactly he had to do to get his photos of the bats. But, all in all, I learned a lot about bats…and his photos really are phenomenal.
I had no idea who Merlin Tuttle was. He’s pretty much one of the most notorious Chiropterologist in the U.S., and possibly the world. In 1986, he resigned as curator of mammals at the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin, moved to Austin, Texas, where he founded Bat Conservation International (BCI) to help Austinites understand and appreciate the 1.5 million Brazilian free-tailed bats (a.k.a. Mexican free-tailed bats) that were starting to move into all the small 16 inch crevasses beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge, just a few blocks down from the State Capitol. They were scared of bats, in general, because of rumors of rabies and attacks on people, and they wanted them exterminated!
But these bats, they would soon learn from Tuttle, were actually very gentle and too beneficial. Just one free-tailed bat can consume 20 to 40 moths a night. That may not seem like a lot, but when you factor in the fact that those 20 to 40 moths can each lay 500 to 1,000 eggs on Texas crops, times 20,000 moths, it changes your whole perspective. These insect-eating bats feed heavily on tons of a variety insects each night, such as corn earworms, tobacco budworms, and, the most costly to eradicate, fall army worm moths, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, etc…Thank God for his efforts! Today, it’s a tourist hot-spot, where hundreds of people will gather to watch their flight out at sunset, flying just above their heads. And never has one person ever been attacked or bitten.
These bats fly south for the winter and are only here from mid-march through September. They fly up to 10,000 feet above ground and can potentially form huge colonies, with 10-20 million or more bats. Up to 500 pups can fill up a single square foot.
Tuttle has invested his life to teaching others the importance of bats on our crops and economics all around the world, and has saved quite a few from becoming extinct. Some plants are strictly pollinated by bats, as their flowers only open at night, such as the agave cactus. We wouldn’t even have Tequila if it weren’t were bats. Fruit-bats are needed for seed dispersing certain plants and trees. And, of course, they are needed for insect and pest control. Bat guano can be used as fertilizer, but I’ve never seen it sold around here in southeast Texas. There are loads of bat caves all around Texas, especially up in the Hill Country (see link below).
I have not seen a bat around here in years…probably because our particular county, Orange County, prefers to shell out a few hundred thousand dollars each year to spray our skies, our ditches, our dogs, our farms, our people, and our gardens with poisons to take care of mosquito and bug problems. And it is usually done in the evenings, just when its finally cool enough for people to go out and tend their gardens. But, hey, it’s totally harmless…they say. But, I think I will still try and put out a few bat houses anyway, just to see if they are really around or not.
Tuttle’s adventures chasing down the more elusive bats are absolutely amazing and harrowing. He definitely has a great passion for bats. He has photographed all 46 bat species found in the U.S., and many in other countries. Some are found inside this book (See photos at the end of chapter 8 and at the end of chapter 12). If reading on a Kindle eBook, you can expand them to get a close up view. He has admitted to taking over 10,000 photos during bat expeditions just to capture that one GREAT shot for National Geographic…because that’s what it takes to get into National Geographic.
Chapter 4 on vampire bats was very interesting! The vampire bats are only down in Latin America for now, and about 130 miles south of the U.S. border. It is the only bat that has grown and become over abundant due to cattle raising and chicken farming where forests have disappeared. Not all, but some can carrie rabies that transfer to cattle, killing many cattle when there’s an outbreak. Still, according to Merlin, they are very gentle and harmless. The people had previously been burning ALL bats in any caves they found, trying to rid the vampire bat, but these turned out to be only fruit and insect-eating bats. The vampire bats hung out in very small numbers and deep inside the caves, separated, where no other bats were. So, they were never being killed. Merlin’s team, with Dr. Hugo Sancho, a local Veterinarian, helped educate the ranchers and farmers on the differences of the bats and how to best kill the vampire bat without harming any others. Interestingly, they use a poison mixture containing rat poison - WARFARIN, an anticoagulant!!… spread a little on top of the feeding bat, which feeds for 20 minutes on an animal. It then returns to the cave and the other bats lick it clean, killing that whole group of vampire bats.
LINKS TO ONLINE SOURCES
Here is a short, current and informative video regarding bats and disease presented by Merlin Tuttle, himself:
It’s hard to believe this is the same fearless guy chasing bats in the book. Watch on YouTube, “The Worldwide Importance of Bats”, presented by Bats Conservation International (12:26):
This is an amazingly beautiful book on the migration of Monarch butterflies from Canada down to Mexico. I love this bREADING LEVEL: 3.4 AR POINTS: 0.5
This is an amazingly beautiful book on the migration of Monarch butterflies from Canada down to Mexico. I love this book and so do all my grandies....more
Originally published in 2001. Welcome to the World of Coyotes by Diane Swanson is the perfect book for children aroundREADING LEVEL: 4.9 AR POINTS: 0.5
Originally published in 2001. Welcome to the World of Coyotes by Diane Swanson is the perfect book for children around ages 5-7 and older. My 6 year old grandson needed a little help pronouncing some of the words.
A week ago, late at night, I heard a couple of coyotes howling close by in the woods. We knew they were around because we found a couple of chickens missing with feathers all around. I opened the window and recorded their howling with my iPhone so I could show a few of my young 'outdoorsy' grandsons. They became so intrigued and started asking question after question. So I decided to surprise them with this little book with simple facts about coyotes that they could understand. They loved it.
Sadly, a couple of days ago, we saw one of the coyotes had been hit by a car out on the highway. And here it is spring. I'm sure she or he (they stay together in pairs) most likely has babies in a den somewhere in the woods. ...more
Originally published in 2007. I really would have enjoyed this book more if we had ravens in this area, in Southeast Texas, but, we don’t. They are moOriginally published in 2007. I really would have enjoyed this book more if we had ravens in this area, in Southeast Texas, but, we don’t. They are mostly Yankee birds. Come to think of it, I’ve never even seen a crow out here on our ten acres, which is kind of in the country and surrounded by woods on two sides. Now why is that? Not enough food source? I have seen some crows in town in parking lots of malls and hospitals, but never even a crow around here.
I found parts of this book very interesting, and other parts kind of long, tedious and drawn out. This author’s research was focused more in a controlled environment, although he was able to study ravens pretty intensely out in the wild, too. He owned two aviaries, one in Vermont, and his main ½-acre aviary in Maine, where he captured, raised a few, and studied ravens throughout the 1990’s. Since science research progresses one tiny little step at a time, I’m sure his observations will add to the understanding of ravens and their behavior. And if you live where ravens live, you, at least, will now have more knowledge and understanding of what some of their calls and postures mean after reading this book.
I’m not sure how he ever managed to find time to get married and have children. The time it takes to feed and study these birds is incredible. I can’t imagine how often he had to go out hunting down dead carcasses and preparing them to be fed to his subjects day-in and day-out. Ravens eat an incredibly large amount of food, and feed about every two hours. Plus, the time to sit for hours upon hours in the freezing rain and snow just observing, or sitting inside his home and observing secretly through his bedroom window that opened up to the aviary, where he may have had up to 20 birds at any one time. Add the time he took to plan and prepare for activities to test their ability to be able to problem solve through a situation or not, and all the traveling he did to other countries just to observe ravens from another point of view. And keep in mind the fact that he had to keep a detailed log of the whole process on top of it all. And now, here is the book, detailing it all in just one volume…just for our pleasure. I wish we had ravens around here so I could observe them....more
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