Nature : Birds & Birdwatching

In this captivating memoir, Suzie Gilbert tells the rollicking story of how she turned her family life upside down to pursue her unusual passion for rehabilitating wild birds. Through adolescence and into adulthood, Suzie Gilbert struggled to find her calling. But when she took a job working at the animal hospital near her home in New York's Hudson Valley, her passion was born. She began bringing abused and unwanted parrots home and volunteering at a local raptor rehabilitation center, activities she continued for the next eleven years, even as she started a family. Then came the ultimate commitment to her cause: turning her home into Flyaway, Inc., a nonprofit wild bird rehabilitation center. Gilbert chronicles the years of her chaotic household-cum-bird-hospital with delightful wit, recounting the confusion that ensued as her husband and two young children struggled to live in a house where parrots shrieked Motown songs, nestling robins required food every twenty minutes, and recuperating herons took over the spare bathroom. Gradually, however, the birds came to represent the value of compassion and the importance of pursuing even the most unlikely of dreams. Often funny, sometimes painful, Gilbert's encounters with these beautiful creatures reveal profound truths not only about animals but also about our own lives—lessons of birth and death, suffering and empathy, holding on and letting go. Original, lyrical, and highly entertaining, Flyaway will forever change the way you see this amazing member of the animal kingdom. more...

Price: $19.99

Florence Page Jaques and her husband, Francis Lee Jaques, who illustrates this classic with beautiful black-and-white nature drawings, experience an unusually thrilling winter vacation following the waterfowl migration. Beginning with a duck-hunting trip in Minnesota, Florence writes a lively and detailed account of their trip down the Mississippi flyway, through the White River bottom swamps in Arkansas, and around the Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary in the marshlands of Louisiana. "It is a hearty, outdoors book, full of wind and sky color, full of feeling for things and places." New York Herald Tribune more...

Price: $51.00

This is the first book to deal exclusively with the Australian members of the Family Ardeidae (herons, egrets and bitterns). It gives a comprehensive, easy-to-read account of their origins, classification and biology, and explains the features that distinguish them from other birds. more...

Price: $17.95

The authors of "The Bird Feeder Book" here provide the first guide to hummingbirds - how to choose and maintain a feeder, how to attract birds, and how to photograph them. Full information on the hummingbirds is given including nesting, courtship, territorial and migratory behaviour. more...

Price: $13.99

Free-living birds encounter multiple health hazards brought on by viruses, bacteria, and fungi, some which in turn can significantly impact other animal populations and human health. Newly emerging diseases and new zoonotic forms of older diseases have brought increased global attention to the health of wild bird populations. Recognition and management of these diseases is a high priority for all those involved with wildlife. Infectious Diseases of Wild Birds provides biologists, wildlife managers, wildlife and veterinary health professionals and students with the most comprehensive reference on infectious viral, bacterial and fungal diseases affecting wild birds. Bringing together contributions from an international team of experts, the book offers the most complete information on these diseases, their history, causative agents, significance and population impact. Focusing on more than just treatment, special emphasis is given to disease processes, recognition and epidemiology. more...

Price: $94.99