Natural History
grrlscientist | March 16, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian Paulsen, which lists bird and natural history books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase.
FEATURED TITLE:
Fries, Waldemar H. The Double Elephant Folio: The Story of Audubon's Birds of America. 2006 (1973). Zenaida Publishing, Inc. Hardbound: 523 pages. Price: $84.95 US. SUMMARY: First published in 1973, this book is often called, "the Bible of Audubon scholars." This…
grrlscientist | March 9, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian Paulsen, which lists bird and natural history books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase.
FEATURED TITLE:
Chang, Mee-mann, Editor-in-Chief. The Jehol Fossils: The Emergence of Feathered Dinosaurs, Beaked Birds and Flowering Plants. 2008. Academic Press. Hardbound: 208 pages. Price: $69.95 US [Amazon: $63.20]. SUMMARY: This coffee table book is richly illustrated with…
grrlscientist | March 2, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
Here's this week's issue of the Birdbooker Report by Ian Paulsen, which lists bird and natural history books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase.
New and Recent Titles:
Crump, Marty & Alan. Headless Males Make Great Lovers: And other unusual Natural Histories. 2007. University of Chicago Press. Paperback: 216 pages. Price: $14.00. [Amazon: $11.90]. SUMMARY: Essays on unique animal behaviors.
Guttman, Burton S. Finding…
grrlscientist | February 17, 2008tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, natural history books
"One cannot have too many good bird books"
--Ralph Hoffmann, Birds of the Pacific States (1927).
A friend of mine, Ian Paulsen, loves books as much as I do, and possibly (gasp!) moreso! I know this is difficult to believe, but he has collected books about birds and natural history themes for as long as I've known him, which has been a fairly long period of my life. As far as I know, Ian reads all of his collected books, too, unlike most book collectors. Further, Ian knows just about every publisher out there who has ever published a…
awild | January 25, 2008
Adranes ant-nest beetle
California
The most exciting finds are often the least expected. I stumbled across this odd little beetle while collecting ants several years ago in northern California. It was tiny, only a few millimeters long, with a little blind nubbin for a head whose sole purpose seemed to be supporting antennae that looked like a pair of cricket bats. The Lasius ants whose nest played host to this strange creature did not appear to pay it any particular attention. Ants are normally rather vicious towards interlopers, so their nonchalance often reveals successful infiltration by…
awild | January 7, 2008
Common caricatures of Darwinian evolution evoke nature as a brutal force, one of ruthless competition in which the strongest prevail. In truth evolutionary processes can be much more nuanced. Under a wide array of conditions, species find Darwinian advantage in cooperative relationships.
Some of the most striking cases of evolutionary partnerships involve the planet's dominant primary producers, the plants, and the most abundant insects, the ants. Ants are exceptional predators, and several groups of plants have figured out that by housing and feeding resident ant colonies they gain a…