Category Archives: book review

Naturally Curious — Book Review

Naturally Curious is a wonderful book given to me last year by my daughter upon the recommendation of the owner of her local birding supply store.  I have started reading it again this Fall.  It is set up by month so I started with the November chapter but then realized that we were just through October so I backtracked.  I love the detail and all the factoids on a variety of natural items.  Naturally (pardon the pun), I gravitated to the birding sections but learn a lot from the insect and plant sections as well.  Right now, I’m trying to learn more about ferns — although I should have started a few months ago — most have been killed by frost.

This is not a book you can’t put down — I take a break for a few months and then start again, like I’m doing now.  I kind of savor the content — not wanting to get too far ahead but rather following the months as they occur.

Let me give you example of the type of information I just find fascinating, this from a writeup on yellow-bellied sapsuckers:

“By far the most frequent visitor to sapsucker wells, other than sapsuckers, is the ruby-throated hummingbird. Like the sapsucker, it is in search of sap as well as insects that are attracted to the sap, and has been seen following sapsuckers as they visit their wells. Tree sap is similar to flower nectar in the amount of sugar and nutrients it contains.  When hummingbirds first return to New England in early May, flowers are few and far between, so tree sap, available to hummingbirds thanks to yellow-bellied sapsuckers, is a lifesaving substitute. It seems more than coincidental that the spring arrival of the ruby-throated hummingbird and the height of yellow-bellied sapsucker drilling occur at the same time.”

This is one of those “read a little, absorb, read some more” type of book.  While it’s focused on New England,  it has a lot of information that is applicable in other sections of the U.S.  It’s one of those books I go back to, time and time again once I finished it.    I highly recommend it as a book to have on your bookshelves.  It’s a great holiday gift for an budding naturalists in your life.

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Gifts of the Crow

The Games Crows Play, and Other Winged Tales

By 

Published: June 11, 2012 in New York Times

The extremes of animal behavior can be a source of endless astonishment. Books have been written about insect sex. The antics of dogs and cats are sometimes hard to believe. And birds, those amazing birds: They build elaborate nests, learn lyrical songs, migrate impossibly long distances. But “Gifts of the Crow,” by John N. Marzluff and Tony Angell, includes a description of one behavior that even Aesop never imagined.

“On Kinkazan Island in northern Japan,” the authors write, “jungle crows pick up deer feces — dry pellets of dung — and deftly wedge them in the deer’s ears.”
What!?
I checked the notes at the back of the book, and this account comes from another book, written in Japanese. So I can’t give any more information on this astonishing claim, other than to say that Dr. Marzluff, of the University of Washington, and Mr. Angell, an artist and observer of birds, think that the crows do it in the spirit of fun.
Deer droppings, it must be said, are only one of the crows’ gifts. The authors’ real focus is on the way that crows can give us “the ephemeral and profound connection to nature that many people crave.” To that end, however, they tell some wild anecdotes and make some surprising assertions.
Many of the behaviors they describe — crows drinking beer and coffee, whistling and calling dogs and presenting gifts to people who feed them — are based on personal testimony and would seem to fall into the category of anecdote rather than science.
But the book is also full of clear and detailed accounts of research, with descriptions of the structure of the crow brain and of the various experiments that show the remarkable intelligence of crows and their relatives.
One claim had almost the same effect on me as the deer dung trick.
“Language discovery in a wild animal will not be surprising,” the authors write. “As we scientists become more sophisticated in matching the response of animals to nuances in their vocalizations, we may discover language in cognitive birds and mammals that rivals our own.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the discovery of language rivaling our own in wild animals would be a huge scientific surprise. Many scientists are highly skeptical of some of the existing claims for animal communication, and near-human language would be on another plane altogether.

Naturally Curious — Book Review

There’s only a limited number of books you can keep in an Airstream library but here’s one to carry, especially if you spend time in New England.

Naturally Curious is a wonderful book given to me for Father’s Day upon the recommendation of the owner of a local birding supply store.  It is set up by month so I started in June but then realized that the warblers were in May so I backtracked.  I then read July and August and loved the detail and all the factoids on a variety of natural items.  Naturally (pardon the pun), I gravitated to the birding sections but learned a lot from the insect and plant sections as well.

This is not a book you can’t put down — I took a break for a few months and started again in late August, re-reading August and then doing September.  I kind of savor the content — not wanting to get too far ahead but rather following the months as they occur.

Let me give you example of the type of information I just find fascinating, this from a writeup on yellow-bellied sapsuckers:

“By far the most frequent visitor to sapsucker wells, other than sapsuckers, is the ruby-throated hummingbird. Like the sapsucker, it is in search of sap as well as insects that are attracted to the sap, and has been seen following sapsuckers as they visit their wells. Tree sap is similar to flower nectar in the amount of sugar and nutrients it contains.  When hummingbirds first return to New England in early May, flowers are few and far between, so tree sap, available to hummingbirds thanks to yellow-bellied sapsuckers, is a lifesaving substitute. It seems more than coincidental that the spring arrival of the ruby-throated hummingbird and the height of yellow-bellied sapsucker drilling occur at the same time.”

This is one of those “read a little, absorb, read some more” type of book.  It’s focused on New England but has a lot of information that is applicable in other sections of the U.S.  It’s one of those books I’ll go back to, time and time again once I finish it.  I’ll likely read it monthly next year as well.  I highly recommend it as a book to have on your Airstream bookshelf.  What a perfect gift from a wonderful daughter.