Explore Scotland with i-SPY - facts, photos and fantastic spots! Beat the boredom and take time out from screens with this pocket-sized book packed with facts, photos and fantastic spots for hours of fun! It's ideal for holidays, family road trips or simply exploring your local area. Kids will have fun collecting points with more than 140 things to find in Scotland. From mountains and lochs to landmarks and attractions, they'll learn all about the country and its history along the way. And once they've scored 1000 points, super-spotters can claim their official i-SPY certificate and badge. With more than 30 i-SPY books to collect, there's something for everyone! For even more spotting fun check out: i-SPY On a Car Journey (ISBN 9780008386443) i-SPY On a Train Journey (ISBN 9780008431730) i-SPY At the Seaside (ISBN 9780008386528) i-SPY Nature (ISBN 9780008386467)

A comprehensive photographic guide to the gull species of the Western Palearctic Gulls occupy a particularly important place in the world of birds. But because they are notoriously difficult to identify, they have been relatively neglected in the ornithological literature. Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East offers the most up-to-date guide for gull identification in Europe and beyond. With a direct and visual approach, and an abundance of beautiful color photographs, this book provides thorough accounts of all species and subspecies of gulls found in the Western Palearctic. The guide compares similar taxa and addresses the complexities of identifying hybrids. Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East will be the standard work for identifying these birds for some time to come. Richly illustrated with nearly 1,400 color photographs Thorough accounts of all species and subspecies of gulls found in the Western Palearctic Up-to-date information for easy and accurate identification of 45 species

With weather conditions continually evolving, skippers need to factor forecast data into every passage plan and be prepared to modify it if the situation changes. This spiral-bound instant reference guide will help you draw the most relevant weather information from a variety of sources, understand and apply broader forecast data to your location and your anticipated route, and know when and how to make those necessary alterations. In clear, practical language, and with diagrams, photographs, explanations and bulleted lists, the book is also a useful primer or overview for RYA Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster Offshore students by following the contents of the course: - Basic terms / the Beaufort Scale - Air masses - Cloud types - Weather patterns associated with pressure and frontal systems - Sources of weather information - Interpret a shipping forecast, weatherfax and weather satellite information - Land and sea breezes - Sea fog - Use of a barometer as a forecasting aid As a reference before sailing, a reminder of what is available for use before going to sea, and a guide to what to look out for and use when sailing, this practical handbook is aimed at skippers and crew of all levels, whether on day cruises or longer ocean-going passages. Spiral bound to lie flat and printed on splashproof paper, it is the ideal hands-on weather-focused passage planning guide, but with lots of tips for use on board it is the essential aide-memoire to have on the boat.

An amazing, enlightening, and endlessly entertaining look at how weather has shaped our world.

Throughout history, great leaders have fallen, the outcomes of mighty battles have been determined, and the tides of earth-shattering events have been turned by a powerful, inscrutable force of nature: the weather. In Blame It on the Rain, author Laura Lee explores the amazing and sometimes bizarre ways in which weather has influenced our history and helped to bring about sweeping cultural change. She also delights us with a plethora of fascinating weather-related facts (Did you know that more Britons die of sunburn every year than Australians?), while offering readers a hilarious overview of humankind's many absurd attempts to control the elements.

If a weather-produced blight hadn't severely damaged French vineyards, there might never have been a California wine industry. . . .

What weather phenomenon was responsible for the sound of the Stradivarius?

If there had been a late autumn in Russia, Hitler could have won World War II. . . .

Did weather play a part in Truman's victory over Dewey?

Eye-opening, edifying, and totally unexpected, Blame It on the Rain is a fascinating appreciation of the destiny-altering vagaries of mother nature&#8212and it's even more fun than watching the Weather Channel

Two days after the Winter Solstice in 2019 Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland. They were looking for a home, somewhere to stay put. What followed was a year of many changes. The pandemic arrived and their isolated home became a place of enforced isolation. It was to be a year unlike any we had seen before. But the seasons still turned, the swallows came at their allotted time, the rhythms of the natural world went on unchecked. For Kerri there was to be one more change, a longed-for but un-hoped for change. Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of a year - a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life - from one winter, to the next. It is a telling of a changed life, in a changed world - and it is about all that does not change. All that which simply keeps on - living and breathing, nesting and dying - in spite of it all. When the pandemic came time seemed to shapeshift, so this is also a book about time. It is, too, a book about home, and what that can mean. Fragmentary in subject and form, fluid of language, this is an ode to a year, a place, and a love, that changed a life.

In Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, award-winning journalist David Quammen reminds us why he has become one of our most beloved science and nature writers.

This collection of twenty-three of Quammen's most intriguing, most exciting, most memorable pieces takes us to meet kayakers on the Futaleufu River of southern Chile, where Quammen describes how it feels to travel in fast company and flail for survival in the river's maw. We are introduced to the commerce in pearls (and black-market parrots) in the Aru Islands of eastern Indonesia. Quammen even finds wildness in smog-choked Los Angeles -- embodied in an elusive population of urban coyotes, too stubborn and too clever to surrender to the sprawl of civilization.

With humor and intelligence, David Quammen's Wild Thoughts from Wild Places also reminds us that humans are just one of the many species on earth with motivations, goals, quirks, and eccentricities. Expect to be entertained and moved on this journey through the wilds of science and nature.

How does a mudskipper fish manage to “walk” on land? Why is the Hoatzin also known as ‘The Stinkbird’? And once the female Pipa toad has laid her eggs, where does she put them? The answers? The mudskipper can “walk” using its pectoral fins, the Hoatzin has a unique digestive system which gives the bird a manure-like odour, and the female Pipa Toad embeds its eggs on its back where they develop to adult stage. Illustrated throughout with outstanding colour photographs, Strange Animals presents the most unusual aspects of 100 of the most unusual species. The selection spans a broad spectrum of wildlife, from the tallest land living mammal, the giraffe, to the light, laughing chorus of Australian kookaburra birds, from the intelligence of the Bottlenose dolphin to octopuses that change colour when they dream to the slow pace of the three-toed sloth. Arranged geographically, the photographs are accompanied by fascinating captions, which explain the quirky characteristics of each entry. Including egg-laying mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, cannibalistic insects and other invertebrates, Strange Animals is a compelling introduction to some of nature’s most curious beasts.

Discover the wonders of the natural world that surrounds you! Start with In The Garden – where you can build a bird feeder, or an insect hotel. Growing Fun has projects for plants that can be grown in small spaces, such as a miniature garden and a tiny terrarium. The Outdoors Indoors includes craft ideas for things you've collected – a leaf picture frame, a shell wind chime and some pine cone animals! Finally, head to Outdoor Crafts and Games with activities for camping. Here you can find out how to make a treasure trail and a river race game, along with much more. Every project has a skill level of 1, 2, or 3, and comes with easy-to-read instructions and adorable, step-by-step artworks that will guide you along the way.

A soaring celebration of summer and a poignant journey into the changing nature of the British season - from the award-winning author of Wintering and The Seafarers. Summer is traditionally a time of plenty, of warmth; a time to celebrate abundance. And so Stephen Rutt sets out to explore the natural world during its moment of fullest bloom. Butterflies and dragonflies add colour to his days; moths and bats lift the warm nights; swallows, nightjars and wood warblers fill the forests and skies. What Stephen notices too, however, are the many ways in which the season is becoming deranged by a changed and changing climate: the wrong birds singing at the wrong time; August days as cold as February; the creeping disturbances that we may not notice while nature still has some voice. The Eternal Season is both a celebration of summer and a warning of the unravelling of this beautiful web of abundant life. This is a book that sings with love and careful observation, with an eye on all that we might lose but also save. ***'An urgent and beautiful walk through the changing character of the British summer.' Rebecca Schiller, author of Earthed 'Elegant, vivid, thoroughly absorbing, The Eternal Season strikes the perfect balance between celebrating the natural world and sounding a realistic warning about the damage we continue to wreak on it. All in all, a treat.' Lev Parikian, author of Into the Tangled Bank

An ancient and long-extinct volcano lies at the heart of Scotland's capital. It roared into life some 350 million years ago and has been a source of fascination since it was first studied in earnest during the Enlightenment by James Hutton, one of the most significant geologists of all time. Many of Hutton's ground-breaking ideas of how the world works were predicated on the rocks and landscapes of his home city and surrounding area. This book is a fascinating exploration into Edinburgh's geological history over millions of years - including the passage of ice during a great freeze that has left an indelible stamp on Edinburgh's cityscape, the use rocks quarried locally from ancient, now long disappeared seas to create the stunning elegance of Edinburgh's New Town, and the coal deposits and oil shale which were exploited from the Industrial Revolution to the present day.

'A book of wonders' Bee Wilson, Sunday Times Books of the Year Winner of the Wainwright Prize 2022 - Eating to Extinction is an astonishing journey through the past, present and future of food, showing why reclaiming a diverse food culture is vital. 'Saladino inspires us to believe that turning the tide is still possible' Yotam Ottolenghi From a tiny crimson pear in the west of England to an exploding corn in Mexico, there are thousands of foods that are at risk of being lost for ever. Dan Saladino spans the globe to uncover their stories, meeting the pioneering farmers, scientists, cooks, food producers and indigenous communities who are defending food traditions and fighting for change. Eating to Extinction is about so much more than preserving the past. It is about the crisis facing our planet today, and why reclaiming a diverse food culture is vital for our future. * With a new preface by the author * Winner of multiple awards, including the Fortnum & Mason Food Book Award and the Guild of Food Writers Food Book Award. 'I love this book... I wish the whole world could read it' Raymond Blanc 'A brilliant read' Tim Spector

Updated to include the most notable incidents through the summer of 2004, the new edition features recent rescues and rescue attempts from the icy slopes of Mount Rainier to the seas off of Acadia National Park.

Nature is all around us, in the beautiful but also in the unappealing and functional, and from the awe-inspiring to the mundane. It is vital that we learn to see the agency of the natural world in all things that make our lives possible, comfortable and profitable. The Ecology of Everyday Things pulls back the veil of our familiarity on a range of 'everyday things' that surround us, and which we perhaps take too much for granted. This key into the magic world of the everyday can enable us to take better account of our common natural inheritance. Professor James Longhurst, Assistant Vice Chancellor, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) For many people, ecosystems may be a remote concept, yet we eat, drink, breathe and interface with them in every moment of our lives. In this engaging textbook, ecosystems scientist Dr. Mark Everard considers a diversity of 'everyday things', including fascinating facts about their ecological origins: from the tea we drink, to the things we wear, read and enjoy, to the ecology of communities and space flight, and the important roles played by germs and 'unappealing creatures' such as slugs and wasps. In today's society, we are so umbilically connected to ecosystems that we fail to notice them, and this oversight blinds us to the unsustainability of everyday life and the industries and policy environment that supports it. The Ecology of Everyday Things takes the reader on an enlightening, fascinating voyage of discovery, all the while soundly rooted in robust science. It will stimulate awareness about how connected we all are to the natural world and its processes, and how important it is to learn to better treat our environment. Ideal for use in undergraduate- and school-level teaching, it will also interest, educate, engage and enthuse a wide range of less technical audiences.

One moment in time on a perfect winter day: this 1000 piece puzzle is packed with a whimsical cast of low-temp characters, unexpected chilly details, and tons of cold-weather action. This richly layered puzzle contains almost every classic reason to love the wintertime, but each with an unexpected twist: a man rolls around in a snowball, Christmas trees sing, a skier goes up instead of down, a fox pours salt on the road. Spanish illustrator Luci Gutierrez brings her love of funny characters and fascinating details to the classic winter scene. A whimsical cataloging of the joy found in outdoors in the winter, and a true celebration of the winter season, this puzzle is sure to provide hours of puzzling fun for the whole family.

World-renowned behavioral scientists Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff argue passionately and persuasively that if we put these ten trusts to work in our lives, the earth and all its inhabitants will be able to live together harmoniously. Simple yet profound, The Ten Trusts will not only change our perspective regarding how we live on this planet, it will establish our responsibilities as stewards of the natural world, ultimately showing us how to live with respect for all life.

A fascinating, lyrical account of an east-west walk across Britain's westernmost and most mysterious region. A distant and exotic Celtic land, domain of tin-miners, pirates, smugglers and evocatively named saints, somehow separate from the rest of our island... Few regions of Britain are as holidayed in, as well-loved or as mythologized as Cornwall. From the woodlands of the Tamar Valley to the remote peninsula of Penwith – via the wilderness of Bodmin Moor and coastal villages where tourism and fishing find an uneasy coexistence – Tim Hannigan undertakes a zigzagging journey on foot across Britain's westernmost region to discover how the real Cornwall, its landscapes, histories, communities and sense of identity, intersect with the many projections and tropes that writers, artists and others have placed upon it. Combining landscape and nature writing with deep cultural inquiry, The Granite Kingdom is a probing but highly accessible tour of one of Britain's most popular regions, juxtaposing history, myth, folklore and literary representation with the geographical and social reality of contemporary Cornwall.

The time for action is now. The fate of the world's coasts rests on a knife edge as global warming melts ice sheets and glaciers from the Alps to the Andes. The choices we make now will determine whether oceans rise by a coast-swamping 1 metre by 2100 or whether we can save our coastal communities. From the glaciers of Antarctica and the high Andes, to the small island states of the Pacific and the coastal cities of Miami, New York, Venice and Rotterdam - Alister Doyle tracks the thaw that threatens life as we know it, shining a light on the most vulnerable people at the shoreline who are already moving inland, on the scientists puzzling about what is going on, and on the ideas about how to limit the damage.

Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer).In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth?Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt's highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways-from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness-and wildness-that sustains humans and all of life.In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world.

Confronting harsh ecological realities and the multiple cascading crises facing our world today, An Inconvenient Apocalypse argues that humanity’s future will be defined not by expansion but by contraction. For decades, our world has understood that we are on the brink of an apocalypse—and yet the only implemented solutions have been small and convenient, feel-good initiatives that avoid unpleasant truths about the root causes of our impending disaster. Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen argue that we must reconsider the origins of the consumption crisis and the challenges we face in creating a survivable future. Longstanding assumptions about economic growth and technological progress—the dream of a future of endless bounty—are no longer tenable. The climate crisis has already progressed beyond simple or nondisruptive solutions. The end result will be apocalyptic; the only question now is how bad it will be. Jackson and Jensen examine how geographic determinism shaped our past and led to today’s social injustice, consumerist culture, and high-energy/high-technology dystopias. The solution requires addressing today’s systemic failures and confronting human nature by recognizing the limits of our ability to predict how those failures will play out over time. Though these massive challenges can feel overwhelming, Jackson and Jensen weave a secular reading of theological concepts—the prophetic, the apocalyptic, a saving remnant, and grace—to chart a collective, realistic path for humanity not only to survive our apocalypse but also to emerge on the other side with a renewed appreciation of the larger living world.

To celebrate Richard Mabey's 80th birthday, a reissue of the seminal Nature Cure, originally published in 2005 to great acclaim. At the height of his career, having recently published Flora Britannica, the author and naturalist fell in to a deep and all consuming depression. Unable to rise from his bed, his face turned to the wall, Richard Mabey found that the touchstones of his life - his love for nature and the land - could no longer offer him solace. But over time, with help from friends and a move to East Anglia, he slowly recovered, finding a new partner, and a new relationship with landscape. Nature Cure, full of nuance and energy, was a pioneering book in the genre that has since become known as New Nature Writing, and received many plaudits on publication. For this new hardback edition Richard has written a new foreword and Little Toller has commissioned a new jacket by the celebrated artist Michael Kirkman.

North Carolina's Outer Banks are in constant motion, responding to weather, waves, and the rising sea level. Beaches erode, sometimes taking homes or sections of highway with them into the surf; sand dunes migrate with the wind; and storms open new inlets and dump sand in channels and sounds. A classic guide, The Nature of the Outer Banks describes these dynamic forces and guides visitors to sites where they can see these phenomena in action. In the first section of the book, Dirk Frankenberg highlights three major processes on the Outer Banks: the rising sea level, movement of sand by wind and water, and stabilisation of sand by plant life. In the second section, he provides a mile-by-mile field guide to the northern Banks, and in the final section, he alerts readers to the dangers of overdevelopment on the Outer Banks. In a new foreword for this edition, Betsy Bennett documents the ever-more-critical situation of these shifting sands.

Mary Colwell makes a 500-mile solo pilgrimage along the Camino Frances, winding through forests, mountains, farmland, industrial sprawls and places of worship, weaving her experiences of the Camino with natural history, spirituality and modern environmentalism. Ancient pathways through the modern world are gathering places for contemplation and touch-points for unexpected kindness, intense spirituality, demon-slaying, strange goings-on and magical tales. Pilgrims pitch themselves against heat, cold, wet, dry, hunger, thirst, and sometimes pain as the nature around them offers succour, medicine and, at times, warnings. Pilgrimages are physical journeys through space as well as metaphysical journeys through time. The same tracks follow the same routes through a planet always in flux, providing still points in a turning world. Our ancestors trod them before us and left their fretful or hopeful dreams in monuments scattered across the landscape. These ornate cathedrals, standing stones, mysterious caves and secret hermitages speak of a hunger for pardon, immortality, beauty and a release from fear. Yet, undertaking a pilgrimage is acknowledging that while the world may change, humanity does not. Pilgrims have always walked in times of upheaval. In Gathering Places, author, nature campaigner and veteran solo walker Mary Colwell relates her pilgrimage along the Camino Frances in a time of global pandemic when the focus of political power in the western world was shifting. The 500 miles of pathways of the Camino wind through mountains, forests, farmland, plains, cities, villages and industrial sprawl, as well as places of worship. In a typical year, 100,000 people walk this route or part of it. Mary walked the entire path virtually alone, nature her only fellow traveller. In this delightful book, she weaves her experiences of the Camino with natural history, history, spiritual stories and modern environmentalism.

When the pioneering naturalist Gilbert White (1720-93) wrote The Natural History of Selborne (1789), he created one of the greatest and most influential natural history works of all time, his detailed observations about birds and animals providing the cornerstones of modern ecology. In this award-winning biography, Richard Mabey tells the wonderful story of the clergyman - England's first ecologist - whose inspirational naturalist's handbook has become an English classic.