Twenty elegant essays examine the behavior of various creatures -- from hummingbirds to bumblebees, thatcher ants to wrens, owls to woodrats to wasps -- and the remarkable ways in which they have adapted to their world. The author clearly recognizes that the lives of these species are the threads that weave together the natural world, and he warns that the loss of any one species inevitably diminishes all others -- including our own. Best of all, though, Howard Ensign Evans has never lost his sense of wonder, and these pages are sure to evoke a sense of delight and curiosity in the reader as well.

One of the world's top birding destinations, this Caribbean island is home to 354 recorded species including 21 endemics; the charming Cuban tody, the elegant Cuban trogon and the world's smallest bird, the bee hummingbird. This beautifully illustrated guide highlights over 140 familiar and unique species and includes an ecoregion map featuring prominent bird-viewing areas. Laminated for durability, this lightweight, pocket-sized folding guide is an excellent source of portable information and ideal for field use by visitors and residents alike.

This early work is a fascinating read for any ornithologist or nature enthusiast. Sixteen beautiful plates by John Gould are accompanied by notes about the varied tropical birds featured. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This is the perfect handbook for anyone interested in British wildlife. A walk in the countryside can be transformed into a 'treasure hunt' with all types of fascinating clues to the mammals living in the area.

Shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022 for Nature Writing - Highly Commended Winner for the Richard Jefferies Award 2021 for Best Nature Writing 'A rural, working-class writer in an all too rarefied field, Chester's work is unusual for depicting the countryside as it is lived on the economic margins.' The Guardian 'An important portrait of connection to the land beyond ownership or possession.' Raynor Winn 'It's ever so good. Political, passionate and personal.' Robert Macfarlane 'Evocative and inspiring...environmental protest, family, motherhood and...nature.' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground, Costa Novel Award Winner 2021 Nature is everything. It is the place I come from and the place I got to. It is family. Wherever I am, it is home and away, an escape, a bolt hole, a reason, a place to fight for, a consolation, and a way home. As a child growing up in rural England, Guardian Country Diarist Nicola Chester was inexorably drawn to the natural landscape surrounding her. Walking, listening and breathing in the nature around her, she followed the call of the cuckoo, the song of the nightingale and watched as red kites, fieldfares and skylarks soared through the endless skies over the chalk hills of the North Wessex Downs: the ancient land of Greenham Common which she called home. Nicola bears witness to, and fights against, the stark political and environmental changes imposed on the land she loves, whilst raising her family to appreciate nature and to feel like they belong - core parts of who Nicola is. From protesting the loss of ancient trees to the rewilding of Greenham Common, to the gibbet on Gallows Down and living in the shadow of Highclere Castle (made famous in Downton Abbey), On Gallows Down shows how one woman made sense of her world - and found her place in it.

Reissue of J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing, with an exclusive new afterword by Robert Macfarlane. J. A. Baker's extraordinary classic of British nature writing was first published in 1967. Greeted with acclaim, it went on to win the Duff Cooper Prize, the pre-eminent literary prize of the time. Luminaries such as Ted Hughes, Barry Lopez and Andrew Motion have cited it as one of the most important books in twentieth-century nature writing. Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J. A. Baker spent long winters looking and writing about the visitors from the uplands - peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them. This new edition of the timeless classic, published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first publication, features an afterword by one of the book's greatest admirers, Robert Macfarlane.

The alligatorFlorida's most feared, maligned animal. From the time European settlers first stepped onto Florida soil, the alligator has been a target of dread and revulsionand the hunter's gun.

Collected here are true (and tongue in cheek) accounts of alligators and the people who have hunted them, been attacked by them, and tried to save them from extinction. Journey through the Everglades with 1800's Seminoles, experts at stalking and killing gators. Go along with a "Northern girl" as she shoots "my first alligator in my glove and veil." And learn how modern alligator hunters go about their business, which hasn't changed much in the last hundred years or so.

If you like tall tales, you'll love Henry, the alligator-turned-head-waiter who becomes despondent when a pretty New York girl spurns his lovesick advances. Or Algy, the gator who survives a broiling in a furnace by his owners, who happen to think he's already dead and won't mind the heat.

Graced with bounteous natural beauty Costa Rica has become a popular destination for travellers from all over the world. Birds play a prominent role in attracting visitors, too. The shimmering quetzals, gaudy macaws, and comical toucans that populate tourism posters only begin to hint at the impressive avian diversity to be found throughout this small country. The principal objective of this book is to help you correctly identify birds in Costa Rica. Each family of birds is introduced by a brief description that should help the novice birder determine to which group a bird belongs. Nearly every species is illustrated by one or more images, as needed. Corresponding to each species' illustration is a written account on the facing page. The account begins with the unique field marks to look for that will distinguish each species from similar ones. Following the description is information about status, distribution and vocalisation. Most species accounts include a a map showing the distribution within Costa Rica. This new edition features 903 species in total, including 64 that are illustrated here for the first time. The 174 colour plates include 360 new images from artist Robert Dean. The text and maps have been fully updated to ensure that this guide is the definitive field guide for anyone visiting Costa Rica.

The radical rewilder The Times As seen on BBC's 'The One Show' This authentic, impassioned manifesto-cum-memoir will hopefully have a major impact on what is likely to be a long-running controversy. The Spectator Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside. the Guardian Gow has a fire in his belly. We need more like him. BBC Wildlife Magazine Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow's inspirational and often riotously funny first-hand account of how the movement to rewild beavers into the British landscape has become the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era. Since the early 1990s - in the face of outright opposition from government, landowning elites and even some conservation professionals - Gow has imported, quarantined and assisted the reestablishment of beavers in waterways across England and Scotland. Alongside stories detailing the ups and downs of rewilding beavers, Bringing Back the Beaver makes a passionate case as to why the return of one of nature's great problem solvers will be critical as part of a sustainable fix for the UK's growing flooding problems, whilst ensuring the creation of essential landscapes that enable the broadest spectrum of Britain's wildlife to thrive.

Originally published in London, 1926. Wildfowling is one of the manliest of all sports with the gun. Wildfowlers are the cream of all shooters because the bag means nothing, but the quality of the sport is everything. No man can hope to ensure constant success in wildfowling unless he is also a naturalist. In this well illustrated book the author gives the reader the benefit of his 25 years experience of sport and nature. Contents Include: Wild Geese Wild Goose Shooting Sailing to Fowl Gunning Pits Wildfowling Guns Powder, Shot and Cartridges British Wild Ducks Duck Shooting Inland and on the Coast Shooting in Canada Wading Birds Shore Shooting Woodcock and Snipe Wildfowling Dogs Bird Migration Wildfowling Quarters. etc Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

This spectacular new edition of the best-selling Helm field guide of all time covers all resident, migrant and vagrant species found in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. More than 1,300 species are illustrated with full details of all the plumages and major races likely to be encountered. Concise text describes the identification, status, range, habits and voice, with fully updated range maps for each species. This authoritative book will not only be an indispensable guide to the visiting birder, but also a vital tool for those engaged in work to conserve and study the avifauna of the region - East Africa shelters a remarkable diversity of birds, many seriously endangered with small and vulnerable ranges.

WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2018 WINNER OF THE JEFFERIES AWARD FOR NATURE WRITING 2017 The full story of seabirds from one of the greatest nature writers. The book looks at the pattern of their lives, their habitats, the threats they face and the passions they inspire - beautifully illustrated by Kate Boxer. Seabirds are master navigators, thriving in the most demanding environment on earth. In this masterly book, drawing on all the most recent research, Adam Nicolson follows them to the coasts and islands of Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and the Americas. Beautifully illustrated by Kate Boxer, The Seabird's Cry is a celebration of the wonders of the only creatures at home in the air, on land and on the sea. It also carries a warning: the number of seabirds has dropped by two-thirds since 1950. Extinction stalks the ocean and there is a danger that the grand cry of a seabird colony will this century become little but a memory.

Die bekende dierkundige Fritz Eloff se bemoeienis met die Kalaharileeu het reeds in 1958 begin toe hy een aand teen sononder die koninklike brul van ’n leeu tussen die rooi duine hoor opklink het. In toeganklike taal word die Kalaharileeu se fisieke eienskappe, sy habitat, sy plek in die ekosisteem en sy interaksie met die mens dan bespreek. Ten slotte kom ook ’n paar legendariese leeumannetjies en –wyfies aan die bod en besin die skrywer oor die oorlewingskanse van die Kalaharileeu in ’n veranderende wereld.

In this informed, incisive and passionate commentary on the state of nature and conservation, Mark Avery reflects on our relationship with the wildlife around us. From the cats that pass through his garden to the chronic decline of farmland wildlife, from the Pasqueflowers he visits every spring to the proportion of national income devoted to saving nature – everything is connected, and everything is considered. This book analyses what is wrong with certain ways we do wildlife conservation but explores some of its many successes too. How can we do better to restore wildlife to everybody’s lives? We know how to conserve species and habitats – it’s time to roll out conservation measures on a much bigger scale. This is a societal choice in which every nature lover can play their part. Reflections sets out what is needed, and what part the state, environmental charities and we as individuals can play in making that happen. This highly personal work from a life embedded in and dedicated to nature does not shy away from the harsh realities we face, but its message, ultimately, is one of hope.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE A naturalist's passionate dive into the lives of bees (of all stripes)-and the natural world in her own backyard Brigit Strawbridge Howard was shocked the day she realised she knew more about the French Revolution than she did about her native trees. And birds. And wildflowers. And bees. The thought stopped her-quite literally-in her tracks. But that day was also the start of a journey, one filled with silver birches and hairy-footed flower bees, skylarks, and rosebay willow herb, and the joy that comes with deepening one's relationship with place. Dancing with Bees is Strawbridge Howard's charming and eloquent account of a return to noticing, to rediscovering a perspective on the world that had somehow been lost to her for decades and to reconnecting with the natural world. With special care and attention to the plight of pollinators, including honeybees, bumblebees, and solitary bees, and what we can do to help them, Strawbridge Howard shares fascinating details of the lives of flora and fauna that have filled her days with ever-increasing wonder and delight.