Gulls And Plovers

Download or read book Gulls and Plovers written by C.J. Barnard and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early years of this century a Scottish doctor speculated on the evolutionary origin of human tears. It seemed to him that with the increase in brain size and cognitive powers of our early ancestors many events in the struggle for existence would be just too distressing to observe. How comforting then, for the mother, distraught by the sight of her child being devoured by a lion, to cloud her vision with a flood of tears! Just so, though if the good doctor had pondered further, the following picture might have occurred to him, comfortable in his speculative armchair, and given him some pause for thought. ' ~ . . . . ~ . . ~ ~ . . •. . u" . . , ~- . ' _ . . . . . . . vii viii SERIES EDITOR'S FOREWORD These stories do not, of course, get us very far in understanding the evolution of tears or anything else, but they do remind us how far the study of behavioural adaptation has come this century. This is, in fact, an exciting time for students of behaviour. The last twenty years have seen a great advance in the theoretical armoury for tackling questions of behavioural evolution and adaptation, and a parallel expansion in empirical studies, particularly in the field. The concepts of inclusive fitness and the evolutionarily stable strategy, for example, have helped to explain major features of social behaviour and have generated entirely new questions and predictions for the field worker to examine.

Download or read book I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird written by Susan Cerulean and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2020-08-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Susan Cerulean’s memoir trains a naturalist’s eye and a daughter’s heart on the lingering death of a beloved parent from dementia. At the same time, the book explores an activist’s lifelong search to be of service to the embattled natural world. During the years she cared for her father, Cerulean also volunteered as a steward of wild shorebirds along the Florida coast. Her territory was a tiny island just south of the Apalachicola bridge where she located and protected nesting shorebirds, including least terns and American oystercatchers. I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird weaves together intimate facets of adult caregiving and the consolation of nature, detailing Cerulean’s experiences of tending to both. The natural world is the “sustaining body” into which we are born. In similar ways, we face not only a crisis in numbers of people diagnosed with dementia but also the crisis of the human-caused degradation of the planet itself, a type of cultural dementia. With I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird, Cerulean reminds us of the loving, necessary toil of tending to one place, one bird, one being at a time.

Download or read book Waiting for a Warbler written by Sneed B. Collard III and published by Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short listed for the Green Earth book award In early April, as Owen and his sister search the hickories, oaks, and dogwoods for returning birds, a huge group of birds leaves the misty mountain slopes of the Yucatan peninsula for the 600-mile flight across the Gulf of Mexico to their summer nesting grounds. One of them is a Cerulean warbler. He will lose more than half his body weight even if the journey goes well. Aloft over the vast ocean, the birds encourage each other with squeaky chirps that say, “We are still alive. We can do this.” Owen’s family watches televised reports of a great storm over the Gulf of Mexico, fearing what it may mean for migrating songbirds. In alternating spreads, we wait and hope with Owen, then struggle through the storm with the warbler. This moving story with its hopeful ending appeals to us to preserve the things we love. The backmatter includes a North American bird migration map, birding information for kids, and guidance for how native plantings can transform yards into bird and wildlife habitat.

Download or read book Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds written by Christopher M. Perrins and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide to more that 100 bird families including: global distribution, habitat, plumage, voice, diet, mating rituals, nesting habits, historical significance, evolutionary development and conservation status.

Download or read book Avian Architecture written by Peter Goodfellow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-05 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the nests that birds build around the world, including illustrations of each nest type's construction, descriptions of the materials and techniques used during the process, and case studies on specific birds' habitats.

Download or read book Biology of Marine Birds written by E. A. Schreiber and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-08-16 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biology of Marine Birds provides the only complete summary of information about marine birds ever published. It analyzes their breeding biology, ecology, taxonomy, evolution, fossil history, physiology, energetics, and conservation. The book covers four orders of marine birds in detail and includes two summary chapters that address the biology of shorebirds and wading birds and their lives in the marine environment. Summary tables give detailed information on various aspects of their life histories, breeding biology, physiology and energetics, and demography. It provides a guide to ornithologists and students for research projects.

Download or read book Bird Migration and Global Change written by George W. Cox and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2010-07-07 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Changes in seasonal movements and population dynamics of migratory birds in response to ongoing changes resulting from global climate changes are a topic of great interest to conservation scientists and birdwatchers around the world. Because of their dependence on specific habitats and resources in different geographic regions at different phases of their annual cycle, migratory species are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In Bird Migration and Global Change, eminent ecologist George W. Cox brings his extensive experience as a scientist and bird enthusiast to bear in evaluating the capacity of migratory birds to adapt to the challenges of a changing climate. Cox reviews, synthesizes, and interprets recent and emerging science on the subject, beginning with a discussion of climate change and its effect on habitat, and followed by eleven chapters that examine responses of bird types across all regions of the globe. The final four chapters address the evolutionary capacity of birds, and consider how best to shape conservation strategies to protect migratory species in coming decades. The rate of climate change is faster now than at any other moment in recent geological history. How best to manage migratory birds to deal with this challenge is a major conservation issue, and Bird Migration and Global Change is a unique and timely contribution to the literature.