Blank 150 page lined journal for your thoughts, ideas, and inspiration.

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.

"Set forth in non-technical language the salient facts regarding the birds of the world ... Every family has been reviewed ... The treatment of the so-called game birds, both aquatic and non-aquatic, has purposely been made very full ... Main attention has been given to the birds as they appear in their homes--that is, their plumage, habits, songs; nests and eggs, food, etc."--Preface. 233 illustrations--color and black & white photographs, line drawings. Indexed.

Wading birds, raptors, waterfowl, pelicans, gulls & terns, shorebirds, and songbirds. These are the types of birds Florida birdwatchers can see and learn about in Ken Janes’ stunning photobook Florida Birds: A Birdwatcher Discovers the Sunshine State. With all original photography by Janes and informational sections for each bird listed, those interested in the year-long hobby of Florida birdwatching will be able to not only learn key facts from this book but also display it in their homes as a piece of photo art. Birdwatching and other birding activities are seasonal in most parts of the country but can take place year-round in Florida because of the warmer climate. Janes, a Mainer until winter when he travels to his Florida home, shows northerners and southerners alike what unique aviary life can be found in the Sunshine State. Janes takes a conservationist approach to his work and makes it clear to readers how certain species of birds have been negatively affected by harmful practices and chemicals, like the effect of DDT on Osprey.

Here are more than 150 stunning portraits of Florida's birds in all their habitats at water's edge, from the hushed and hidden swamps to th eopen shores and beaches.

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.