Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry is an exciting collection from poets who teach both in and outside academia. Fifty-eight poets in various stages of their careers have contributed sixty-one exercises ranging from quick and simple to involved and multi-layered. In seven chapters, ranging from "Springboards to Imagination" to "Chancing the Accidental" to "Complicating the Poem," each exercise includes not only clear step-by-step instructions, but numerous poems that exemplify the successful completion of the exercise. Wingbeats, edited by Scott Wiggerman and David Meischen, includes exercises for working in pairs and/or groups, for incorporating research and/or the Internet, for writing outdoors, for creating a hands-on experience. Of course, traditional poetic techniques covering metaphor, persona, forms, and revision are also included. Wingbeats is destined to become a standard instructional book in every poet's library. Contributors: Rosa Alcala, Wendy Barker, Ellen Bass, Tara Betts, Catherine Bowman, Susan Briante, Sharon Bridgforth, Nathan Brown, Jenny Browne, Andrea Hollander Budy, Lisa D. Chavez, Alison T. Cimino, Cathryn Cofell, Sarah Cortez, Bruce Covey, Oliver de la Paz, Lori Desrosiers, Cyra S. Dumitru, Blas Falconer, Annie Finch, Gretchen Fletcher, Madelyn Garner, Barbara Hamby, Carol Hamilton, Penny Harter, Kurt Heinzelman, Jane Hilberry, Karla Huston, David Kirby, Laurie Kutchins, Ellaraine Lockie, Ed Madden, Anne McCrady, Robert McDowell, Ray McManus, David Meischen, Harryette Mullen, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Hoa Nguyen, Naomi Shihab Nye, Katherine Durham Oldmixon, Kathleen Peirce, Georgia A. Popoff, Patty Seyburn, Ravi Shankar, Shoshauna Shy, Patricia Smith, Jessamyn Johnston Smyth, Bruce Snider, Lisa Russ Spaar, Susan Terris, Lewis Turco, Andrea L. Watson, Afaa Michael Weaver, William Wenthe, Scott Wiggerman, Abe Louise Young, Matthew Zapruder

Wingbeats and Heartbeats is a wingshooter's odyssey to the wild places where, at the end of the day, the companionship of faithful gun dogs and good friends matters more than a bulging game bag. In this sometimes humorous and sometimes poignant collection of essays, Dave Books celebrates a time-honored connection to the land and the hard-earned hunting rewards of an outdoor life. Through these essays, readers tag along on adventures in the forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the fields of Iowa and North Dakota, the prairies of eastern Montana and Nebraska, the mountains of western Montana and Idaho, and the deserts of Arizona. Books also writes of the game birds that hunters pursue and admire: grouse, quail, woodcock, doves, chukars, Hungarian partridge, and waterfowl. A heartfelt tribute to the freedom and magic of the hunt, Wingbeats and Heartbeats is a book that has much to say about work and fun, success and failure, and the sights, sounds, and smells of a day afield.

A guide that helps intermediate birders advance their skills by teaching principles that apply to all groups of birds in addition to details about the most challenging groups to identify.

From the renowned author of the New York Times best seller The Sibley Guide to Birds, a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated guide to identifying birds in the field. Sibley's Birding Basics is an essential companion for birders of all skill and experience levels. With Sibley as your guide, learn how to interpret what the feathers, the anatomical structure, the sounds of a bird tell you. When you know the clues that show you why there’s no such thing as, for example, “just a duck” birding will be more fun, and more meaningful. An essential addition to the Sibley shelf! The Sibley Guide to Birds and The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior are both universally acclaimed as the new standard source of species information. And now David Sibley, America’s premier birder and best-known bird artist, turns his attention to the general characteristics that influence the appearance of all birds, unlocking the clues to their identity. In 200 beautifully rendered illustrations and 16 essays, this scientifically precise volume distills the essence of Sibley’s own experience and skills, providing a solid introduction to “naming” the birds. Birding Basics reviews how one can get started as a birder—the equipment necessary, where and when to go birding, and perhaps most important, the essential things to look for when birds appear in the field—as well as the basic concepts of bird identification and the variations that can change the appearance of a bird over time or in different settings. Sibley also provides critical information on the aspects of avian life that differ from species to species: feathers (color, arrangement, shape, molt), behavior and habitat, and sounds.

The German Society of Cybernetics organizes international conferences on selected interdisciplinary topics in regular 3-year intervals. The aim of these meetings is to bring together scientists who work in quite different disciplines, but are confronted with related problems and use the same or similar approaches. The topic of the 1983 conference which was held on March 23-25 at the University of Tiibingen came from a typical field of research in which engineers, biologists, and phYSicists share a common interest. We do not want to discuss here in detail the common principles which are used by nature and by engineers to solve the problems associated with localization and orientation, since the reader will find enough examples in this volume. The question, however, whether the participants of such meetings can really profit from each other, deserves some further consid eration. First, there is the difficulty of finding a common language. This still seems to be a problem, although in some fields the language of engineers and biologists has become very similar over the years, an impression we also gained during the conference. Most of the authors made a great ef fort to use a vocabulary which is understandable to people outside their own field of research, but, admittedly, not all succeeded.

A comprehensive second edition to the Birds of the Middle East This is a completely revised second edition of the bestselling field guide to the birds of the Middle East, covering Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, the Arabian peninsula and Socotra. For the first time, the text and maps appear opposite the plates, and as a consequence there are fewer species per plate than before. The text and maps have been fully revised and many new artworks have been painted by the three illustrators. There are more than 100 new species in this new edition, which features more than 820 species in total. This is an essential field guide for anyone visiting the Middle East.

Wings carry tiny insects, fluttering butterflies, and backyard birds, and they even once propelled some dinosaurs up and through the skies. Find out how, when, and why birds and beasts have taken to the air, and discover how wings work in this informative and brilliantly illustrated book about flight.

"This is a book like no other--the only truly comprehensive, one-volume illustrated guide to all of the world's birds, covering the complete International Ornithological Congress World Bird List. Featuring more than 300 stunning large-format, full-color plates, this accessible and authoritative encyclopedic reference presents incredibly detailed, accurate, and beautiful paintings of more than 10,700 species by some of the world's best bird artists, led by the legendary Norman Arlott and Ber van Perlo. In addition, The Complete Birds of the World provides detailed but concise identification information about each species on facing pages--including facts about voice, habitat, and geographic distribution. The result is a visual and verbal feast that captures the astonishing variety of bird life around the planet--and that will be cherished by any birder." -- Amazon.