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Flamingos, snowy egrets, ospreys, terns, black skimmers: These are nature stories.What is it like to follow white-tailed tropicbirds in a small plane, miles from land, over the vast Caribbean Sea? Or capture wintering common terns from a small shark fishing boat in southern Trinidad?
Chesapeake Bay, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Southern France: This is a travelogue. How does a "flamingo roundup" in France include people from seven countries (and five languages) working in unison? How did a disappearing island (now being restored) in Chesapeake Bay once sheltering Native Americans, British troops, and a fishing village become a wildlife mecca?
Searing heat, hungry insects, boat problems, rescuing men at sea. This is a true-life adventure.Learn how fieldwork in Green Bay, Wisconsin on night herons ends with saving two fishermen from drowning.
They are all part of Dr. Michael Erwin's 40-plus-year career as a wildlife biologist. He brings his colorful experiences - the discoveries, the challenges, the dangers, and the joys - back to life in this riveting recollection of his love affair with our Planet Earth.
About the author
Dr. Erwin is a retired senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a research professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia. Over his more than 40 year career, he has more than 140 scientific publications on a variety of ecological, conservation, and management issues. While his research centered on coastal waterbirds and their habitats, he also developed guidance for monitoring bird populations, for the design, construction, and management of islands in Chesapeake Bay, and began some of the early USGS studies to monitor saltmarsh elevation changes and sea level rise. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, and a former President and editor of the Waterbird Society.
