Bird Environment

Late in 2013, snowy owls started showing up in places no one expected to find them - including Florida. What had caused so many of these majestic birds to leave their Arctic home and fly to southern Canada and the United States? Scientists quickly began working to find out. Author Sandra Markle brings together firsthand reports from the scientists involved along with stunning photographs of the owls to explain this rare event, known as an irruption.

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross - the oldest bird in the world - hatched a new chick in 2011, and two months later, the Japanese tsunami struck. Surviving manmade and natural disasters for over 60 years, Wisdom has braved living wild, plastic pollution, longline fishing, lead poisoning, and the Japanese earthquake.

When oil spills, workers hurry to clean the land and water. But oil spills can also affect every animal that lives in the area. Who helps these wild animals? On the East Coast, a team from Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research rushes to the scene to save as many as possible. Follow along to learn how these experts capture oiled animals and treat them quickly and safely so that they may be returned to the wild. This illustrated nonfiction is based on the extensive experience of the Oiled Wildlife Response Team at Tri-State.

Drawing upon his vast knowledge of the environment, biology, botany, and history, Ronald R. Van Stockum, Jr. has written a love letter to Kentucky. The lay person as well as the expert will understand as he describes the state’s evolution - its history, original land surface, the river-cut gorges, the mountains, and the lakes. Along with thorough documentation, the writer gives us a poetic description of this “...verdant state, lush in its heat, humidity, and rainfall. The diversity and abundance of life was immediately evident to all who came here”.