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Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
by (Editor: Stephen C. Brown) (Editor: Jimmy Carter)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Mountaineers Books (2006-06-10)
ISBN: 0898869757
EAN: 9780898869750
Dewey Decimal #: 598.097987
Hardcover: 176 pages
SKU: 111808000374
Condition: New
Comments: 0898869757 New, prestine copy - includes NEW CD of Arctic refuge birdsongs. Select expedited shipping for 3-5 day delivery. New, never read, may have minor wear on cover.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A celebration in word and image of the birds who return each year to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to nest—and how they link every point on the globe • 200 color photos from award-winning nature photographers Subhankar Banerjee, Steven Kazlowski, and Arthur Morris • Essays/text contributions by noted writers, biologists, and conservationists including David Allen Sibley, Debbie Miller, Kenn Kaufmann, and President Jimmy Carter, CD Audio by birdsong recordist, Martyn Stewart • Life histories of individual bird species from every major group including shorebirds, songbirds, and raptors plus dramatic stories of migration and strategies for survival A Buff-breasted sandpiper running along a barrier beach in the Carolinas is only mid-way in an annual journey of incredible magnitude—one that takes it from its nesting ground in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to its winter quarters on the pampas of South America. The Yellow wagtail begins life in a willow thicket in the Arctic but winters in Indonesia, where its return each year signals rice farmers to begin their spring planting. The ecosystems of the world are linked by birds, and nowhere is that more apparent than the Arctic Refuge, where more than 180 species converge from six continents and all fifty states to nest and rear their young. The unique habitats of the Arctic Refuge and the intense Arctic summer produce a rich diet that makes the incredible migrations worthwhile.Essays include DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY on the grand dance of avian migration and the sense of time and place on the earth that it provides; DEBBIE MILLER tells of how the incredible journey of songbirds from the Arctic Refuge and back connects the world’s habitats—and its people—together; biologist MARK WILSON shares his story of discovery canoeing down the Refuge’s Canning River; STANLEY E. SENNER, Vice President of Audubon Alaska, explains the ecological importance of the region and how oil development has impacted the North Slope; and ROBERT THOMPSON, an Inupiat wildlife guide, reveals the relationship between birds and native culture. Three photographers contributed to this project: SUBHANKAR BANERJEE, author of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, has had his images featured in major museums such as the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History and in magazines such as Vanity Fair; nature photographer STEVEN KAZLOWSKI was a finalist for Wildlife magazine’s 2004 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. Among his previous books are Alaska Wildlife Impressions and Bears of the North; ARTHUR MORRIS specializes in bird photography and has had more than 11,000 of his photos published in magazine such as American Bird, Audobon, National Geographic, Outdoor Photographer and many more. Arctic Wings is produced jointly by The Mountaineers Books and Manomet Center for Conservation Science. It is published in the tradition of Seasons of Life and Land—a book (photography by Subhankar Banerjee) that has won critical acclaim and has helped inform the debate over opening the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling.
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Customer Reviews
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A Beautiful Book that Covers a Place that May Not be here long.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-10-19
This beautifully illustrated book is written by a collection of authors who have a love affair going with the birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Their writing, each on a different subject is filled with amazement, wonder and love for the area and its birdlife.
On the other side is a whole series of comments about protecting this environment and the thrust for development being urged by the oil companies and the Bush administration. Unfortunately, in the long run, I think that the environmentalists will lose. The 'God given rights' of the people to have inexpensive gasoline for their SUV's leads to power by the voting booth.
The book itself is of large format, printed on a very heavy paper with a printing quality that rivals photographs themselves. It is a beautiful book. There is also a CD included with the book that has recordings of 67 bird boices. This can be played as a single 60 minute recording, or you can select individual tracks of bird species.
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Beautifully done, very interesting
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-31
Absolutely beautifully done with brilliant colors and well-composed pictures this is a great joy to just look through for all bird lovers or fans of the Arctic Refuge area. But it does not stop there. The writers share their experiences in an excellent educational yet highly readable treatise on their particular subject. Together they introduce the fascinating world of Arctic birds to the reader in a way that is both informative and fun. So, how to you finish off such an excellent book? They added a CD in the back with various bird calls, songs, and peeps. Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is highly recommended and a real joy to have around even just for the pleasure of picking it up once in a while and enjoying the pictures.
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Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-15
If you love: a)nature photography, b)the Arctic, and c)birds - this book is for you. It is over-sized and filled with beautiful colored photographs of birds who come to breed in the Arctic. Plus, there are migration maps and essays telling you how the birds got to the Arctic. And there is a CD with sounds of the Arctic and many of the birds pictured in the book. It is a wonderful feast for the senses.
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Arctic Wings
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-12
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
This gorgeous book on the birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge combines writing by a variety of authors, from birding luminary David Sibley to local Native American residents, with many outstanding photographs. Overall, it provides a considerable amount of information on the bird species appearing in the ANWR and the effects that oil drilling might have on them. While some segments are more gracefully written than others, all are interesting.
Along with the book is a CD of birdsongs and ambient sounds of the region.
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Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-08-07
2 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic North American Flyways converge on the North Slope of Alaska and Yukon Territory. The area encompasses many ecosystems - river deltas and coastal wetlands, tundra, mountains, boreal forest; inshore waters, barrier islands, beaches and spits and coastal lagoons. Diverse and complex spread over 7.89 million square hectometers (19.5 million ac). The North Slope is a soundshed, viewshed, and the temporary annual residence for at least 194 birds - who visit, but not stay. Some fly almost 29,000 kilometers (18,000 mi), each year, for the round trip. The area is also home to moose, caribou, wolverines, arctic fox, bears and wolves.
US automobile companies and related industries have effectively been on welfare for most of the 20th and the 21st centuries - dependent on "cheap" oil. Perverse subsidies that function as disinvestments threaten to leave the arctic environment and US economy worse off. As pointed out by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999) in Natural Capitalism and von Weizsacker, Lovins and Lovins (1997) in Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, if you want to cut your costs by one-half or double your profit, then double your efficiency. The North Slope sustainably functions best as wilderness.
Rather than getting close to the Arctic tundra by "sitting behind an internal combustion engine pick up truck in midtown traffic," this is about minimizing human impact on the North Slope by becoming better informed about some of the wild visitors. A CD provides from a few seconds up to 14 minutes (60 minutes of continual play) of the sounds of 67 different birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The large 28 x 28 cm format helps bring the North Slope alive, everything but cool wind in your face and crisp smells wafting off the tundra.
After the introduction, the book is organized according to Loons and Waterfowl; Hawks, Eagles and Falcons; Shorebirds; Gulls, Terns and Jaegers; Owls; Land Birds and Winter Birds. President Jimmy Carter provides the Foreward. Multiple authors and photographers provide Cultural Reflections, Landscape of the Future, After an Arctic Season and Birders in the Scope.
Recognizing there is a direct connection between local birds throughout North America and the North Slope, this reinforces the need for efficiency and use of renewable energy, and brings you one giant step closer to an "aha" moment.
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