Review: The Urban Bestiary

When wildlife lives alongside humans in urban or suburban environments, it becomes a frequent source of conflict, from groundhogs eating their way through vegetable gardens to squirrels chewing their way into houses. At the same time, it can inspire people to learn more about the natural world. The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt explores how humans interact with the wildlife close to home.

A bestiary is a book which combines descriptions of animals and their habits with mythology and symbolism. The animals may be real or imagined. This book avoids reporting mythology as fact, as bestiaries of the past often did, but it allows room for speculation or conjecture alongside more solid natural history.

The focus is on those animals that people are most likely to encounter in urban or suburban enviroments, particularly mammals and birds. In some cases family groups are lumped together in a single chapter, and other chapters combine species that are only distantly related but have habitats or behaviors in common. It also includes chapters on subjects that are not usually thought of as wildlife, such as chickens, humans, and trees. There are frequent sidebars with information on identifying tracks and sign or about an animal's behavior.

Haupt takes a humane view, both of urban wildlife (some of it widely disliked) and of the people that interact with these creatures. Even aspects of these creatures that cause disgust, such as the scaly tails of rats and opossums, become objects of curiosity. In explaining how an opossum uses its prehensile tail, Haupt writes:

"It's a winsome image, really: the tail coiled around a branch of leaves, and the opossum scampering (insofar as an opossum can scamper) away with her treasure, then using her icky-pointy nose to tuck the leaves into a rounded nest, either in a protected earthen corner or in a tree." (p. 101)

(The term "icky-pointy" was introduced in a quote by someone other than the author.) At the same time, she sympathizes with people who are repulsed by certain animals (like opossums) and looks for ways to coexist with the animals in our midst.

In the northeastern densely-populated megalopolis, almost all wildlife is urban wildlife to some extent. Few pockets of natural habitat have not been paved over or developed into houses or industrial parks. Even those natural patches are hemmed in on all sides and often are degraded by toxic chemicals or invasive plants and animals. The loss of habitat to development contributes to a biodiversity crisis.

As suburbia continues to expand into places that once were wild, encounters and conflict with wildlife are inevitable. And even as developed areas continue to expand, adaptable animals are also expanding their ranges, so that coyotes and white-tailed deer are a regular presence. Suburbia in particular creates habitats well-suited to certain animals. Robins now winter further north thanks to climate change and their liking for suburban habitats. Canada Geese love golf-course-like lawns and ponds of local parks and corporate developments. Gray squirrels forage at bird feeders and eat acorns on oak-lined streets (and then nest in the eaves of houses). White-tailed deer appreciate the abundant edge habitats where lawns back up against woodland buffers.

As developed areas continue to expand and wildlife finds a place in them, encounters between humans and wildlife will become more frequent. These encounters need not be negative if we learn to appreciate them and seek ways of reducing conflict. The Urban Bestiary is a good start towards such an understanding and should delight anyone interested in urban wildlife.

Review of The Sibley Guide to Birds: Second Edition

Today is the release date for the highly anticipated Sibley Guide to Birds: Second Edition. The first edition set a new standard for North American field guides, and it is still an excellent resource for bird identification. Even so, our understanding of bird identification and distribution has improved in the interim, and thus has rendered some of the older edition's material out-of-date. However, the new edition goes well beyond a simple update.

Much has changed in the world of birding since the original edition was published in 2000. Many species have been documented for the first time in North America, and some birds considered rare have been shown to visit regularly. Other formerly common species are sliding toward oblivion. Some introduced species have established self-sustaining populations. Advances in genetic research have changed our understanding of evolutionary relationships among birds. As a result, many species have been split into two or more species, some genera (like Dendroica) have been eliminated, other genera (like Leucophaeus and Hydrocoloeus) have been created or restored, and families or even orders (like Falconidae and Anseriformes) have been moved to new positions on the AOU Checklist.

Technology, too, changed birding considerably. News of rare birds is now disseminated quickly over email lists, social media, and eBird alerts so that more birders can see rare birds when the opportunity arises. Anyone can use eBird to find good spots for birding. Digital cameras and sound recorders have made it easier to document rare birds and interesting bird behaviors; at the same time detailed written field notes have become less common. Birders also have easier access to more information (and unfortunately some misinformation) about bird identification and behavior.

The new edition reflects these changes. Despite being about the same size as the original, it includes 111 species that were omitted from the first edition. Many of these were first documented in North America in the years since the first edition was published. Others are the result of species splits or rare vagrants becoming more regular. The taxonomic order is up-to-date as of the 2013 supplement to the AOU checklist. Subspecies and regional populations also get more thorough coverage in the second edition, perhaps in anticipation of potential future splits.

Beyond those updates, many plates have been retouched or repainted entirely. Images have been enlarged, and the species accounts now contain more textual information about bird identification and habitats. While the first edition contained a number of sidebars, Sibley made room in the second edition for even more of them. For example, the sidebar on owling (shown below) appears in the second edition but not in the first.

Features that I liked best about the original Sibley Guide are maintained in the second edition. For one, I think David Sibley does the best job of any field guide artist (at least among North American field guides) of painting bird shapes that are true to life. Occasionally with other painted guides I see a bird shapes or postures that somehow do not look right. I have never experienced that with Sibley's illustrations. Shape is at least as important as plumage for accurate bird identification. In both editions, the diagrams showing bird topography in the introduction are tremendously useful. I refer to them constantly when I write up descriptions of rare birds to make sure my terminology is correct. The new guide also continues to show similar species in the same postures, and all but the most uncommon bird species are shown in flight.

A frequent criticism of the original Sibley Guide was that some of the colors, particularly orange, were too bright. It did not bother me very much, but it seemed like a fair criticism. That seems to be less of an issue with the new edition, which has more muted reds and oranges. Some reviewers have objected that certain colors are too dark. I agree with other reviewers that at least one bird, Scarlet Tanager, looks darker than it appears in the field (at least to my eye). However, for the most part the colors look richer and more true-to-life than in the previous edition. For example, if you turn the page and look at the Northern Cardinal, the deeper red looks more like how the species appears in the field than the bright red from the first edition. I included a comparison image below, which also shows the larger size of illustrations in the new edition and some additional text (old edition on the left; new edition on the right).

The maps in the previous edition were also criticized, both for their accuracy and for the sometimes confusing placement of green dots for rare bird sightings. In the new edition, the plague of green dots is gone. The maps now look more like those in the eastern and western regional guides, with gray shading to show patterns of vagrancy. For species with very limited ranges, the maps are zoomed in on the region where they occur, instead of showing the entire continent on every map.

I found a few minor textual errors, but none that would make it harder for readers to identify birds. Hopefully these will be corrected in future printings of this edition. Also, the cover and binding of the second edition feel less sturdy than the first, perhaps a concession to the 50 additional pages in the new edition.


When the Sibley Guide was first published, it set a new standard for field guides to North American birds. I expect the second edition will do the same.

Review: The Warbler Guide

Warblers occupy a special place within the imaginations of North American birders. Warblers appear in a diverse array of colorful plumages, but they are not just eye candy. Their elusive habits and complex plumage makes finding and identifying them a satisfying challenge. Most birders have only a few weeks to see the vast majority of warblers in fall and spring, so there is little danger of their appeal wearing off, as sometimes happens with colorful resident species. Even after birding for ten years, I still have not mastered every plumage for every eastern warbler, and there are some species I still have not seen (like Kirtland's Warbler) or only seen once or twice (like Mourning and Connecticut Warblers).

Birders now have a new field guide to assist with finding and identifying warblers: The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle, published by Princeton University Press. The guide joins existing guides like A Field Guide to Warblers of North America by Jon Dunn and Kimball Garrett; Warblers of the Americas: An Identification Guide by Jon Curson, David Quinn, and David Beadle; and Stokes Field Guide to Warblers by Lillian Stokes.

A few features make The Warbler Guide distinctive. The most obvious at first glance is the sheer amount of visual information presented for each of the warbler species. (You can see a sample species account in this pdf.) For some species, the accounts are broken into drab birds vs. bright birds or fall vs. spring. To me, the accounts emphasize the best of the "field marks" vs. "whole bird" methods of identification. While it checks off diagnostic features (what might be called "field marks"), it goes beyond those to show how each bird appears from numerous angles. The photos also show characteristic behaviors and postures, which can be useful evidence in differentiating one species from another.

Another is that it uses a system of symbols and abbreviations with color coding to convey information about each bird. This may appeal some readers, but I prefer that a species account tell me the information in words rather than send me off to some key to find out what the symbol means. The guide also includes a quick finder that covers many angles and plumages. While useful, it starts on page 100, which makes referencing it less quick than it might be if it were placed near the beginning or end of the guide (as the quick finders are in the Crossley ID Guides). The publisher has helpfully provided PDFs of these quick finders on its website, for anyone to reference.

More important is the use of sonograms to represent warbler songs and calls. Sonograms were first introduced in printed field guides with Birds of North America: A Guide To Field Identification by Chandler Robbins, Bertel Bruun, Herbert Zim, and Arthur Singer, but they never caught on enough for authors and publishers of other birding field guides to feel the need to follow suit. Instead, it has been standard for field guide authors transcribe sounds into phonetic sounds, like kek-kek-kek-kek, or mnemonic phrases, like sweet-sweet-sweet-a-little-more-sweet. The trouble with the latter approach is that not everyone hears bird sounds the same way, and mnemonic phrases often do not the rhythm of the song they represent. Sonograms offer a more accurate way to represent bird sounds. However, sonograms take some skill and practice to interpret correctly. To that end, The Warbler Guide includes an extensive guide to sonograms and learning bird sounds in its introduction.

The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle is an innovative guide for learning and identifying North American wood warblers. It stands out from existing field guides, particularly in its inclusion of sonograms for every species. Any birder with an interest in warblers will want this guide as a stepping stone to more advanced identification skills.

Review: The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors

In 2011, Richard Crossley introduced a new format for photographic field guides with his much-heralded Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds. Crossley tried to overcome the limitations of traditional photographic field guides by presenting each species in an array of plumages all crowded into a single plate that depicts each bird's typical habitat. The intent is to mimic how birds appear in the wild. While no printed guide can recreate actual field conditions, Crossley's guides are about as close as one can get.

Since then, Crossley has worked to expand his ID guide series into other geographic regions. A guide to the birds of Britain and Ireland is already published, and one for western birds is planned. Last year I received another installment in the series, The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors. The new guide is coauthored with Jerry Liguori and Brian Sullivan. Like the guide to eastern birds, this raptor guide features birds as they appear in the field: perched, flying, interacting with other birds, in various plumages, etc. Once again, the plates show a raptor's typical habitat with numerous bird photos added into the background with the help of Photoshop.

Like its predecessor, The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors features beautiful photography. I initially enjoyed just flipping through and looking at the plates. Since hawk migration is an emphasis in this guide, the backdrops are often coastal or mountaintop hawk watches, some of which are spectacular. I especially liked the plate showing how vultures might look from the top of the Cape May Lighthouse.

The focus on a single family allows even more detail than was possible in the guide to eastern birds. Most species are spread over multiple pages, with color morphs or regional plumages receiving separate attention. As in the first guide, the photos of individual birds are inserted into backdrops depicted a typical habitat. The raptor guide takes this a step further by showing separate plates for hawk watches and habitats where the hawk typically resides. This is useful because there are different identification challenges for raptors that are just passing through (especially at mountaintop hawk watches) than ones that are perched or hunting in a field. Some plates also mimic difficult lighting conditions, like overcast skies or the golden hour, and plates show both close and distant raptors.

New features introduced in the raptor guide are comparison plates and quizzes. These plates show groupings of similar species in typical habitat with individual birds numbered and with answers at the back of the book. These features ought to be useful for someone who is new to hawk study or for learning unfamiliar species. Another difference between this guide and the guide to eastern birds is the inclusion of detailed species accounts with range maps at the end of the guide.

While it is smaller than its predecessor, The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors is a little too large to carry as a field guide on most occasions. However, since hawk watching is a matter of waiting in a location for hawks to pass by, it could be used as a reference at a hawk watch (provided that getting to the hawk watch does not require a hike, as some mountaintop hawk watches do). The Crossley ID guides are intended for home study, mainly for preparation to know what to look for. On numerous occasions since I received Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds I have made use of it to help figure out difficult identifications.

Photoshopping aside, The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors occupies a similar niche as Jerry Ligouri's other guides, Hawks from Every Angle and Hawks at a Distance. All three guides attempt to show readers how raptors look under less-than-ideal field conditions: at a weird angle, backlit, at a distance, disappearing behind some trees, and so on. All three guides emphasize shape and flight style as a way of getting around the difficulty. I think the new guide actually improves on Hawks from Every Angle and Hawks at a Distance by showing those angles in their habitat contexts.

From reading reviews of Crossley's first guide and from conversations with other birders, I get the sense that some birders find Crossley's style far too cluttered. The new raptor guide is probably not for them since The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors shares much in common with its predecessor. However, if you like raptors and enjoyed the first Crossley guide, as I do, you will probably like The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors.

Books and Web Resources on Moths

This week is National Moth Week. Why moths? Moths are extremely diverse, with about 160,000 species worldwide, and appear in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Despite this incredible diversity, many moths are not well studied or are underappreciated; sometimes they are even feared. National Moth Week aims to give more attention to these creatures of the night and to encourage citizen scientists to study and document them.

One obstacle to starting out studying moths as an amateur is that they are not as well covered as birds or even butterflies when it comes to field guides and other references for a popular audience. Moths' diversity makes it difficult for any guide to include all of the possible species, even within a limited area like northeastern North America. Here are some useful books on moths in North America.

The Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America by David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie is currently the best field guide for moths in its area. It covers macromoths pretty thoroughly and includes many of the more common micromoths. The photos are of living specimens. I reviewed this book here.

Charles Covell's Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America has effectively been replaced by the previous guide though it covers a larger area. It uses spread-winged specimens, and some printings have black and white illustrations. The guide has been out of print for a long time, but a reprint is available from the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David Wagner covers common caterpillars of both moths and butterflies. This is a useful starting point for learning about caterpillars.

Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David Wagner, Dale Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan, Richard Reardon provides thorough coverage of caterpillars from the superfamily Noctuoidea. This is primarily for people who already have a pretty deep interest in moths. I reviewed it here.

Moths & Caterpillars of the North Woods by Jim Sogaard has limited coverage, but I found it useful when I was first learning moths.

Le guide des papillons du Québec – Version scientifique by Louis Handfield is a two-volume French language guide for northeastern North America.

Moths of Western North America by Jerry Powell and Paul Opler covers the western region.

Discovering Moths: Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard by John Himmelman is not a field guide but a popular introduction to moths. It covers how to find and study moths, some aspects of moth biology, interesting lepidopterists, and moths in mythology and popular culture.

Tiger Moths and Woolly Bears: Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution of the Arctiidae, edited by William Conner, is a collection of articles on tiger moth biology.

The Moth Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Moths of North America by W.J. Holland is available as a free download from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which hosts a number of older books on Lepidoptera. It is also available from Google Books. The taxonomy is out of date, but it still may be a useful resource.

Because the books available can only cover so much, web resources are essential for confirming identifications and learning more about moths. Here are a few useful ones.

The Moth Photographers Group is probably the single most useful website for studying North American moths. Its plate series has thousands of high quality images, with multiple images for each species, including micromoths. It also provides links to much more information. Before the publication of Beadle and Leckie's guide, this was my main resource for identifying moths, and even now I still use it regularly.

BugGuide maintains guide pages for insects with reference images and text; users may submit photos for identification. The coverage is more uneven than at the Moth Photographers Group.

Pacific Northwest Moths covers 1,200 species of moths with species accounts and an interactive key for identification.

Butterflies and Moths of North America has species profiles and checklists.

Lepidoptera Barcode of Life is building a DNA barcode library of positively identified moth specimens. Images of moths in their database can be viewed on their website. Mark Dreiling is a major contributor of specimens.

National Moth Week has instructions for finding moths and links to many other resources, including where to submit data for moth observations.

Discover Life has a simple moth protocol for obtaining more useful data.

Finally, for those in my home county, Todd Dreyer has created a collection of beautiful photographs of moths in Middlesex County, New Jersey.

Book Note: A North Country Life

A new memoir by poet and essayist Sydney Lea describes life in rural New England. A North Country Life: Tales of Woodsmen, Waters, and Wildlife is published by Skyhorse Publishing. This volume consists of a series of short essays, many of which were previously published in literary journals or collections. The chapters are loosely organized by season, though in many of them a seasonal reference is simply a starting point for remembering a person or series of events. A North Country Life records a way of life that is disappearing and preserves the memory of people who have passed away. Some chapters are short and convey the feeling of a particular moment in time. Others expound at greater length on people or ideas. Many are even poignant, describing childhood memories or remembrances of people long gone. While the book is tied to seasons and places, people are always at the center of the narratives.

I must confess that I had some trouble getting into this book, and I picked it up and put it back down a few times. My problem was not with Lea's prose (which is quite readable) but with finding a connection. Some of it may be generational, but I feel it has more to do with the cultural separation between my background (from densely-populated areas) and old-time, rural New England. Not having the background information to put things into context acts as a barrier, at least for me.

A North Country Life is at its best when Lea is describing his own adventures in the woods. My favorite chapter was one in which he describes getting lost ("Turned Around") while tracking deer. Several other chapters provide food for thought, especially when Lea describes changes that have taken place over the past several decades. Birders know well that Ruffed Grouse are becoming harder to find. (I have never seen or heard one myself.) Lea provides evidence from his own experience with the birds — declining numbers of grouse encountered and shot during hunting season. The "daybooks" are also very good, almost poetic at times. The book ends on a strong note with essays on land conservation and memories of parenting. The book is less compelling when Lea is retelling stories told to him by some old-timer, who may have been telling the story second- or third-hand himself. I tended to get bogged down in those essays, especially early on when the people and places named were all unfamiliar.

Sydney Lea's A North Country Life should appeal to anyone with an interest in the culture and history of New England, particularly life in rural New England. How much it will appeal to birders will depend on individual tastes. Most of the writing on birds comes in the context of hunting — for Ruffed Grouse, Wild Turkey, Ring-necked Pheasant, Sharp-tailed Grouse (on a trip to Montana), and Black Duck — though birds do appear in some of the other essays. Lea's observations on these birds are interesting, but as with the other themes in the book, they serve as a starting point for stories about his companions (both human and canine). It may also appeal to those with a general interest in the outdoors.

Book Note: The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America

Birder and writer Bill Thompson III has produced a new paperback edition of The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America. This book builds on his 2008 book, The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, which I reviewed at the time. These guides are aimed to engage young birders and help them learn the most common bird species before using a standard guide that might overwhelm them with information. The species accounts are less condensed than a standard field guide and focus on how to find and identify each species, along with unusual facts about their natural history. The new edition follows the same format as the 2008 edition, but it adds 100 western species to broaden the book's appeal.

Review: Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East

The Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America, released this spring, filled a major field guide gap for people who are interested in learning about insects. Another gap was a comprehensive field guide to odonates in eastern North America. (The insect order Odonata includes both dragonflies and damselflies; it is common to use the generic terms "odonates" or simply "odes" to refer to them as a group.) Dennis Paulson has attempted to address this gap with his new Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, published by Princeton University Press this winter.

This gap was not quite as critical as the lack of a moth guide since alternatives existed. Dragonflies through Binoculars already covered North America. However, it does not include damselflies, and its small photos make it hard to use. Several excellent guides exist at the state level, such as the Field Guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies of New Jersey. These only cover a handful of states, though they may be useful in adjacent states as well. Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East steps into this gap and fills it well.

The new guide complements Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West by the same author. Together the two volumes cover all 462 damselfly and dragonfly species in the United States and Canada; 336 of those are included in Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East. The eastern guide covers the area east of a line from Ontario to Louisiana. One of the interesting points about odonate distribution is that they are more diverse in the east than in the west, and within the eastern region they may be more diverse in northern states than in southern states. Sussex County, New Jersey, currently has the highest odonate species list of any U.S. county. One reason for this is that odonates are aquatic as larvae, so temperate wet regions (like the northeast) are likely to support more diversity than hot, dry regions (like much of the west).

A lengthy introduction covers the basics of odonate natural history, from their anatomy and life cycle to research and conservation issues. Species accounts follow, starting with damselflies and moving on to dragonflies. Paulson includes some notes on the common characteristics of each family and each genus before describing the species from that group. Species accounts include a basic description, tips for separating the species from similar species, notes on their behavior and life cycle, typical habitat, approximate flight season (which varies regionally), a range map, and one or more photographic illustrations. Usually there are at least two photos, for male and female. I feel some of the photos could stand to be a little larger, but they are adequate for seeing the necessary features. Most of the dragonflies are shown perched, but a few (especially darners) are shown in flight. In addition, there are diagrams showing the reproductive parts for male and female damselflies and dragonflies. This is a critical point since many species can only be identified via examination of their reproductive parts in the hand. The guide is formatted so that descriptive text and photos for each species appear on the same page (or pages); diagrams of reproductive parts are grouped together by genus.

The photos in this guide are printed with their original backgrounds. I have come to prefer the format in which insects are removed from their backgrounds and edited to enhance key features — basically the format pioneered in Kenn Kaufman's field guide series, followed by the Peterson moth guide, and taken in a slightly different direction in The Crossley ID Guide. I think that format is more suitable for seeing important features and comparing similar insects (or birds) without distracting elements like branches or stones. Granted, this may be more difficult to pull off with odonates than lepidopterans because of their intricate wing structure, but it should still be possible. This is one area where I think someone could improve on Paulson's guide, and I would like to see another author give it a try.

In the meantime, Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East is an excellent identification guide and a substantial improvement over existing references. Professional and amateur dragonfly and damselfly observers will want this book.

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This review was based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Review: Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America

The Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America is not the only identification guide for eastern moths to be published recently. At the end of last year, Princeton University Press issued a mammoth volume on eastern owlet moth caterpillars. Readers may be familiar with the excellent Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner, which includes caterpillars of common moth and butterfly species. The same author has teamed with David F. Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan, and Richard C. Reardon to produce Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America.

This book treats 815 moth species from the superfamily Noctuoidea. This is one of the most diverse insect superfamilies, with over 75,000 species recorded worldwide (and probably many more not yet discovered). Of the species treated in the book, 726 species are illustrated while 89 are only described; of the illustrated species, 372 receive full accounts while 354 are given brief treatment that includes their host plants and how to identify them. Many of the full accounts are reproduced Caterpillars of Eastern North America, with updates or corrections where necessary.

Full accounts include photos of pinned and living adult moths in addition to the caterpillar. They may include multiple caterpillar images for species with a high degree of variation. The photographs are superb and reproduced at a high resolution suitable for illustrating significant markings and body structures. Since this volume was originally intended to appear in the Forest Service's FHTET publication series, the accounts include information on the economic significance of each species. The accounts are based on years of research by the four authors and include previously unpublished data about host plants and life cycles. An introduction covers the basics of moth taxonomy and life cycles and includes notes on collecting and rearing caterpillars.

Those with a serious interest in moths, whether on an amateur or professional basis will want a copy of
Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Gardeners and land managers may likewise find the book useful for identifying potential pest species. Readers with a more general interest will probably be satisfied with the coverage in Caterpillars of Eastern North America but may be interested in the additional coverage and photographs.

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This review was based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Review: Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America

A long-awaited update to Charles Covell's Moths of Eastern North America is finally in print this spring. Moths are among the most diverse insect groups – over 11,000 species have been catalogued in North America alone. They also play an important role in ecosystems, as pollinators for many plants and as food for birds, bats, and other animals. Yet their nocturnal habits and poor reputation as pests keeps them from being better appreciated. In fact, very little is known about many moth species – in some cases even basic information like their range or larval hosts. Among more popular groups like birds and butterflies, this sort of information is often collected by amateur observers, who supplement the work of scientists. David Beadle and Seabrooke Leckie hope to encourage a new generation of moth observers with their new guide, the Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America.

The new guide covers nearly 1,500 moths found in the northeast, roughly from Minnesota and Missouri east to Virginia and the maritime provinces. Of these, about two-thirds to three-quarters are macromoths, and the rest are micromoths. These 1,500 moths are the ones most likely to be encountered, especially at a light trap or sugar bait. The increased coverage of micromoths compared to existing guides is especially welcome. At my UV light, I see far more micromoths than macromoths, and it usually takes me a long time to identify them. One moth I was surprised to see omitted is the Indian-meal Moth – the moth most likely to infest a pantry – which has a very distinctive adult form.

The new guide uses the format familiar from other recent Peterson guides: plates on the right page and descriptive text on the facing page. The text includes the Hodges number (and MPG number for noctuoids), size, a succinct description, host plants (if known), and range. The species accounts include a range map for most macromoths but not for micromoths, which I believe is a first among moth guides. Unfortunately sufficient data does not exist to produce a range map for many species. The accounts also include a tricolored bar to indicate approximate flight periods. When I first flipped through the guide, the bar's meaning was not obvious to me, but it is explained in the introduction. The guide is illustrated with photographs that have been digitally edited to remove the moths from their backgrounds. Many of the photos are by the authors, but they also drew on other photographers to supply images. The photographs are of excellent quality, and the color is true to life, as far as I can see. The plates show the moths as they appear in life rather than as mounted specimens, which is a major improvement over Covell's guide for identifying moths in the wild or at light traps.

I sense some possible influence from Kenn Kaufman's excellent series of field guides here, and not only in the use of digitally-edited photographs. One feature of Kaufman's butterfly and insect guides that I really like is the inclusion of a silhouette showing the actual size of one species on each page, with the all the species on the same page scaled relative to that species. This feature helps especially with identifying very small insects such as micromoths. It helps to have a visual sense of how small they are but also have the illustrations large enough to see the detailed markings on the wings.

The new Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America is the best English-language* resource currently in print for the region it covers. If you are interested in identifying moths in northeastern North America, this is the book to use. (Moths of Western North America is available for that region.) Since obtaining a copy, I have already used it to identify several moths. I must say that having a book in my hand makes a huge difference when I am trying to find a familiar-looking but unknown moth. It is much faster (and less strain for my laptop) than browsing through the plates at the Moth Photographers Group (though that website is excellent). It should make identifying moths at my UV light and active participation in projects like National Moth Week much easier.

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This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher. I have corresponded with one of the authors, Seabrooke Leckie, for help with moth identifications on a few occasions.

*  I have not seen a copy of Louis Handfield's French-language Guide des Papillons du Québec (published by Broquet) to do a proper comparison between the two guides.

Review: Wild New Jersey by David Wheeler

New Jersey is the fifth-smallest – and the most densely-populated – state in the United States. A wide ribbon of urbanization stretches across the state from Philadelphia to New York, and another strip of urbanization runs along the state's Atlantic coast. The state has a long history of industrialization stretching back into the 18th century. The early start on the Industrial Revolution and two subsequent centuries of industrialization left toxic sites around much of the state. Now much of the industry is gone, and New Jersey is left with more Superfund sites than any other state (which is less surprising if you consider that New Jersey politicians were instrumental in drafting Superfund and getting it passed).

Despite all this, New Jersey supports a wealth of biodiversity. This may be ascribed to its geology, latitude, and proximity to the coast. The northern part of the state, particularly the mountainous northwest corner, supports plant and wildlife communities similar to those found much further north. Likewise, the southern half of the state has winters just warm enough to support plants and animals found much further south. As a result, many species find the northern limit of their ranges in or near New Jersey, and many others find their southern limit here. Chickadees are an example of this phenomenon: the ranges of northerly Black-capped and southerly Carolina Chickadees meet in the middle of the state, close to the boundary of the coastal plain.

David Wheeler gives readers a taste of this natural diversity in his recent book, Wild New Jersey: Nature Adventures in the Garden State. Each chapter narrates a visit to a refuge or an encounter with New Jersey's natural world, starting with a search for black bears in northwestern New Jersey and continuing with visits to sites such as the Meadowlands, various points along the shore, and up again through the Pine Barrens and central Piedmont region. In some cases, a chapter is focused on a single trip, but in most cases Wheeler includes a few sites centered around the same habitat type or activities such as fossil-hunting and birdwatching. While there are far too many interesting natural places and ecological problems in the state to cover in a single book, Wheeler does well in selecting a representative sample. I was particularly pleased to see sites from the state's urban core included in the book.

The sites are grouped into parts by geographic region, and each part is prefaced by a map showing approximate locations for the sites mentioned in the following chapters. I noticed one error on the map for part 3 (The Jersey Shore), which places Cheesequake State Park in Monmouth County. (It is actually in Middlesex County.) The chapters are illustrated with black and white photos, many of which were taken by David Wheeler while others were supplied by other photographers (often the people that he interviews in the same chapter). Color photos are printed on plates in the center of the book; I especially liked one of a Bald Eagle flying across the path of a rower on the Millstone Aqueduct.

The narrative is informed by interviews with the people who work or volunteer at those locations or who visit them regularly. In many cases, the people Wheeler interviews are responsible for keeping New Jersey's natural areas wild or restoring degraded habitats. Middlesex County's Dismal Swamp, for instance, might not exist as a natural area without the efforts of Robert Spiegel, one of the many environmentalists who appear in the book. In other cases, the interviews add expert commentary on ecology or historical background.

It is great to read about someone else's experience in a park or refuge, but I wish books like this gave a little more information about visiting sites. Theoretically a park or refuge should be good in any season, but in my experience each shines especially in one season over others, and the prime season is not always obvious. For larger refuges (or obscure sites) is there a preferred entry point? Is a site open to the public or only by special permission? I think information like this would be helpful for moving people from reading about New Jersey's natural areas to visiting and enjoying them.

That said, Wild New Jersey provides a window into New Jersey's natural history. It will likely be most interesting to newcomers to the state or people who grew up in the state but have not explored its wild side in depth. Readers who (like me) have spent a lot of time in New Jersey's natural areas will probably find much that is already familiar. I have visited sites from at least half of the book's chapters and have met many of the people interviewed for it. Even so, I found much of interest here, and I imagine other readers would as well.

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This review was based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Mabel Osgood Wright's Birdcraft

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is an initiative to make old science books available to the general public by scanning them and posting them online. The books are generally out of copyright and cover a wide variety of plants and wildlife from many regions. I believe I have linked to their blog a few times in my Loose Feathers series. They also maintain a Flickr account where they often post individual plates from the books to highlight the best images. Unfortunately the images do not come with a lot of descriptive text, so you need to go to the scanned book on BHL's website to find keys for unfamiliar species.

One of the latest books to be posted on their Flickr account is Mabel Osgood Wright's Birdcraft. First published in 1895 (with many subsequent printings), this book is notable as being one of the very first to promote bird watching and identification. Another was Birds through an Opera-Glass by Florence Merriam Bailey, published in 1898. (The significance of those two women in the history of field guides and birdwatching is covered in two books I reviewed, Of a Feather by Scott Weidensaul and Binocular Vision by Spencer Schaffner.) You can find the set of images from Birdcraft here, and the images on this page are linked to posts within that Flickr set.

Most of the birds on these plates are immediately recognizable, and many are posed as if engaging in characteristic behaviors. In the plate above, the nightjars are chasing after moths, and the swallows are building the nests characteristic to each species. However, the names are in a key a few pages away, and descriptive text resides somewhere else in the book. The birds are also somewhat oddly proportioned and often out of scale with their neighbors. Consider how huge the Brown Creeper two plates above looks compared to most of the other birds on the page! Field guides have clearly come a long way in their visual depictions and organization since then, but we can still enjoy and appreciate them.

Review: Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire

The Caribbean tends not to loom as large in a birder's imagination as areas for seeing ABA-area rarities like Texas's Lower Rio Grande Valley or Attu, or sites for watching major bird spectacles like the wintering cranes and geese at Bosque del Apache, or regions with tons of endemics like the mountains and rainforests of northern South America. Still, some bird species are endemic to the Caribbean, and many migratory birds from North America spend their winters there. This makes it an attractive destination for a birding trip, especially since the region can be visited in the company of nonbirding family members or friends. Birders, of course, will want bird identification guides, and to that end, Bart de Boer, Eric Newton, and Robin Restall have created a new guide for the Netherlands Antilles: Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire.

Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire lie close together just north of Venezuela. At this location, their avifauna is influenced by both the other Caribbean islands and northern South America, in slightly different proportions on each island. There are breeding birds present from each of the two regions. Beyond that, the islands frequently host migrants from North America, mainly during fall migration. Like elsewhere in the Caribbean, many species have been introduced from elsewhere and now maintain small colonies on the islands.

The guide has all the elements that one would expect in a field guide designed primarily for ecotourists. The introductory material discusses the history, geography, and biodiversity of the islands, including notes on the best spots to go birding. The plates follow, with most plates depicting 3-5 bird species with painted illustrations. The descriptive text for each species is on a page facing the plate that depicts it. The accounts give the official English and scientific names for each species, as well as the common names in the other languages used on the islands (Papiamento and Dutch). The rest of each species account includes the bird's average size (in centimeters) and thorough descriptions of the bird's distinctive physical characteristics, vocalizations, habitat, and current status. While there are no range maps in this guide, this should not pose a problem as the islands are small. The end pages include a checklist of species that indicates the islands where each species has been recorded as well as each bird's conservation status (as determined by the IUCN). The lack of range maps and the small number of species makes it possible to pack all of that into a very slim book of only 176 pages.

While the organization and information presented are very good, the artwork is not up to the high standard I have come to expect from Princeton field guides. First, the oranges and reds seem a bit too intense. This is very noticeable among the waterfowl, but it shows up elsewhere in the guide as well. The male Mallard's breast seems almost orange instead of the chestnut brown that one normally sees in the field. The male Northern Shoveler's flanks also look too bright. Beyond that, the proportions do not look right for many birds I know from North America. This is a bigger problem than the color intensity since size, shape, and structure are such important elements of sorting birds into families and even identifying one species from another. I first noticed the problem among the waterfowl, but as I looked through the rest of the book, I noticed more and more examples of badly shaped birds. It was particularly disappointing to see the illustrations of the wood warblers, which do not look true to life, in my opinion.

Still, a birder visiting these islands will want a copy of Birds of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire. It provides useful information on birding the islands and good enough plates to identify the birds found there. However, I would advise using the plates with care.

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This review is based on a free review copy provided by Princeton University Press.

Review: Birds of India

Northern South America is known among North American birders as a hotspot of avian diversity, and for good reason. Four of the world's birdiest countries – Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador – are located there, each of which harbors numerous endemics of its own. However, South America is not the world's only major avifauna hotspot. Another such hotspot is the Indian subcontinent. The most densely-populated country in the world – soon likely to be the most populous – is also one of the most biodiverse. India and the six other countries of the subcontinent have a range of habitats from desert to tropical rainforests to the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. Within those habitats, 1,313 bird species have been documented, and more species keep being discovered there.

To help birders learn and identify the birds of the subcontinent, Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp present a newly revised Birds of India: Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, published by Christopher Helm Publishers in the U.K. and Princeton University Press in the U.S. This book is a major revision of an earlier field guide, Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, published in 1999. The guide is compact enough to be carried in a bag, comparable in size and weight to Birds of Europe and the most recent edition of the National Geographic guide.

I have not seen previous versions of this guide, so I cannot evaluate the changes myself. According to the introduction, the major changes were the addition of over 100 species documented since the last edition and substantial reformatting of the plates. The latter included both reducing the number of species per plate and putting the species accounts on the page facing the plate where a species is depicted. This is the way a field guide should be organized, as opposed to the older style of putting plates in one section and text in another (and perhaps range maps in a third). The birds depicted include an additional 62 identifiable populations that could be split from existing species, which brings the total number of illustrated forms up to 1,375.

The illustrations were of the high quality that I have come to expect from a Helm/Princeton field guide. As I paged through the many plates, I am struck by the degree of diversity. I am also struck by the species we in North America share in common with the subcontinent – not just the expected urban species like Mallard or Rock Pigeon but also more specialized birds like Black-crowned Night-Heron or Buff-bellied (i.e., American) Pipit. In the species that I do recognize, the illustrations look true to life, so I trust that the same is true of the many more species that I am not familiar with. Unfortunately not all distinct plumages are shown for each species; for many species only one plumage is shown. Apparently this was a concession to save space.

I would recommend Birds of India: Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives for any birders who live in or will be traveling to visit India or one of its neighbors. It may also prove useful for anyone who is interested in learning more about the region's birds.

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This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Review: Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-Petrels of North America

The bird blogosphere has been buzzing with the release of another new field guide. One blog has already proclaimed it a strong contender for the best bird book of the year; other blogs have also been strong in their praise for the guide. This is a guide to the tubenose order, Procellariformes. This order includes storm-petrels, albatrosses, fulmars, petrels, shearwaters, and diving-petrels (the latter not covered as they occur outside the book's geographic range). Tubenoses as a group are named for the horny tubes that encase their nostrils. Since tubenoses live at sea for most of the year, they must drink saltwater to survive, and they excrete the excess salt through their nostrils.

The new field guide, Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide, by Steve N. G. Howell, is a hefty tome. In fact, it is far larger and heavier than I expected and competes with The Crossley ID Guide as the heaviest field guide in my collection. It is so large and heavy that it is an unlikely candidate for field use. Instead, this is clearly a book best used as study guide at home in preparation for pelagic trips and a reference for identifying seabirds from notes or photographs following sightings.

While the hefty size will discourage field use, it accommodates a wealth of information. The heart of the book are the species accounts. These are grouped by family (petrels, albatrosses, and storm-petrels) and further divided into groups of similar species. (For example, petrels are grouped into shearwaters, gadfly petrels, and other petrels, each of which are subdivided further.) Each of the groups and subgroups is prefaced with an introduction laying out which features are most useful for identification and warning about identification pitfalls. The species accounts themselves are lengthy, with an emphasis on distribution and separating the species from similar species. Each account is accompanied by a range map showing the breeding and nonbreeding ranges (with arrows showing movements and numbers for what months they appear) and photographic plates. The plates are a major strength of the guide, with numerous, beautiful photographs for each species, showing a full range of variation. It must have taken a substantial effort to gather so much visual documentation.

When examining a new field guide, it is tempting to skip the introduction and turn straight to the plates. With this new tubenose guide, it is definitely worth reading the introduction unless you are already an expert at seabird identification. The introduction includes notes on the taxonomy and life histories of tubenoses, as one would expect. The book does not strictly follow the AOU Checklist, which Howell describes as "particularly anachronistic," but instead tries to present current taxonomy as represented in scientific papers. Since tubenose classification is currently in flux, the number of ordering of species in the future seems likely to differ from both the current AOU Checklist and Howell's presentation. Howell notes which taxa are the most uncertain. Advice on tubenose identification, and how it is affected by conditions at sea and molt patterns, follows the discussion of taxonomy.

The introduction also includes a primer on ocean habitats and how those affect the life histories and distribution of seabirds. This may not be obvious to the landbound birder – it was not obvious to me, anyway – but the seemingly uniform surface of the ocean conceals a variety of habitat types underneath. These habitats are affected by currents, temperature gradients, and other factors, and some are far more abundant in food sources than others. Where the best food sources are can shift from day to day, and along with them, where the most seabird diversity can be found.

Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide, by Steve N. G. Howell is a must-have for birders with a strong interest in pelagic birding and desirable for birders living near the coast, as some tubenose species may be seen from land on occasion. Land-locked birders will probably find the guide less useful, but it will still be of interest for learning about the birds that make their living on the ocean.

Review: A Field Guide to the Southeast Coast & Gulf of Mexico

As birders we encounter a lot more than birds during the course of our birdwatching. These organisms are often interesting and beautiful in their own right, but knowledge about their life histories and how to identify them can be spread across many identification guides, some quite technical. A solution is now available for the southeastern coastline of the United States in the form of Noble S. Proctor and Patrick J. Lynch's A Field Guide to the Southeast Coast & Gulf of Mexico. This new book follows in the footsteps of the pair's A Field Guide to North Atlantic Wildlife from 2005. Unlike the habitat guides in the Peterson series, which focus on identifying ecosystem types from indicator species, Proctor and Lynch's guide will help identify prominent species within coastal ecosystems.

"Southeast coast" for this book is defined as the U.S. coastline from North Carolina to Texas-Mexico border. This includes beaches, brackish bays and salt marshes, and the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to the edge of the continental shelf. Ecosystems there are influenced by offshore currents, principally the Gulf Loop Current and Gulf Stream. It is also shaped by the many streams and rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Gulf. These build up barrier islands with sediments and nourish salt marshes with nutrients, which allow such diverse ecosystems to flourish. These estuaries are important conduits for annual migrations – for birds that stop to feed along the way and for saltwater fish that must swim upstream to spawn. Humans are also altering these ecosystems through climate change, pollution, overfishing, and building artificial reefs offshore.

Birds are are the most conspicuous creatures in coastal habitats, and they get extensive treatment in A Field Guide to the Southeast Coast & Gulf of Mexico. Coverage of birds is limited to raptors and waterbirds, and even within those boundaries, it is incomplete. Rails, for instance, are not included. The bird illustrations are generally useful and accurate. I was surprised, though, not to see a depiction of the pale southeastern form of the Red-shouldered Hawk. The depiction of an immature Black-crowned Night-Heron looks misshapen. Fish and sharks also receive extensive coverage, with an emphasis on commercially-important fish. Plants and marine invertebrates get compressed treatment. If you have an interest in botany or collect and identify seashells, you may want more specialized guides for those subjects. (I do not know which to recommend.) Other groups treated in the guide include aquatic reptiles (mainly sea turtles and crocodilians) and marine mammals. As part of their emphasis on conservation issues, the authors highlight the names of endangered and threatened species (according to the IUCN Red List) in red. It is particularly striking to see just how many species are threatened. In some cases whole pages of sharks, fish, or marine mammals are red.

Proctor and Lynch's A Field Guide to the Southeast Coast & Gulf of Mexico covers the most notable organisms of the southeastern coast and offshore areas of the U.S. It would serve as a useful field guide for casual visitors to southeastern beaches, anglers and scuba divers, or for birders looking for help identifying non-avian wildlife. However, it is not sufficient as a stand-alone bird guide, even for waterbirds. For complete coverage of birds, I would suggest turning to the recently-published 6th edition of the National Geographic guide or David Sibley's guide for eastern birds.

Review: Wicked Bugs by Amy Stewart

Most insects we encounter are benign, even beneficial, performing pollination services or breaking down waste and debris. Even spiders and centipedes, the arthropods most likely to creep me out, are unlikely to pose a threat to humans and help control various household pests like flies, silverfish, and roaches. However, there are a proportionately small number of arthropods that can be annoying, destructive, or worse in their interactions of humans. Many of these are treated in Amy Stewart's latest book, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects.

The "bugs" of Wicked Bugs are not strictly true bugs, insects in the order Hemiptera. Stewart uses the term in its popular sense to refer to small creatures with jointed legs, and even to some that are not strictly arthropods. These include insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, ticks, worms, and more.

Each "wicked bug" is treated separately, with its own short account of incidents in which the species figured prominently. Stewart follows up with the bug's life history and what, if anything, can be done to prevent or cure outbreaks. Interspersed among the individual accounts are short chapters treating groups of insects together, such as garden pests, stinging ants, or destroyers of books. (The latter account contains a quote attributed to Desiderius Erasmus: "books, to be saved from the worms, must be used.") The accounts are labelled with scary-sounding terms like "painful," "destructive," "horrible," or "deadly." Where possible, Stewart includes major contemporary issues like Formosan subterranean termites undermining the integrity of floodwalls (and other structures) in New Orleans or swarms of sand flies attacking U.S. soldiers stationed in the Middle East.

The book has some bias for pests that affect North America and Europe. Many of the most serious insect pests in these two regions were imported, usually accidentally. However, the book covers dangerous insects from all over the world. Some of the most fearsome insects come from tropical regions. Some were already familiar to me, either from first-hand experience or from reading about them, but many were not.

I would recommend Wicked Bugs to anyone with an interest in insects or who wants to learn more about preventing insect pests. Despite its cringe-worthy subject matter, the text is engaging and informative and may appeal even to people who do not like insects all that much. When it comes to problem insects, knowing what they are and how to deal with them is half the battle.

Here is an interview with the author:



The High Bar w/Warren Etheredge & Amy Stewart from The High Bar on Vimeo.

Review: National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition

The National Geographic Society has refreshed its venerable Field Guide to the Birds of North America with a new revised edition. This sixth edition comes with substantial updates and enters a field guide market crowded with some great field guides and many more good ones. In this review, I will focus on what is new in the sixth edition and how it compares to another guide with painted illustrations that covers the same area, The Sibley Guide to Birds.

What is new in the sixth edition? There are 23 new species, which brings the total species covered up to 990. Over 300 painted illustrations (about one tenth of the total) have been added or revised. Range maps are updated to include new data and display migration ranges in addition to the breeding and wintering ranges. There is also an appendix of maps showing the ranges of subspecies for birds that have multiple forms. (My understanding is that both the migration ranges and subspecies maps are new for the sixth edition, but I do not have a copy of the fifth edition to check on this.) Taxonomy is also updated to reflect changes in the AOU Checklist through summer 2011. In the case of wood warblers, the scientific names are updated, but the ordering of species is not.* (I imagine it was easier to alter the text of the species accounts at the last minute than it would have been to reorder the illustration plates.) The plates were redesigned to make the illustrations less crowded, though to my eye, some plates still look rather crowded (especially among gulls and terns).

Harlequin Ducks from Field Guide to the Birds of North America

In comparison to The Sibley Guide, birds are posed more naturally, in the ways in which you might see them in the wild. Birds in the National Geographic guide look more lifelike, for the most part, and their colors seem more true to nature. Many birds are presented in a 3/4 view that shows the breast or back more clearly than in The Sibley Guide. Its smaller size makes it more portable than Sibley's guide for North America (though it is slightly larger than Sibley's regional guides). Despite its smaller size, the National Geographic guide manages to include more descriptive text per species.

The Sibley Guide retains some advantages of its own. Birds are posed more consistently so that you see each species from the same angles as related species, with which they are most likely to be confused. Sibley painted flight illustrations for every bird in the guide; this can make a difference for some situations. In some cases (like Redhead vs. Canvasback), Sibley does a better job of showing differences in shape. I also much prefer Sibley's illustrations of sparrows to those in the National Geographic guide.

Pink-footed Goose from Field Guide to the Birds of North America

The look and feel of this guide is very similar to Svensson et al.'s Birds of Europe, though it lacks some of the instructive text that makes that guide stand apart. I know some birders who still swore by older versions of the National Geographic guide long after the Sibley guide came out. After spending some time with this guide, I can see why. This is a fine resource to use as a primary field guide, particularly if you want one that covers all of North America. I could also see it being useful on cross-country trips, especially to areas where both eastern and western birds are both routine. Birders will probably want to have both National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America and The Sibley Guide to Birds on their bookshelves.

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This review is based on a copy provided to me by the publisher. The field guide is supplemented by an online birding site.

* That said, the Cerulean Warbler is referred to as Setophaga cerulea in the species account and Dendroica cerulea in the introduction. 

Review: Arctic Autumn by Pete Dunne

Pete Dunne's current writing project is a four-part series of books based on seasons in North America. The first was Prairie Spring, a book I have not read. The second, Bayshore Summer, a book I reviewed last fall, was set in Cumberland County, New Jersey, where Dunne currently lives. In the third volume, published this fall, Dunne turns his attention northward in Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season's Edge.

The "autumn" of the book's title is not autumn as readers in a temperate climate might conceive it. At northerly latitudes, the warm season is short and summer is fleeting. By the end of June, when summer in the temperate zone is just getting started, Arctic-breeding shorebirds are already starting to migrate south. Thus Dunne begins his narrative at the summer solstice in June and continues through to November, when polar bears near Churchill, Manitoba, begin moving from their dens on land out onto sea ice, where they will spend the winter hunting. The Arctic is so vast that it is impossible to cover all of it in one book. Instead, the chapters are vignettes, each taking place at a different site in a different part of summer.

While the book is nonfiction, it is told as a first-person narrative, almost like a travel diary. Pete Dunne and his wife, Linda, travel to different parts of the Arctic to experience the season for themselves. Some locations are visited with tour groups, like Bylot Island in Nunavut. Others are explored with smaller groups, like a caribou hunting trip Dunne took with a guide and one other person. The material in each chapter is based on their interactions with the natural world of the Arctic and with the people there. Chapters include dialogue with residents of the Arctic or people who lead tours there. Dunne interweaves his own experience of the places he visits with their natural history.

The impact of humans on the Arctic is never far from Dunne's narrative. Ecotourism has an impact, of course, since animals alter their behavior when they know they are being watched, plus there is the pollution created by flying hundreds or thousands of miles to visit the Arctic. (Its effects are not all bad, though, as ecotourism contributes to local economies and may provide an economic incentive for conservation.) Native residents also have an impact, though theirs is small.

Dunne is more concerned with the large-scale changes wrought by modern technology and energy use. Climate change is gradually reducing the area covered by sea ice and making survival more difficult for polar bears and other animals that depend on sea ice for part or all of their life cycle. It will surely affect other wildlife as well by changing when food becomes available or reducing permafrost. A second major impact is oil exploration. In the U.S., whether to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling has been a contentious political issue for the past decade. In places where drilling is allowed, like in the areas of the National Petroleum Reserve adjacent to Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, habitat is cleared to make way for infrastructure, and the site is often fouled by toxic chemicals. Beyond those obvious effects, there is a more subtle one. The pipelines, buildings, radar towers, and vehicles become inviting perches or nest sites for predatory birds, and the waste produced by human habitation attracts opportunistic scavengers. These scavengers would just as soon eat eggs and nestlings as other foods. The presence of these and other predators associated with human infrastructure puts additional pressure on the waterbirds and songbirds that breed in the Arctic. A third impact that Dunne discusses is hunting, both the small-scale sustainable hunting that Dunne and others practice and the large-scale market hunting that decimated the polar bear population in the 20th century prior to the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1973.

Arctic Autumn showcases Pete Dunne's writing at its best. The narrative is engaging, occasionally humorous, and informative. At several points, I found myself wanting to visit the places Dunne describes, especially during the chapter about a canoe trip he and his wife took with two other naturalists down the John River in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The book is illustrated with Linda Dunne's photography – black and white photographs for the chapter headings and several plates of color photographs in the middle of the book. Readers interested in the Arctic and fans of Pete Dunne's writing should enjoy this book.

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This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher.