In this Book
- Flight Calls: Exploring Massachusetts through Birds
- Book
- 2019
- Published by: University of Massachusetts Press
The paths of different birds look like double helixes, flowing strands of hair, and migrating serpents, and they beckon with calls that have definite meanings. These mysterious creatures inspire growing numbers of birders in their passionate pursuit of new species, and writer John R. Nelson is no exception. In Flight Calls, he takes readers on explorations to watch, hear, and know Massachusetts's hummingbirds, hawks, and herons along the coasts and in the woodlands, meadows, and marshes of Cape Ann, Cape Cod, the Great Marsh, Mount Auburn Cemetery, the Quabbin wilderness, Mount Wachusett, and elsewhere.
With style, humor, and a sense of wonder, Nelson blends his field adventures with a history of the birding community; natural and cultural history; bird stories from authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, and Mary Oliver; current scientific research; and observations about the fascinating habits of birds and their admirers. These essays are capped off with a plea for bird conservation, in Massachusetts and beyond.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xiv
- 1. Flight Calls: An Introduction
- pp. 1-13
- 2. Birding a Patch
- pp. 14-30
- 3. Whip-poor-will Synchronicity
- pp. 31-33
- 4. Birds of the Promised Land
- pp. 34-49
- 6. Birding on Two Wheels
- pp. 70-79
- 7. On a Street with No Name: A Rant
- pp. 80-85
- 8. The Birding John Nelsons
- pp. 86-92
- 9. Twitcher’s Temptation
- pp. 93-100
- 10. Rarity Envy
- pp. 101-112
- 13. Mr. Forbush and Mr. White
- pp. 156-164
- 15. Sauntering through a Graveyard Garden
- pp. 184-198
- 16. Death and the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
- pp. 199-207
- 18. Ravens’ Home: West from My Patch
- pp. 227-244
- 19. Convalescence
- pp. 245-249
- 21. Geezer Birding
- pp. 254-259
- 22. Our Birds
- pp. 260-275
- 23. Territories
- pp. 276-292
- 24. The Birds after Us
- pp. 293-308
- References
- pp. 309-314
- Recommended Reading List
- pp. 315-318
- About the Author
- pp. 328-329