This book profiles fourteen of New England's most rare and endangered flora and fauna - mammals, birds, insects, plants, and fish - by following the biologists who are researching, monitoring, and protecting them. Each chapter includes a first-person account of the author's experience with these experts, as well as details about the species' life history, threats, and conservation strategies. McLeish traps bats in Vermont and lynx in Maine, gets attacked by marauding birds in Massachusetts, and observes the metamorphosis of dragonflies in Rhode Island. He visits historical cemeteries to see New England's rarest plant, tracks sturgeon in the Connecticut River, and observes a parade of what may be the rarest mammal on earth, the North Atlantic right whale, in Cape Cod Bay. The book's title comes from the name of one of the birds in the book, the golden-winged warbler, and the unusual characteristic used to distinguish the rare Indiana bat from its common cousins, its hairy toes. McLeish, a longtime wildlife advocate and essayist, has a gift for communicating scientific information in an interesting and accessible way. His goal in this book - to make an emotional connection to a variety of fascinating animals and plants - is successfully conveyed to the reader, who comes away amazed by the complexity of individual species and the ecosystems necessary for their survival. Sometimes there are surprises: how lynx benefit from the clear cutting of forests or how utility companies - often blamed for environmental degradation - have accidentally succeeded in creating excellent habitat for golden-winged warblers along their power line corridors. Such examples support McLeish's assertion that we can meet the immense challenges to species preservation, such as global warming, acid rain, and mercury poisoning, as well as the difficulty of adding new species to the 1973 Endangered Species Act. As McLeish's book shows, each rare species has an important story to tell about the causes of its population decline, the obstacles each face in rebuilding a sustainable population, and the people who go to extraordinary lengths to give these species a chance to thrive.
In addition , nails made in nearby Wareham and wood cut from the Rochester area were hauled south on ships through the bay . In 1819 , the first lighthouse in the bay was built on Bird Island ...
... Golden Wings & Hairy Toes: Encounters with New England's Most Imperiled Wildlife and has published over 100 articles on wildlife topics for such publications as Bird Watcher's Digest, WildBird, Natural New England, Northern Woodlands ...
A wingless bird is granted his wish for a pair of golden wings.
Lavers drew this conclusion, in part, from these facts: the single horn of the rhino was often made into drinking vessels and was presumed to have properties to neutralize poisons; in profile, the Tibetan antelope or chiru appears to ...
A poor little girl is rewarded with lovely gifts when she feeds a hungry bird all the rice she has. What happens when the girl’s greedy, nosy neighbour hears the story and tries to get better gifts for herself?
When the first whales came into view just off the town of Moss Landing, several dozen sea otters were resting and feeding there, too. They were perched at the edge of the nutrient-rich Monterey Canyon, an underwater canyon that extends ...
All Tico the wingless bird wants is a pair of golden wings to take him up over the mountaintops.
Only typical Westerners don't protect their delicate complexions from dust with cold cream, laughed Peggy, holding up a finger reprovingly.
The Birds of the Malay Peninsula: The commoner birds
To earn her wings, she has to survive. Has she got what it takes?-Golden Wings is a retelling of Thumbelina and is part of the Untold Tales series of fairy tale retellings.