Taking More Birds

The complex art of wing shooting and an analysis of the skills needed for accuracy.

• A solid guide for becoming a better shot • Wing shooting, sporting clays, skeet shooting • Expert teacher and coach shares years of experience Successful Shotgunning focuses on wing-shooting and sporting clays techniques. Gain a better understanding of the shooting process as a whole as you sharpen your skills and become a better shot. How to evaluate moving targets in wing-shooting situations in the field, in a competitive environment, on a sporting clays course, or on a skeet field. Choose the correct gun and gun fit for you; learn to diagnose some common eye problems and correct your aim; tame recoil; and deal with the challenges of various sporting clays targets. Quote from the book: "Successful shotgunning isn't an inherent trait, it is a skill and it must be learned like any other skill. It requires systematic study and the ability to accurately calculate the variables of moving targets. My coaching methods involve an intuitive technique that is based on pure logic and a systematic breakdown of all the variables involved. This is how the experts shoot. Over a period of time they build up a personal mental repertoire of sight pictures, which they can then successfully apply to each target, regardless of whether it is a quail, dove, duck or clay target. They then have the ability to see a subtle but consequential target/barrel relationship on every shot and adjust to each different shooting situation."

In 1861, just a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, a scientist named Hermann von Meyer made an amazing discovery. Hidden in the Bavarian region of Germany was a fossil skeleton so exquisitely preserved that its wings and feathers were as obvious as its reptilian jaws and tail. This transitional creature offered tangible proof of Darwin's theory of evolution. Hailed as the First Bird, Archaeopteryx has remained the subject of heated debates for the last 140 years. Are birds actually living dinosaurs? Where does the fossil record really lead? Did flight originate from the "ground up" or "trees down"? Pat Shipman traces the age-old human desire to soar above the earth and to understand what has come before us. Taking Wing is science as adventure story, told with all the drama by which scientific understanding unfolds.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come. Anne Lamott is "a warm, generous, and hilarious guide through the writer’s world and its treacherous swamps" (Los Angeles Times). “Superb writing advice…. Hilarious, helpful, and provocative.” —The New York Times Book Review For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title: “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

In this dazzling photo essay, Laman and Scholes present gorgeous full-color photographs of all 39 species of the Birds of Paradise that highlight their unique and extraordinary plumage and mating behavior.

“Utterly captivating and beautifully written, this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind.”—Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Bird Way “A fascinating, entertaining, and totally engrossing story.”—David Sibley, author of What It's Like to Be a Bird An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history. “As curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent as its subject.”—Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were "tame and inquisitive . . . quarrelsome and passionate," and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside and never returned to it. Almost two hundred years later, Jonathan Meiburg takes up this chase. He takes us through South America, from the fog-bound coasts of Tierra del Fuego to the tropical forests of Guyana, in search of these birds: striated caracaras, which still exist, though they're very rare. He reveals the wild, fascinating story of their history, origins, and possible futures. And along the way, he draws us into the life and work of William Henry Hudson, the Victorian writer and naturalist who championed caracaras as an unsung wonder of the natural world, and to falconry parks in the English countryside, where captive caracaras perform incredible feats of memory and problem-solving. A Most Remarkable Creature is a hybrid of science writing, travelogue, and biography, as generous and accessible as it is sophisticated, and absolutely riveting.

Let your creativity soar with 15 projects using interlocking bricks to make birds from around the world. Interlocking bricks, such as LEGO(R), have fueled the imaginations of aspiring designers and builders for generations. In Birds from Bricks, horticulturist and LEGO enthusiast Thomas Poulsom guides you through re-creating nature's feathered-friends in stunning detail. Assemble your very own cardinal, macaw, penguin, and more! With detailed step-by-step instructions and full color photos of completed models, Birds from Bricks will let your creativity soar. Learn how to build 15 projects, featuring birds from around the world: North and South America, the Mid-Atlantic, Eurasia, Africa, the North Pacific, and Australia/New Zealand. Each set of instructions includes entertaining and educational information about the bird's characteristics and habitat. Poulsom's creative and charming designs surprise and delight lovers of birds, nature, and—of course—LEGO.

The bird book for birders and nonbirders alike that will excite and inspire by providing a new and deeper understanding of what common, mostly backyard, birds are doing—and why: "Can birds smell?"; "Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?"; "Do robins 'hear' worms?" "The book's beauty mirrors the beauty of birds it describes so marvelously." —NPR In What It's Like to Be a Bird, David Sibley answers the most frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. This special, large-format volume is geared as much to nonbirders as it is to the out-and-out obsessed, covering more than two hundred species and including more than 330 new illustrations by the author. While its focus is on familiar backyard birds—blue jays, nuthatches, chickadees—it also examines certain species that can be fairly easily observed, such as the seashore-dwelling Atlantic puffin. David Sibley's exacting artwork and wide-ranging expertise bring observed behaviors vividly to life. (For most species, the primary illustration is reproduced life-sized.) And while the text is aimed at adults—including fascinating new scientific research on the myriad ways birds have adapted to environmental changes—it is nontechnical, making it the perfect occasion for parents and grandparents to share their love of birds with young children, who will delight in the big, full-color illustrations of birds in action. Unlike any other book he has written, What It's Like to Be a Bird is poised to bring a whole new audience to David Sibley's world of birds.