North American Wading Birds

Text and Photos by John Netherton

This lovely book is, unfortunately, out of print, but serviceable copies are available from reputable used book dealers. The outstanding feature  is, of course, the photographs by Nashville photographer John Netherton who, during his lifetime, became Tennessee’s premier nature photographer. He also wrote the text which includes a life history of each selected species. Each of the accounts includes a description of physical appearance and life history, including feeding, roosting, and nesting behavior.

A biologist would certainly regard the selection of described species as an artificial grouping. Netherton devoted the largest portion of the book to herons and egrets, and left out their close relatives, the bitterns. He then added descriptions and photographs of the Limpkin, Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, three species of ibis, and the Sandhill and Whooping Crane. The result is an account made whole by the similarities of habitat and life ways. The text is brief, but well worth the time spent reading, and makes a nice compliment to the stunning photography.    

Ghost Bird

Stephen Lyn Bales

This unique book goes back to a time when the fabled Ivory Billed Woodpecker was still seen, though not on a regular basis. The species has since become a symbol of lost wilderness in America, and a symbol of hopes and dreams. One small Arkansas town placed hopes on a tourist boom after a recent alleged sighting. Some birders dream of finding a lost remnant population of this bird, generally believed extinct. In his introduction to the book, Stephen Lyn Bales stated that as he learned more about Jim Tanner and his research efforts to document the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, he became convinced that someone should write a book about Tanner.

He states that he did not want to write the book. He had one book already, and said that writing a book is like putting socks on an octopus, that one does not wish to undertake the task again. Despite those reservations, it became clear to him that he should be the one to write this book. He lived near Tanner’s widow, Nancy, and knew her from participation in a bird club. Through Nancy, he had access to Tanner’s journals and photographs, some of which he published in the magazine, Tennessee Conservationist. This reviewer is glad he undertook the project, and gave us his second book. He obviously put hours of research into the project and cared enough to produce a quality project.

When Jim Tanner set off on his first expedition, he didn’t know he would observe a species which became his doctoral research project, and become famous for its absence. He began the journey with Arthur Allen, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, when they set out to film birds and record their songs. They had none of the equipment we take for granted today, hand held and compact. Their sound laboratory alone weighed around 1,500 pounds. Their field equipment was heavy, bulky and cranky.

In the end, the researchers filmed and recorded the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, already disappearing from our continent. Turner then spent three years searching for these ghost birds. He completed the research and became a professor at a school which would later become East Tennessee State University. After service with the Navy during World War II, he taught at the University of Tennessee. He died believing the Ivory Billed Woodpecker had become extinct in his lifetime, and verifiable results of recent searches tend to support that conclusion. 

Mr. Bales tells the story in a way that prompts the reader to want to learn more. The one disadvantage of this book is that it has not been released as an ebook.

An article which could serve as a footnote to the book appeared in Tennessee Conservationist magazine earlier this year. Prior to the death of Tanner's wife Nancy in 2014, she was the last living person to have seen the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

The Forest Unseen

David George Haskell begins the book with a description of Tibetan Monks making a sand painting, a Mandala, to which he compares his own exploration of a one square meter patch of an old growth forest on property owned by the University of the South. 

His description of the small bit of land as a Mandala is more than an interesting metaphor. 

Like the sand painting of the monks, his patch of old growth forest was a place of observation and contemplation, from which his thoughts, and consequently his writings, took wing into historic and contemporary research on the flight of birds, the rate of tree growth, the lives of plants and animals, the shifting weather patterns and the hexagonal ring structure of frozen water. These vignettes reveal both depth and breadth of knowledge. 

Haskell's acknowledgements reveal extensive research at the school’s library and conversations with academic colleagues, both of which enhanced his writing.

His use of a square meter of forest as the launching point for these discussions makes sense as a concept that I can only express as microcosm. Commonly understood as a small portion which represents the whole, it is in fact a small portion which reveals the nature of the whole. It is derived from the same word as cosmos. The book is an excellent read for birdwatchers and anyone else who spends time observing nature.

Ray Zimmerman

P.O. Box 2204

Chattanooga, TN 37409

znaturalist@gmail.com

Ray Zimmerman’s creative endeavors include photography, storytelling, nonfiction writing, and poetry.

Editing

Ray currently edits the Chattanooga Chat, newsletter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Chattanooga Chapter. Copies available at http://www.chattanoogatos.org

Book Reviews and Critical Reviews

Ray’s book reviews appear at Amazon.com. Book reviews and some critical reviews of performances appear on his Facebook page. He currently has a backlog in this department. Please do not send copies of your book. View his reviews at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A14X3ING7BLY83/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pdp

Photography

Ray is currently converting his extensive collection of 35 mm slides and negatives to digital format. He has photographed natural areas at Chattanooga, Assateague Island National Seashore, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Everglades National Park. His images have appeared in Tennessee Conservationist magazine and the Photographic Society of America Journal.

Poems have appeared in:

Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets - Ford, Falcon, and McNeil (Executive Editor). This collection is currently available from the editors, Ray Zimmerman and Bruce Majors. It is no longer available as a hard copy from Amazon.com, but may be released as an ebook at a future date.

First Days - Finishing Line Press

Ray wrote these poems while recovering from Coronary Bypass Surgery. The collection begins dark and ends on a hopeful note. It is available from Finishing Line Press online bookstore, from Amazon.com, and from the author.

Ray’s poem “Glen Falls Trail” won second place in the Tennessee Writers Alliance poetry contest (2007) and appears in the forthcoming Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VI: Tennessee.

Nonfiction has appeared in Cappers (Topeka), Legacy: the Journal of Interpretation (Fort Collins), Photo Traveler Newsletter (San Francisco), The Hellbender Press (Knoxville), Envirolink (Chattanooga), The Art of Living (Chattanooga), and 2^nd and Church (Nashville). Samples are available on his website http://rayzimmerman.weebly.com and on his blog at http://rayzimmerman.blogspot.com. 

The Birds of Heaven

Peter Matthiessen, 2001

This book is another triumph for Peter Matthiessen, a founder of the Paris Review and author of numerous books of natural history. Matthiessen describes the life history, geographic distribution, and survival potential of each of the fifteen species (classed in three genera), several of which are endangered.

Many of us have heard less knowledgeable people identify Great Blue Herons as cranes, but Matthiessen points out that this misidentification, so common in modern day America is nothing new. Linnaeus …named the Eurasian, or common crane, “Ardea grus,” or Crane Heron, and in the nineteenth century, Audubon would portray a Heron as the “little blue crane”.

Reading this book we also learn that Siberian natives call the lesser Sandhill Crane the crane from the east, although we in North America regard it as a western species. We also hear of the “Accidental Paradise,” Matthiessen’s term for the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which has become a refuge for the Red-crowned Crane, Hooded Crane, and the White-naped Crane.

In his travels Matthiessen (born 1927) has encountered each of the many species of cranes. I place this book in a class with The Snow Leopard, for which he won the National Book Award. Matthiesen died in New York earlier this year