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The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country
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(2 Votes)Bird lovers, take heart! While the birding literature is filled with tales of expert observers spotting rare species in exotic locales, John Yow's The Armchair Birder is here to remind us that the most fascinating birds can be the ones perched right outside our windows. In thirty-five engaging, humorous, and even irreverent essays, Yow reveals the fascinating lives of birds you probably already recognize and naturally want to know more about, because they're the ones you see nearly every day.
Following the seasons of the year, Yow covers forty-two species, from the Carolina wren that rings in the springtime to the sandhill crane croaking high overhead at the end of winter. Leisurely and entertaining, the essays explore the improbable, unusual, and comical aspects of their subjects' lives—from the philandering of the ruby-throated hummingbird to the occasional dipsomania of the cedar waxwing.
Rather than bare facts and field marks, The Armchair Birder offers observations, anecdotes, and stories—not only Yow's own, but also those of America's classic bird writers, such as John James Audubon, Arthur Bent, and Edward Forbush, experts who saw it all and wrote with wit and passion. With The Armchair Birder, backyard birders will take new delight in the birds at their feeders, while veteran check-listers will enjoy putting their feet up. All will applaud this unique addition to bird literature, one that combines the fascination of bird life with the pleasure of good reading.
16/03/2011
This is not really a picture book, but still could serve as a small coffee table book. There are about 145 colour pictures of the marshes, inlets, the sounds and the sea coast of Carolina. There is really more text than picture.
Bland Simpson tells of trips to Kitty Hawk and Nags Head, Beaufort, fishing and boats. It covers the time from a 1956 trip to Kitty Hawk through 2004 and a visit to Currituck. In between trips to the coast, there are ones on the Pamlico, and crossing sounds on a ferry.
The pictures are identified, so that they and the text capture both the people, the boats, the work and the land, sea and all the waters, and ships, sunrises and sunsets.
It is a complete journey to the different water areas of the Carolinas; a further exploration than just the one to the Outer Banks that most people know.
06/01/2011
Having grown up on the coast-- then spent the majority of my days inland-- I yearn for well-written, beautifully-illustrated accounts of others' experiences in "The Coasts of Carolinas." This wonderfully appealing book more than fills that need. It is well worth the cost for either the text or the photos alone, but together, it really makes quite a magical book. I think anyone who has spent more than a day or two there would agree; I recommend this book without reservation.
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