Customer Reviews

Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with CD (Audio)

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This gorgeous book on the birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge combines writing by a variety of authors, from birding luminary David Sibley to local Native American residents, with many outstanding photographs. Overall, it provides a considerable amount of information on the bird species appearing in the ANWR and the effects that oil drilling might have on them. While some segments are more gracefully written than others, all are interesting.

Along with the book is a CD of birdsongs and ambient sounds of the region.

This beautifully illustrated book is written by a collection of authors who have a love affair going with the birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Their writing, each on a different subject is filled with amazement, wonder and love for the area and its birdlife.

On the other side is a whole series of comments about protecting this environment and the thrust for development being urged by the oil companies and the Bush administration. Unfortunately, in the long run, I think that the environmentalists will lose. The 'God given rights' of the people to have inexpensive gasoline for their SUV's leads to power by the voting booth.

The book itself is of large format, printed on a very heavy paper with a printing quality that rivals photographs themselves. It is a beautiful book. There is also a CD included with the book that has recordings of 67 bird boices. This can be played as a single 60 minute recording, or you can select individual tracks of bird species.

Absolutely beautifully done with brilliant colors and well-composed pictures this is a great joy to just look through for all bird lovers or fans of the Arctic Refuge area. But it does not stop there. The writers share their experiences in an excellent educational yet highly readable treatise on their particular subject. Together they introduce the fascinating world of Arctic birds to the reader in a way that is both informative and fun. So, how to you finish off such an excellent book? They added a CD in the back with various bird calls, songs, and peeps. Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is highly recommended and a real joy to have around even just for the pleasure of picking it up once in a while and enjoying the pictures.

If you love: a)nature photography, b)the Arctic, and c)birds - this book is for you. It is over-sized and filled with beautiful colored photographs of birds who come to breed in the Arctic. Plus, there are migration maps and essays telling you how the birds got to the Arctic. And there is a CD with sounds of the Arctic and many of the birds pictured in the book. It is a wonderful feast for the senses.

Arctic Wings: Birds Of The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a stunningly beautiful nature photography book. From robins feeding their young, to migratory flocks in flight, to raptors and water birds, the variety of the arctic's feathered denizens is superbly captured in these full-color images. An introduction and several essays offer insight into the complexity and majesty of the arctic ecosystem and the role that birds play, but the majority of Arctic Wings is devoted to breathtaking photography. An accompanying CD of arctic refuge birdsongs is included.

Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic North American Flyways converge on the North Slope of Alaska and Yukon Territory. The area encompasses many ecosystems - river deltas and coastal wetlands, tundra, mountains, boreal forest; inshore waters, barrier islands, beaches and spits and coastal lagoons. Diverse and complex spread over 7.89 million square hectometers (19.5 million ac). The North Slope is a soundshed, viewshed, and the temporary annual residence for at least 194 birds - who visit, but not stay. Some fly almost 29,000 kilometers (18,000 mi), each year, for the round trip. The area is also home to moose, caribou, wolverines, arctic fox, bears and wolves.

US automobile companies and related industries have effectively been on welfare for most of the 20th and the 21st centuries - dependent on "cheap" oil. Perverse subsidies that function as disinvestments threaten to leave the arctic environment and US economy worse off. As pointed out by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999) in Natural Capitalism and von Weizsacker, Lovins and Lovins (1997) in Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, if you want to cut your costs by one-half or double your profit, then double your efficiency. The North Slope sustainably functions best as wilderness.

Rather than getting close to the Arctic tundra by "sitting behind an internal combustion engine pick up truck in midtown traffic," this is about minimizing human impact on the North Slope by becoming better informed about some of the wild visitors. A CD provides from a few seconds up to 14 minutes (60 minutes of continual play) of the sounds of 67 different birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The large 28 x 28 cm format helps bring the North Slope alive, everything but cool wind in your face and crisp smells wafting off the tundra.

After the introduction, the book is organized according to Loons and Waterfowl; Hawks, Eagles and Falcons; Shorebirds; Gulls, Terns and Jaegers; Owls; Land Birds and Winter Birds. President Jimmy Carter provides the Foreward. Multiple authors and photographers provide Cultural Reflections, Landscape of the Future, After an Arctic Season and Birders in the Scope.

Recognizing there is a direct connection between local birds throughout North America and the North Slope, this reinforces the need for efficiency and use of renewable energy, and brings you one giant step closer to an "aha" moment.