Contains 35 projects all made with natural materials. They are designed to meet the safety requirements of both animals and humans. Projects include a twig mosaic bat house, a squirrel nest box and a toad house. These abodes follow recommended guidelines developed through naturalist's research. Each has facts, ideas hints and suggestion on topics such as how to discourage unwanted guests.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Landscaping to attract wildlife has become a popular gardening activity, not only in rural settings but also in suburbia and even in cities. Here are three titles showing the way, each with a different focus and varying success rate. All are profusely illustrated with excellent color photographs. Kress, a highly accomplished naturalist and the author of two top-quality Audubon Society guides on birding and attracting birds, presents informative chapters on landscaping, plantings, nesting structures, feeding, use of water, and a regional reference to plants and birds. This is an excellent guide to attracting birds but suffers slightly from a plethora of sidebars and columns on individual birds and plants, although there is no discussion of hummingbird feeding. One wishes for more of Kress's fine, overarching, generalized text. Nevertheless, The Bird Garden can be highly recommended for all gardening collections. Tufts, the chief naturalist and manager of the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program, and noted garden writer Loewer, offer a guide that is less compartmentalized with a more cohesive, expository text. The emphasis is more on the use of vegetation, natural shelter, and water to attract a broad spectrum of animals, not just birds. Although the approach is less cookbook and more conceptual, the book still has many practical qualities, but specifics on feeders and nesting boxes are not included. Chapters discuss creating a habitat; getting the garden ready; creating woodland gardens; meadow and prairie gardens; water gardens; gardening for birds, butterflies, and nightlife; and profiles of 15 NWF backyard habitats. This is an excellent overview of of how to garden for wildlife. Needham's Beastly Abodes tries a more direct, nuts-and-bolts approach with 74 sections written by 17 authors on how to build boxes, feeders, rafts, etc., for a variety of wildlife such as bats, butterflies, birds, as well as such as toads, mice, squirrels, turtles, bees, et al. There is much useful information but also an unfortunate emphasis on artistic, even garish, houses. A birdhouse that looks as if it were painted by Piet Mondrian, one that resembles a chrome diner, or a squirrel house with an elaborate acorn design may appeal to many people but the creatures for which they were intended are better served by abodes that are natural and unembellished. Because of such fanciful airs and in the face of an abundance of well-crafted current books on attracting wildlife, Beastly Abodes is not recommended. These new books add considerably to our knowledge of attracting wildlife but the bedrock?established by earlier titles by Kress, such John V. Dennis works as The Complete Guide to Bird Feeding (Knopf, 1994), and the excellent Ortho Books series?still remains vital.?Henry T. Armistead, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Over thirty projects describe how to attract wildlife to a backyard environment, encouraging readers to design abodes for maximum use. From decorative yet functional bird houses to butterfly boxes and bat houses, this presents many intriguing ideas. -- Midwest Book Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book I've seen on houses for wildlife.,
By
This review is from: Beastly Abodes: Homes for Birds, Bats, Butterflies & Other Backyard Wildlife (Paperback)
The most complete and innovative book on bird houses I've seen yet. Not only that, it has houses and other structures for bats, butterflies, squirrels, bees and toads. I especially like the variety and creativity of the "abodes" -- natural looking, not cutesy. The section on what each type of wildlife needs is especially welcome. I read this book in the library and had to make it part of my permanent collection.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a great book w/good basic instructions.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Beastly Abodes: Homes for Birds, Bats, Butterflies & Other Backyard Wildlife (Paperback)
This book has good, clear instructions for many projects, from bird houses to toad houses, from woodworking to working with gourds and reeds. It also has helpful information about placement of houses and the ecology of selected species. We've already made 4 houses from it, all of which we were able to build quickly and successfully. There were one or two places where the directions lacked certain details, but in general the instructions had the right amount of specificity. The book has beautiful pictures of every project, and has inspired us to do more to attract backyard wildlife.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is very informative and clearly written.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Beastly Abodes: Homes for Birds, Bats, Butterflies & Other Backyard Wildlife (Paperback)
This book provides serveral varieties of houses for different animals. The instructions are well written and easy to do. Also, the book provides information about where to place the completed houses and why the houses will attract animals.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
