Taking the reader from the mountains of Appalachia to a coffee plantation near Bogotá, Colombia, this investigation into the plight of the cerulean warbler—a tiny migratory songbird—describes its struggle to survive in ever-shrinking bands of suitable habitat. This elusive creature—a favorite among bird watchers and the fastest-declining warbler species in the United States—has lost three percent of its total population each year since 1966. This precipitous decline means that today there are 80 percent fewer ceruleans than 40 years ago, and their numbers continue to drop because of threats including deforestation, global warming, and mountaintop-removal coal mining. With scientific rigor and a sense of wonder, Fallon charts their path across more than 2000 miles and shows how the fate of a creature weighing less than an ounce is vitally linked to that of our own.
Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Tracks not just the bird's globe-hurtling journeys, but the passion and determination of the people in two hemisphere who are trying to save it." —Scott Weidensaul, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author, Living on the Wind and Return to Wild America
"This book is a pleasure to read, and will open the eyes of many to the life of a small creature fighting an enormous fight." —David Gessner, author, Return of the Osprey and Soaring with Fidel
"Cerulean Blues first catches a reader's eye and ear as a fetching little piece about a fetching little creature of the treetops . . . The beauty of this slender volume . . .is that it tries to reach a deeper personal level than that of the usual narrow-niche bird book." —Donald A. Carr
"Cerulean Blues is many things. It's a fine work of nature writing that has its roots in American transcendentalism . . . It's a twenty-first century ecological manifesto, a plea for help in saving a small warbler." —Cheryl B. Torsney, ConnotationPress.com
"Katie Fallon is a wonderful storyteller, nailing all the details in every memory that add to the flavor but also the relevance of each account. Images are skillfully placed where they make the biggest impact." —The Tusculum Review
About the Author
Katie Fallon has had nonfiction pieces in a variety of magazines and journals, including Appalachian Heritage, Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing, and River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. Her essay “Lost,” published in The Fourth River, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2008. She teaches creative writing at West Virginia University. She lives in Morgantown, West Virginia.
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More About the Author
Katie Fallon is the author of the nonfiction book Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird (Ruka Press, 2011), which was a finalist for the Southern Environmental Law Center's Reed Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment. Katie's essays have appeared in a variety of literary journals and magazines, including The Bark, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Ecotone, Appalachian Heritage, Now & Then, Isotope, and elsewhere. She's been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize, and her essay "Hill of the Sacred Eagles" was a finalist in Terrain's 2011 essay contest. Katie has taught creative writing at Virginia Tech and West Virginia University. Her first word was "bird."
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Bellebelle
Format:Paperback
The author of Cerulean Blues entertains, informs, and inspires us to be aware of the fate of a tiny songbird. The cerulean warbler, and, I am sure, many other songbirds are rapidly losing their habitats due to the hand of man. In West Virginia, mountaintop coal removal is depleting the forests while coffee plantations in Colombia are also clearing old growth trees. With humor and pathos, the author engages the reader from the onset. I laughed and cried as she describes her adventures in the field with determined scientists. She humanizes her experiences. Good read!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By df magee
Format:Paperback
Really enjoyed this story of the endangered Warbler. This is a great book for fans of nature writing and environmental tales. Powerful, direct and exciting. (with a touch of humor thrown in).
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Ben
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Katie Fallon, with a scientific perception and insightful demeanor, shows how a tiny, little songbird is important in the grand scheme of the world in her first book, Cerulean Blues. She proves that even this small creature deserves the right to survival because, if not for a plethora of other reasons, its existence is important even to the existence of mankind. And in the book, every creature matters because each one is dependent or related in some way to another. But to Katie Fallon, the cerulean warbler is one of the most beautiful and amazing of them all.
Although this is Katie Fallon's first book, one would never know. The book is masterfully articulated, using clear and concise language to interest the reader in this niche topic.
The book tells of Katie Fallon's journey to trace the path of the cerulean warbler from the Appalachian Mountains to the Andes Mountains in Colombia. She recounts beautifully the emotional and physical dangers as well as countless moments of joy and despair as she embarked on a personal exploration into the life of this tiny songbird. Throughout this adventure, it's not hard to see that Katie Fallon is a wonderful storyteller, nailing all the details in every memory that add to the flavor but also the relevance of each account. Descriptions are skillfully placed where they make the biggest impact, yet are subtle and act to draw the reader into the story. Imagery is deeply rooted and flawlessly moves ideas from one place to another.
And even though much of the book is devoted to facts, just the right amount of thought and memory finds its way in. The best part about this is that it's so subtle; the facts are perfectly woven in and out of reflection and vice versa, that is, without truly visible or bumpy seams that might disrupt the reader. Also, the book is conversational and allows the reader to have an input while it skillfully steers and guides through a thicket of ideas and memories. There are no pretentious sentences full of jargon and conceited intelligence. Cerulean Blues gets straight to the point.
A large part of what makes Cerulean Blues so great is that Katie Fallon is not afraid to tell on herself. She openly admits her shortcomings and questions her actions often. However, this seems intentional though clearly honest and sincere. She is not overly self-deprecating; rather, she includes her own limitations so that she can make much larger points and ask much larger questions about humanity. And the most brilliant part of this is that she is able to do it so successfully. Her imperfections don't seem too cumbersome, but they provide plenty of grounds for her to present ideas about society and our current civilization.
Cerulean Blues is a great read for anyone interested in literature and good writing. Even if the reader is not immediately wowed by the statistics and details of the dying songbird, I bet that by the end of the book, an attachment for at least some facet of nature will have cropped up in the reader's mind somewhere. This book is definitely worth the money, and will become, I think, a classic piece of nature-writing in years to come.
Although this is Katie Fallon's first book, one would never know. The book is masterfully articulated, using clear and concise language to interest the reader in this niche topic.
The book tells of Katie Fallon's journey to trace the path of the cerulean warbler from the Appalachian Mountains to the Andes Mountains in Colombia. She recounts beautifully the emotional and physical dangers as well as countless moments of joy and despair as she embarked on a personal exploration into the life of this tiny songbird. Throughout this adventure, it's not hard to see that Katie Fallon is a wonderful storyteller, nailing all the details in every memory that add to the flavor but also the relevance of each account. Descriptions are skillfully placed where they make the biggest impact, yet are subtle and act to draw the reader into the story. Imagery is deeply rooted and flawlessly moves ideas from one place to another.
And even though much of the book is devoted to facts, just the right amount of thought and memory finds its way in. The best part about this is that it's so subtle; the facts are perfectly woven in and out of reflection and vice versa, that is, without truly visible or bumpy seams that might disrupt the reader. Also, the book is conversational and allows the reader to have an input while it skillfully steers and guides through a thicket of ideas and memories. There are no pretentious sentences full of jargon and conceited intelligence. Cerulean Blues gets straight to the point.
A large part of what makes Cerulean Blues so great is that Katie Fallon is not afraid to tell on herself. She openly admits her shortcomings and questions her actions often. However, this seems intentional though clearly honest and sincere. She is not overly self-deprecating; rather, she includes her own limitations so that she can make much larger points and ask much larger questions about humanity. And the most brilliant part of this is that she is able to do it so successfully. Her imperfections don't seem too cumbersome, but they provide plenty of grounds for her to present ideas about society and our current civilization.
Cerulean Blues is a great read for anyone interested in literature and good writing. Even if the reader is not immediately wowed by the statistics and details of the dying songbird, I bet that by the end of the book, an attachment for at least some facet of nature will have cropped up in the reader's mind somewhere. This book is definitely worth the money, and will become, I think, a classic piece of nature-writing in years to come.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book
This book is a personal journey to learn about a declining warbler species and the people who try to protect it. Well written, informative, and moving.
Published 1 month ago by Birder
5.0 out of 5 stars
a tale of humor, passion, sadness, and hope
Cerulean Blues is the story of a tiny songbird - and the woman who became obsessed with not only finding it, but finding ways to protect it. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Karma Chaemeleon
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read about the Cerulean Warbler
Anyone interested in birds, nature, or the environment will love this book. You can tell a lot of love and care went into this work. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Joe
