Just Loons: A Wildlife Watchers' Guide [Hardcover]

Alan Hutchinson (Author), Bill, Jr. Silliker (Photographer)

Book Description

Series: Just | Publication Date: March 1998

This special edition of the award-winning Just Loons features a new introduction by David Evers, PhD, a leading researcher of loons, and an interpretive bound-in CD of the haunting calls for which loons are so admired and beloved. The audio CD runs approximately 25 minutes and contains various calls that are referenced on the CD jacket. Featuring stunning photography and insightful natural history text, Just Loons, with its new and extraordinary audio component, remains the ultimate guide to finding, watching, and understanding loons.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As the photographer asks in his introduction: What is it about the presence of loons that excites us? Why is it that the voice of a loon makes one yearn to see it up close? This blend of useful, informative text and lovely closeups of birds that symbolize the North woods helps answer these questions. Loons are birds that prefer solitude, so learning about them can prove difficult for most people. The author describes how to watch loons without interfering in their lives, and provides very understandable descriptions of what the observed postures and calls mean. Six chapters on topics such as finding loons, their family life, and their conservation are full of good, basic information about the lives of this most ancient lineage of birds, and one chapter gives useful tips on photographing them. The color photographs are beautiful in their own right and illustrate well the behaviors described in the text. Overall, a very nice book, recommended for libraries with large collections on birds (and all North woods libraries!). Nancy Bent

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Willow Creek Press (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572231467
• ISBN-13: 978-1572231467
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,365,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Call, September 27, 2004

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Just Loons: A Wildlife Watcher's Guide with CD (Audio) (Hardcover)

Anyone who has heard the call of a loon on a lake at night is bound to be impressed by these birds. This book is full of pictures of loons, with some supporting discussion, and a CD of loon calls.

The book describes and defines loons, including how to find them, their family life, their calls, how to photograph them and loon conservation. The pictures in the book were taken by the late Bill Silliker, Jr., who was a famous wildlife photographer, and the book is clearly a vehicle for his work. Many of Silliker's pictures are first rate and quite striking, especially considering the difficulties of photographing a bird whose colors range from the brightest whites to dark, matte black. Sometimes, however, he shoots into the light when trying to record some element of loon behavior (not a deliberate silhouette) and these photographs are less successful. I must also confess that after 100 pages, even though I love loons, the pictures had developed a certain sameness.

The narrative provided was more of the "aren't loons great" type then being very useful. The book told me little more about loons then several pages in Kenn Kaufman's "Lives of North American Birds" or David Allen Sibley's "Guide to Bird Life and Behavior", although it did make clear to me that the reason loons nest on the water's edge is because they find it impossible to walk on land. Although the book notes that there are 5 species of loons in North America, it is devoted only to the common loon. Serious birders may well have to wait for the Oxford University Press to get to the loons in their series on Bird Families of the World for really detailed information.

I was particularly disappointed by the book's discussion of photographing loons. It's clear that most, if not all, of the pictures in this book were taken from a boat. Having done a little bit of avian photography from a kayak, I know that this type of photography requires some different techniques than shooting from terra firma. I would have liked to see some discussion of how to follow the bird photographer's rule about getting close to the ground when you are on water.

Although its clear that the CD of loon calls was an afterthought, (there is no reference to it in the text about the calls of loons,) listening to it is (pardon the pun) a hoot. While I doubt that anyone would ever mistake any loon call for the sound of another animal, filling your den with the call of these ancient birds is thrilling.

In summary, this looks like a good gift book for someone who likes loons and good pictures of them. It certainly is not a thorough reference book.