Customer Reviews

Prairie Spring: A Journey Into the Heart of a Season

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This is the first of four books that Dunne plans to write, each one focusing on a specific ecosystem during one of the four seasons.

In this narrative, Dunne chronicles a spring that he and his wife spent on America's grasslands. The journey starts on Groundhog Day at the Pawnee National Grasslands in northeast Colorado. As spring unfolds, the Dunnes move about America's heartland, stopping in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

Birds, of course, figure prominently into the account, as many of the characteristic species of this region are encountered. However, unlike Dunne's previous Feather Quest, it does not focus exclusively on birds. It encompasses the entire ecology, and even history, of the American prairie. Topics range from birds to buffalo, farms to fire, wildflowers to weather.

If you've read anything by Dunne, then you know what to expect here (and if you haven't, you don't know what you've been missing). Humorous, insightful, educational, and just plain fun to read, his prose is amazing. I particularly enjoyed his analogy of a prairie-chicken lek and a baseball game. It seems a little weird, but it really worked. However, he stretches a bit too far at times, such as the conversation he had with a painted horse. It was just a little wide of the mark for me. But in most everything else, he was right on target.

But especially so in his description of watching Sandhill Cranes by the thousands descend upon the Platte River to roost. I was as completely enthralled by those birds, a thousand miles and many months distant, as Dunne and his companions obviously were.

This is nature writing at its best.

As a life member of the New Jersey Audubon Society, it's a great pleasure to receive regular reports from the Society, always with one or more communications from Mr. Dunne. He is the current director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, Vice President of Natural History for the New Jersey Audubon Society, and publisher of New Jersey Audubon magazine. As a result, lots of his writings flow into our house, and we always enjoy them.

This little book is well described in the other reviews here on Amazon. I'm happy to encourage any nature lover to pick up a copy and enjoy learning from a master. He will lead you to other authors who describe the praries in much greater depth, especially William Least Heat-Moon in PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country.

Robert C. Ross 2010

An excellent short introduction to both the North American central prairies and spring season. The author seems to spend most of his time not actually on the prairie but in the islands of non-prairie habitat within the greater geographical area. He still manages to give an overview of the ecology and history of area interspersed with lots of personal reflection.

Apparently this is the first of four books, eventually to cover all four seasons and four major ecosystems. I'm looking forward to the coming volumes.

A must for Dunne fans. Very compact little book to carry around and read when you are out there, perhaps birding, or traveling. A small section of color pictures in the middle. Not that you could not read it cover to cover without. But it gives those outside the area a view of the scenery.

Pete Dunne's book "Prairie Spring" is entertaining and informative, and thought-provoking. But it's not in the "must read" class. It presents a lot of good information about American prairies and their components but it also includes a lot of his personal philosophy (ies) which, after all, is not so much what a person looking to learn about prairies wants to spend any great deal of time on. Dunne's philosophies are interesting and sensible, to be sure, but they would fit better in a book titled "Prairie Home Companion" or some such. Of course Dunne is such a skilled writer he makes the whole book entertaining regardless. And those readers who enjoy a bit of philosophizing with their reading will indeed be very pleased with the clarity that Dunne demonstrates in his illumination of the connection between people and the Earth. Shades of Aldo indeed!