Customer Reviews

Wild Moments

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One needn't travel to distant worlds to encounter the exotic and astounding. One need only have eyes to see what has been before us all along. Williams is the lens through which we glimse wonders and exquisite beauty still abounding in the often cruelly damaged wild world in which we live. In these brief essays, collected from his Earth Alamnac column in Audubon Magazine, he reveals secrets of the commonplace--creatures and plants we may have glanced at many times without really seeing.

The entries are like prose poems in crystalized language which make one stop again and again and say, ah . . . From the sublime: "sweet pepper bush fills the air with a fragrance that freezes the fleeting hours of August, drugs the droning bee, and transports aging wanderers of the woods to a time when summer never ended and one's only commitments were to fish, frogs, and turtles . . ." to the ridiculous: "tufts of silk protrude from the sun-split pods (of milkweed) like stuffing from puppy ripped pillows. . ." And don't forget the magic: "Since this theory (the ancient belief that circular growths of fungus are set by dancing fairy feet) cannot be disproved, why hasten its extinction when you are afield with young companions?"

If you know an environmentalist, give her this book. It will cheer her darkest hours and energize her crusade. If you know someone who is not an environmentalist, give her this book. It will convert her as surely as a full-immersion baptism. And keep your own copy to read and re-read . . .

Those familiar with Ted Williams' Incite column in Audubon magazine, or his
work in other periodicals such as Fly Rod & Reel, know him to be a tough,
unyielding proponent of sound conservation. Woe to the public official
charged with protecting the environment who finds himself in the sights of
Ted's pointed pen after failing to carry out his job, whether by design,
indifference or incompetence.
Ted's writing grabbed me the first time I read his Audubon column "Incite."
Even though I was an immediate fan of his work however, it wasn't until I
read his first book, The Insightful Sportsman, that I discovered the poetic
quality of his writing. His elegant prose is most evident in "Fairy
Diddling." "Fairy Diddling" (fairy diddles being a nickname for flying
squirrels) is an engaging peek into the lives of these capricious little
characters, who don't emerge from their tree cavities until after the sun
has set. The piece concludes with this evocative sentence: "They are out
there now, wherever the globe has whirled into its own shadow, haunting
woods you thought were spiritless, flying between the cold moon and the
earth, jesting to Oberon - and accomplishing the important work of keeping
the night what it was meant to be."
Now comes Wild Moments, a sampling of Ted's Earth Almanac columns gathered
together for publication. While The Insightful Sportsman is largely a
collection of his hard-hitting investigative columns, this new book reflects
the soft side of a man whose passion for the natural world is second only to
a deep love for his family. In the preface he tells us that these short
essays, packed with fascinating but largely unknown facts about birds, fish,
mammals, insects and plants, celebrate the beauty and magic of nature.
The book is divided into four sections - one for each season of the year.
Winter includes an essay on ruddy turnstones. Ruddy turnstones are
shorebirds that flip over shells and pebbles in pursuit of crustaceans
buried in the sand. Although - as birders - my husband and I have watched
these plump little birds for years, we did not know that one will enlist the
aid of another when encountering difficulty upturning a stone.
Spring doesn't simply arrive for Ted, it comes "as the Northern Hemisphere
leans into the sun..." It is the time when wolf spiders creep from their
burrows in search of food and fairy shrimp hatch in vernal pools. It is
also, of course, the time to witness the elaborate courtship dance of the
male American woodcock.
Ted is big on sharing nature with youngsters, and he recommends taking kids
out to pick berries in summer. While we're out there, we might keep an eye
out for the bright yellow garden spider, whose web is spun with a substance
that is stronger than steel. And if we're in the right place we might see a
flock of nighthawks overhead, foraging on the wing.
"The earth is fat in fall," he writes, "dripping milk and honey into the
mouths of wild creatures and into the souls of humans who will soon be
entering their own form of hibernation in front of flickering fires and
flickering screens."
Ted Williams learned about nature in the same way Henry Thoreau did; he
spent as much time as possible immersed in it. His family owns a "camp" (a
New England term for what we in some other parts of the country would call a
summer cottage) in New Hampshire. He spent much of his childhood at this
camp, one of only fourteen on a 280 acre island. Except for the fact that
his grandfather and uncle took him fishing from the time he was four, there
were no naturalist mentors. His connection with wildlife grew out of
singular explorations of the island. From the time he was six years old, he
rose early and set out alone in a rowboat to travel up into the swamps where
he spent long days attending to the lessons of his outdoor classroom.
Even those who subscribe to Audubon magazine and read Earth Almanac
religiously will appreciate this fine collection, and not only because
previously unpublished material is included. Everyone who cares about
conservation will come away, as I did, with a renewed hope that we are
actually winning the battle. That news, as Ted says, "is remarkable and
uplifting."

WILD MOMENTS by Ted Williams is truly one of the finest collection of nature essays published in recent years. The book is a great way to introudce one to the wonders of our natural world..
I would hope a follow-up would be in the works..
Jack Holcomb

I received this book as a gift in December, and began reading (of course) the "winter" section first. What I have found is a haven to turn to like a daily dose of nature written in short, enlightening "moments". Ted Williams writes in a witty and sensitive manner and I learn something every time I open this book!
Once I finished the winter section I waited until the first day of spring to start sampling the vignettes on spring, and I am viewing this spring with new appreciation.
Since then I have given this book twice as gifts ~ and both were well-received and are currently being read much in the same fashion as I am reading my volume.
If you are a nature lover, or you know one I highly recommend this book!

The essays comprising Ted Williams' Wild Moments are perfect choices for armchair readers who want a thoughtful and informative browse discussing life cycles of plants, animals and birds. Among the topics of discussion are which weather conditions lend to fall foliage, how wolf spiders catch prey, and why American goldfinches build nests out of the usual spring season. Inviting, lovely nature observations and trivia.

In *Wild Moments*, environmental writer Ted Williams delivers brief poetic vignettes into the everyday world of plants and animals that focus on the often overlooked aspects of our natural world. Instead of a treatise on just the iconic wolves and bears and eagles, Williams pays homage to muskrats and mudpuppies and horny toads in these short essays collected from his "Earth Almanac" column in *Audubon* magazine.

These wild moments are organized by season. Starting with winter, Williams introduces us the sometimes hidden treasures of this time when we humans spend far too much time indoors; from watching ducks to studying how sap freezes on the bark of hardwoods, the reader's eyes are opened to the how life continues in the darkest end of the year. With spring, Williams marvels at the flight of the bumblebee and the birth of fairy shrimp in shallow pools of water, and he observes the birth of flowers and the courtship of terns. Come summer, he seeks out freshwater jellyfish and the nighttime antics of goatsuckers and nighthawks. As fall approaches and the leaves turn from green, Williams watches the rutting of deer and elk and the hoarding of woodpeckers and jays.

The best approach to reading this collection of stories about the nature that surrounds us all, is with these seasons, maybe a couple pages at time while you eat your lunch and become inspired to seek out the wild moments that all around you.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Ted Williams eloquently describes everything that we love as well as that which we take for granted in the natural world. This book serves as both a reference guide and a collection of daily affirmations that remind us of our exquisite relationship with nature. Thank you, Ted Williams for capturing these wild moments, and for inspiring me to get out and see them for myself.