Happy National Reading Month 2019 (just a little late)!

March is National Reading Month!

Shara (Mrs. LeValley) and I love to read!  There are books everywhere in our home. Our goal every year is to each read a minimum of fifty-two books - one for each week of the year.  Not only do we read lots of books, but we each record them in a journal.  I don't write anything about the book; just title, author, number of pages, and where the book came from (my personal library, public library, borrowed book).  I have a record of every book I have read since January 2005, with one major exception - we moved to our current home in 2011 and I didn't record anything from we packed up and moved in March of that year until January 2012.  I'm bummed that I don't have any records from that time...  Even with that missing nine months, I have records of over eight hundred books, including thirteen so far in 2019.

What do I read?  A little of everything - biography, history, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, and more.  I especially read books about science, nature, and the outdoors (including hiking, fishing, and hunting stories).

Here is my nearly complete list of the science, nature, and outdoor books that I have read since 2005 (minus the missing months of 2011 - plus I think I may have forgotten to write down a few others).  These books have been grouped into rough categories in no particular order.  Many books could easily fit in more than one category.  Books that have been boldfaced are either ones that I particularly liked or thought were important.

Alaska/Canada

• One Man's Wilderness by Sam Kieth and Richard Proenneke
• Alaska's Wolf Man:  The 1915-55 Wilderness Adventures of Frank Glaser by Jim Rearden
• Shopping for Porcupine:  A Life In Arctic Alaska by Seth Kantner
• Standing Ground:  Alaska Stories, Police Tales, and Things I'd Rather Not Talk About by Alan L. White
• Fifty Miles from Tomorrow:  A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiaruk Hensley
• Tide, Feather, Snow:  A Life in Alaska by Miranda Weiss
• First Wilderness:  My Quest in the Territory of Alaska by Sam Keith 
• Yukon Alone:  The World's Toughest Adventure Race by John Balzar
• Winterdance:  The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulsen
• Red Summer:  The Danger, Madness, and Exaltation of Salmon Fishing in a Remote Alaskan Village by Bill Carter
• Braving It:  A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell
• Death on the Barrens:  A True Story of Courage and Tragedy in the Canadian Arctic by George James Grinnell
• The Alaskan Retreater's Notebook:  One Man's Journey into the Alaskan Wilderness by Ray Ordonica
• Disappointment River:  Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage by Brian Castner

Arctic/Antarctica

• Being Caribou:  Five Months on Foot With an Arctic Herd by Karsten Heuer 
• South With the Sun:  Roald Amundsen, His Polar Exploration and the Quest for Discovery by Lynn Cox 
• The Last Light Breaking:  Living Among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos by Nick Jans
• Roald Amundsen by Tor Bomann-Larsen
• White Eskimo:  Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic by Stephen R. Brown
• The Last Imaginary Place:  A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee

The North Country

• Open Horizons by Sigurd F. Olson 
• Woman of the Boundary Waters:  Canoeing, Guiding, Mushing, and Surviving by Justine Kerfoot
• The Grand Portage by Walter O'Meara
• The Long-shadowed Forest by Helen Hoover 
• We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich
• At Home in the Woods:  Living the Life of Thoreau Today by Bradford Angier and Vera Angier 
• The Meaning of Wilderness by Sigurd F. Olson
• Chips from a Wilderness Log by Calvin Rutstrum

Birds/Birdwatching

• To See Every Bird on Earth:  A Father, A Son and a Lifelong Obsession by Dan Koeppel 
• The Ardent Birder:  On the Craft of Birdwatching by Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan
• The Ghost With Trembling Wings:  Science, Wishful Thinking, and the Search for Lost Species by Scott Weidensaul
• Out of the Woods:  A Bird Watcher's Year by Ora E. Anderson
• Of a Feather:  A Brief History of American Birding by Scott Weidensaul
• All Things Reconsidered:  My Birding Adventures by Roger Tory Peterson
• Hope is the Thing With Feathers:  A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds by Christopher Cokinos
• Wesley the Owl:  The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien
• The Verb 'To Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder by Peter Cashwell
• A Supremely Bad Idea:  Three Mad Birders and Their Quest To See It All by Luke Dempsey
• Birdology:  Adventures With a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur by Sy Montgomery
• Crow Planet:  Essential Wisdom From the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Gifts of the Crow:  How Perception, Emotion and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans by John Marzluff and Tony Angell 
• Feathers:  The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson
• Life Birds by George Levine
• H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald 
• Ravens in Winter by Bernd Heinrich
• Falcon Fever:  A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century by Tim Gallagher
• The Final Frontiersman:  Heimo Korth and His Family Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness by James Campbell
• One Wild Bird at a Time:  Portraits of Individual Lives by Bernd Heinrich 
• The Most Perfect Thing:  Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg by Tim Birkhead
• Lost Among the Birds:  Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year by Neil Hayward

Nature/Ecology/Natural History

• Swampwalker's Journal:  A Wetlands Year by David M. Carroll
• Natural Coincidence:  The Trip from Kalamazoo by Bil Gilbert
• Why Moths Hate Thomas Edison edited by Hampton Sides
• Wintering by Diana Kappel-Smith
• Teaching a Stone to Talk:  Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard
• Return to Wild America:  A Yearlong Search For the Continent's Natural Soul by Scott Weidensaul
• Northwoods Wildlife:  A Watcher's Guide to Habitats by Janine M. Benyus
• Last Child in the Woods:  Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
• It's Raining Frogs and Fishes:  Four Seasons of Natural Phenomena and Oddities of the Sky by Jerry Dennis
• The Eternal Frontier:  An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
• Wilderness Ethics:  Preserving the Spirit of Wildness by Guy Waterman and Laura Waterman
• My Story as Told by Water:  Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watching, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, In the Age of the Industrial Dark by David James Duncan
• Squirrels at My Window:  Life with a Remarkable Gange of Urban Squirrels by Grace Marmor Spruch
• Life Counts:  Cataloguing Life on Earth by Michael Gleich, Dirk Maxeiner, et al
• A Trail Through Leaves:  The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
• The Animal Dialogues:  Uncommon Encounters in the Wild by Craig Childs
• Looking for Hickories:  The Forgotten Wildness of the Rural Midwest by Tom Springer
• Ecology of A Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray 
• Life in the Soil:  A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners by James B Nardi
• The Search for a Sense of Wildness by Michael P. Ausema
• Stalking the Plumed Serpent and Other Adventures in Herpetology by D. Bruce Means
• Where the Wild Things Were:  Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg
• The Snake Charmer:  A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James
• The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane
• Watchers at the Pond by Franklin Russell
• Dry Storeroom No. 1:  The Secret life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
• A Year in the Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich
• One Square Inch of Silence:  One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World by Gordon Hempton ans John Grossman
• Mean and Lowly Things:  Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo by Kate Jackson
• The Book of Yaak by Rick Bass
• Summer World:  A Season of Bounty by Bernd Heinrich
• Every Creeping Thing:  True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife by Richard Conniff
• The Founding Fish by John McPhee
• A Reenchanted World:  The Quest for a New Kinship With Nature by James William Gibson
• Wilderness Warrior:  Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley
• Footnotes on Nature by John Kieran
• Why We Run:  A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
• The Path:  A One-mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo
• The Wild Marsh:  Four Seasons at Home in Montana by Rick Bass
• Water:  A Natural History by Alice Outwater
• The Forgotten Pollinators by Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul
• The Mountains Next Door by Janice Emily Bowers
• Still Life:  Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgram
• The Snoring Bird:  My Family's Journey Through A Century of Biology by Bernd Heinrich
• Why I Came West by Rick Bass
• Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat:  Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals by Hal Herzog
• The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
• Kingdom Under Glass:  A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals by Jay Kirk
• Wading For Bugs:  Exploring Streams With the Experts edited by Judith L. Li and Michael T. Barbour
• The Big Swamp:  A Wildlife Biologist's Lifetime of Adventures by Raymond D. Schofield
• Life Everlasting:  The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich
• Time and Tide in Acadia:  Seasons on Mount Desert Island by Christopher Camuto
• Rambunctious Garden:  Saving Nature in a Post-wild World by Emma Marris
• The Forest Unseen:  A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
• Dirt Work:  An Education in the Woods by Christine Byl
• Eating Dirt:  Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe by Charlotte Gill
• The Endangered Species Road Trip:  A Summer's Worth of Dingy Motels, Poison Oak, Ravenous Insects, and the Rarest Species in North America by Cameron MacDonald
• Fire Season:  Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
• A Sand County Almanac:  With Essays on Conservation from Round River by Aldo Leopold
• Beyond Walden:  The Hidden History of America's Kettle Lakes and Ponds by Robert M. Thorson
• Keith County Journal by John Janovy Jr.
• Island Year by Hazel Heckman
• A Sting in the Tale:  My Adventures with Bumblebees by Dave Goulson
• A Buzz in the Meadow:  The Natural History of a French Farm by Dave Goulson
•  The Prophet of Dry Hill:  Lessons From a Life in Nature by David Gessner
•  Theodore Roosevelt in the Field by Michael R. Canfield
• The Urban Bestiary:  Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Once They Were Hats:  In Search of the Mighty Beaver by Frances Backhouse
• Under the Stars:  How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White
• The Carry Home:  Lessons From the American Wilderness by Gary Ferguson
• Bog tender:  Coming Home to Nature and Memory by George Szanto
• The Eternal Frontier:  An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery
• The Home Place:  Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
• Hawk's Rest:  A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone by Gary Ferguson
• Gathering Moss:  A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The Pine Barrens by John McPhee
• Becoming Teddy Roosevelt:  How a Maine Guide Inspired America's 26th President by Andrew Vietze
• The Lost Species:  Great Expeditions in the Collection of Natural History Museums by Christopher Kemp
• The Snow Tourist:  A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall by Charles English
• Citizen Scientist:  Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction by Mary Ellen Hannibal
• Hiking Naked:  A Quaker Woman's Search for Balance by Iris Graville
• Saving Tarboo Creek:  One Family's Quest to Heal the Land by Scott Freeman
• The Nature Fix:  Why Nature Makes Us Happier Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
• The Power of a Plant:  A Teacher's Odyssey to grow Healthy Minds and Schools by Stephen Ritz
• The Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich
• The Art of Naming by Michael Ohl
• Buzz:  The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hanson
• The Feather Thief:  Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
• Apocalyptic Planet:  Field Guide to the Everending Earth by Craig Childs
• The Ninemile Wolves by Rick Bass
• Nature Wars:  The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds by Jim Sterba

Trees/Plants/Gardens

• Beautiful Madness:  One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens by James Dodson
• The Trees in My Forest by Bernd Heinrich
• The Wild Trees:  A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston 
• People With Dirty Hands:  The Passion for Gardening by Robert Chotzinoff
• American Chestnut:  The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel
• The Man Who Planted Trees:  A Story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet by Jim Robbins 
• Wood:  Craft, Culture, History by Harvey Green 
• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
• Unearthed:  Love, Acceptance, and Other Lessons from an Abandoned Garden by Alexandra Risen
• Nature's Temples:  The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests by Joan Maloof
• The Hidden Life of Trees:  What They Feel, How They Communicate:  Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
• Urban Forests:  A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes
• The Wood for the Trees:  One Man's Long View of Nature by Richard Fortey
• Witness Tree:  Seasons of Change with a Century-old Oak by Lynda V. Mapes
• The Ghost Orchard:  The Hidden History of the Apple in North America by Helen Humphreys
• The Man Who Climbs Trees by James Aldred
• The Long, Long Lif of Trees by Fiona Stafford

Geology/Geography

• On the Map:  A Mind-expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield
• Rising From the Plains by John McPhee
• Coming Into the Country by John McPhee
• Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
• The Ground Beneath Us:  From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt tells Us About Who We Are by Paul Bogard
• Stories in Stone:  Travels Through Urban Geology by David B Williams
• The Map That Changed The World:  William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

Farming/Rural Life

•  A Country Year:  Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell
• The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
• See You in a Hundred Years:  Four Seasons in Forgotten America by Logan Ward 
• Clearing Land:  Legacies of the American Farm by Jane Brox
• Heirloom:  Notes From and Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
• Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass by Gary Paulsen
• It's a Long Road to a Tomato:  Tales of an organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart
• Ripe:  The Search for the Perfect Tomato by Arthur Allen
• Claiming Ground:  A Memoir by Laura Bell
• Wisdom of the Last Farmer:  Harvesting Legacies From the Land by David Mas Masumoto 
• Mostly in Clover:  Growing Up in Rural Ontario. A Boy Now a Man Recounts His Memories by Harry J. Boyle
• Little Heathens:  Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish 
• Folks, This Ain't Normal:  A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
• Cabin:  Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine by Leo Ureneck 
• Triple Ridge Farm by Ruth Fouts Pochmann
• Battlefield:  Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson
• The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks
• More Scenes From the Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg
• Farm:  A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes
• Cabin Lessons:  A Nail-by-Nail Tale:  Building Our Dream Cottage from 2x4s, Blisters, and Love by Spike Carlsen 
• Growing A Revolution:  Bringing Our Soil Back to Life by David R. Montgomery
• Craeft:  An Inguiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts by Alexander Langlands
• The Dirty Life:  A Memoir of Farming, Foods, and Love by Kristin Kimball

Logging

• Hard Maple, Hard Work by John Gagnon 
• McTaggart's Red Keg:  Logging From A-Z on the Tittabawassee in Michigan by Irene M. Hargreaves and Harold M. Foehl
• "Daylight in the Swamp":  Lumberjacking in the Late 19th Century by Robert W. Wells
• Timber!  The Bygone Life of the Northwoods Lumberjacks by John C. Frohlicher

Food

• In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
• The Earth Knows My Name:  Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst
• Empires of Food:  Feast Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Evand D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas
• The Omnivore's Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:  A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Third Plate:  Field Notes on the Future of Food by Dan Barber
• The Mushroom Hunters:  On the Trail of an Underground America by Langdon Cook
• A Really Big Lunch:  The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life by Jim Harrison
• 100 Million Years of Food:  What Our Ancestors Ate and Why it Matters Today by Stephen Le
• American Terroir:  Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
• The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella
• The Traveling Feast:  On the Road and at the Table With My Heros by Rick Bass

Mountaineering/Adventure

• Tracks:  A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson
• Foot by Foot Through the USA by Winfield H. Line and Francis R. Line 
• Seaworthy:  Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting by T.R. Pearson
• A Sense of the World:  How A Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts
• Touching My Father's Soul:  A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest by Jamling Tenzing Norgay w/ Broughton Coburn
• Halfway to Heaven:  My White-knuckled - And Knuckleheaded - Quest for the Rocky Mountain High by Mark Obmascik
• A Splendid Savage:  The Restless Life of Fredrick Russell Burnham by Steve Kemper
• Breaking Trail:  A Climbing Life by Arlene Blum

Paddling/Canoeing/Rafting

• Canyon Solitude:  A Woman's Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon by Patricia C. McCairen 
• From a Wooden Canoe:  Reflections on Canoeing, Camping, and Classic Equipment by Jerry Dennis
• An Adirondack Passage:  The Cruise of the Canoe Sairy Gamp by Christine Jerome
• Canoeing With the Cree by Eric Severeid 
• One Incredible Journey by Clayton Klein and Verlen Kruger
• The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee
• Cold Summer Wind by Clayton Klein
• Portage Into the Past:  By Canoe Along the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters by J. Arnold Bolz 
• The Last Voyageurs:  Retracing LaSalle's Journey Across America:  Sixteen Teenagers on the Adventure of a Lifetime by Lorraine Boissoneault
• Waterwalk:  A Passage of Ghosts by Steven Faulkner
• Hidden Nature:  A Voyage of Discovery by Alys Fowler

Hiking/Walking

• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson 
• A Season on the Appalachian Trail by Lynn Setzer 
• Walking My Dog, Jane:  From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay Along the Trans Alaska Pipeline by Ned Rozell
• The Marches:  A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland by Rory Stewart
• AWOL on the Appalachian Trail by David Miller
• Alone Together:  My Adventure on the Appalachian Trail by Wally Miars

Paleontology/Archaeology

• Before the Dawn:  Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade
• Atlas of a Lost World:  Travels in Ice Age America by Craig Childs
• Finders Keepers:  A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession by Craig Childs
• My European Family:  The First 54,000 Years by Karin Bojs
• The Lost World of the Old Ones:  Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest by David Roberts

Michigan/Great Lakes

• Walking to Mackinac by David E. Bonior
• The Superior Peninsula:  Seasons in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by Lon L. Emerick
• The Living Great Lakes:  Searching For the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
• The Fourth Coast:  Exploring the Great lakes Coastline From the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota by Mary Blocksma
• Graced by the Seasons:  Fall and Winter in the Northwoods by John Bates
• Great Lakes Nature:  An Outdoor Year by Mary Blocksma 
• River of Iron by David Lee
• The Wolves of Isle Royale:  A Broken Balance by Rolf O. Peterson
• Lake Country:  A Series of Journeys by Kathleen Stocking
• An Uncrowded Place:  The Delights and Dilemmas of Life Up North and a Young Man's Search for Home by Bob Butz
• Great Lakes Country by Russell McKee
• The Turn in the Trail:  Northwoods Tales of the Upper Great Lakes by Walt Sandburg

Native American

• Rez Life by David Treuer
• Holding Our World Together:  Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community by Brenda J. Child
• Braiding Sweetgrass:  Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
•  Masters of Empire:  Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America by Michael A. McDonnell
• Wilderness Empire by Allan W. Eckert

Hunting/Fishing/Trapping

• Ghosts of Tsavo:  Stalking the Mystery Lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo
• Fly-fishing the 41st:  Around the World on the 41st Parallel by James Prosek
• Trout Madness by John D. Voelker (Robert Traver)
• On The Run:  An Angler's Journey Down The Striper Coast by David DiBenedetto
• Trout Eyes:  True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fly Fishing by William G. Tapply
• Kerplunk! by Patrick F. McManus
• The River Home:  An Angler's Explorations by Jerry Dennis
• The Fish's Eye:  Essays About Angling and the Outdoors by Ian Frazier
• A Place on the Water:  An Angler's Reflections on Home by Jerry Dennis
• Hunting From Home:  A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains by Christopher Camuto
• American Buffalo  In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
• West With the Rise:  Fly-fishing Across America by James Barilla
• The Sporting Road:  Travels Across America in An Airstream Trailer - With Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer by Jim Fergus
• Colter:  The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass
• Fur, Fortune, and Empire:  The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America by Eric Jay Dolan
• Fool's Paradise by John Gierach
  
• The Everlasting Stream:  A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family by Walt Harrington
• At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman by John Gierach
• Still Life With Brook Trout by John Gierach
• Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders:  A John Gierach Treasury by John Gierach
• The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
• Remembrances of Rivers Past by Ernest Schwiebert
• The Fragrance of Grass by Guy de la Valdene
• Meat Eater:  Adventures From the Life of an American Hunter by Steven Rinella
• Afield:  American Writers on Bird Dogs edited by Robert DeMott and Dave Smith
• Upland Autumn:  Birds, Dogs, and Shotgun Shells by William G. Tapply
• Fishing the River of Time by Tony Taylor 
• Use Enough Gun:  Ruark on Hunting Big Game by Robert Ruark
• Every Day Was Special:  A Fly Fisher's Lifelong Passion by William G. Tapply
• Charley Waterman's Tales of Fly-fishing, Wing-shooting, and the Great Outdoors by Charley Waterman
• On the Water:  A Fishing Memoir by Guy de la Valdene
• Red Stag:  A Novel by Guy de la Valdene
• Brown Feathers:  Waterfowling Tales an Upland Dreams by Steven J. Mulak
• The Longest Silence:  A Life in Fishing by Thomas McGuane 
• Outdoor Chronicles:  True Tales of a Lifetime of Hunting and Fishing by Jerry Hamza
• A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge by Christopher Camuto
• Midwest Meanders by Tom Huggler
• This Reckless Breed of Men:  The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest by Robert Glass Cleland
• The Ghosts of Autumn:  A Season of Hunting Stories by Joel Spring
• A Fly Rod of Your Own by John Gierach
• Jill and I and the Salmon by Jack Russell
• Moose in the Water Bamboo on the Bench:  A Journal and a Journey by Kathy Scott
• What the River Knows:  An Angler in Midstream by Wayne Fields
• Salmon On A Fly:  The Essential Wisdom and Lore from a Lifetime of Salmon Fishing by Lee Wulff
• A Rough-shooting Dog:  Reflections From Thick and Uncivil Sorts of Places by Charles Fergus
• A Hunter's Fireside Book:  Tales of Dogs, Ducks, Birds & Guns by Gene Hill
• My Secret Fishing Life by Nick Lyons
• Covered Waters:  Tempests of a Nomadic Trouter by Joseph Heywood

Random photos with the same name

Here is a seemingly random collection of thirteen photos from the past five years.  The only thing these pictures have in common is their name IMG_0225.  Why?  Because its February 25th or if you prefer 02/25.  To see a similar random collection of photos here is a post celebrating IMG_0115 from January 15th of 2018.

The best thing about these photos is that they were all taken in locations open to the public - public gardens, nature preserves, local parks, state parks, national lakeshores, national monuments, and national parks.

Dow Gardens, Midland, Michigan (August 2018)

North Higgins Lake State Park, Michigan (July 2018)

Bundy Hill Preserve, near Remus, Michigan (June 2018)

Chipp-A-Waters Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI (November 2017)

Teddy Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota (July 2017)

Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming (July 2017)

Hall's Lake Natural Area, near Remus, Michigan (October 2016)

Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Michigan (October 2015)

Lake Michigan seen from Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary, Manistee, Michigan (September 2015)

Peterson Natural Area, Stanwood, Michigan (August 2015)

The Garden Door, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin (July 2015)

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan (September 2014)

Ludington, Michigan (August 2018)

The Days of Summer - Day One through Day Ninety-four

I said that I would eventually be compiling my Days of Summer photographs into a single slideshow.  Well here it is, in an approximately 9 minutes 30 seconds long video.  I am not super happy with how the image quality looks on the video, but until I can edit it in another format it will stand as is.

Enjoy!

Revisiting the International Crane Foundation (Baraboo, WI)

Last week I mentioned that we made a return visit to the International Crane Foundation (ICF) near Baraboo, WI.  I wrote a long post about ICF after our first visit so I'm not going to say much about it today except to say that if you are ever in central Wisconsin near the towns of Wisconsin Dells or Baraboo you should definitely visit!  Need convincing?  Here are a few photos from our recent visit.

First up was the Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum).  This African species is currently listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The next photo is of a Wattled Crane (Bugeranus carunculatus).  Another African crane species, the Wattled Crane is listed as Vulnerable by IUCN.  It's population seems to be trending downward.

The final three crane photos are of North America's tallest bird the Whooping Crane (Grus americana).  This species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN.  Population estimates in 2016-17 list this species at less than 500 wild birds up from a population of only 15 adults in 1938!  During our previous Wisconsin trip in 2015 we were lucky enough to see one of the approximately 100 wild Whoopers that call Wisconsin home.

These are only three of the ten species that we saw.  The International Crane Foundation houses all fifteen of the world's crane species, but on both of our visits we have only managed to see ten species each time.  The final three three pics are of a sculpture on the path to the Whooping Crane exhibit.  This sculpture represents a single crane taking flight.

Nature Happens - On A Cell Tower

I have stated repeatedly on this site that I am not a birder, but sometimes birds seem to come to me in bunches.  Whether it's Snowy Owls along the road or Peregrine Falcons on a water tower, I seem to spend a lot of time devoted to looking at, photographing, or writing about birds.  This week it's a pair of Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) nesting on a cellular communications tower at the City of Mt. Pleasant Waste Water Treatment Plant.  I was tipped off to this nest by an email from Tammy Bow at the City's Department of Public Works - Tammy and I have corresponded in the past about recycling and she casually mentioned that she liked one of my photos of a Red-tailed Hawk.  (It pays to be nice to people, they will tell you about cool things.)  Her email didn't state that the nest belonged to an Osprey, but I had my suspicions - Osprey are well known for nesting on man-made structures including cell towers.

So with a little time to kill I set out to see an Osprey yesterday morning (24 April 2018).  The Wastewater Treatment plant is located on N. Washington north of Pickard Rd.  As I approached the plant from the east I could easily see one Osprey atop the tower from several hundred yards away.  I did stop on one side street to look at the bird through binoculars.

Eventually I made my way to Washington St. and parked a short distance away from the tower - far enough away to be able to get photographs from a good angle.  It is illegal to disturb nesting birds (as per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918);  I doubt my presence had any impact on this pair.  The nest is located right next to the Waste Water Treatment plant, with people going in and out, and right next to a road with lots of traffic from the City's Street Department.  When I got out of my truck and looked up this is what I saw...

We claim this tower under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act!

Not just one Osprey, but both birds of the pair were perched atop the tower preening their feathers.  Their nest is clearly visible beneath them, supported by the system of braces that hold up the various cellular communications antennas.

And we're preening...

I hung around for a few minutes taking photos, but the drab sky and flat light discouraged me from hanging around too long.  I planned to go back when the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

So back I went this morning (25 April 2018).  Unlike yesterday, only one adult Osprey was visible.  The other bird may have been sitting on the nest or it may have been off hunting.  Like yesterday, this bird preened much of the time I was watching.  It also kept scanning the sky - this made me think that its mate was indeed off hunting.  I stuck around for about 15 minutes, waiting for the second Osprey to appear

Scanning the sky

As so often the case, the Osprey was facing away from me most of the time I was trying to photograph it.

Shaking vigorously is part of preening

The nest can be seen on the upper platform with many sticks fallen to the platform below

A cropped image - note the brown stripe through the eye.  This is one of the keys to identification.

If the nest is successful, I expect the pair to be around for several more months a the young mature.  Also if the nest is successful, it is likely that the pair will be back again next year to nest in the same location.  I look forward to the opportunity to observe this pair more as the year progresses.

IMG_0115 for 01/15 (A random collection of photos that all have the same name)

The following photographs have nothing in common, except their file names.  Each of these photos is titled IMG_0115.  I don't do a good job of labeling photos as I add them to my computer.  Each of the pictures goes into a separate file according to the date that the picture was taken, but the individual pictures all have the name that the camera assigned to them.

I actually thought of this idea of posting several of the pictures a few months ago while I was searching for an image on my computer.  I was writing a new blog post and wanted to use a certain photograph, but I couldn't remember which file it was saved in.  Fortunately I had used the file previously in another blog post.  When I use an image on this blog the link to the image contains the name of the file so I was able to look at that link and then do a search on my computer for the original file.  I found the file that I wanted, but I also found several dozen more images with the same name.

With that experience, I decided that I would share several photos that share the same name.  Why did I pick IMG_0115 as the title to share?  Today's date is January 15th, or if you are expressing it as a number in the format MM/DD it is 01/15.  So IMG_0115 it is.

IMG_0115 - Devil's Tower as seen from the base of its boulder field (July 2017)

IMG_0115 - Mt. Rushmore (July 2017)

IMG_0115 - Red Admiral butterfly  (May 2017)

IMG_0115 - Yellow Trout Lily (April 2017)

IMG_0115 - Trail clearance at Audubon Woods Preserve (April 2017)

 

IMG_0115 - Rural sunrise (January 2017)

The rest of the photos can be found below the break.

Photography (03 - 16 November 2017)

 Here are a few photos that I have taken since November 1st.

Full Moon - Alma, MI (03 November 2017)

Cattails at Chipp-A-Waters Park - Mt. Pleasant, MI (06 November 2017)

American Beech and pedestrian bridge - Mt. Pleasant, MI (06 November 2017)

 

Blue skies and golden leaves - Mt. Pleasant, MI (06 November 2017)

Milkweed seeds at the Isabella Conservation District office - Mt. Pleasant, MI (10 November 2017)

Quaking Aspen trunks at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy - Mt. Pleasant, MI (10 November 2017)

Mushrooms and moss - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Buck rub at Chipp-A-Waters Park - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Chinquapin Oak leaves - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Jack Pine - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

 

Swamp White Oak leaf and moss - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Scots Pine - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Closeup of a buck rub - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Cattail - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)

Motherwort - Mt. Pleasant, MI (16 November 2017)