Secrets of the Oak Woodlands

Did you know that California ground squirrels roll in rattlesnake skins to hide their scent from hungry snakes? That acorn woodpeckers unite in marriages of up to ten birds and raise their young cooperatively? That a manzanita’s sensuous red skin peels away in time for summer solstice, allowing it to increase production of sugars in its trunk and branches? Conveying up-to-the-minute scientific findings with a storyteller’s skill, author Kate Marianchild explores the intimate lives and interconnections of twenty-two plants, animals, lichens, and fungi found in California’s oak woodlands—from woodrats, newts, and California quail to mistletoe, lace lichen, and California buckeye. Suffused with wonder and illustrated with lavish watercolors, this award-winning book focuses a warm beam of light on marvels found in California’s most taken-for-granted ecosystem. Open this book and you will be amazed by a world you thought you knew, a world that “rustles, hums, and sings with the sounds of wild things.”