Summer World
A Season of Bounty
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“Bernd Heinrich is one of our greatest living naturalists in the tradition of Gerald Durrell….A national treasure.”
—Los Angeles Times
Summer World is an intimate, accessible, and eloquent illumination of animal survival in the Summer months from Bernd Heinrich, bestselling author of Winter World and “our latter-day Thoreau” (Publishers Weekly). Pulitzer Prize-winner Edmond O. Wilson (On Human Nature) calls Heinrich’s fascinating exploration and appreciation of the natural order a, “lovely book, meticulously etched and based on impassioned but exacting scientific research,” while the New York Times Book Review raves, “Animals come to life in gripping detail...and so does Heinrich…. The man is irrepressible.”
From his log cabin in Maine, Heinrich reveals the intricate dramas of the season:
Scientific Observation: Follow a master naturalist’s exacting research as he deciphers the mysteries of the summer world, from the life cycle of a wood frog to the silent wars waged by ants.Intricate Insect Life: Uncover the hidden lives of insects, including the architectural genius of bald-faced hornets, the surprising behavior of mud dauber wasps, and the epic life-and-death struggle of the giant cecropia moth.Bird Behavior: Learn how a yellow-bellied sapsucker’s work creates a hub for local wildlife, including the ruby-throated hummingbird, and what the return of blackbirds and phoebes truly signals.Ecology of New England: Immerse yourself in the ecosystems of Maine and Vermont, where every organism, from the smallest caterpillar to the largest moose, plays a part in the season of bounty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his pursuit of actively observing his camp in the forests of western Maine and the woods, beaver bog and gardens around his Vermont home, Heinrich (The Trees in My Forest) delights with the surprising activities of local flora and fauna and his own scientific antics: with a pet grackle named Crackle, he raids wasp nests to see what the red-eyed vireo will do with the paper and builds platforms in trees to find out who visits the sapsucker lick (hummingbirds, hawks and warblers). For entertainment, he recommends, "There is a solution that beats... a television set with 100 channels, by a mile: watching ants and other critters." The book features such mysteries as the significance of the mating habits of wood frogs and the eating patterns of caterpillars, but Heinrich also takes time to observe Homo sapiens, remarking that, like birds, we live in a perpetual summer, not by "strenuous biannual migrations but by creating and retreating into 'climate bubbles,' " reminding readers that they need "clear vision and also a spiritual imperative so that we will focus on the ultimate ecology, not the proximate economy."
