Oh, Chickadee!

Jennifer Richard Jacobson (Author)  Jamie Hogan (Illustrator)

Anyone who knows me knows I love Maine and who better to bring you the story of Maine’s State Bird, the chickadee, than Maine author Jennifer Richard Jacobson.

Its curiosity, friendliness, bravery, and acrobatic antics have long made the black- capped chickadee a favorite of bird watchers of all ages. Oh, Chickadee presents a year in the life of a chickadee, answering such questions as, Where do they nest? How do they protect themselves from predators? and How do they survive the frigid winter? It brings the more hidden world of these endearing birds into view.

Hardcover, 32 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $17.62

Campfire Story Deck – For Kids!

by Ilyssa & Dave Kyu

Firmly grounded in the natural world, the fun and furry prompts in Campfire Stories Deck–For Kids! spark children’s imaginations for storyelling adventures. To play, young players pick one card from each set and then use the prompts to make up a story. Extra cards introduce families to the deck, provide storytelling tips to help engage children, and describe different ways family and friends can play the game, including a collaborative approach in which the entire group contributes to a story.With this deck in hand, kids of all ages can gather around the campfire and set their outdoor imaginations on fire!

57 cards. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $13.75

The Story of Lime and the Lime Kilns of Lancaster County

by Ken Miller

When Ken Miller dropped by the quarry where I worked many years ago I had already done some research on lime kilns in the area and had visiting a working one a bit to our north. There I had recorded two men who were familiar with the history and I shared a digitized version of that conversation with Ken. He returned some time later and handed me a transcription he had made of the recordings an a suiseki (a japanese art of mounting rocks on bases as scenic table pieces) made from a piece of Wissahickon Schist I had displayed on my desk that he had asked to borrow.

I still have that suiseki displayed and will treasure it along with this book that represents decades of tramping about the county and locating the geology and remains of these historic sites. It’s a monumental task that is somewhat uncharacteristic of a study that you might expect a retired biology professor to tackle. Whether your interest is history or geology, whether you live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania or not, this is an important work.

Hardcover, 192 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $27.60

The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds

by Jon Dunn

Hummingbirds are a glittering, sparkling collective of over three hundred wildly variable species. For centuries, they have been revered by indigenous Americans, coveted by European collectors, and admired worldwide for their unsurpassed metallic plumage and immense character. Yet they exist on a knife-edge, fighting for survival in boreal woodlands, dripping cloud forests, and subpolar islands. They are, perhaps, the ultimate embodiment of evolution’s power to carve a niche for a delicate creature in even the harshest of places.
Traveling the full length of the hummingbirds’ range, from the cusp of the Arctic Circle to near-Antarctic islands, acclaimed nature writer Jon Dunn encounters birders, scientists, and storytellers in his quest to find these beguiling creatures, immersing us in the world of one of Earth’s most charismatic bird families.

Hardcover, 352 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $27.60

Sibley Backyard Birding Bingo

by David Allen Sibley

This colorful and informative bingo game features 50 quintessential North American birds painted by preeminent birding authority David Sibley.– Perfect for Family Game Nights New and experienced birders of all ages will enjoy this fast-paced, classic bingo game- Expert author the bird portraits on the cards are painted by world-renowned ornithologist David Sibley, author of the Sibley Bird Guides.

Board game. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $20.24

White Feathers: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallows

by Berndt Heinrich

The surprising, rich life of tree swallows in nesting season–with Heinrich’s beautiful illustrations and photographs–by the acclaimed naturalist.Heinrich is sparked one early spring day by a question: Why does a pair of swallows in a nest-box close to his Maine cabin show an unvarying preference for white feathers–not easily available nearby–as nest lining? He notices, too, the extreme aggressiveness of “his” swallows toward some other swallows of their own kind. And he wonders, given swallows’ reputation for feistiness, at the extraordinary tameness and close contact he experiences with his nesting birds.

Hardcover, 256 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $24.84

Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve and Classify the World’s Plants

by Barbara M. Thiers

Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grew around them, organizing the specimens into collections. Known as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor.

Herbarium is a fascinating enquiry into this unique field of plant biology, exploring how herbaria emerged and have changed over time, who promoted and contributed to them, and why they remain such an important source of data for their new role: understanding how the world’s flora is changing. Barbara Thiers, director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, also explains how recent innovations that allow us to see things at both the molecular level and on a global scale can be applied to herbaria specimens, helping us address some of the most critical problems facing the world today.

Hardcover, 304 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $36.80

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds

by Scott Weidensaul

In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations–how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis–is nothing short of extraordinary.

Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela–the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest–avoiding dehydration by “drinking” moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides–and their reaction time actually improves.

Now in Paperback!, 400 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $17.43

Walden’s Shore

by Robert M. Thorson

“Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward,” Thoreau invites his readers in Walden, “till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality.” Walden’s Shore explores Thoreau’s understanding of that hard reality, not as metaphor but as physical science. Robert M. Thorson is interested in Thoreau the rock and mineral collector, interpreter of landscapes, and field scientist whose compass and measuring stick were as important to him as his plant press. At Walden‘s climax, Thoreau asks us to imagine a “living earth” upon which all animal and plant life is parasitic. This book examines Thoreau’s understanding of the geodynamics of that living earth, and how his understanding informed the writing of Walden.

Paperback, 440 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $24.50

Rediscovering the Maine Woods

edited by John Kucich

The Maine Woods, vast and largely unsettled, are often described as unchanged since Henry David Thoreau’s journeys across the backcountry, in spite of the realities of Indian dispossession and the visible signs of logging, settlement, tourism, and real estate development. In the summer of 2014 scholars, activists, members of the Penobscot Nation, and other individuals retraced Thoreau’s route.Inspired partly by this expedition, the accessible and engaging essays here offer valuable new perspectives on conservation, the cultural ties that connect Native communities to the land, and the profound influence the geography of the Maine Woods had on Thoreau and writers and activists who followed in his wake. Together, these essays offer a rich and multifaceted look at this special place and the ways in which Thoreau’s Maine experiences continue to shape understandings of the environment a century and a half later. Contributors include the volume editor, Kathryn Dolan, James S. Finley, James Francis, Richard W. Judd, Dale Potts, Melissa Sexton, Chris Sockalexis, Stan Tag, Robert M. Thorson, and Laura Dassow Walls.

Paperback, 248 pages. /// Randy’s Price on Bookshop $27.95