Wildlife Photograph

Do holiday shopping at Ijams

Saturday November 14, 2009
Gift shop offers cards, books, nature items

 

Looking for a great book! Everyone interested in birds should read Birdsong by the Season by Donald Kroodsma. His love of bird song is exhilarating and infectious. The book is divided into seasons and Kroodsma finds something of interest in every month—even the doldrums of winter. He records bird song and then puts the recordings into a computer program creating a sonogram—in effect allowing him to “read” the songs. No bird is beneath the notice of Kroodsma—he even spends time on the cedar waxwing, pondering the meaning of a songbird without a song. The book includes two CDs of the songs Kroodsma writes about in each chapter. You can listen to the young songbirds of spring practicing their songs but still essentially singing a baby babble of song, sandhill cranes calling on the Platte River and orioles in their winter roosts, among many others.  The CDs and the sheer enthusiasm Kroodsma brings to his writing—his interest in all birds and his willingness to spend days on end just listening patiently and a willingness to share his excitement and knowledge makes this a must read.

A good companion to Birdsong of the Season is The Backyard Birdsong Guide also by Donald Kroodsma. This book contains voice recordings of 132 eastern birds, and, along with Kroodsma’s vast knowledge of birdsong, makes it a good learning tool for beginning birders.
Both books are available in the Ijams Gift Shop. 
   
- By Karen Webster
 

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