Please click on an image for additional information and a detailed view.
Accompanied by the stunning photography of Thomas D. Mangelsen, A Chorus of Cranes details the natural history, biology, and conservation issues surrounding the abundant sandhill crane and endangered whooping crane in North America. Author Paul A. Johnsgard, one of the leading authorities on cranes and crane biology, describes the fascinating social behaviors, beautiful natural habitats, and grueling seasonal migrations that have stirred the hearts of people as far back as medieval times and garnered the crane a place in folklore and mythology across continents.
Johnsgard has substantially updated and significantly expanded his 1991 work Crane Music, incorporating new information on the biology and status of these two North American cranes and providing abbreviated summaries on the other thirteen crane species of the world. The stories of these birds and their contrasting fates provide an instructive and moving history of bird conservation in North America. A Chorus of Cranes is a gorgeous and invaluable resource for crane enthusiasts, birders, natural historians, and conservationists alike.
This book is a softcover, 9" x 12", with 208 pages, 38 color photographs and 41 line art illustrations.
Rising from sandbars on the Platte River with clarion calls, the sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) feels the urgency of spring migration. Elegant, noble, and spiritual, the sandhill crane is one of the most ancient of all birds. More than a half-million strong, flying in squadrons, these majestic creatures point northward to their Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding ranges.Theirs is an epic story of endurance through the ages.
With 153 stunning color photographs, On Ancient Wings presents sandhill cranes in their wild but increasingly compromised habitats today. Over the course of five years, Michael Forsberg documented the tall gray birds in habitats ranging from the Alaskan tundra to the arid High Plains, from Cuban nature preserves to suburban backyards. With an eye for beauty and an uncommon persistence, the author documents the cranes’ challenges to adapt and survive in a rapidly changing natural world. Forsberg argues that humankind, for its own sake, should secure the cranes’ place in the future. On Ancient Wings intertwines the lives of cranes, people, and their common places to tell an ancient story at a time when sandhill cranes and their wetland and grassland habitats face daunting prospects.
The Great Plains were once among the greatest grasslands on the planet. But as the United States and Canada grew westward, the Plains were plowed up, fenced in, overgrazed, and otherwise degraded. Today, this fragmented landscape is the most endangered and least protected ecosystem in North America. But all is not lost on the prairie.Through lyrical photographs, essays, historical images, and maps, the beautifully illustrated Great Plains - America's Lingering Wild gets beneath the surface of the Plains, revealing the lingering wild that still survives and whose diverse natural communities, native creatures, migratory traditions, and natural systems together create one vast and extraordinary whole.
Three broad geographic regions in Great Plains are covered in detail, evoked in the unforgettable and often haunting images taken by Michael Forsberg. Between the fall of 2005 and the winter of 2008, Forsberg traveled roughly 100,000 miles across 12 states and three provinces, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, to complete the photographic fieldwork for this project, underwritten by The Nature Conservancy. Complementing Forsberg’s images and firsthand accounts are essays by Great Plains scholar David Wishart and acclaimed writer Dan O’Brien. Each section of the book begins with a thorough overview by Wishart, while O’Brien—a wildlife biologist and rancher as well as a writer—uses his powerful literary voice to put the Great Plains into a human context, connecting their natural history with man’s uses and abuses.
The Great Plains are a dynamic but often forgotten landscape—overlooked, undervalued, misunderstood, and in desperate need of conservation. This book helps lead the way forward, informing and inspiring readers to recognize the wild spirit and splendor of this irreplaceable part of the planet.
Take a look inside the lives of sandhill cranes with this informative little book put together by Rowe's former Education Director, Keanna Leonard, and volunteer Caryl McHarney. Private Lives of Sandhill Cranes focuses on crane behavior, but includes lots of interesting facts about sandhill cranes and cranes in general.
How would you feel if you didn't have a name? This idea spurred Mary Henning and Bob Heiden to collaborate and create I Wish … I Had a Name, a 26-page illustrated children’s picture book. This is a story about a river that didn’t have a name. All of the animals that had names would come along and talk to the river. The story developed as the animals picked a name for the river. By the end of the book, all readers will cherish their own special names!
This Nature Discovery Journal is perfect for young and old explorers. Tuck your journal inside the included 8” tote with 18” strap before you head out to explore. Then record your observations in the 6” x 5” brown paper journal There’s even room to store the leaves and flowers you collect in one of the journal’s six pockets. Before you know it, you will have a memorable record of all of your observations!
Recommended for ages 5 and up.
A comprehensive book on Rowe Sanctuary, which sits strategically along the central Platte River near Gibbon, Neb., located at the nexus of the migration routes for up to 600,000 sandhill cranes each spring.
Features of the Rowe Sanctuary book include
These laminated pamphlet guides are easy to use and small enough to fit in your back pocket. There are 3 guides available: Sandhill Crane Display Dictionary, Nebraska Birds, and Nebraska Trees and Wildflowers.
For avian enthusiasts, from armchair observers to dedicated life-listers, this brilliant book from acclaimed National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore celebrates the beauty of all birds, great and small. This elegantly packaged celebration of birds from around the world unites incredible animal portraits from Joel Sartore's distinguished National Geographic Photo Ark project with inspiring text by up-and-coming birder Noah Strycker. It includes hundreds of species, from tiny finches to charismatic eagles; brilliant toucans, intricate birds of paradise, and perennial favorites such as parrots, hummingbirds, and owls also make colorful appearances. Everyone who cares about birds--from the family with a bird feeder outside the kitchen window to the serious birder with a life list of thousands--will flock to this distinctive and uplifting book.
A pair of piping plovers struggle to raise their young on a beach where humans and their influence threaten both parents and chicks. Biologists help out by erecting a protective exclosure and all survive. Readers learn the importance of habitat for wild animals.
Cranes can soar with your support!