| Description |
1 online resource : maps |
| Contents |
Part One: The Atlantic Coast. 1. Brevard County, 1925 -- 2. The Scrub Whisperer -- 3. Island-Hopping -- 4. Kennedy Space Center -- 5. Tel 4 -- Part Two: The Gulf Coast. 6. Sarasota County -- 7. Death by a Million Nicks -- 8. The Scrub-Jays of Bone Valley -- 9. Love of Life -- Part Three: The Lake Wales Ridge. 10. Journey to Venus -- 11. Lake Placid -- 12. Scrub-Jays in the Neighborhood -- 13. The Gould Road Scrub -- Part Four: Ocala National Forest. 14. Big Enough to Dream -- 15. Voices We Shall Never Hear |
| Summary |
The only bird species that lives exclusively in Florida, the Florida scrub-jay was once common across the peninsula. But as development over the last 100 years reduced the habitat on which the bird depends from 39 counties to three, the species became endangered. With a writer's eye and an explorer's spirit, Mark Walters travels the state to report on the natural history and current predicament of Florida's flagship bird. Tracing the millions of years of evolution and migration that led to the development of songbirds and this unique species of jay, Walters describes the Florida bird's long, graceful tail, its hues that blend from one to the next, and its notoriously friendly manner. He then focuses on the massive land-reclamation and canal-building projects of the twentieth century that ate away at the ancient oak scrub heartlands where the bird was abundant, reducing its population by 90 percent. Walters also investigates conservation efforts taking place today. On a series of field excursions, he introduces the people who are leading the charge to save the bird from extinction--those who gather for annual counts of the species in fragmented and overlooked areas of scrub; those who relocate populations of scrub-jays out of harm's way; those who survey and purchase land to create wildlife refuges; and those who advocate for the prescribed fires that keep scrub ecosystems inhabitable for the species. A loving portrayal of a very special bird, Florida Scrub-Jay is also a thoughtful reflection on the ethical and emotional weight of protecting a species in an age of catastrophe. Now is the time to act, says Walters, or we will lose the scrub-jay forever |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-158) and index |
| Notes |
Mark Jerome Walters, a professional journalist and veterinarian, is author of the widely acclaimed books A Shadow and a Song, Six Modern Plagues, and Seeking the Sacred Raven. His writing has been praised by The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Nature and numerous other scholarly and popular publications. Dr. Walters is director of the M.A. in Digital Journalism and Design at the University of South Florida. He has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard Medical School and an associate at Harvard's Center for Health and the Global Environment. He speaks frequently on the subject of communicating science to the lay public. Dr. Walters' reporting and writing have taken him to Africa, Asia, throughout South America and Europe, Canada and to all fifty states. He received an undergraduate degree in English literature from McGill University; a master's from the Columbia University School of Journalism; and a D.V.M. from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine |
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Print version record |
| Subject |
Florida scrub jay -- Conservation
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Florida scrub jay -- Geographical distribution
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Rare birds -- Florida
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Endangered species -- Florida
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Endangered species
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Rare birds
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Florida
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780813065731 |
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0813065739 |
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