Annie Proulx, one of America's finest writers, invites us to share her experience in the building of her new home on a rich plot of untouched, unspoilt prairie & her pleasure in uncovering of the layers of American history locked beneath the topsoil. ' Bird Cloud' is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands & prairie & 400 foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer & a dozen antelope. She knew she had to purchase the l&, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, & she knew what she would build on it
- a house in harmony with her work, her appetites & her character
- a library surrounded by bedrooms & a kitchen. Proulx's first non-fiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of building that house
- solar panels, a Japanese soak tub, a concrete floor, elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets
- & an enthralling natural history & archeology of the region, inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho & Shoshone Indians. It is also a family history, going back to nineteenth century Mississippi river boat captains & Canadian settlers, & an illuminating autobiography. Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation & compassion, turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books & long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials & maps, & how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time.



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Features a thirty-year-old woman who still lives at home & anticipates the experience of a third date; a teenaged vegetarian supermarket cashier who struggles to scan a package of offal; & an inscrutable pelican in a crowded London park who decides to try something different for dinner. ...

Creating A Bird-Friendly Garden reveals just how easy it is to tempt birds to your garden. By following the clear advice given on the most suitable foods, the best plants & the benefits of providing nest-boxes, everyone can enjoy the beauty of birds in the garden. It also provides informative character descriptions of the most common garden birds that you are likely to see, giving details of their appearance, lifestyle & behaviour. ...

Offers ten simple & classic designs for building traditional birdhouses & feeders, & insights on creating the perfect backyard bird environment. This book

Includes:: complete plans for making basic, practical bird welcoming structures, accompanied by

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Many birders shy away from certain activities like sea-watching & seem to 'miss out' on some spectacular sights such as the migration of thousands of birds in the autumn because they find the birds too tricky to identify or haven't the field skills to get good views. This book will show birders of all levels how easy it can be. A Birdwatcher's Guide: Bird Identification & Fieldcraft aims to improve the skills of birders of all levels. Firstly, the book deals with identification & covers the approaches, explaining how to ID birds. It then moves on to a more advanced level, dealing with topics such as changing appearances throughout the year. Secondly, it turns its attention to fieldcraft, looking at specialist skills that all birders need & the birding year, providing details on what to do, what to look for & how to make the most of each season. superb photos & artworks, many specially commissioned, beautifully illustrate the text. This book will offer invaluable information, hints & tips usually only gleaned through years of experience & very rarely found in print form. ...

Goldie Hawn comedy triple. In ' Death Becomes Her' (1992), aging actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) is persuaded to take an elixir which brings her eternal life. Her rival for her husband Ernest's (Bruce Willis) affections, Helen Sharp (Hawn), has take ...

Add a beautiful touch to your card & papercraft making projects with these gorgeous Bird Paper Stickers.

This pack

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Whether you are a fanatic birdwatcher or just a keen nature lover, birds make a rich & satisfying subject for photography. From those that are graceful & powerful to those that are colourful or bizarre, birds provide an ever-inspiring wealth of subject-matter. While the techniques of bird photography can be practised & honed on your own doorstep, one of its great pleasures is the challenge of capturing rarer species further afield. This book offers advice on planning a trip & provides a comprehensive guide to what are, in the author ...

We can hear birdsong anywhere, whether we live in the city or in the country. Without the musical backdrop provided by our feathered friends, our gardens, parks, woods, fields & wetlands would be relatively silent
- & much the poorer for it. This easy-to-use package of book & CD offers insight into the secret world of birds.
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Bird Songs From Around the World, an international sequel the acclaimed Bird Songs; 250 North American Birds in Song, gathers singular birds from six continents in a gorgeous new volume. Drawing from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's renowned Macaulay Library collection, Bird Songs From Around the World features a sleek, digital audio module housing 200 songs & calls of the world's most notable birds, allowing you to hear sounds like the rollicking cadence of South America's Helmeted Manakin or the alarm call of an Asian Fairy-Bluebird. Celebrated bird biologist Les Beletsky provides a succinct account of each species' distinguishing features with an emphasis on its unique vocalizations. Complete with richly drawn portraits of each bird, plus lavish spreads depicting scenes from each region, this dynamic book brings birds from distant lands to life in your living room. ' The worldwide selection is a superb sample of the extraordinary variety of bird vocalizations, each one identified by concise text & a beautiful painting. Sit back & enjoy a journey around the world of birds, by sight & sound.
- Rob Hume, Editor BIRDS, the magazine of the Royal Society for the protection of Birds. Bird Song has been an inspiration to people throughout our shared history. Their songs can seem as sublime as the most accomplished musician's, & together their chorus becomes an impromptu symphony. The dawn comes up anywhere on Earth, & the sound of birds comes with it. This book is not only a visual pleasure, as it also means that you can listen to the magic of bird song from the comfort of your favourite armchair.'
- Ade Long, Head of Communications Birdlife International. ' Dazzling paintings of 200 of the world's most interesting birds are matched with true-to-life sound recordings that can be enjoyed at the push of a button. Here's a coffee-table book to be heard as well as seen!'
- Greg Butcher, Director of Bird Conservation National Audubon society.


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