Birding Is My Favorite Video Game

Birding is My Favorite Video Game is a collection of fun, quasi-educational comics combining weird science, cute visuals, sweet wit, and a strong environmental message. Based on the popular webcomic Bird and Moon, this collection brings facts about birds, bees, and insects to life in the quirkiest, most wonderful way.

The Second Edition of this practical and comprehensive resource offers a multitude of ways to incorporate literature into teaching and learning across a range of disciplines. Future and practicing teachers, librarians, instructional coaches, and school leaders can implement the ideas within this text to improve the literacy skills and knowledge of students, while also addressing standards and curricular goals of various content areas. The new edition recognizes a paradigm shift from content areas to disciplines, reflecting the specific ways reading and writing are used in different fields of study. Updated with current research and practices, the volume recommends and evaluates books in different genres and categories, with chapters on informational books; fiction; biography and memoir; poetry; and hands-on and how-to books. For every category, Kane provides a rationale, instructional strategies, and author studies, as well as lists and descriptions of books related to curricular areas. With a wealth of activities and new BookTalks, this Second Edition is greatly revised and features expanded attention to technology, digital learning, diversity, and culture. Using this text will create opportunities for deep discussions and will stimulate students’ interest and motivation to read and learn. Integrating Literature in the Disciplines helps educators identify books that fit with any subject to enhance the creative and affective dimensions of school life; encourages interdisciplinary connections; and increases the depth and relevance of lessons. It is ideal for professional development and serves as a tool for Readers’ Advisory to match books with readers throughout the school day and beyond.

Join two best friends—a mole and vole—on their everyday expeditions to find beautiful plants, meet new animals, and learn more about the world all around them in this nonfiction graphic novel. Each day, Mole and Vole venture out into the world – never forgetting their nature journal! – to see what they can find in their own backyard. From pigeons and jumping spiders to swamp milkweed and maple trees, these two explorers get to know every part of their local environment. But after an accidental move from the country to the city, Mole and Vole worry that everything will be different. As they explore, they discover plants to look at and animals to meet in their new home as well. The story of these two best friends brings to life a nonfiction adventure of finding wonder in nature everywhere – no matter where you live. This book concludes with fun activities for kids to do at home.

Learn to identify 20 backyard birds. Illustrations painted by ornithologist David Allen Sibley.

The story of how the associate editor of Birding magazine set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world’s birds in one year. In 2015, for 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, Noah Strycker traveled across forty-one countries and all seven continents, eventually spotting 6,042 species—by far the biggest birding year on record. This is no travelogue or glorified checklist. Noah ventures deep into a world of chronic sleep deprivation, airline snafus, breakdowns, mudslides, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, conservation triumphs, common and iconic species, and scores of passionate bird lovers around the globe. By pursuing the freest creatures on the planet, he gains a unique perspective on the world they share with us—and offers a hopeful message that even as many birds face an uncertain future, more people than ever are working to protect them. “Birding Without Borders is light-hearted and filled with stories of exotic birds, risky adventures, and colorful birding companions.”—New York Times Book Review “Highly recommended for anyone interested in travel, natural history, and adventure.”—Library Journal “Even readers who wouldn’t know a marvellous spatuletail from a southern ground hornbill will be awed by Strycker’s achievement and appreciate the passion with which he pursues his interest.”—Publishers Weekly

Part field guide, part history, part ornithology primer, and altogether fun. Fact: Pigeons are amazing, and until recently, humans adored them. We’ve kept them as pets, held pigeon beauty contests, raced them, used them to carry messages over battlefields, harvested their poop to fertilize our crops—and cooked them in gourmet dishes. Now, with The Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching, readers can rediscover the wonder. Equal parts illustrated field guide and quirky history, it covers behavior: Why they coo; how they flock; how they preen, kiss, and mate (monogamously); and how they raise their young (on chunky pigeon milk). Anatomy and identification, from Birmingham Roller to the American Giant Runt to the Scandaroon. Birder issues, like what to do if you find a baby pigeon stranded in the park. And our lively shared story together, including all the things we’ve taught them—Ping-Pong, for example. “Rats with wings?” Think again. Pigeons coo, peck and nest all over the world, yet most of us treat them with indifference or disdain. So Rosemary Mosco, a bird-lover, science communicator, writer, and cartoonist (and co-author of The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid) is here to give the pigeon's image a makeover, and to help every town- and city-dweller get closer to nature by discovering the joys of birding through pigeon-watching.

It is never too late to become a birder. The materials available for the beginning bird watcher/birder are designed to make taking up the pastime easy. Today’s binoculars and spotting scopes are much improved on those available thirty years ago. Websites like eBird can help keep track of bird sightings and let the novice know when and where to find more birds. Applications like Merlin help with visual and sound identification. Field guides are now fully illustrated with colour plates as opposed to a few pages in the oldest field guides. If you have ever thought you would like to know more about birding this could be the introduction you have been seeking.