The Scissortail

Beautifully illustrated with color photographs, maps, graphs, and tables, the Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas offers ornithologists and amateur birders alike a wealth of easy-to-read information about the status of bird species in Oklahoma. A companion to the Oklahoma Breeding Bird Atlas, this landmark volume by biologist Dan L. Reinking provides a detailed portrait of more than 250 species, from the oft-spotted Red-tailed Hawk, Dark-eyed Junco, and Northern Flicker to the rarely seen Blue-headed Vireo, Cassin’s Finch, and Verdin. The atlas—one of the first of its kind for winter birds—uses a combination of species accounts, grouped by scientific order, and illustrations to provide a systematic inventory of winter bird distribution across Oklahoma’s counties. Each species account includes a photograph of the featured bird in winter plumage, along with a brief description outlining the times of year it appears in the state, its habitat, its distribution across the state’s counties, and its behavior. Maps indicate surveyed locations in which the species was spotted, while charts and tables further describe the bird's abundance. The data compiled in this volume represent the work of more than 75 volunteers who conducted bird counts in both early and late winter for the George M. Sutton Avian Research Center. The data span five winters, 2003 to 2008, and 577 blocks of land. Comprehensively researched and thoughtfully presented, the Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas will prove an invaluable resource for evaluating trends in bird populations that change over time due to such factors as urban expansion, rural development, and climate change.

This book focuses on a strip of coastal prairie lying roughly between Corpus Christi and Galveston and once inhabited by the poorly known and much maligned Karankawa Indians. This region serves the author as home base for excursions to other sections of Texas and as background for an exposition of his philosophy, providing a convenient local setting for entertaining and informative essays on wildlife, soil, human skin, goats, and other topics suggested by a wide-ranging intellect.

We know by the calendar when springs officially begins, but how does nature tell us spring has come? In Heralds of Spring in Texas Roland H. Wauer walks us through Texas, from the Rio Grands to the panhandle, as spring arrives.

Since Roy Bedichek's influential Adventures with a Texas Naturalist, no book has attempted to explore the uniqueness of Texas nature, or reflected the changes in the human landscape that have accelerated since Bedichek's time. Pride of Place updates Bedichek's discussion by acknowledging the increased urbanization and the loss of wildspace in today's state. It joins other recent collections of regional nature writing while demonstrating what makes Texas uniquely diverse. These fourteen essays are held together by the story of Texas pride, the sense that from West Texas to the Coastal Plains, we and the landscape are important and worthy of pride, if not downright bravado. This book addresses all the major regions of Texas. Beginning with Roy Bedichek's essay "Still Water," it includes Carol Cullar and Barbara "Barney" Nelson on the Rio Grande region of West Texas, John Graves's evocative "Kindred Spirits" on Central Texas, Joe Nick Patoski's celebration of Hill Country springs, Pete Gunter on the Piney Woods, David Taylor on North Texas, Gary Clark and Gerald Thurmond on the Coastal Plains, Ray Gonzales and Marian Haddad on El Paso, Stephen Harrigan and Wyman Meinzer on West Texas, and Naomi Shihab Nye on urban San Antonio. This anthology will appeal not only to those interested in regional history, natural history, and the environmental issues Texans face, but also to all who say gladly, "I'm from Texas."

In these contemporary romances from Lisa Wingate, four women find love, hope, and unexpected adventures on the shores of Moses Lake, Texas. Includes four novels in one volume: 1 Larkspur Cove 2 Blue Moon Bay 3 Firefly Island 4 Wildwood Creek

The dozen tales in this book were collected from Guatemalan informants early in the twentieth century recorded in the words of the storytellers. They come down to us unfiltered by anthropologists, writers, or professional folklorists. The tales make up a fascinating collection that informs in significant and creative ways how the Maya view their world and how they were engaged with the greater world around them in insightful and often humorous ways. They offer transformations, ogres, anthropomorphic animals, mountains and caves, and supernatural explanations for natural phenomena, along with the origins of modes of dress and behavior, medical rituals, and tales that carry folk interpretations of the Popul Vuh, the ancient Maya creation myth. Elin C. Danien's introductory essay includes biographical information about the collectors, suggestions of pre-Columbian roots for the tales, and a history of the previous restricted publication. Her explanations of cultural behavior enhance the human qualities of the actors without transgressing the storytellers. The early date of these tales makes the book extremely unusual and fresh.