The Cooper's Hawk presents the general reader and professional biologists interested in birds and nature, with an authoritative account of the breeding biology of the what is perhaps the most abundant, backyard breeding raptor in North America. This urban status exists despite cross-generational human persecution through shooting of individuals and indirect felling of forests, their apparent preferred nesting habitat. Using conversational prose, the natural history of the bird's diet, including bird feeder use and disease concerns, courtship behavior, and the ecological themes of breeding density, reproductive success, and adult survivorship are described. There too is a focus on how and why fieldwork is conducted on this ubiquitous city dweller who preys mostly on birds, or 'urban fast food.' How urban birds may differ from their rural counterparts is addressed, and especially highlighted is the novel aspect of reproductive deceit in this red-eyed, blue-backed predator, as, unlike all other birds of prey studied to date, it is highly promiscuous. The text is complemented with original art and especially crisp photographs that demonstrate this bird's natural history.
Описание: Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing examines the ways in which the Akimel O'odham ("River People") and their ancestors, the Huhugam, adapted to economic, political, and environmental constraints imposed by federal Indian policy, the Indian Bureau, and an encroaching settler population in Arizona's Gila River Valley. Fundamental to O'odham resilience was their connection to their sense of peoplehood and their Himdag ("lifeway"), which culminated in the restoration of their water rights and a revitalization of their Indigenous culture. Author Jennifer Bess examines the Akimel O'odham's worldview, which links their origins with a responsibility to farm the Gila River Valley and to honor their history of adaptation and obligations as "world-builders"--co-creators of an ever more life-sustaining environment and participants in flexible networks of economic exchange. Bess considers this worldview in context of the Huhugam-Akimel O'odham agricultural economy over more than a thousand years. Drawing directly on Akimel O'odham traditional ecological knowledge, innovations, and interpretive strategies in archives and interviews, Bess shows how the Akimel O'odham engaged in agricultural economy for the sake of their lifeways, collective identity, enduring future, and actualization of the values modeled in their sacred stories. Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing highlights the values of adaptation, innovation, and co-creation fundamental to Akimel O'odham lifeways and chronicles the contributions the Akimel O'odham have made to American history and to the history of agriculture. The book will be of interest to scholars of Indigenous, American Southwestern, and agricultural history.
For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed "overmined" and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling?particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.
Entering Die Sperrgebiet ("The Forbidden Zone") is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing--even eager--to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It's a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames "Mr. Lester," an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions.
From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the "halfway" desert, to Kleinzee's shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.
Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna's famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands.
Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank "reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look" (Toby Muse).
Автор: Spangler Jennifer Название: The World War II Pigeons and the Secret Columba Messages ISBN: 1478792116 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781478792116 Издательство: Неизвестно Цена: 3117.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: Unless someone publishes a similar book, The World War II Pigeons and the Secret Columba Messages will be the first collection of some of the Columba messages held at The National Archives, London. Residents of occupied Europe wrote the messages and pigeons delivered the messages to Britain. The British created Operation Columba to gather intelligence from occupied France, Holland, and Belgium. From 1941 to 1945, British aircraft dropped approximately 17,000 pigeons in small containers attached to small parachutes. Those who found the pigeon also found a questionnaire, rice paper, a pencil, and a set of instructions for how to attach the message to the pigeon. Under the German occupation, sending a message with a pigeon was a crime punishable by death. This made the messages a unique form of communication, because unlike diaries or letters, the writer had little time to reflect and make decisions about what to write. The longer someone kept a pigeon, the more likely they were to be discovered. People risked their lives to give information about ammo dumps, troop movements, BBC transmissions, radar stations, the morale of the German soldiers, airfields, and their personal experiences. Some messages contain copious amounts of military intelligence. Some messages include military intelligence and also expressions of frustration and despair. The World War II Pigeons and the Secret Columba Messages does not include introductions to or summaries of the messages. The reader can absorb the information and the emotions without the influence of a contemporary analysis. Perhaps this book would be useful in history courses. The book contains the report on the German reaction to Operation Columba. The Germans deployed falcons to kill the pigeons. They also used decoy pigeons. The Germans trained pigeons to fly back to German pigeon lofts and they outfitted them with counterfeit British message capsules. The message writer would reveal intelligence intended for the British, but t
Описание: Addresses essential recent developments in nonconvex analysis and its applications, and keeps a balance between major areas of theory, methods, and applications. Each chapter provides an illuminating exposition of state-of-the-art approaches to a specific topic, with discussions of the central contributions, and pointers to some basic references.
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