Nature Detective: British Trees


Book Description

Easy-to-follow identification guides for children about the most common trees found in Britain today. Full descriptions of the trees, along with their scientific name, size, family and habitat, will ensure you can recognise which tree is which. Stunning large colour photographs of the trees, their leaves, seeds and fruits, will help with easy identification. Perfect for the National Curriculum, this book includes information about broadleaved trees and conifers, explaining the difference between deciduous trees and evergreens, and looks at how the parts of trees, from the leaves and bark to seeds and berries. Includes a fun step-by-step activity to help you create your own tree guide. Become a nature detective and explore the natural world around you. If you enjoy this book, then why not search out the other titles in this series: British Birds; British Mammals; British Insects; British Wild Flowers; British Insects, Urban Wildlife and British Seashore. Features the following trees: English Oak, Turkey Oak, Sessile Oak, Aspen, White Willow, Weeping Willow, Pussy Willow, Crack Willow, Common Osier, Black Poplar, White Poplar, Silver Birch, Alder, Hazel, Hornbeam, Common Beech, Common Ash, Elder, Holly, Common Lime, Large-leave Lime, Small-leaved Lime, London Plane, Rowan, Horse Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut, Field Maple, Sycamore, Yew, Wych Elm, English Elm, Whitebeam, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Wild Cherry, Common Pear, Common Juniper, Walnut, Magnolia, Norway Spruce, Larch, Douglas Fir, Scots Pine, Sitka Spruce, Cedar, Monkey Puzzle Tree.




Nature Detective: British Wild Flowers


Book Description

An easy-to-follow identification guide for children to more than 50 of the most common wild flowers found in Britain today. Concise and clear descriptions of distinguishing features such as colour, leaf size and shape, habitat, berries and flowers, will help you to recognise which flower is which. Beautiful, large colour photographs will help make identification easy. Includes information about the parts of a flower, plant life cycles, photosynthesis and looks at why wild flowers need to be protected. Follow a fun and simple step-by-step activity to make your own wild flower window-box, hanging basket or garden. Become a nature detective and explore the natural world around you. If you enjoy this book, then why not search out the other titles in this series: British Birds; British Mammals; British Trees; British Insects; British Butterflies; Urban Widlife and British Seashore. Features the following flowers: Common Mallow; Red Campion; Ragged-Robin; Field Bindweed; Heather; Rosebay Willowherb, Foxglove; Harebell; Common Comfrey; Tufted Vetch; Teasel; Spear Thistle; Common Poppy; Scarlet Pimpernel; Meadow Buttercup; Creeping Buttercup; Common Bird's-foot-trefoil; Dandelion; Perforate St John's Wort; Tansy; Wild Daffodil; Yellow Iris; Lesser Celandine; Marsh-marigold; Shepherd's Purse; Cuckoo Flower; Dog-Rose; Bramble; Wild Strawberry; Meadowsweet; Cow Parsley; Hemlock; Yarrow; White Clover; Common Daisy; Oxeye Daisy; Garlic Mustard; Ramsons; Wood Anemone; Lily-of-the-Valley; Common Snowdrop; Cleavers; Stinging Nettle; White Deadnettle; Field Forget-Me-Not; Viper's Bugloss; Bluebell; Cornflower.




Finding the Mother Tree


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the world's leading forest ecologist who forever changed how people view trees and their connections to one another and to other living things in the forest—a moving, deeply personal journey of discovery Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in paperback, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths--that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own. Simard writes--in inspiring, illuminating, and accessible ways—how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies--and at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them. And Simard writes of her own life, born and raised into a logging world in the rainforests of British Columbia, of her days as a child spent cataloging the trees from the forest and how she came to love and respect them. And as she writes of her scientific quest, she writes of her own journey, making us understand how deeply human scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology, that it is about understanding who we are and our place in the world.




Nature Detective: British Trees


Book Description

Find out about more than 50 of the most common trees found in Britain today. Full descriptions of the trees, along with their scientific name, size, family and habitat, will ensure you can recognise which tree is which. Beautiful large colour photographs of the trees, their leaves, seeds and fruits, will help with easy identification. Includes information about broadleaved trees and conifers, explaining the difference between deciduous trees and evergreens, and looks at how the parts of trees, from the leaves and bark to seeds and berries, can help you to recognise each tree. You can also follow a step-by-step activity to help you create your own tree guide. Become a nature detective and explore the natural world around you. If you enjoy this book, then why not search out the other titles in this series: British Birds; British Mammals; British Insects; British Wild Flowers and British Seashore. Features the following trees: English Oak, Turkey Oak, Sessile Oak, Aspen, White Willow, Weeping Willow, Pussy Willow, Crack Willow, Common Osier, Black Poplar, White Poplar, Silver Birch, Alder, Hazel, Hornbeam, Common Beech, Common Ash, Elder, Holly, Common Lime, Large-leave Lime, Small-leaved Lime, London Plane, Rowan, Horse Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut, Field Maple, Sycamore, Yew, Wych Elm, English Elm, Whitebeam, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Wild Cherry, Common Pear, Common Juniper, Walnut, Magnolia, Norway Spruce, Larch, Douglas Fir, Scots Pine, Sitka Spruce, Cedar, Monkey Puzzle Tree.




Nature Detective: Coarse Fishing


Book Description

Learn how to fish with this easy-to-follow guide. Tips show you the best places to fish, the equipment you'll need and give useful tips. Find out about the most common fish found in Britain today. Full descriptions of each, along with their scientific name, size, family and food. Beautiful, large colour photographs will make identification easy. Become a nature detective and explore the natural world around you. If you enjoy this book, then why not search out the other titles in this series: British Birds; British Mammals; British Trees; British Wild Flowers and British Insects. Easy-to-follow identification guides for nature lovers, this handy series will help children and adults to become nature detectives




In Search of the Canary Tree


Book Description

The award-winning and surprisingly hopeful story of one woman's search for resiliency in a warming world Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment. Eloquent, insightful, and deeply heartening, In Search of the Canary Tree is a case for hope in a warming world.




The Weather Detective


Book Description

The internationally bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees shows how we can decipher nature's secret signs by studying the weather. The internationally bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees shows how we can decipher nature's secret signs by studying the weather. In this first-ever English translation of The Weather Detective, Peter Wohlleben uses his long experience and deep love of nature to help decipher the weather and our local environments in a completely new and compelling way. Analyzing the explanations for everyday questions and mysteries surrounding weather and natural phenomena, he delves into a new and intriguing world of scientific investigation. At what temperature do bees stay home? Why do southerly winds in winter often bring storms? How can birdsong or flower scents help you tell the time? These are among the many questions Wohlleben poses in his newly translated book. Full of the very latest discoveries, combined with ancient now-forgotten lore, The Weather Detective helps you read nature's secret signs and discover a rich new layer of meaning in the world around you.




Tree Thieves


Book Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION FINALIST FOR THE NELLIE BY CHANTICLEER INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FOR JOURNALISTIC NON-FICTION A gripping investigation of the billion-dollar timber black market “and a fascinating examination of the deep and troubled relationship between people and forests” (Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts). There's a strong chance that chair you are sitting on was made from stolen lumber. In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way. Old-growth trees are invaluable and irreplaceable for both humans and wildlife, and are the oldest living things on earth. But the morality of tree poaching is not as simple as we might think: stealing trees is a form of deeply rooted protest, and a side effect of environmental preservation and protection that doesn't include communities that have been uprooted or marginalized when park boundaries are drawn. As Bourgon discovers, failing to include working class and rural communities in the preservation of these awe-inducing ecosystems can lead to catastrophic results. Featuring excellent investigative reporting, fascinating characters, logging history, political analysis, and cutting-edge tree science, Tree Thieves takes readers on a thrilling journey into the intrigue, crime, and incredible complexity sheltered under the forest canopy.




Cuckoo


Book Description

A gifted biologist's careful and beguiling study of why cuckoos have got away with tricking other birds into hatching and raising their young for thousands of years. The familiar call of the common cuckoo, “cuck-oo,” has been a harbinger of spring ever since our ancestors walked out of Africa many thousands of years ago. However, for naturalist and scientist Nick Davies, the call is an invitation to solve an enduring puzzle: how does the cuckoo get away with laying its eggs in the nests of other birds and tricking them into raising young cuckoos rather than their own offspring? Early observers who noticed a little warbler feeding a monstrously large cuckoo chick concluded the cuckoo's lack of parental care was the result of faulty design by the Creator, and that the hosts chose to help the poor cuckoo. These quaint views of bad design and benevolence were banished after Charles Darwin proposed that the cuckoo tricks the hosts in an evolutionary battle, where hosts evolve better defenses against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve better trickery to outwit the hosts. For the last three decades, Davies has employed observation and field experiments to unravel the details of this evolutionary “arms race” between cuckoos and their hosts. Like a detective, Davies and his colleagues studied adult cuckoo behavior, cuckoo egg markings, and cuckoo chick begging calls to discover exactly how cuckoos trick their hosts. For birding and evolution aficionados, The Cuckoo is a lyrical and scientifically satisfying exploration of one of nature's most astonishing and beautiful adaptations.




Raptor Prey Remains


Book Description

Are you curious about the remains of an animal you have found? This compilation of the most likely found body parts of animals eaten by raptors will help you identify your discovery. Including over 100 species of bird and mammal prey of raptors such as sparrowhawks, peregrines and hen harriers, this photographic guide highlights the common feathers, fur and other body parts found at raptor nests, roosts, plucking posts and other opportunistic spots. Discovering what raptors eat is an important part of confirming their feeding ecology and how this might change over time, vary on a local level or in response to changing prey populations, as well as dispelling myths and assumptions about what certain raptor species eat. Diet studies are vital for the conservation of raptor species; the more we know about what they need for survival the more we can predict and plan long-term for the protection and survival of raptors that may be vulnerable and in decline. This is the first book to show in detail the actual parts of a bird, mammal or other animal that you are likely to find in a garden, woodland or beneath a raptor roost. As more people take an interest in raptors and watch species such as peregrines via webcams and through watch groups, there is greater opportunity for finding prey remains. This book provides the first and most important step in identifying a prey species.