North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring.

This is a unique account of an ornithologist's journey to trace the spring migration of songbirds from the southern border of the United States through the heartland and into Canada. North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring begins in late March, when Bruce Beehler sets off on a solo 4-month trek to track the spring migration of songbirds as they progress northward across America. Traveling by car, canoe, bike, and on foot, Beehler follows warblers and other neotropical songbird species from the southern border of Texas, where many birds first arrive along the Gulf of Mexico as they complete the first segment of their migration from their winter ranges in South America, Central America, or the Caribbean.

Beeler describes in beautiful detail his advance with the songbirds as they surge northward through the Mississippi River Valley to its headwaters in northern Minnesota, then onward to nesting ranges in the north woods of Ontario. In North on the Wing, Beehler describes both the epic migration of songbirds across the country and the gradual dawning of springtime through the American heartland – the blossoming of wildflowers, the chorusing of frogs, the leafing of forest canopies – and he also tells the stories of the people and institutions dedicated to studying and conserving the habitats critical for migrating songbirds.

Part travelogue, part field journal, and part environmental and cultural history, North on the Wing is a fascinating first-hand account of a once-in-a-lifetime journey. Inspired in part by Edwin Way Teale’s landmark 1951 book North with the Spring, this book engages readers in the wonders of spring migration and serves as a call for the need to conserve, restore, and expand bird habitats and to preserve them for future generations of birds and humans. Illustrated by the remarkable art of John Anderton, this wonderful spring read was published by Smithsonian Books.

For more information about North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring, see North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring | Bruce M. Beehler (buteobooks.com)