Nature

More tales of family fun and run-ins with nature at the cottage.

In the sequel to Cottage Daze, James Ross is back with more tales from the family cottage. Organized by nature’s changing seasons and containing sections covering nature, family, activity, and the cottage, Ross combines wry humour with a genuine love for adventure and respect for the natural world — although the local wild animal population can try his patience.



Ross’s anecdotes are full of good spirits and sound advice, whether he is describing a visit from his daughter’s special friend ("The Boyfriend Cometh"), the tricky practices of boating ("Dressing Up for Kayaking"), or encounters with wildlife both big and small ("The Frog Whisperer"). This book is the perfect companion to the time-honoured tradition of wilderness family getaways.

As well as fun and relaxation, cottage living throughout the seasons is a reminder that all of us, even the most urbanized individual, are part of the natural world.

Listen carefully and you will hear cottage country whispering lessons that can make our lives less frenetic, less complicated. The mournful call of the loon, the wind sighing in the trees, the hammering of the pileated woodpecker remind us that we are a part of a more natural world too often lost in our urban societies.

Reflections from a still lake and a flickering campfire help us to realize that things might go easier for humankind if more issues were examined in softer, reflective light and without heated debate. People gathered at campfires, soothed by nature’s tranquility, tend to listen and be more thoughtful before they speak.

This book will bring you on a journey through four seasons of cottaging and show you that nature has a remarkable power to heal – it just needs the human race to give it a helping hand. Along the way it will introduce you to some tips and tricks for making cottage life more comfortable and enjoyable.

The comfort food of cottage life books — satisfying, unforgettable, and inevitably nostalgic.

Cottage Daze celebrates life at the cottage where the cottage is the main character, and family, friends, pets, and fellow cottagers are the supporting cast. Whether writing about cottage routine ("First Ski," "Of Mice and Men," "Cottage Guests"), cottage tasks ("Splitting Wood," "Boat Launch"), nature ("A Gathering of Loons," "The Sting," "Autumn Spell"), cottage fun ("The Cottage Duel"), or cottage touchstones ("Start the Day," "Bonfire," "The Perfect Storm"), the stories are told with humour, compassion, insight, and nostalgia.

Who doesn’t remember sitting in a frigid lake, trying to help a youngster get up on water skis for the first time, launching a boat while the whole world seems to be watching, or getting caught up in a nest of wasps? This collection of stories, elegantly organized into four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter), will make readers laugh, cry, and long to be at the cottage a "must have" for every cottage bookshelf.

Explore the connection between people and places on the rugged shore of Lake Superior, the world’s largest freshwater lake.

Conor Mihell offers a compelling image of Lake Superior’s Canadian shore through colourful personality sketches, adventure stories, and environmental accounts. Admire the kitschy decor of lighthouse cottager Maureen Robertson, a 76-year-old who spends six months of the year alone on a remote island; enter the debate over a controversial aggregate quarry in Wawa, Ontario; and learn how the author’s love affair with the world’s largest freshwater lake began on quests for a near-mystical, glacier-dropped monolith.

Mihell’s stories build on Lake Superior’s rich and varied history and support its critical place in Canadian culture. Since the beginning, Lake Superior has been revered for its God-like qualities of power, unpredictability, and a seemingly endless expanse of life-sustaining freshwater. The lake’s rugged yet fragile nature and hardscrabble characters and outpost communities define rural northwestern Canada. Experience it for yourself in this first collection of stories by one of the region’s most acclaimed journalists.

The Mazinaw, a place of striking natural beauty, is famous for Bon Echo Rock, a massive sheer cliff, dropping into one of Ontario's deepest lakes. The Mazinaw Experience traces the presence of human habitation on the shores of the Mazinaw from its earliest beginnings to the present, from the nomadic Aboriginal people who believed the cliff top to be a sacred place and the rugged lumbermen whose entrepreneurial zeal cleared out the mighty pine, to the settlers who struggled to create new lives for their families. Mini-profiles of personalities such as Johnny Bey and Billa Flint, along with stories involving colonization roads, the settlement towns, the mining and the coming of the railway, provide insights into the Mazinaw area of today. The memory of Bon Echo Inn lives on in Bon Echo Park, as does the legacy of Flora MacDonald and her son Merrill Denison.

Today, the Mazinaw area continues to grow in popularity.

Nature's Year in the Kawarthas is an almanac of key events occurring in the natural world over the course of a year in the Kawartha Lakes district -- and in cottage country in general. Covering all areas of our flora and fauna as well as weather and the night sky, the book is a month-by-month chronicle of the mileposts of the passing seasons. From the raucous Spring Peeper chorus of April ... through the sweet scent of milkweed blossoms in July ... and the early-morning mists of September ... to the arrival of the first eagles in December -- all are noted for your interest.

Whenever you head out on your next walk or look up at the stars, Nature's Year will be your informative guide. For each month, an introductory essay captures the spirit of the season, while an "at a glance" summary lists the key natural events occurring. Each category in the natural world -- from birds to the night sky -- is then covered in more detail. Finely detailed drawings complement the text.

Author Drew Monkman is a teacher in Peterborough, Ontario. An avid naturalist in the Kawartha Lakes area, he is past president of the Peterborough Field Naturalists.

From prospectors to politicians, promoters to profiteers, New Westminster's known them all. It is Western Canada's oldest city, aptly named by Queen Victoria as the first capital of the new colony of British Columbia. On the mighty Fraser River, it has survived gold rushes, loss of capital status, fire, flood, the Depression, and two world wars.

This collection of illuminating black and white photographs, artwork, and text shows how its tenacious citizens have thrived. It follows the city's festivals, traditions, organizations, people, and neighbourhoods. The city has both witnessed and been the centre of the fascinating events that shaped B.C. This multifaceted photographic history album depicts almost 150 years of the City of New Westminster.

Before becoming the oil capital of the nation, Calgary was a nineteenth-century boomtown in the heart of Alberta. The roots of great prosperity were growing, despite the fact that politicians and the general public believed the West was best left to the trapper and trader.

At the time of his death in 1907, John Waldie, founder of the Victoria Harbour Lumber Company, was identified as "the second largest lumber operator in Canada." A young Scottish immigrant who came to Wellington Square (now Burlington, Ontario) in 1842, he rose to prominence as a wealthy merchant and ship owner. In 1885 he entered the lumber business. Active in local and federal politics, and a friend of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, he invested capital in mills, people and forests.

Local history and genealogical connections are part of the Waldie story, headquartered at Victoria Harbour in Simcoe County. Documentation of the forest that the company logged, their nature, amount and sizes of logs harvested with the descriptions of the forests as they are now, throws new light and shatters some of the current myths.

This little-known story provides insights into days of rampant entrepreneurialism, the world of the lumber barons and the overall impact on our Ontario forests.

The 19th century spawned a unique breed of men who took pride in their woodsmen skills and rough codes of conduct. They called themselves lumberers, shantymen, timber beasts, les bucherron – and, more recently, lumberjacks, working in the vast forests of eastern Canada and British Columbia.

Across the country, farm boys would go to the woods, lumbering being the only winter work available. Immigrants – Swedes and Finns more often than not – resumed the trades they had learned so well in the forests of northern Europe. They broke the cold, hard monotony of camp life with songs, tall tales and card games.

Within these pages, author Donald MacKay allows us a glimpse into that moment in our heritage when men entered the virgin forest to carve out an industry from the seemingly endless array of pine, spruce, maple and balsam fir found there.

"[Donald] MacKay's book has many virtues. His prose is clean. He lets the surviving pioneers talk for themselves when they have something to say, but never allows them to get too windy. He separates legends and half-truths from facts ..."
– The Montreal Star

"... a superb marriage of text and pictures, a nostalgic but not sentimental discussion of one of Canada's primary industries, logging."
– The Globe and Mail

"It's marvellous material of a type often ignored by historians ... Such books may do more to help us understand ourselves than all the academic tomes together."
– Atlantic Insight

Quetico Park in northwestern Ontario celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. Long-recognized as a gem among parks, Quetico contains some of the largest stands of old-growth red and white pine in Canada , as well as a diversity of fascinating lichens, carnivorous plants in specialized habitats.

The author presents an insightful look into Quetico's natural history as he examines the adapations that have allowed moose, white-tailed deer, wolves and other mammals to survive. The human history of the park is also explored, beginning with the Objiwa living there when the area was designated as a park, followed by accounts of trappers, loggers, miners, park rangers, and poachers.

Beginning with the retreat of the glaciers, the author combines his thorough research into Quetico's long and varied history with the threads of his own extensive involvement with the park. The result is a splendid tribute to a very special place.

The Almaguin Highlands is a region that was once coveted for its game, silver birch and majestic white pine. For centuries this area stretched up to the shores of Lake Nipissing and embraced an unbroken forest that remained largely intact save where lakes, streams and beaver meadows punctuated the forest floor. In 1900, the northernmost areas of the District of Parry Sound were still not accessible by even a conventional roadway. Homesteaders, their claims precariously strung along the Pickerel River, relied on the waterway as their transportation route. What must it have been like at the outset for the lumbermen who cut down the white pine? And how did the settlers-those intrepid folk who trekked across the district with only the lumberjack's blazed trails for a guide-cope in the wilderness?

Almaguin Chronicles explores the relationship between lumbering and settlement throughout the Parry Sound District-the last frontier of this part of Ontario. Throughout, rare archival photographs and excerpts from unpublished memoirs augment the text.

Growing Up in the Oil Patch chronicles the adventures and achievements of some of the most colourful, ambitious people of their time: statesmen, scoundrels, visionaries and developers. Participants all in the growing oil patch!

The author presents a highly readable, informative and entertaining account of the early years in the development of Canada's gas and oil industry. Based upon five years of research, interviews, and his fortuitous discovery of a rare, historically important scribbler, John Schmidt traces the paths of two enterprising American-born drillers, "Frosty" Martin and "Tiny" Phillips, whose drive and ingenuity were encouraged by British and Canadian promoters and financiers. Their entrepreneurial spirit took them initially to Leamington, Ontario, and ultimately into the heart of the oil patch in Western Canada.

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel battered southern Ontario, leaving in its wake a terrible toll: thousands homeless, million in property damage, and, worst of all, 81 people dead. Hazel destroyed bridges, submerged towns, and drowned unsuspecting Ontarians in their homes and cars. Raymore Drive in Weston was decimated when the Humber River swelled by eight feet, taking the lives of 32 residents in only one hour. In Etobicoke, five volunteer firemen drowned while trying to reach marooned motorists. Towns and villages from Toronto north to Timmins felt Hazel's fury.

After the storm, people walked the now-surreal streets of their towns: cars upside-down and wrapped in power lines, iceboxes and dead cows hanging from trees, houses flattened, toys and furniture floating down the street.

On the 50th anniversary of the storm, Jim Gifford has captured that fatal night in the voices of those who survived it, from residents who lived along the surging Humber River to a policeman who rescued families from their rooftops to firemen and Boy Scouts who searched for victims along the riverbanks. Including more than 100 never-before-published photographs, Hurricane Hazel: Canada's Storm of the Century documents one of the worst natural disasters in Canadian history.

Poison Ivy Acres, 250 acres of wilderness in Renfrew County, Ontario, long dedicated to the preservation of natural habitat, has been home to nature writer Carol Bennett McCuaig for many years. Her keen powers of observation, coupled with her insights into wildlife behaviour and her evocative writing style, have produced this captivating collection of stories.

Whether noting the courtship rituals of turkey vultures and red foxes or finding a black bear on her roof, an ermine in her bedroom, and a cougar on her lawn, Carol is always surrounded by the delights and challenges of living in a wilderness setting. Even night visitors bring joy, including flying squirrels at the bird feeder, a whippoorwill peering in a window, and a midnight standoff between a porcupine and a skunk.

Encountering the Wild is a delightful book that will appeal to country lovers in Canada and beyond.

How fitting to close out the 20th century with a brand new edition of Pearls & Pebbles by the noted chronicler of pioneer life, Catharine Parr Traill. Published in 1894, Pearls & Pebbles is an unusual book with a lasting charm, in which the author’s broad focus ranges from the Canadian natural environment to early settlement of Upper Canada. Through Traill’s eyes, we see the life of the pioneer woman, the disappearance of the forest, and the corresponding changes in the life of the Native Canadians who have inhabited that forest.

Editor Elizabeth Thompson reminds us of the significance of the writings by Traill, the aged author/naturalist, who felt that the hours spent gathering the pebbles and pearls from her notebooks and journals written in the backwoods of Canada was not time wasted.

Charles G.D. Roberts’s fame rests on a series of very popular animal stories.

Charles G.D. Roberts was a distinguished writer of his time who published more than forty volumes of poetry, romance fiction, and nature writing – making him one of the most popular writers of his time. He pioneered the animal story in which he went beyond surface elements of nature and endowed his animal "characters" with qualities of feeling and intelligence that brought them closer to their human cousins. Roberts’ career as a writer transcended his Canadian roots and he was internationally known and popular in America and England.

What was particularly appreciated by his readers was Roberts’ close observation of nature and his efforts to endow animals with emotions and understand their mental processes. By 1932, Kindred of the Wild had been re-issued twenty-three times, attesting to its ongoing appeal. Roberts was knighted for his contribution to literature and his services in the Allied cause in the First World War.

My feet are practising their steps, gauging the slipperiness of wet lichen on rock and sounding each landing. As my stride shifts to a swing I realize I have a sharper sense of my place in the woods now. I am as taut and limber as a bow-string. I sense bears in the woods, weigh their threat and move on, glorying in the mosses beneath my feet ... We in the woods share fear. By grace of my fear, I am closer to predators and prey.

The View From Foley Mountain is a celebration of the joy of living in harmony with the natural world. The seasonal selections lead you through the fields, woods, rock outcroppings and shores of the conservation area which is the author's home.

You will savour the fragrance of maple syrup boiling, share in a summer heron census, snowshoe to a beaver lodge, watch a snapping turtle laying eggs, witness the death of a starving deer, and see turkey vultures soar.

Whether she is rejoicing in old barns, canoeing the Snake River, harvesting dye plants or stalking moths at night, Peri Phillips McQuay's deep love and lyrical vision stimulate you to share her sense of wonder in her surroundings.

The Rouge River Valley, eleven thousand acres of urban wilderness, is a unique, yet very fragile and transient natural phenomenon existing within the confines of a major North American city, Toronto. Fed by the Oak Ridges Moraine, the Rouge river system has, over generations of time, cut its identity into the land, shaping the habitat for a multitude of lifeforms, many of which are now either threatened or gone.

Author James E. Garratt, a seasoned environmentalist, shares two decades of personal observation and ecological study to reveal the richness and flow of seasonal changes in this exceptional urban park. This "portrait" of a year in the Rouge Valley explores not only the diversity of life in its natural habitat but also the impact of urban sprawl and the inevitable conflict with development.

Is it possible to be a true naturalist "grounded" in a modern city? The words of Ian McHarg, an urban planner, hold true: "We need nature as much in the city as in the country."

Remembering the Don is a tribute to the things "that used to be." Of Mississauga Indians encamped along a sprawling river teeming with salmon, red-coated Militia regiments, and courageous pioneer men and women from widely differing backgrounds.

In later times the Don Valley and the river Don were to attract a host of outstanding naturalists, authors and artists. Through their combined talents and energy, word and evidence of the history and beauty of the Don Valley spread far beyond its physical environs.

With the publication of Remembering the Don, Charles Sauriol assumes his rightful role as one of the Don Valley's greatest champions.

"I remember them as though they had happened yesterday."

So writes author-naturalist Charles Sauriol in reference to his many memorable experiences within Toronto's Don River Valley. From Scout outings in 1920 to pioneer cottaging, train excursions, maple syrup making, beekeeping and countless other activities, the author's long association with the Don makes for fascinating reading in this sequel to his earlier book, Remembering the Don.

Tales of the Don provides for Toronto residents and visitors alike a picture window through which they may see the valley as it was years ago. A vital part of a great city's heritage has been preserved thanks to Charles Sauriol's foresight, tenacity and unshakeable love of subject. Once again "The King of the Don Valley," in his quaint and refreshing way, has written a book that will delight his sizeable following and undoubtedly gain for him many new readers.

From Burleigh to Boschink: A Community Called Stony Lake covers over a hundred years of human history, encompassing the Aboriginal Peoples, their presence and influence, early settlement and cottaging activity up to the present time. Family stories, local lore, boats and steamers, recreational opportunities, personalities and environmental concerns are all presented through the writings, the voices and the memories of those who were there and, in some cases, still are. Richly supported by rare photographs and other visuals of Stony Lake, this publication will bring delight to many.

This important book is a must for everyone concerned with the heritage and future of Canada's parks. Contributors include an impressive assembly of noted park experts ranging from academic authorities and government parks personnel to concerned nonpolitical park supporters. Since the establishment of Banff National Park in 1885 and Algonquin Provincial Park in 1893, parklands have been part of Canada's heritage. Where other protected areas, such as forest reserves, heritage rivers and greenways, have also been created, a more comprehensive view of the creation and management of conservation areas and marshland is discussed. Cooperative approaches to park management recognize the regional context of parks with respect to local communities, as well as the inclusion of more diverse groups of people, particularly Aboriginals. This work encourages the general public to take an interest in our priceless park heritage.

This book in itself is testimony to transition in the affairs of the north circumpolar region. Written in 1988 and updated in 1990, the papers assembled here have been overtaken by events. Non-military or civil requirements thus seemed to warrant a new and far more important place in our understanding of security. It's appopriate to explore not only the potential of civil cooperation in countering the force of militarism, but the utility of a comprehensive conception of Arctic security. This book will look at how these views fare, once we've had a look at the region and its problems.

Ebb and Flow was named one of 2007's "best science books" by Peter Calamai, science editor of the Toronto Star [Dec. 30, 2007]. He calls it a "wonderful resource book…. Tom Koppel seems to have visited or read about every place with unusual tides and water currents, yet he wears this scholarship lightly."

Tides have shaped our world. They have carved out shorelines, transformed early life on Earth, and altered the course of human civilization. Tides frustrated Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and aided General MacArthur. They govern the way our planet moves, provide us with an alternative source of energy, and may be aggravating global climate change.

Drawing on science, history, and personal memories, Koppel's fascinating book engages and enlightens, demonstrating that a subject we take for granted affects all our lives. He weaves together three grand narratives, exploring how tides impact coasts and marine life, how they have altered human history and development, and how science has striven to understand the surprisingly complex way in which tides actually work.

Short-listed for the 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards for Best Non-Fiction and Best Book

The stories in Coming Home are as surprising as the landscape of Saskatchewan itself and as varied as its weather. Through the author's reminiscences, we experience prairie life as it was more than sixty years ago, and as it is today. A rich cast of characters appears - neighbours, drunks, misfits - all with a place in the story. These are the tales of a father who lived hard, failed often, and was loved much, of a mother who was an artist at heart but became a teacher and farmer's wife through circumstance. We visit a prairie dance hall with a floor that rests on horsehair, encounter death, baptize a child, participate in a nude massage. We view sex from a farm boy's perspective, learn of home brew and cabbage rolls, eat breakfast with friends, and meet the author's favourite waitress. A sense of awe and wonder emerges through encounters with the land and the unfolding of the changing seasons.

The most ancient and least disturbed forest ecosystem in eastern North America clings to the vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. Prior to 1988 it had escaped detection even though the entire forest was in plain view and was being visited by thousands upon thousands of people every year. The reason no one had discovered the forest was that the trees were relatively small and lived on the vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. The Last Stand reveals the complete account of the discovery of this ancient forest, of the miraculous properties of the trees forming this forest (eastern white cedar), and of what is was like for researchers to live, work and study within this forest. The unique story is told with text, with stunning colour photographs and through vivid first-hand accounts. This book will stand the test of time as a testament to science, imagination and discovery.

Nature First combines the Scandinavian approach to creating a relationship with nature (known as friluftsliv) with efforts by Canadian and international educators to adapt this wisdom and apply it to everyday life experiences in the open air. The word friluftsliv literally refers to "free-air life" or outdoor life. A word saturated with values, the concept can permeate deeply and playfully into one’s cultural being and personal psyche, thus influencing the way one perceives and interacts with nature on a daily basis.

For centuries, the North American approach has been one of domination and bringing nature under control, in many cases abusing our natural environment in the process. The friluftsliv way of being on "talking terms with nature," developing an "insider's" relationship with nature, offers the rich potential of allowing us as cohabiters on the Earth to recreate, rejuvenate and restore the balance among all living things.

Nature First is the first English-language anthology to bring together the perspectives and experiences of North American, Norwegian, Swedish and other international outdoor writers, all friluftsliv thinkers and doers. Here, the thirty contributors' use of history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and outdoor education writings blend to provide an understanding of how friluftsliv applies to everyday life.

The book presents an alternative to much of the personal growth/adventure-based literature that tends to dominate our current approach to the outdoor activity. Folklore, heritage, adventure travel, crafts, place-based education and the daily outings of families all have a role to play in promoting an understanding of both the ordinary and the mystical importance of this Nordic tradition. Dedicated to parents, travel guides, educators and generally to participants in the outdoors, Nature First provides a compellingly fresh approach to life in the out-of-doors.

"Writing with uncanny skill, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence leads us gently into the world of birds. Her perception, intuition and experience give her insights that she here freely shares with us all.

"I knew this remarkable lady for years, and had previously read her Mar, but on re-reading it, I was struck with the sensitive, magical way she reveals the behaviour of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers.

"At her doorstep, at almost everyone's doorstep, there is a wondrous, beautiful world, if we will only be patient and observant. In Mar, Mrs. Lawrence shows us the way.

"Naturalists, birders, aspiring ornithologists, scientists, all should take time to read Mar." - Robert W. Nero, Author of The Great Gray Owl and Redwings

"Mar is a glimpse into the natural life of a woodpecker -- a yellow-bellied sapsucker -- in two nesting seasons, as it interacts with its mate and other forest creatures.

"The narrative, deceptively simple, consolidates a lifetime of careful observation and imaginative research. It should appeal to all birdwatchers, novice or expert."
- Maureen Johnson, The Ottawa Citizen

"This is the story of a man and his owl. But what a man and what an owl! The owl is one of our planet's most beautiful and elusive beings, an enchanting spook, a feathered spirit from some ancient world.

"The man is Robert Nero, his name synonymous with that of the Great Gray Owl, his love affair with the species spanning twenty-five years. For me, a non-professional adrift in a sea of biologists, it is heartening to find in Dr. Nero not just the able scientific mind but also a sense of wonder, undiminished by the years. Perhaps it is the mortality of all living things that makes them exquisite to him, for he writes of their brief beauty in poetry and prose. His words remind us of joys we once knew, of worlds to which we have grown blind.

"What a privilege it is to share a time on Earth with a man like this, and to call him friend."

- Katherine McKeever, The Owl Foundation, Vineland, 1994

"Bob Nero, one of Canada's finest nature writers, has done it again! His fifth book, about Lady Grayl, is a personal account, something close to a love story. For nine years, since the rescue of a starving runt owlet from a wild brood, he has taken his beautiful owl, Lady Grayl, to countless schools and public meetings to preach the gospel of conservation. She and Bob are well-known throughout Manitoba, and beyond.

"Bob's careful observations of this imprinted owl supplement his 25 years of research into Great Gray Owls in the wild. Six sensitive poems and numerous photographs depict the owl in many moods and settings. This book will rank along with Bernd Heinrich's acclaimed One Man's Owl, which dealt with an imprinted Great Horned Owl, and will be of special interest to all who have been fortunate enough to see Lady Grayl."

- C. Stuart Houston, University of Saskatchewan

"Lawrence was quite possibly the most remarkable woman in Canada. Certainly she was a remarkable nature writer."

- Pat Barclay, Books in Canada

"She was a premier speciman of a vital breed: the amateur naturalist. Her 7 books, 17 scientific papers, scores of magazine articles and over 500 reviews have all been based on her close and tireless observation of bird and animal behaviour."

- Merilyn Mohr, Harrowsmith

A charming account of the author's special relationship with the birds and wild creatures who shared her northern homesite at Pimisi Bay, near Mattawa, Ontario.

The Loghouse Nest is another Natural Heritage classic by Canada's internationally acclaimed nature writer, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence.

Delightfully illustrated throughout by no less than Thoreau MacDonald, with endpaper drawings by the author.

Birds of the Cottage Country is a virtual storybook account of the author's personalized observations throughout Ontario's cottage playground. It clearly illustrates the downright fun, vast beauty, and consuming involvement of bird watching -- even for the most skeptical of laymen.

Bill Mansell's daily experiences at birding, spread over a period of sixty-five years, result in such a familiarity with his subject that the reader is drawn as a participant into a delicately beautiful intimacy with avian nature.

Birds of the Cottage Country will be read by some solely for its humour and humanistic style; yet serious birdwatchers will also find it a refreshingly new guide and reference tool.

A number of years ago, R.D. Lawrence acquired a patch of Ontario wilderness, soon known as "The Place." Here Lawrence and his wife built a cabin and became immersed in studying the ways of the wild. "The Place" was home to a variety of wildlife, from black bears, wolves, beavers and raccoons through to hawks, snapping turtles and singing mice.

Lawrence's desire to learn, fuelled by his keen observation, led to his writing about and photographing life within his small corner of the forest -- the result being a warm, witty account of change and survival in the natural world.

The celebrated nature writer R.D. Lawrence tells the story of animals who inhabit the lakeside near his home in the backwoods of Canada. From the smallest water creature to wolves, deer and many, many birds, all are known to him. His sensitivity, enthusiasm and empathy for wildlife, coupled with his detailed understanding of their habits have created an engrossing publication. A sequel to The Place In the Forest, this authoritatively written book conjures up the sounds, smells and the very feel of lakeside life over every season.

Reptiles and Amphibians of Price Edward County, Ontario is a comprehensive look at the little-known residents of a well-known corner of rural Ontario. Complete with descriptions and illustrations, the book provides serious and amateur naturalists with a thorough compilation of recent and historic reports of the some thirty species of turtles, snakes, frogs, toads and salamanders that are – or once were – found in this unique part of the province. The text acquaints readers with the likelihood of encountering these fascinating creatures in the area while maps of all known records illustrate where these animals have been uncovered in the past. Discussions of changes in species abundance offer a sense of the shifts that have taken place in reptile and amphibian communities in the area over time.

Algonquin Wildlife: Lessons in Survival is a celebration of the vast array of wildlife studies ongoing in Ontario's very first provincial park. Probably more research has been done in Algonquin than in any other protected landscape in the world.

Norm Quinn, long-time Park Management Biologist in Algonquin, has been fortunate to know and to work with many of those dedicated and unique wildlife researchers who roam and probe the forests and lakes in search of Nature's secrets. His knowledge, experience and sense of humour combine to transform technical biological studies, on moose, wolves, fish and other creatures of the wild, into entertaining and inviting stories without losing the significance of the research.

This is also a book about Algonquin, Ontario's flagship Park and one of the foremost canoe-tripping wilderness sites in the world. Through Algonquin Wildlife, you are invited to explore this relatively unknown but vital part of the Park's heritage -- a must for both seasoned and budding naturalists.