Word: birding
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Finally, Peterson included brief, no-nonsense bird descriptions that were as minimal and sharp as his illustrations. One of his most famous captured the male common goldfinch: "The only small yellow bird with black wings." Commit that to memory, and no male common goldfinch flying by will ever again go undetected...
Last week intrepid birders--they don't call themselves bird watchers anymore--were combing western Washington and southwestern British Columbia in pursuit of, among other species, the black-footed albatross and crested myna. Or they were in southeastern Arizona, stalking the violet-crowned hummingbird and sulphur-bellied flycatcher, all the while praying for a glimpse of the rare eared trogon...
...breakthrough occurred in 1934 with the publication of A Field Guide to the Birds, which covered all the species found in the Eastern U.S. The book, which had been suggested to him by the first editor of Audubon magazine, combined two passions that Peterson had developed during his somewhat dreamy and, in the view of his no-nonsense father, lackadaisical childhood in Jamestown, New York: looking at birds and painting pictures. Since he lacked any formal ornithological training, Peterson brought to his project a refreshing dose of common sense. People could not lug folios of Audubon reproductions to where...
Only 2,000 copies of Peterson's Guide were printed at first; the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, doubted whether much of the reading public would be interested. A second printing was ordered after the first one sold out in one week, and the Peterson bird guides--he added one covering the species of the Western U.S. in 1941--have been selling, to the tune of some 7 million copies, ever since. Peterson produced, alone or with collaborators, scores of other guides on such subjects as wildflowers, butterflies, mammals and minerals. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. He received...
When Kneehaz returned to the castle, he said he found Green walking down the stairs of the turret carrying the large, glass case that houses the Lampoon ibis, a stuffed, dead bird meant to symbolize the state of the Lampoon organization...