Newswise — In "The Geese of Beaver Bog" (HarperCollins, May 2004) award-winning naturalist writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich, professor emeritus of biology at the University of Vermont, follows up his magnificent "Winter World" (2003) with a smaller-scale but delightful narrative of his recent observations on the Canadian geese that have colonized the beaver bog near his Richmond, Vermont home.
Through Peep, a goose born on the author's lawn, the reader learns about the species' breeding, nesting and defense of their territory each spring, along with unusual behaviors that Heinrich not only illustrates but, with infectious good humor, tries to explain. Other geese come and go as Heinrich rushes from his house to the bog, often before dawn, meticulously tying in what he sees with scientific knowledge. Also figuring in are many bird species, beavers and mammalian predators, which in Heinrich's talented hands become memorable characters. Illustrated throughout with Heinrich's trademark sketches and featuring beautiful four-color photographs, "The Geese of Beaver Bog" is part love story, part science experiment and completely enjoyable.
Praised as "arguably today's finest naturalist author" by Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post said of Heinrich, "He richly deserves comparisons to Thoreau." Heinrich's "Mind of the Raven" (2000) was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times notable book. "The Trees in my Forest" (1998) won a New England Book Award, and his now-classic "Bumblebee Economics" (1993) was nominated for a National Book Award. Heinrich has been a Guggenheim Fellow, Harvard Fellow and recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Fellowship Award.
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