Rare Bird: Pursuing The Mystery Of The Marbled Murrelet - Couverture rigide

“Heartfelt and thoughtful, inspired and well-written, Rare Bird is a rare book. It will transport you into a world you didn't realize existed.” —Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross

“It is not often that you find a natural history book you can't put down. Rare Bird is such a book. This lyrical, sprightly tale of a remarkable bird and the woman who fell for it shows how a small piece of the natural world may climb into the soul and lodge there, changing us forever--and how, if we lose that piece through inattention, we lose some critical part of ourselves. A marvelous story beautifully told.” —Jennifer Ackerman, author of Notes from the Shore

“Maria Ruth tells a story as fascinating, as appealing, and as peculiar as the marbled murrelet itself. Rare Bird is a unique and delightful book: too passionate for ordinary journalism, too well-researched fro a personal essay, and far too witty for natural history.” —Peter Cashwell, author of The Verb To Bird

“What is a marbled murrelet? This tiny, mysterious seabird flies like a little brown bullet, living most of its life at sea. But, as author Ruth, a generalist nature writer who declares herself "not a birder" discovered, this chunky little seabird can steal your heart. From 1789 to 1974, no one knew where the bird nested. All the other members of the Alcid family (the puffins, murres, and auks), to which the marbled murrelet belongs, nest on cliffs and rocks near the sea. The murrelet did not fit this pattern. How the mystery was solved and the implications of this discovery in the ongoing battle between environmentalists and loggers in the Pacific Northwest are conveyed in Ruth's infectious tale. She takes the reader along as she talks to all the players in the high-stakes game of preservation versus exploitation, and she delves into the history of the scientists who studied the bird and searched for its nest. The story of the discovery of the nest is alone worth the price of the book.” —Nancy Bent, Booklist

Part naturalist detective story, part environmental inquiry, this vibrant narrative celebrates the fascinating world of an endangered seabird that depends on the contested old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest for its survival.

"This chunky little seabird stole my heart." So confesses Maria Mudd Ruth, a veteran nature writer perfectly happy to be a generalist before getting swept up in the strange story of the marbled murrelet. This curiosity of nature, who flies like a little brown bullet at up to 100 miles an hour and lives most of its life offshore, is seen around land only during breeding season, when the female lays a single egg high on a mossy tree limb in the ancient coastal forest.

Ruth traces reports of the bird back to Captain Cook's ill-fated voyage of discovery on the Pacific Ocean in 1778, and explores the mind-set of 19th- and 20th-century naturalists who--despite their best efforts--failed to piece together clues about the whereabouts of the bird's nest. She takes the reader along on adventurous outings to coastal meadows before dawn, and onto the ocean at midnight to learn firsthand how scientists observe nature. She interviews all the major players in the drama: timber company executives and fishing fleet operators whose businesses are threatened by conservation measures, as well as the so-called cowboy scientists who are devoted to saving the marbled murrelet from extinction. And, ultimately, Ruth conveys her curiosity and passion for this rare bird onto the page for readers to savor.