The story 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.
In late March 2015, ornithologist Bruce M. Beehler set off on a solo
four-month trek to track songbird migration and the northward progress
of spring through America. Traveling via car, canoe, and bike and on
foot, Beehler followed woodland warblers and other Neotropical songbird
species from the southern border of Texas, where the birds first arrive
after their winter sojourns in South America and the Caribbean,
northward through the Mississippi drainage to its headwaters in
Minnesota and onward to their nesting grounds 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 U.S. heartland--the blossoming of wildflowers,
the chorusing of frogs, the leafing out of forest canopies--and also
tells the stories of the people and institutions dedicated to studying
and conserving the critical habitats and processes of spring songbird
migration. Inspired in part by Edwin Way Teale's landmark 1951 book
North with the Spring, this book--part travelogue, part field journal,
and part environmental and cultural history--is a fascinating first-hand
account of a once-in-a-lifetime journey. It engages readers in the
wonders of spring migration and serves as a call for the need to
conserve, restore, and expand bird habitats to preserve them for future
generations of both birds and humans.
