give yourself this book for Christmas

Although originally penned many decades ago, this book continues to influence me in myriad ways.

May Theilgaard Watts was the ecologist at the Morton Arboretum. Beyond that, in the pages of this book you will see her phenomenal skill as storyteller - and see the landscape unfold before you, and come to a deeper understanding of how and why it has changed.

A great friend and teacher, Roy Lukes, introduced me to it long ago, while reading to a group perched on the boardwalk at the Ridges Sanctuary. He read to us from the chapter entitled "History Book with Flexible Cover", explaining concepts about bogs and fens.

Cheers to the memory of May Watts, and Roy, too. Find a used copy - you won't regret it.

Bobwhite: what's happening to their population

Photo - B. Stansbery - Wikim. Commons

See previous articles posted here about the changing population of Northern Bobwhite, for example:
 https://futureofbirds.blogspot.com/2013/08/northern-bobwhite-info.html

The new Status and Trends from eBird drills further down into current information, showing areas where declines are sharpest:

https://ebird.org/wi/science/status-and-trends/norbob/trend-map-breeding

The abundance map demonstrates how numbers have dropped in many areas of the core range of this species:  https://ebird.org/wi/science/status-and-trends/norbob/abundance-map

One organization devoted to conservation of this species is the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. Learn more about their efforts at:  https://bringbackbobwhites.org/