Earth, Water, and Sky: A Naturalist's Stories and Sketches

University of Nebraska ornithologist Paul Johnsgard has written a bookshelf full of reference books, and in this collection of essays presents interesting stories of birds of the Earth (Quail, hummingbirds, bustards), Water (duck courtship, ruddy ducks, torrent ducks, seabirds) and Sky (cranes, trumpeter swans, Eskimo curlew). Johnsgard includes his own sketches to illustrate each chapter. Johnsgard enlightens us on the evolution of mating systems, for example when referring to hummingbirds "The gradual emancipation of the male from nesting duties may have thus sent into motion promiscuous tendencies in both sexes". The stories often have a personal take, for example of finding Bearded Tree Quail at a family in Puerto El Rayo, and it successfully breeding in New York. He includes tails of exotic birds he has studied, such as the Australian Bustard (the heaviest flying bird in the world). His chapter "The Gift of the Cranes" is the most poetic and soars above the commonplace with a story of his seven-year-old granddaughter to see the cranes on the Platte River.