For many years I have enjoyed the column on wild birds authored by Hank and Ruth Kowalski. I have missed it in recent weeks and now I understand that it is being discontinued. I urge the editor to reconsider this decision. We are blessed to live in an area of unsurpassed natural beauty and biological diversity. Unfortunately, I think this fact often is under-appreciated as our county steams forward toward further development. Ultimately, the voices that will be heard urging protection for these natural resources will come from those that have learned about and grown to value these treasures. Learning requires education and that is exactly the service provided by Hank and Ruth's column. Neither Hank nor Ruth are biologists, but they are ardent naturalists and even more enthusiastic researchers. They spent vast hours learning about the subjects of their columns, ensuring that their facts were correct. They demonstrated how the natural history of birds was relevant to their conservation. ...more

October 27, 2007

'The Sound of Butterflies,' by Rachael King (William Morrow, $24.95) ...more

October 14, 2007

Sophie, a young housewife escaping from a controlling father, and Thomas, her butterfly-collecting husband, begin their young adult lives as hard-working people living a conventional 1903 lifestyle. They assume they will resume those patterns once Thomas returns from Brazil after a naturalists' safari. ...more

October 12, 2007

Attacking several tons of woolly mammoth with stone-tipped spears must have taken extraordinary courage - and ancient people left paintings to prove they did it. ...more

September 30, 2007

Jim Rapp has one hand on the wheel and the other holding a pair of binoculars as he drives his truck slowly down a gravel drive on the banks of a Chesapeake Bay marsh. ...more

September 23, 2007