Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Protecting the Planet
WORK NOTES: with daughter, Mariah Tinger
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.birdingtales.com/
CITY: Tallahassee
STATE: FL
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/btitlow/ * http://www.birdingtales.com/about.html * http://blogs.tallahassee.com/community/author/birdbrains/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Children: Mariah Tinger.
EDUCATION:Florida State University, B.S., 1970; Virginia Tech, M.S., 1973.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and photographer. Titlow Ecological Services, founder; U.S. Federal Government, National Environmental Policy Act Compliance Specialist, thirteen years; NATUREGRAPHS (freelance photography and writing firm), founder; Umstead Hotel and Conference Center, staff naturalist; Ford Plantation, artist-in-residence; Sudbury Valley Nature Photographers, cofounder. Has also worked for the National Park Service and as a project group member.
MEMBER:National Wildlife Federation; National Audubon Society, New England Council of Camera Clubs, Massachusetts Audubon Society.
AWARDS:Wildlife Photographer of the Year, 2003; Merit Award Winner, National Wildlife Federation; Merit Award Winner, the Nature Conservancy; Merit Award Winner, Nature’s Best magazine; Grand Prize for Color Photography, Kodak International Awards; Employee-of-the-Year, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles and photographs to periodicals, including National Wildlife, Audubon, Outside, Nature’s Best, and Travel/Holiday.
SIDELIGHTS
Budd Titlow is a writer, photographer, and naturalist, and he is the author of such books as Rocky Mountain National Park: Beyond Trail Ridge, Seashells: Jewels from the Ocean, and Bird Brains: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends. For his fourth book, Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, Titlow teamed with his daughter, Mariah Tinger, to write a history of the environmental movement. The authors ostensibly present this history in light of the threat of climate change, thus exhibiting how the environmental movement might be used to combat that threat. First, the authors define and explain climate change, touching on greenhouse gases and their consequences. From there, the book presents profiles of notable environmentalists and activists, including the photographer Ansel Adams, the environmentalist Rachel Carson, the biologist E.O. Wilson, and the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Protecting the Planet also covers major storms and environmental disasters, and the authors then comment on ways in which corporations and politicians might be compelled to address climate change.
Reviews of Protecting the Planet were largely positive, with a Publishers Weekly correspondent announcing that “Titlow and Tinger maintain optimism in spite of a litany of frequent disasters.” A California Bookwatch contributor was equally laudatory, asserting that Protecting the Planet is “an important acquisition especially recommended for any science holding.” In the words of online Foreword Reviews correspondent Anna Call, “The writing here has a lot of personality and is consistently interesting.” Call then went on to state that the book’s “comprehensive timeline of climate-change history will be both interesting and useful to educators.” Offering additional commendation on the SFcrowsnest Web site, G.F. Willmetts declared: “The real problem with any books of this nature is that the people who should be seen to act on these problems don’t read these books. Many politicians don’t tend to think long term, let alone beyond their tenure in office. Mostly, I suspect because they also think any actions along these lines are not vote winners or can be handed to someone else to worry about.” Willmetts then concluded: “It will be very hard for you to come away from this book without feeling angry. With America, you should certainly ask any politician up for reelection as to what they intend to do about environmental issues and see if they keep their promises.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
California Bookwatch, January, 2017, review of Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change.
Publishers Weekly, September 12, 2016, review of Protecting the Planet.
ONLINE
Birding Tales, http://www.birdingtales.com/ (July 17, 2017), author profile.
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (November 28, 2016), Anna Call, review of Protecting the Planet.
SFcrowsnest, http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/ (December 1, 2016), G.F. Willmetts, review of Protecting the Planet.
Unmasked Persona’s Reviews, http://maskedpersona.blogspot.com/ (January 17, 2014), review of Bird Brains: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends.*
BS / Biological Science, Florida State University and MS / Wildlife Ecology, Virginia Tech.
A professional wetland scientist and wildlife biologist, Budd Titlow is also an international / national award-winning nature photographer and a widely-published writer / author. He has operated NATUREGRAPHS: Freelance Photography and Writing for more than forty years.
Budd has authored four natural history books: PROTECTING THE PLANET - Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change (Prometheus Books, ISBN 978-1633882256), BIRD BRAINS - Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN 978-0-7627-8755-5), SEASHELLS - Jewels from the Ocean (ISBN 978-0-7603-2593-3), and ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK - Beyond Trail Ridge (ISBN 0-942394-22-4).
Budd has also published more than 200 magazine articles and 5,000 photographs. His credits include the 2003 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Outdoor Photographer, National Wildlife, Audubon, Outside, Nature’s Best, Travel/Holiday, Time/Life Publications, Sierra Club, Popular Photography, and Petersen’s Photographic. Throughout his career, Budd has shared his love of photography and nature by presenting seminars, workshops, and field trips nationwide, including Staff Naturalist for the Umstead Hotel and Conference Center in Cary, North Carolina; Artist-in-Residence at The Ford Plantation in Savannah, Georgia; North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) - Charter Member, Session Presenter, and BOD Member (six years); New England Council of Camera Clubs (NECCC); National Wildlife Federation; National Audubon Society; Massachusetts Audubon Society; and Maine Island Workshops. He is also Co-Founder - along with Betsy Moyer - of the Sudbury Valley Nature Photographers based in Wayland, Massachusetts. In addition, Budd has conducted surveys of wild bird habitats and breeding bird populations throughout the United States.
About Budd Titlow / Naturegraphs
Award-Winning Photography and Writing
Budd Titlow has operated "NATUREGRAPHS - Freelance Photography and Writing - from the Tundra to the Tides" for the past 32 years. Budd’s photographs have won multiple international and national awards and he is the author of two books. Voyageur Press is currently marketing his latest book, "Seashells – Jewels From the Ocean", worldwide. Budd’s publication credits also include more than 50 magazine photo-essays and 5,000 photographs. His work has been featured in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio and Wall Calendar, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Sierra Club Notecards, Outdoor Photographer, National Wildlife, Audubon, Outside, Nature’s Best, Travel/Holiday, Time/Life Publications, Popular Photography, Petersen’s Photographic and many more.
Professional Wildlife Biologist and Wetland Scientist
As a Professional Wetland Scientist and Wildlife Biologist, Budd also owns and operates Titlow Ecological Services. His career includes 13 years as a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Compliance Specialist with the federal government, including eight years with the National Park Service, and 21 years as an Ecological Group Manager for private consultants. Budd has supervised regulatory compliance for more than 500 projects, including regional shopping centers, interstate highways, office-industrial parks, mixed-use subdivisions, wild and scenic rivers, pumped-storage reservoirs, wind farms, natural gas pipelines, regional coal mining facilities, rare & endangered species investigations, wetland restoration designs, wildlife habitat enhancement plans, vegetation management plans, and natural resource “existing condition” surveys for five national parks.
Public Speaking, Seminars and Workshops
Throughout his career, Budd has shared his love of photography and nature by presenting seminars and workshops, including Artist-in-Residence at The Ford Plantation in Savannah, Georgia (two years), North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) (two years), New England Council of Camera Clubs (NECCC) (two years), National Wildlife Federation (10 years), National Audubon Society (2 years), Massachusetts Audubon Society (5 years), and Maine Island Workshops (two years). Additionally, Budd has presented more than 50 multi-media programs on environmental permitting to monthly meetings, annual conferences, and specialty workshops throughout the United States.
Initiatives, Honors and Awards
• Elected to the Board of Directors, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC
• Merit Award Winner, BBC International Wildlife-Photographer-of-the-Year, London, England
• Conservationist-of-the-Year, Sudbury Valley Trustees, Maynard, MA
• Founder, Sudbury Valley Nature Photographers, Wayland, MA
• Artist-in-Residence, The Ford Plantation, Savannah, GA
• Charter Member, North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), Wheatridge, CO
• Merit Award Winner, National Wildlife Federation, Reston, VA
• Merit Award Winner, The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA
• Merit Award Winner, Nature’s Best Magazine, Reston, VA
• Grand Prize for Color Photography, Kodak International Awards, Rochester, NY
• Employee-of-the-Year, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO
About Budd Titlow
BS / Biological Science, Florida State University and MS / Wildlife Ecology, Virginia Tech. A Professional Wetland Scientist (Emeritus) and Wildlife Biologist, Budd Titlow is also an international/national award-winning nature photographer and a widely-published writer/author currently living in Tallahassee, Florida. Throughout his career, Budd has shared his love of photography and nature by presenting seminars, workshops, and field trips Nationwide. He has also authored four books: PROTECTING THE PLANET—Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change (ISBN 978-1633882256), BIRD BRAINS—Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN 978-0-7627-8755-5), SEASHELLS—Jewels from the Ocean (ISBN 978-0-7603-2593-3), and ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK—Beyond Trail Ridge (ISBN 0-942394-22-4). Budd’s work is featured on his web site (www.buddtitlow.com). Budd has operated NATUREGRAPHS: Freelance Photography and Writing for more than forty years. During this time, he has published more than 200 magazine articles and 5,000 photographs. His credits include the 2003 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Outdoor Photographer, National Wildlife, Audubon, Outside, Nature’s Best, Travel/Holiday, Time/Life Publications, Sierra Club, Popular Photography, and Petersen’s Photographic. Throughout his career, Budd has shared his love of photography and nature by presenting seminars, workshops, and field trips nationwide, including Staff Naturalist for the Umstead Hotel and Conference Center in Cary, North Carolina, Artist-in-Residence at The Ford Plantation in Savannah, Georgia, North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), New England Council of Camera Clubs (NECCC), National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Maine Island Workshops. In addition, he has conducted surveys of wild bird habitats and breeding bird populations throughout the United States. In addition to writing books, Budd is currently teaching ecology, environmental science, birding, and photography courses at Florida State University and the Tallahassee Senior Center while writing a weekly Birding Column for the Tallahassee Democrat Daily Newspaper. He also is serving as Vice President of the Apalachee Audubon Society.
Budd Titlow
BS, Biology-Chemistry, Florida State University, 1970
MS, Wildlife Ecology-Fisheries Science, Virginia Tech, 1973
btitlow@aol.com / www.agpix.com/titlow / www.buddtitlow.com
A Professional Wildlife Biologist and Wetlands Scientist residing in Tallahassee, Florida, Budd Titlow has authored four natural history books: Protecting the Planet - Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change (Prometheus Books), Bird Brains – Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (The Lyons Press – Globe Pequot Press), Seashells – Jewels from the Ocean (Voyageur Press), and Rocky Mountain National Park – Beyond Trail Ridge (Westcliffe Publishers). As a life-long naturalist, outdoor enthusiast, and educator, Budd has also owned and operated NATUREGRAPHS - Freelance Photography and Writing - for the past 35 years. His photographs have won awards in most major international and national natural history photo contests. He has also published more than 100 photo-essays and 5,000 photographs. His credits include the 2003 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio 13 Book and 2004 Wall Calendar, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Sierra Club Notecards, Outdoor Photographer, National Wildlife, Audubon, Outside, Nature’s Best, Travel/Holiday, Time/Life Publications, Popular Photography, Petersen’s Photographic, and many more publications.
Throughout his career, Budd has shared his love of photography and nature by presenting seminars and workshops nationwide; including Staff Naturalist for the Umstead Hotel and Conference Center in Cary, North Carolina (two years); Artist-in-Residence at The Ford Plantation in Savannah, Georgia (two years); North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) (two years); New England Council of Camera Clubs (NECCC) (two years); National Wildlife Federation (fifteen years); National Audubon Society (two years); Massachusetts Audubon Society (five years); and Maine Island Workshops (two years). Additionally, Budd has presented more than 50 multi-media programs on natural resources (wetlands/wildlife/rare species), conservation, and environmental management topics to monthly meetings, annual conferences, and specialty workshops throughout the United States.
Budd also owns and operates Titlow Ecological Services where he provides freelance environmental consulting and permitting. His career includes 13 years as a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Compliance Specialist with the federal government, including eight years with the National Park Service, and 25 years as a Project/Group Manager for private environmental/engineering consulting firms in New England, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida.
Protecting the Planet
(Jan. 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Protecting the Planet
Budd Titlow & Mariah Tinger
Prometheus Books
59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, NY 14228-2197
9781633882256, $26.00, www.prometheusbooks.com
Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change is a weighty volume that both gathers evidence for climate change and examines the history of U.S. environmental policies and the individuals who helped foster environmental awareness. Chapters chart the activities of these individuals, which range from scientists and researchers to artists and activists, and rely heavily on personal interviews to fill in details about these efforts and the politics surrounding them. The result is an important acquisition especially recommended for any science holding strong in charting climate change research, science, and activism surrounding environmental affairs.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Protecting the Planet." California Bookwatch, Jan. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479406278&it=r&asid=63b239a14197455c8a0b315b558a699d. Accessed 2 June 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479406278
Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change
263.37 (Sept. 12, 2016): p46.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change
Budd Titlow and Mariah Tinger. Prometheus Books, $26.(550p) ISBN 978-1-63388-225-6
In this lengthy father-daughter collaboration, wildlife biologist Titlow (Bird Brains) and environmental management specialist Tinger discuss climate change in the context of environmental movement history. The book's early sections explain how greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, and carbon dioxide in particular, "trap solar radiation from the sun and form a blanket of insulating warmth around the planet." Audiences may get turned off by the gritty details of com pounds and percentages, but subsequent chapters read more easily. Highlighting key players in the conservation movement, Titlow and Tinger provide a broad survey of notable figures, including ornithologist John James Audubon, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, photographer Ansel Adams, environmentalist Rachel Carson, and biologist E.O. Wilson. The authors also chronicle major events in American environmental history, such as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and Superstorm Sandy in 2013. Winding down their comprehensive narrative with ways in which "the climate change war can be won," the authors cite potential solutions such as divestment from "companies that are funding denial and polluting our health" and the elimination of federal subsidies to fossil fuel companies. Titlow and Tinger maintain optimism in spite of a litany of frequent disasters. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Protecting the Planet: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change." Publishers Weekly, 12 Sept. 2016, p. 46. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464046285&it=r&asid=d5825179de2238f985b2c3731adf8d0c. Accessed 2 June 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464046285
Protecting the Planet
Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change
Reviewed by Anna Call
November 28, 2016
Covering the science and history of climate change, Protecting the Planet represents an ambitious attempt to cover the entire context of climate change, from origins to possible solutions. Unfortunately, it is only partially successful.
There are four main thematic parts to this hefty book. The first and shortest part explains the science of climate change and rebukes deniers. The second, much longer section provides a relatively quick overview of the history of environmental protection and preservation. Third, the book details short bios of modern climate activists, including ecologists and celebrities. Finally, the book presents potential large- and small-scale solutions to climate change.
By providing a historical context for climate change, Protecting the Planet makes an ambitious go at providing perspective to a problem too often seen as modern. Its focus on climate “heroes” humanizes a struggle usually represented by legislation and corporate action. However, many early historical events are given too little attention, and even modern ones lack in-depth analysis. When the book transitions to activist biographies, it becomes a dizzying cascade of information. The book’s final section, “Part Five: Finding Solutions,” represents a good, quick manual for effective grassroots action against climate change, but would function more effectively if it stood alone as its own book.
The writing here has a lot of personality and is consistently interesting. However, charged commentary on political actions, such as the Iraq war and Reaganomics, limit the likelihood that it will draw the unconverted across the aisle.
Protecting the Planet is a quirky contribution to an area of climate-change literature that doesn’t tend to get a lot of attention. Its comprehensive timeline of climate-change history will be both interesting and useful to educators.
You are here: Home » MEDIA » Books » Protecting The Planet by Budd Titlow & Mariah Tinger (book review).
Protecting The Planet by Budd Titlow & Mariah Tinger (book review).
December 3, 2016 | By UncleGeoff | Reply
There is never a good time to put out a book on climate change and if you want a really sobering look at what is happening to our environment today then you need to read ‘Protecting The Planet’ by environmentalists Budd Titlow & his daughter, Mariah Tinger. As an American book, it does tend to centre on how much more needs to be done in the USA to combat it but I doubt the politicians there will see things that way. Well, that is unless they don’t think the rise in carbon dioxide emissions, continual hurricane fronts tearing up the landscape and killing people and the melting of the ice caps and reducing land-size is going to endear them to the voters. I mean, who’s going to vote for them if there’s no one left to vote?
protectingtheplanet
It’s also rather worrying that every time you hear a certain Florida governor says ‘I’m not a scientist’ then proceeds to ignore what environmental scientists say because it’s something they don’t or don’t want to understand. More so the same governor has banned his environmental department from mentioning words like ‘climate change’, ‘global warming’ and ‘sea level rise’ or be sacked. This chap is also moving to the White House staff shortly. So much for US democracy! That kind of attitude is seriously damaging to all our healths and likely to put back environmental control back decades. Ignoring a threat won’t make it go away.
This doesn’t stop carbon dioxide emissions from growing and we are seeing the continual effects on land and people more now than a couple decades ago. To make it worse, things won’t get better unless there’s a concentrated effort to reverse these changes and it isn’t like we can’t all get involved.
As to the ice caps, watch the 2012 film ‘Chasing Ice’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5RYBGJDCAI , other sources are available and think how this will affect where you live. You might start considering moving at least 40 miles in-land and certainly live at a higher altitude as the sea water levels rise. Also, have a look at http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/ and the first episode is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvhCnYvxQQ
The real problem for environment issues is that it is either acting very slowly or with a weather deluge, there for a few days on the news and then brushed under the carpet for something new. In America, especially, long term problems aren’t always deemed news worthy. Information isn’t the territory, action is. It also makes the current terrorist activities look like a minor thing in comparison although the authors point out that as their land is eaten up, they will fight harder for their own territory.
There are a lot of facts in this book and don’t be taken in by the page count as in many respects, this is a reasonably fast read. Our fresh drinking water is 2.5% of the available water and as the sea levels rise, that will diminish as well because it will get into our fresh water rivers. We all depend on water and it doesn’t all come in bottles.
The second section shows the history of American conservation led by key people. Interestingly, there are a couple Brit migrates amongst this list. Don’t expect any punches to be pulled here. Looking across these chapters, had these people not been involved, the USA would have been an ecological disaster.
Picking out highlights that struck me. The loggers were quite happy to ‘cut’ slash, level and leave to supply wood without replacing, simply believing that there was an endless supply. It was Gifford Pinchon who fought and got this changed in the late 19th century. The farming practices of the mid-west that turned it into a dust bowl when they ploughed away the top soil and it blew away. Looking at the bigger picture here, I tend to also see it as everyone copying each other rather than think about what they were doing.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas preserving the Florida everglades after a hundred mile Okeechoebee River was ‘straightened’ by removing the smaller streams and how Disneyworld took over the wetlands will make you blush. Even the national parks became litter bins for tourists from inattention and I haven’t covered the reservoirs made destroyed vital ecologies. This doesn’t mean I don’t think other countries are free of their own environment problems but there should always be thoughts to consequences of any such actions and with the USA you have things at a much wider scale that can be seen.
When it gets to politics and environment, the authors reveal that it is often the effect of the President who can stir the most. When you consider that it’s not one of the subjects that powers a vote, you can tell that it the Democrats not the Republicans who have led the way. The latter tend to revert any changes that are done although there is reference made to Republican Bob Inglis who seems to buck that trend.
Looking at the effects of each President should send some shivers down your back. Jimmy Carter comes out as one of the bright lights on environmental issues and Reagan and the two Bushes the least. If you want scientific development and environmental control then you shouldn’t vote Republican based purely on this evidence. There is only a brief look at one other country and that is Russia and their interest in the Kyoto Protocol came about because Putin wants an in to the the World Trade Organisation, so it’s always about economics. There are times like this that I wish every politician read this kind of book and realise what happens if they don’t take any action on environment issues.
All too often, usually by the actions of some organisations that their actions rather than the reason why tends to depict environmentalists as being eccentric. Oddly, the examples from the turn of the last century worked out not doing such things but I guess that’s all more of the change of society since then.
There is also an extensive look at current day environmentalists from the people who you might have heard of, ranging from people like Bill Gates and Jim Cameron to actors Leonardo di Caprio and Mark Ruffalo, both using their positions to say things publicly. Granted the sub-title of this book is ‘Environmental Champions From Conservation To Climate Change’, I do wish there had been more examples of common folk who are making the difference, purely to show what you can do. It would also make sense to do a follow-up book on significant shakers and movers in the USA who are ignoring environmental issues as a wake-up call about who to be wary of.
The real problem with any books of this nature is that the people who should be seen to act on these problems don’t read these books. Many politicians don’t tend to think long term, let alone beyond their tenure in office. Mostly, I suspect because they also think any actions along these lines are not vote winners or can be handed to someone else to worry about.
It will be very hard for you to come away from this book without feeling angry. With America, you should certainly ask any politician up for re-election as to what they intend to do about environmental issues and see if they keep their promises.
GF Willmetts
December 2016
(pub: Prometheus Books. 552 page hardback. Price: $26.00 (US), $27.50 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-63388-225-6. Ebook: Price: $11.99 (US), $13.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-63388-226-3)
Friday, January 17, 2014
Those Fascinating Birds: Bird Brains by Budd Titlow
When I saw the title of this book, I thought that it would be a book about studies that evaluate the intelligence of birds. It isn't, but it's still quite interesting. I reviewed Bird Brains for The Bookplex.
This book contains photos and stories dealing with a hundred bird species. Most, but not all, are North American birds. Budd Titlow draws on his long history as a lover and observer of birds. He always finds some attribute that sets each species apart from the others. These characteristics can range from the roadrunner having two toes pointing forward and two toes pointing backward to the call of the barred owl that sounds very much like “Who cooks the soup?” A friend suggested that the great horned owls, who appear to be saying "Who's awake?" all night, would annoy human insomniacs so much that they could end up in the soup. In that the case, the barred owl's cry might be that of an avenging predator. Whoever cooks the soup should keep an eye out for a sharp beak and claws.
It seemed to me that generally speaking, Titlow admires predators, despises scavengers and thinks prey birds need protection. These are rather typical attitudes. Yet when I think about it, successful scavengers might merit more respect for their adaptability and resourcefulness.
I imagine that the photography in this book must be gorgeous in color. Unfortunately, the Kindle on which I read this book displays in black and white only. So I’m unable to comment about the quality of the color in the bird photographs. Titlow’s biography states that he is a photographer, and he discusses his adventures in photographing various types of birds. So I was surprised to discover in the photography credits that almost none of the pictures in Bird Brains are Titlow’s. I wondered about the reasons for this decision.
Titlow’s writing style is engaging and insightful. He gives us the history of how each type of bird has been viewed and in some cases the cultural role that it has played. He reveals the threats to the preservation of certain species and how well they are currently thriving. In his Afterword, Titlow discusses the measures needed for bird conservation in general . They are key principles for maintaining the environment for all species including our own.
I don’t know enough about birds myself to judge Titlow’s accuracy on this subject, but he cites a source as saying the Puebloan peoples have teepees. This has never been the case. I looked up the folklorist J. Frank Dobie who Titlow was citing to see what he actually said. According to The Texas Parks and Wildlife Website, Dobie said that the Pueblos drew roadrunner footprints outside death tents to confuse evil spirits. It's worthy of note that when I did a search about Pueblo death customs, I saw no reference to death tents. I did find the following quote in a birding source,Southwest Birds : "one of the New Mexico Pueblo groups felt that tracing the roadrunner's inscrutable tracks around a deceased person would confuse nearby evil spirits." Again, no mention of death tents. It's instructive to look up the meaning of the word "pueblo". In the Free Dictionary it states that a pueblo is " a communal dwelling of certain agricultural Indians of the southwestern U.S., consisting of a number of adjoining houses of stone or adobe, typically flat-roofed, multistoried, and terraced, with access provided by ladder." The Puebloan peoples got their name because they lived in these structures. Given this sort of architecture, does it seem consistent with their culture to erect teepees for death ceremonies? Teepees are characteristic of Plains native cultures like the Lakota and the Cheyenne, not Southwest native cultures like the Puebloans. It seems to me that Dobie was mistaken. Titlow gave tacit support to Dobie's misguided comment by citing it.
This may seem like a small error, but there is an unfortunate tendency of viewing the earliest inhabitants of North America as if all of them had the same beliefs and practices. That is an indication of prejudice which is not a small error. Even if the prejudice was Dobie's , not Titlow's, perpetuating prejudice should be avoided.
Despite my concern about the mis-perception of the Puebloans, I did enjoy reading Bird Brains. I feel that I got to know the included bird species a great deal better, and can therefore appreciate them more.