Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
David Carroll has dedicated his life to art and to wetlands. He is as passionate about swamps, bogs, and vernal ponds and the creatures who live in them as most of us are about our families and closest friends. He knows frogs and snakes, muskrats and minks, dragonflies, water lilies, cattails, sedges--everything that swims, flies, trudges, slithers, or sinks its roots in wet places. In this "intimate and wise book" (Sue Hubbell), Carroll takes us on a lively, unforgettable yearlong journey, illustrated with his own elegant drawings, through the wetlands and reveals why they are so important to his life and ours -- and to all life on Earth.
About the Author
David M. Carroll is the author of The Year of the Turtle, Trout Reflections, and Swampwalker’s Journal, which won the John Burroughs Medal, the highest award for nature writers.
A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and of Tufts University, he has received an honorary doctorate from the University of New Hampshire and an Environmental Merit Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for his work on wetlands. In 2006 he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, given to "to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations." He lives in New Hampshire.
Table of Contents
Introduction xi 1. Vernal Pools THE REEDGRASS POOL 3 SALAMANDER RAINS 11 LIEBESSPIEL 21 FAIRY SHRIMP 25 WOOD FROGS 28 THE FORESTED POOL 34 ARIADNE 40 METAMORPHOSIS 51 MARBLED SALAMANDERS 62 WINTER POOL 69
2. The Marsh THE CROSSING 73 SNAPPING TURTLE, DRAGONFLY, BLACK BEAR 89 NEST-TO-WATER JOURNEY 96
3. The Swamp SWAMP AT NOON 109 DEAD-TREE SWAMP 114 THE RED MAPLE SWAMP 118 SEEPS, SPRINGS, AND SWAMPS 128
4. The Shrub Swamp OPENING 137 HIGH SUMMER 143 AFTER FROST 152 HIBERNACULUM 153
5. The Pond FIRST OPEN WATER 163 HATCHLING 165 COURTSHIP BALLET 168 WADING BEAR POND 170 MIGRATIONS 175 POND IN THE MAKING 184 RACCOON AND PAINTED TURTLE 189
6. The Floodplain COBBLEBARS, SANDBARS, AND RIVERBANKS 193 DOWNRIVER 205 THE OXBOW 212 THE LEVEE AND THE RIVER CHANNEL 220 7. Bogs and Fens BLACK FOX BOG 233 THE MOAT BOG 242 CALCEREOUS FEN 247 TAMARACK BOG 253
Epilogue 261
List of Common and Scientific Names 265 Selected Bibliography 275 Index 279