From the acclaimed scientist and writer, essays collected for the first time in book form, on ravens and other birds, insects, trees, elephants, and more, bring "passionate observations [that] superbly mix memoir and science" (New York Times).From one of the finest scientist/writers of our time comes an engaging record of a life spent in close observation of the natural world, one that has yielded "marvelous, mind-altering" (Los Angeles Times) insight and discoveries. In essays that span several decades, Heinrich finds himself at his beloved camp in Maine; plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster fly) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs); and unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants in Botswana bruising mopane trees. Heinrich then turns to his great love, the extraordinary behaviors of ravens; chronicles a magical sighting of hundreds of loons congregated on a lake in Maine, something never recorded...