University Of Wisconsin Press

Birds of Wisconsin
Revised Edition
Owen J. Gromme
With an Introduction by Samuel D. Robbins, Jr.
A beloved classic back in print

Art lovers and bird watchers, rejoice! Owen J. Gromme's classic Birds of Wisconsin comes to life again in a splendid new edition with completely rephotographed color plates and a new introduction by well-known ornithologist Samuel D. Robbins, Jr. This stunning revised edition features eighty-nine full-color portraits depicting the state's rich variety of native species and seventeen new paintings showing birds in their natural habitat.

Bird watcher, ornithologist, or curious observer will find information here valuable in identifying birds accurately. When, where, and how abundantly each bird is present in Wisconsin is indicated with easy-to-read maps and datelines, updated by Robbins.

This widely praised book is published in cooperation with the Milwaukee Public Museum, where Gromme worked as curator of birds and mammals for more than forty years. Gromme, who was born in 1896 and died in 1991, began Birds of Wisconsin in 1941. The book was finally published in 1963 and has since become a must for bird lovers everywhere. Nationally recognized as a pioneer in conservation and the dean of wildlife artists, Gromme was the recipient of numerous awards and honors during his lifetime. Among his accomplishments, Gromme painted the 1945 federal duck stamp as well as the first Wisconsin duck stamp in 1978.

"The author has a deep feeling for his subjects, a clean line and sound sense of color. This is altogether a pleasing book."—Scientific American

"Sumptuously illustrated."—New York Times

"Birds of Wisconsin is a beauty to behold."—Milwaukee Journal

"Gromme's book is certainly an ornithological art treasure. It is quite in a class by itself, and it ought to be on the shelves of every bird lover in Wisconsin."— August Derleth

"I grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and I never had much of an education. Most of what I know came from first-hand experience. As a kid my feet were always wet from trompin' the marshes. The birds were there, building their nests, laying their eggs and raising their young. My first bird skin was done with a little knife my dad and I had made from an old file. I hung around every one I knew who could tell me about the birds and their habitat. When I realized that the number of eggs was gradually diminishing I wondered what was going on? So my life's course was pretty well determined by the time I was fourteen. . . . Ornithology, taxidermy, conservation—it was all there in just about everything I did. That's what I built on during my years at the Museum. That's the foundation for every picture I painted."—August Owen J. Gromme, these are words as remembered by his daughter, Anne Marie Gromme.

Samuel D. Robbins, Jr., was an active leader of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology for fifty years. He is the author of Wisconsin Birdlife: Population and Distribution Past and Present, the companion volume to Birds of Wisconsin, also published by the University of Wisconsin Press. November 1998; 240 pp.      105 color illus.     9 x12; ISBN 0-299-15860-8   Cloth $73.95 Buy

A guide to the distribution and abundance of 265 bird species

Hoping to see a snow goose? Wondering if that marbled godwit you've spotted is a rara avis? Noticing that you don't see as many eastern meadowlarks as you used to?

Wisconsin Birds is a comprehensive and useful guide to the distribution and abundance of all common bird species found in the state. Meant as a supplement to the colorful field guides that identify birds, this little book of maps and graphs will tell you where to find them. Based on data collected on weekly checklists by members of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology since 1982, this book's first edition was the first of its kind for any state. This new edition is completely updated with data gathered through 1995.

Each page of the book is devoted to a single species—265 in all—showing the areas of the state in which that species can be found, its relative abundance in those areas, and seasonal patterns of abundance in southern and northern Wisconsin. New to this edition are graphs showing whether the species has increased, decreased, or remained stable over the last fifteen years.

Also included in Wisconsin Birds are a list of other species only rarely seen in Wisconsin, an explanation of how to interpret the maps and graphs, and a description of the Wisconsin Checklist Project.

Stanley A. Temple is the Beers-Bascom Professor in Conservation and John R. Cary is a senior information processing consultant, both in the Department of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Robert Rolley is a wildlife population ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. February 1998; 366 pp. (est.)          4 1/2 x 7
ISBN 0-299-15220-0   Cloth $33.95 Buy
ISBN 0-299-15224-3   Paper $16.95 Buy

As initially planned in 1939 by Owen J. Gromme, then curator of birds at the Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin Birdlife would not only describe and document every species of bird known to have visited this state, but would also depict each species with his own original paintings. During the next two decades, Gromme concentrated primarily on the latter, resulting in the separate publication in 1963 of his now classic Birds of Wisconsin. Work on the present volume was assumed in the late 1960s by Samuel D. Robbins, whose labors of more than 20 years give us a veritable encyclopedia of the state's ornithological knowledge. A complement and supplement to field guides, picture books, and recordings, the book is designed to enlarge the reader's understanding and appreciation of statewide history, abundance, and habitat preference of every species reliably recorded in Wisconsin.

The volume opens with a summary of the ornithological history of the state and an exposition of its ecological setting. The heart of Wisconsin Birdlife ensues: detailed accounts of nearly 400 species, with information on status (population and distribution), habitat, migration dates, breeding data, and wintering presence, followed by extensive discussion and commentary. Dr. James Hall Zimmerman, Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides a special discussion of bird habitats for the book. In addition, Wisconsin Birdlife features a comprehensive status and seasonal distribution chart, a detailed habitat preference chart, and an exhaustive bibliography.

The ultimate resource, Wisconsin Birdlife belongs within easy reach of everyone from armchair appreciators and casual birdwatchers to ardent birders and professional ornithologists.

Samuel D. Robbins, Jr., was an active leader of the Wisconsin Ornithological Society for fifty years. May 199; 736 pp.      1 color plate, 54 halftones, 170 maps     8 1/2 x 11; ISBN 0-299-10260-2  Cloth $73.95 Buy

"Clearly the best available regional or state fish book."
—Library Journal

This magnificent, encyclopedic reference to 157 fish species—which are found not only in Wisconsin but also in much of the Great Lakes region and Mississippi River watershed—has been a model for all other such works. In addition to comprehensive species accounts, Becker discusses water resources and fisheries management from both historical and practical policy perspectives.

"The ultimate reference guide for researchers, fish managers, students, and, of course, fishermen."—Wisconsin Trails

"One of the best three or four books of its kind ever written."
—Rudolph J. Miller, American Zoologist

George C. Becker is emeritus professor of biology and the former curator of fishes at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.

June 200; 1064 pp. 177 color photos; b/w illus. & maps throughout; 8 1/2 x 11
ISBN 0-299-08790-5 Cloth $124.95 Buy

Small Creatures and Ordinary Places
Essays on Nature
Allen M. Young
Illustrated by Judith Huf
 

Observations on the flicker of fireflies, springs full of frog song, Monarch butterflies in a patch of purple coneflowers

Small Creatures and Ordinary Places reveals to us the beauty and value of hornets, bats, katydids, mice, cicadas, and other tiny dwellers in our own backyards. Young, a renowned expert on butterflies and cicadas of the American tropics, records in these charming essays his keen observations of the natural world as he walks through an urban woods near the Lake Michigan shore, or sits on his deck facing his backyard, or gazes at a field of corn stubble in autumn. He invites us to venture into our own yards, neighborhood parks, fields, and forests and pause there . . . to look and to listen.

Small creatures have unique and interesting stories to tell us, Young points out. Their brief life cycles illustrate the intricate workings of a bigger clock driving the seasons, and they dominate the larger web of life in which humans are but a strand. Far too often they are ignored, taken for granted, reviled, or misunderstood. Even now, Young writes, as we move into a new millennium as a species and the technological pace of our existence further quickens, we can gain much from appreciating nature close at hand, despite how steadily it is being pushed aside.

Allen M. Young is curator of zoology and vice president of collections, research, and public programs at the Milwaukee Public Museum. His essays on nature have appeared in the Chicago Tribune Magazine, Milwaukee Journal, Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, and Wisconsin Natural Resources. He is the author of several books on the natural history of the tropics, including The Chocolate Tree, Sarapiqui Chronicle, and Lives Intertwined. He also prepared a revised edition of the Golden Guide to Insects, a book that in an earlier edition inspired his boyhood fascination with the life cycles of insects.

November 2000; 288 pp.      28 pen and ink line drawings     6 x 9
ISBN 0-299-16960-X  Cloth $49.95 Buy
ISBN 0-299-16964-2  Paper $19.95 Buy