Washoe County Library System

The story of a nesting pair of murrelets who fly inland from their home in the Pacific Ocean to the Douglas-fir tree area of California where an egg is laid. After the egg is hatched the parents fly back and forth to the ocean bring fish for the young bird to eat. And finally when the fledgling leaves the nest and heads to the ocean.

Pandemonium, the home and bird sanctuary the author shares with birds, is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction, with the goal of eventually releasing them into the wild. Birds fall in love, mourn, rejoice, and sacrifice; they have a sense of humor, invent, plot, and cope. They can teach us volumes about the interrelationships of humans and animals.

Describes the history of the condor in North America and the efforts to capture and breed the few remaining California condors to save them from extinction.

"Gedney shares his devotion to everyday Western birds in fifteen essays. Each essay illuminates the life of a single species and its relationship to humans, and how these species can help us understand birds in general"--