This engaging chronicle of how the author and the great horned owl “Bubo” came to know one another over three summers spent in the Maine woods—and of how Bubo eventually grew into an independent hunter—is now available in an edition that has been abridged and revised so as to be more accessible to the general reader.
Bernd Heinrich is Professor of Zoology at the University of Vermont and the author of several books, which include Bumblebee Economics (Harvard) and Ravens in Winter (Summit). Alice Calaprice abridged and revised this edition of One Man's Owl. The first edition of the book was a selection of the Nature Book Society and the Library of Science.
"[Bernd Heinrich] tells the tender story of a very small animal experiment. The experiment is clearly a ruse—an excuse for indulging the infatuation that blossoms when a man stumbles over a baby owl. Its tiny talon sticking out of the snow catches his attention. . . . Mr. Heinrich . . . knows only too well that naturalists take a dim view of the urge to remove a bird from the wild and take it home to nurse. This book, complete with affectionate drawings and photographs by the author, may serve as his apology."—Bonnie Bilyeu Gordon, The New York Times Book Review
"Bernd Heinrich is a nature lover, a scholar, and a fine writer. . . . One Man's Owl straddles the line between formal science and sheer love of the wild, and does it beautifully."—David M. Graber, The Los Angeles Times Book Review