All about ospreys - best seller and widely acclaimed book by a top expert

This book shows us why.

Take flight with Belle, an osprey born on Martha's Vineyard as she learns to fly and migrates for the first time to Brazil and back--a journey of more than 8,000 miles. Dr. B. and Dick, two osprey scientists in Massachusetts, observe ospreys and their offspring, tagging one special fledgling with a transmitter to better study migration habits. Follow Belle as she attempts her first flight, conquers her first fishing endeavour, and heads south for her first migration all while her tracking device transmits information about where's she been. Based on information garnered through twenty years of research by the author, Belle's Journey will soar into reader's hearts.

Known by ornithologists as "citizens of the world," ospreys are among the most widely distributed bird species on earth, living on every continent except Antarctica. Love enthusiastically shares her knowledge of ospreys and their life cycle in this volume. Full color.

WHEN THE MARINES decided to buy a helicopter-airplane hybrid “tiltrotor” called the V-22 Osprey, they saw it as their dream machine. The tiltrotor was the aviation equivalent of finding the Northwest Passage: an aircraft able to take off, land, and hover with the agility of a helicopter yet fly as fast and as far as an airplane. Many predicted it would reshape civilian aviation. The Marines saw it as key to their very survival. By 2000, the Osprey was nine years late and billions over budget, bedeviled by technological hurdles, business rivalries, and an epic political battle over whether to build it at all. Opponents called it one of the worst boondoggles in Pentagon history. The Marines were eager to put it into service anyway. Then two crashes killed twenty- three Marines. They still refused to abandon the Osprey, even after the Corps’ own proud reputation was tarnished by a national scandal over accusations that a commander had ordered subordinates to lie about the aircraft’s problems. Based on in-depth research and hundreds of interviews, The Dream Machine recounts the Marines’ quarter-century struggle to get the Osprey into combat. Whittle takes the reader from the halls of the Pentagon and Congress to the war zone of Iraq, from the engineer’s drafting table to the cockpits of the civilian and Marine pilots who risked their lives flying the Osprey—and sometimes lost them. He reveals the methods, motives, and obsessions of those who designed, sold, bought, flew, and fought for the tiltrotor. These stories, including never before published eyewitness accounts of the crashes that made the Osprey notorious, not only chronicle an extraordinary chapter in Marine Corps history, but also provide a fascinating look at a machine that could still revolutionize air travel.

A Book Sense Notable Title "As Gessner pursues [the ospreys] down the Eastern Seaboard and even into Cuba with a BBC documentary team at his heels, a lively tale of fish-eating raptors, broken embargoes and a nail-biting race to the finish line ensues . . . Gessner finds his Mecca not in the thrilling launch or triumphant end of his own 7,000-mile migration, but in the living done in between."—Jennifer Winger, Nature Conservancy Magazine "An engaging, lyrical guide to osprey migration, Cuba, and a common humanity."—Orion Magazine "Gessner's finest book, unpredictable in the best way, and funny, too; an adventure book and much more—a book of contact by a writer who quickly becomes an audible and visible presence."—Clyde Edgerton, author of Solo "An interesting and complex book . . . In a surprisingly short amount of time, David Gessner has evolved into one of our most accomplished and singular writers about nature. While many authors treat their experiences in nature with a hushed earnestness and a suspect neatness, Gessner writes about the messy humanness of being outside."—Mark Lynch, Bird Observer "An ideal traveling companion and guide. Soaring with Fidel lets you hover for a while in the thermals of fine language, seeing the same old world from a fresh and invigorating altitude."—Ben Steelman, Wilmington (NC) Star-News

A stunning addition to the Scientists in the Field series that explores mercury pollution found in the rivers and streams of Western Montana that might cause harm to humans--and the extinction of the entire osprey species.