10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Ackerman’s new book is about owls and owl research–the knowledge recently and currently being discovered through DNA analysis, new-tech tracking and monitoring, and old-fashioned fieldwork under the auspices of organizations like the Global Owl Project and the Owl Research Institute. They are also hunted.

Owls 220

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 220

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 1, 2020

There are owls in New York City. They are the city’s latest, maybe only, celebrity media sensation, and photographs show crowds of New Yorkers craning their necks up as far as their masks allow, holding phones at arm’s length, using opera glasses and huge binoculars that remind me of the ones my dad used at the racetrack.

New York City 194

New York City Birds Owls Fox 194

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

We have photographs and newspaper obituaries of Martha, the last living Passenger Pigeon, who died after a lifetime in captivity, mostly in the Cincinnati Zoo. We immediately get a sense of the pigeons’ abundance, beauty, and danger to human activity. We have a lot of source material. It’s an effective introduction.

2014 161

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 161