Russian Nature Press
Information Service
ONE SEASON IN THE TAIGA
Vadim Ryabitsev
ONE SEASON IN THE TAIGA
Edinburgh: Russian Nature Press, 1998. ISBN 978 09532990 0 3Softback; sewn; viii + 179 pp.; 210 x 137 mm; with 42 drawings, 4 maps.
| This is Vadim Ryabitsev's delightful and humorous account of an expedition to
the northern Ural Mountains to study willow and Arctic warblers. The author - a professional
ornithologist at the Institute of Plant & Animal Ecology in Ekaterinburg - describes the
ecological fieldwork involved, includes intimate portraits of the individual birds, and
describes other wildlife encountered as well as the delights and trials of camp life in the
northern taiga. There are numerous scientific, linguistic and general notes at the back of the book.
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Contents
2. We set off 3. Territoriality 4. New birds, new songs 5. No-man's-land? 6. Getting acquainted, weddings, setting up home 7. A little more on interspecific territoriality 8. The demise of Kach 9. Reminiscence: the balalaika 10. Where the arctic warblers settle down 11. The hypothesis doesn't stand up 12. Mustang 13. Voles 14. New mysteries 15. Regime 24-12 16. The elements set up an experiment 17. Encounter with the tundra 18. Hypotheses shattered once more 19. How to find nests 20. Their daily bread 21. What is the point of territories? 22. Zhak in the dock, again 23. Delights of the subarctic summer 24. We go fishing 25. A race against time 26. Unlucky Zhuzha 27. Homeward bound 28. Writing up 29. Why study small brown birds? 30. Zoologists and what they study Epilogue, Epi-epilogue Notes
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© Vadim Ryabitsev. |
From the reviews...
"[The author] skilfully paints a detailed picture of this fascinating northern forest"Jim Mattocks, Scottish Bird News (SBN)
"Ornithologists who yearn to explore Russia can...imagine that they are in [the taiga]. I did
just that"
Philip Radford, British Birds (BB)
"... one of the most enjoyable wildlife books I have read..."
Richard Porter,
RSPB Birds
"... continuing a fine tradition of Russian natural history writing..."
Michael Wilson,
Ibis
"Een uitstekend initiatief om Russisch werk in vertaling op de westerse markt te brengen!"
Rob Bijlsma, Limosa
Reviews have appeared in
BB April 1999; Birds Winter 1998;
British East-West J. Dec.1998; Ibis vol.141 pp.162-3; Limosa vol.72 no.2;
SBN Dec.1998