Kenn Kaufman

Kenn Kaufmann

Join us as national nature expert Kenn Kaufman presents his newest nature guide, The Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of New England. Joining him in the presentation will be his wife and birding companion, Kimberly. The Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of New England is like having 13 field guides in your pocket. This guide will help identify a cool-looking mushroom, a weird insect crawling on a log, a delicate wildflower, and an intricate shell on the beach. Birds, mammals, trees, wildflowers, insects, reptiles, amphibians, sky, fishes, spiders, mushrooms, ferns, and sea shells – it’s all here. With more than 2,000 color photographs, and Kenn Kaufman’s authoritative and accessible language, this book is an essential reference for nature lovers in New England. (GibsonsB)… (more)

Kenn Kaufman reads from Flights Against the Sunset .; Tim Gallagher reads from Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century.

Harvard Book Store is delighted to host leading ornithologists KENN KAUFMAN and TIM GALLAGHER to discuss their respective new books, which combine birding history, personal memoir, and travelogue.

At age sixteen, KAUFMAN left home to travel the world in search of birds. Now a grown man and a renowned ornithologist, he has come back to visit his ailing mother and explain to her what drove his obsession with bird life. His explanation forms a series of interlocking tales from the frontier where the world of birds intersects with the world of the humans who pursue them. Flights Against the Sunset brings together nineteen essays, mostly adapted from Kaufman's long-running column in Bird Watcher's Digest. They weave an original story that examines how we communicate about our passions with those who do not share the same interests and how to celebrate the world of infinite possibilities and wonder.

GALLAGHER mines his lifelong obsession with falcons for an answer in this engaging volume interweaving memoir, history, and travelogue. An entire subculture of the sport exists outside the mainstream of American society, consisting of obsessed individuals who still use the ancient training techniques and language of falconry. What salve to his spirit did falconry provide when it ignited his passion at age twelve? Beset by a turbulent childhood dominated by a brutal and violent father, Gallagher turned to this sport for emotional release. He offers us a unique glimpse into contemporary falconry, and the result is a surprisingly frank and revealing personal story. (ablachly)… (more)