Seasons of Heron Pond: Wildings of Air, Earth and Water

This excellent collection of Mary Leister's nature columns from the Baltimore Sun kept me turning the pages with glee. Leister was a Maryland naturalist and writer who lived in rural Howard County for many years. She died in 2003 at age 85. Her columns for the Sun centered on the flora and fauna of her home patch of woods, fields, stream, and pond. The beauty of one person reporting on the natural world from one geographical location over a period of time is that, through that person's eyes, you are able to observe the cycle of life at both a macro and micro level. For example, you learn that bobolinks arrived at the field near Leister's home on the same exact day for many years, provided the dandelion crop was in bloom. I think my show more favorite essay is the one about the Barred Owl that gets trapped in Leister's chimney, but there are many gems in here and I learned a lot from reading them. show less