About Going Wild

There’s a great wilderness in America. It’s not in Alaska or in the national parks of the West. Most people don’t know about it because it hasn’t received a lot of press. It’s a wilderness many of us can get to in minutes, a place where we can experience wildlife drama first-hand.

This wilderness exists in the unpeopled parts of our own neighborhoods. In the woods and fields close to home, we can witness the same wild creatures, natural beauty, and struggles for survival that we see on the animal channel.

Robert Winkler focuses on the most visible and accessible aspect of this undiscovered land in his new book: Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness. Drawing on personal experience, he writes about the birds of southern New England—hawks, eagles, owls, shrikes, warblers, thrushes—the same birds that occur over much of North America and, in a few cases, on other continents.

Going Wild is National Geographic's first literary book on birds, a prose companion to the popular National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America. It mentions more than 200 species and goes into detail on more than 40. There's an essay on the northern goshawk, one of the world's fiercest birds of prey, yet one that's increasingly common in suburban woods. Readers will learn about the comeback of the bald eagle and the wild turkey. There's humor as well: one essay describes the errors Hollywood sound editors make when they add bird songs to movie soundtracks. "Feeder Wars," the longest chapter, explains why the bird feeder is the suburban equivalent of the African water hole. Another chapter, "Other Lives," focuses on wild neighbors of the featherless variety, such as copperheads, flying squirrels, foxes, and coyotes. And there's an observation or two on that sometimes peculiar subspecies of Homo sapiens: the suburbanite.

Winkler writes about birds because they represent the wild in all its glory. They're numerous, diverse, intelligent, talkative, and beautiful; their power of flight never ceases to amaze; and they're the most conspicuous class of wild animal—even in the suburb, they're just about everywhere.

As the world grows more populous and technological, people seem to have a greater yearning to connect spiritually with the wild. Winkler’s example shows them the way to make that connection through birds. Whether you're a beginning or advanced birder, a fan of nature writing, a curious suburbanite, a devotee of North American nature, or a reader in search of that rare bird known as a good book, Going Wild could very well change how you view your world.

Read an excerpt in National Wildlife magazine: "A Shakespeare Among Birds"

Critical praise for Going Wild:
"What makes this book so worth reading ... is not the list of species, but the way Winkler thinks and writes about each one ... Rarity for Winkler is something found in the experience, not in the bird ... Going Wild is written in a plain, simple style, an "easy read"—but all the same, something to linger over. Experienced birders will enjoy the book, but its real influence is likely to be felt among beginning birders and not-yet-birders, who will be inspired by [Winkler's] evocation of the pleasures of truly getting to know one's home and the creatures that share it."
—Rick Wright in Birding

"In this day of X-treme sports and easy travel, there is a surfeit of books about complicated trips to exotic lands in search of rare birds, animals, or peoples. I do enjoy reading those adventure-packed books and articles, but like an adrenalin rush, the pleasure is short-lived and does not affect the way I live day to day. What is rare is a book that will teach you how to better see and appreciate what is in front of your nose, and Going Wild is one of those books."
—Mark Lynch in Bird Observer

"This book gradually won me over ... What gives Going Wild its unexpected power is Winkler's accumulating observations and genuine devotion to his local haunts. He invests himself in his birds through careful attention and long familiarity ... Going Wild convincingly demonstrates the value and power of attachment and locality."
—Robert Finch, co-editor of The Norton Book of Nature Writing, in The Weekly Standard

"An account of Winkler's trips and observations might sound unexciting, especially since most Europeans will not know many of the birds that he is speaking about. Yet that is not the case; Going Wild provides a thoughtful and well-informed account of nature ... [and] will appeal to lovers of natural history, especially birds."
—Christopher Perrins, president of the British Ornithologists' Union, in The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"A book urban dwellers with a taste for nature should take to heart ... filled with fascinating bits of information ... What makes Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness so interesting is that practically all of the adventures [Winkler] recounts took place in Fairfield County, Conn., where he lives, between 50 and 75 miles from New York City."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Blurs the boundaries between reference, journal, and essay ... There is a tremendous amount of natural history information tucked into this book, skillfully woven into anecdote and personal observation ... Going Wild is an inviting ramble with a knowledgeable guide."
—Julie Zickefoose in Bird Watcher's Digest

"Filled with a love of nature, a strong conservation ethic, and personal touches that make the reader want to learn more, this quiet book will find a niche with fans of good nature writing."
—Booklist

"When you’re looking for good books about the natural world, you’re bound to run into a worthy bird book ... such as Robert Winkler’s Going Wild: Adventures with Birds in the Suburban Wilderness."
—Nancy Pearl in More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason

"The book’s staggering account of over 200 species, and in-depth analysis of over 40, gives it dizzying ornithological muscle … What amazed me about the book was the ease with which information was dispensed in narrative form. Without too much cheesy reverential acclaim, the species in Going Wild rise above our normalized subdivided landscape and hold their own prowess. Less an account of species sighted than an extraordinary display of the wildness around us, the birds in the book carry us out of our carpeted stagnation into a world flickering with life at its edges."
—Drew McNaughton, IdentityTheory.com

"With Robert Winkler, National Geographic ... found a genuine birder with an obvious talent for writing ... Whether you are American, British, or any other nationality, this book will translate to your own experiences ... I can give no better plaudit than saying I will recommend this book to all my birdwatching compatriots, and anyone else who harbours the slightest feeling for the natural world."
—Ashley Beolens, Fatbirder.com (United Kingdom)

"Funny encounters, intriguing observations and natural history blend in a whimsical yet educational gathering of birding wisdom and lore which makes for light, delightful reading."
—Midwest Book Review

"[Robert Winkler's] bright writing makes for a very pleasant read."
—Yankee Magazine

Selected by World Book Science Year 2005 as one of 16 "important new books about science"

Published by National Geographic Books

Distributed by Random House

Trade Paperback Original
208 pages
Publication date: October 15, 2003
ISBN: 0792261682
$16.00

Chapter Titles
Introduction
1-Bearings
2-Tools
3-A Golden-Crowned Winter
4-Warblers
5-The Goshawk
6-Icons
7-Rarities
8-Feeder Wars
9-Spirit Places
10-Numbers
11-The Barred Owl
12-Other Lives
13-Bird Songs of Hollywood
14-Rites of Passage
Epilogue


Jeff Brush/Connecticut Post (used with permission)

Robert Winkler has written nature essays for The New York Times, National Wildlife, Salon.com, and many other magazines, newspapers, and Web sites. A naturalist with over 30 years of field experience, he has been a consulting writer for International Masters (a publisher of wildlife natural histories), his bird photographs have been widely published and exhibited, and he contributed to Connecticut ornithology with his checklist of the birds of Sherwood Island State Park. His Web site has won numerous awards, and he has been a photography columnist for Travel & Leisure. His publication credits include Reader’s Digest, USA Today, The Weekly Standard, and The Christian Science Monitor. He lives in Connecticut beside the south branch of the Pootatuck River.

Copyright © 2004-2007 Robert Winkler

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