Marshwalker: Naturalist Memoirs

by John Weier

Written in the tradition of Peter Matthiessen's classic The Wind Birds, Marshwalker: Naturalist Memoirs conveys the biological and behavioural intricacies of marsh life without dulling their romance and splendour. The memoir is a month-by-month study of a large prairie marsh with its many inhabitants. Weier's meditative observation of birds and their cyclical existence is underscored by his own personal narrative. Marshwalker is both a book on...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088801225X
• ISBN13: 9780888012258
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Turnstone Press
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Marshwalker: Naturalist Memoirs --- found on www.poets.ca

John Weier begins his nature journal after soul-searching reveals that he needs a change from the lonely life at a desk writing fiction and poetry. Weier sets out to log a year of trips to Oak Hammock Marsh near Winnipeg, where he hopes his writing will hear, smell and feel the tremendous variety of wildlife living there. The marsh, lovingly described, is teeming with birds such as the thousands of majestic Canada geese that stop on their way north or south, depending on the season. Weier traces the busy food-gathering activity of the American sparrow, bold in his presence and equally as beautiful as its larger brethren. Weier speaks of his relationship with his elderly father and how it helps him understand his feelings about the peace he finds in observing nature. Marshwalker is both a book on the birds and wildlife of the marsh and a poetic exploration of what life is about. Reading the words of this true nature-lover, we share his wonder at the quiet, profound beauty of the natural world. Excerpt: Talk about the Future Burrowing owls still nest in Manitoba, though the roost is growing thin; in 1995 only four nesting pairs were reported, by 1997 those too will probably be gone. This small owl--Billy owl, la chouette à terrier--has offered its own kind of grail for me; Susan and I have made five or six trips over the last five years to a far corner of the province to see it. We like to see owls anyway, they hold a compelling attraction, and we've heard how comical the burrowing owl looks standing on the ground on its long legs at the mouth of a nest hole, how it stares back at you; we'd like to mark it on our Manitoba checklist before it disappears. We've worked from a book--Birder's Guide to Southwestern Manitoba, from reports of other bird enthusiasts, the notes of wildlife officers. We've driven up and down gravel roads, risked ruts and mud roads, weathered storms and heat and insects, headaches, exhaustion.