The Great Rocky Mountain Nature Factbook

A Guide to the Region’s Remarkable Animals, Plants, & Natural Features

West Winds Press, 1999

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“You’re walking through foothill or mountain forests on a lovely spring day and think you hear someone blowing notes on a champagne bottle. What sounds like a stranded reveler is, in reality, a blue grouse.”

 

 

 

 

 

her adopted and beloved home. Along with the random nature factoids she loves to share,

you will learn how to be safe in bear country, why winter range is important, and what the difference is between altricial and precocial baby birds. The book also contains a meditation on the nature of growth and development in the Rockies, and why conservation is critical if we want the Rockies to remain “an ark upon the plains.”

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A number of sidebars scattered through the book really are gratifying. Take the one on salamanders and lizards. Ewing explains the difference and what the difference means. . . . Reading about earthquakes? There is a sidebar on the Richter and Mercalli scales: Richter is objective while Mercalli is subjective. And take the section on mayflies. It's complete and factual yet simple enough to be understandable."

—Great Falls Tribune