Illustration: Henrik Drescher
A review of three books
By Bob Peterson
The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
by Richard Louv
(Algoquin Books, 2008)
The Sense of Wonder
by Rachel Carson
(HarperCollins, 1998, originally 1964)
A Sand County Almanac
by Aldo Leopold
(Oxford University Press, 1987, originally 1949)
A Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovers four feet from my head as I sit mesmerized watching its flight against the shimmering waters of Wisconsin's Flambeau River in the late afternoon sun. I don't know whether to focus my binoculars on the iridescent acrobat as it beats its wings 50 to 60 times a second seeking food from the hummingbird feeder or turn my gaze 200 yards up river where two deer stand knee-deep in the water grazing on waterweeds.
I flip through one of my bird guides and realize that it's no surprise these hummingbirds?the Ruby-throated male and the White-throated female?have been visiting the feeder all day. They must consume 50 percent of their body weight in sugar daily just to stay alive. Granted, they don't weigh a lot?one tenth of an ounce?but eating 50 percent of one's body weight in sugar would be an insurmountable challenge for even the most ardent, sugar-addicted preadolescents whom I teach.