The cranes! The cranes! The cranes!

I kept hearing various rumblings of sandhill crane sightings from Arboretum staff and visitors, but I had yet to witness this fall’s migration. On Thursday and Friday of this week, I was fortunate to have been walking on both the east and west sides of the Arboretum and heard that distinctive call of the cranes. What a pleasure to see these incredible birds flying high overhead! Haven’t seen or heard the cranes yet this season? Make tracks for the Arboretum and keep your eyes on the sky!

More details about the sandhill cranes can be found in these works within the collections of the Sterling Morton Library:

• Stone, Lynn M. Sandhill cranes, 1997.
• Grooms, Steve. The cry of the sandhill crane, 1992.
• Walkinshaw, Lawrence H. The sandhill cranes, 1949.
• Gatherings of angels : migrating birds and their ecology, 1999.
• Johnsgard, Paul A. Crane music : a natural history of American cranes, 1991.
• The Birds of North America, no. 31, 1992.

Additional information can be found at:

• All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Entry about sandhill cranes in Wikipedia
• International Crane Foundation
• U.S. Geological Survey
• Article about Jasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area

Enjoy this annual autumnal treat!

Return to Wild America

The featured book at Thursday’s gathering of Leafing Through the Pages, the Sterling Morton Library’s book discussion group, was Scott Weidensaul’s Return to wild America : a yearlong search for the continent's natural soul. The conversation about Weidensaul’s adventure was fascinating and presented another perspective on the original journey of Peterson and Fisher recounted in Wild America : the record of a 30,000 mile journey around the continent by a distinguished naturalist and his British colleague.
In addition to our discussion, we gathered a list of potential books to read in 2009. I’ve added this draft to the official Leafing Through the Pages wiki which can be found at: http://leafingthroughthepages.pbwiki.com/ This wiki also includes our reading history detailing what we’ve read since the founding of the discussion group on March 13, 2003. Whew! Lots of great books, stories, poems and conversations!

Enjoy the list and join us at an upcoming discussion!

Articles of note in the Sterling Morton Library : November's offerings

These are some recent articles that can be found within the journal collection of the Sterling Morton Library. Please visit the Library to discover the incredible botanical and horticultural resources that await you! If you are unable to visit the Library and interested in reviewing one of these articles, I would be delighted to help you at rhassert@mortonarb.org.

Cumming, Anne Buckelew, Daniel B. Twardus, and David J. Nowak. Urban Forest Health Monitoring: Large-Scale Assessments in the United States. Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, v. 34, no. 6, p. 341-346.

Ellis, Barbara. Fall for grasses. Organic Gardening, v. 56, no. 1, p. 66-69.

Klinkenborg, Verlyn. Our vanishing night. National Geographic, v. 214, no. 5, p. 102-109.

Rankin, Rose. Lucky clovers. Chicagoland Gardening, v. 14, no. 6, p. 22-24.
Chicagoland natives – features the native purple prairie clover.

Richardson, Tim. Fit for a president. Gardens Illustrated, no. 142, p. 44-49.
A President’s garden legacy – Thomas Jefferson’s masterpiece at Monticello.

Six, Laura J. and Charles B. Halpern. Substrate effects on distribution, biomass allocation, and morphology of forest understory plants. Botany, v. 86, no. 10, p. 1133-1142.

Swanson, Frederick J., Charles Goodrich and Kathleen Dean Moore. Bridging boundaries: scientists, creative writers, and the long view of the forest. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, v. 6, no. 9, p. 499-504.

Woodward, F. I. and C.K. Kelly. Responses of global plant diversity capacity to changes in carbon dioxide concentration and climate. Ecology Letters, v. 11, no. 11, p. 1229-1237.

Enjoy these fine autumn days!

New exhibit opens in the Sterling Morton Library

Visit the Sterling Morton Library of The Morton Arboretum and delve into our new exhibit : Humboldt & Darwin Explore New Worlds, 1799–1836

Explore the adventures of Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin on their remarkable journeys through South America. Works from our circulating and special collections highlight their adventures and discoveries. Additional information about these two naturalists can be found in this selection of works from the Library’s collections:

• Adams, Alexander B. Eternal quest : the story of the great naturalists, 1969.
• Darwin, Charles. Charles Darwin's notebooks, 1836-1844 : geology, transmutation of species, metaphysical enquiries, 1987.
• Darwin, Charles. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and selected letters, 1958.
• Darwin, Charles. The voyage of Charles Darwin : his autobiographical writings, 1979.
• Dolan, Edward F. Green universe : the story of Alexander von Humboldt, 1959.
• Freeman, R. B. Charles Darwin : a companion, 1978.
• Helferich, Gerard. Humboldt's cosmos : Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American journey that changed the way we see the world, 2004.
• Humboldt, Alexander von. The Humboldt Library : a catalogue of the library of Alexander von Humboldt, 1967.
• Kellner, L. Alexander von Humboldt, 1963.
• Nicholas, F. W. Charles Darwin in Australia : with illustrations and additional commentary from other members of the Beagle's company including Conrad Martens, Augustus Earle, Captain FitzRoy, Philip Gidley King, and Syms Covington, 1989.
• Olby, Robert C. Charles Darwin, 1967.
• The great naturalists, 2007.
• Von Hagen, Victor Wolfgang. South America called them : explorations of the great naturalists: La Condamine, Humboldt, Darwin, Spruce, 1955.
• Zottmann, Thomas Michael. Alexander von Humboldt : scientist, explorer, adventurer, 1961.