Wildlife photographer Marie Read and ornithologist/poet Pepper Trail combine their talents in a unique fusion of photography and verse that will surprise and delight readers, adding a new dimension to their understanding and appreciation of birds.  Visually lovely and spiritually serene, For the Love of Birds: Visions and Meditations offers a profound new perspective on these marvelous beings, the birds who share our fragile earth.

Wildlife photographer Marie Read and ornithologist/poet Pepper Trail combine their talents in a unique fusion of photography and verse that will surprise and delight readers, adding a new dimension to their understanding and appreciation of birds. The stunning photographs transcend mere portraits, providing windows into the fascinating lives of a diverse variety of bird species. The accompanying haiku are rich in word-magic and wit, complementing the images with deceptively simple elegance, giving readers intriguing insights while suggesting subtle truths about our own lives. Concluding sections enrich the readers' experience by placing the birds in ecological and behavioral context, describing the photographic process, and introducing the art of haiku.   Visually lovely and spiritually serene, For the Love of Birds: Visions and Meditations offers a profound new perspective on these marvelous beings, the birds who share our fragile earth.

Photographer/writer Marie Read's award-winning photos are regularly featured in magazines, books, and calendars worldwide. Her articles and photo essays about bird behavior and bird photography have appeared in Wild Planet, Nature's Best, Bird Watching, and Living Bird among others. She has authored or co-authored five previous books, most recently Mastering Bird Photography: the Art, Craft and Technique of Photographing Birds and Their Behavior, published by Rocky Nook, spring 2019. See more of her work at https://www.marieread.com

Pepper Trail is chief ornithologist at the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory, where he established the Feather Atlas of North American Birds (https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/), and has worked on thousands of investigations of wildlife crime. Trail is also a widely published writer and poet. His essays appear in A Road Runs Through It: Reviving Wild Places and Intricate Homeland: Collected Writings from Klamath Siskiyou, and his poems have appeared in numerous literary journals. He is the author of three poetry collections: Flight Time, An Empty Bowl, and Cascade-Siskiyou: Poems, which was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry.