Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals Among California's Oaks

The acorn woodpeckers who call “Waka! Waka!” throughout California's oak woodlands unite in marriages of up to ten birds and raise their young cooperatively. California ground squirrels roll in rattlesnake skins to hide their scent from hungry snakes. Manzanita's sensuous red skin peels away in time for summer solstice, allowing trunks and branches to produce extra sugars to fuel growth. Weaving up-to-the-minute scientific findings, personal observations, and flashes of humor into twenty-two masterful chapters, author and naturalist Kate Marianchild explores the intimate lives and interconnections of plants, animals, lichens, and fungi common to California's oak woodlands from woodrats, newts, and California quail to mistletoe, lace lichen, and California buckeye. Suffused with wonder and illustrated with lavish watercolors, this award-winning book is on its way to becoming a classic of California nature writing. Open it and you will be amazed to discover a fascinating world that “rustles, hums, and sings with the sounds of wild things.”