Looking for the Wild

by Lyn Hancock

221 pages, Hardcover

First published December 23, 1986

Reviews

[Kathy]

In the 1980's, Lyn Hancock and friends undertake a repeat journey of the original trip made by Roger Torey Peterson and James Fisher in the 1930's as they searched for "the wild" in America. Traveling from the Mexican border along certain bird "flyways" all the way to the Pribilof Islands in Alaska, they look for birds and try to determine how avian populations have are surviving. This may sound boring to non "birders" but trust me, it's not! Ms. Hancock has written a delightful, chatty travelogue that incorporates many interesting details about birds, the personalities of her fellow travelers and wonderful descriptions of the countryside. She manages to incorporate scientific details and information about particular avian species without reducing the reader to a mind-numbing stupor. If you like birds and you like traveling, you will like this book!

[Bob]

Wonderful and inspirational account of the people and places on a 90 day birding tour from Newfoundland to the Dry Tortugas west of Key West to San Diego to Alaska's Pribilofs, led in 1983 by the amazing Gus Yaki (1932-2020) and including Roger Tory Peterson, Robert Bateman, and a number of less famous characters such as the author. Not just a travelogue, but a meditation of the place of nature in our lives.