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Saturday, January 7, 2012

Audubon's red-shouldered hawk






my favorite Audubon's:

Red-shouldered buzzard, (today: hawk)

"The bird is one of the most noisy of its genus, during spring especially, when it would be difficult to approach the skirts of woods bordering a large plantation without hearing its discordant shrill notes, ka-hee, ka-hee."

From Ornithological Biography by naturalist/artist John James Audubon.

On January 20, a complete first edition, four volume Audubon's The Birds of America including his five-volume Ornithological Biography will be auctioned in New York at Christie's. There are only 120 known copies of this huge work. As big as a coffee table, weighing over 200 pounds, it contains 435 hand-colored engravings each measuring 28X30 inches. Massive.

I'll be speaking at Wilderness Wildlife Week in Pigeon Forge on Thursday at 1 p.m. about the "Making of Audubon's Birds of America," a most remarkable feat. 

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