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Research scientist John H. Rappole's lifelong journey has been in search of one thing – finding out why birds migrate. The developer and chief proponent of the "dispersal theory" of bird migration, Rappole takes readers on a tour of the decades-long discovery process that led him to propose a counter to the still-widely accepted "northern home", or weather-based theory of migration. Migration Mysteries: Adventures, Disasters, and Epiphanies in a Life with Birds starts with Rappole's early field work and follows through all of the subsequent twists and turns of his career and life.
In a delightfully approachable style, Rappole introduces the people, places, quandaries, and dangers he encountered during the years he spent in Mexico, Central America, and the United States studying the migration patterns of birds. His account also serves as a wake-up call for conservation as, Rappole observes, the habitats for migratory birds are disappearing year by year.
Cast as the author's "swan song" on the topic of bird migration, this lively account of Rappole's life's work will delight birders, researchers, and general readers alike. Offered as both a follow-up to his recent, more theoretical work, Bird Migration: A New Understanding, and as a kind of valedictory message to colleagues, friends, supporters, and interested onlookers, Migration Mysteries is more than just what the author describes as "a biography of an idea", it is also an entertaining and informative portrait of the life and work of one of America's most influential wildlife biologists.
John H. Rappole, an emeritus research scientist at the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Biology Institute, has written twelve books, including Birds of Texas: A Field Guide and Bird Migration: A New Understanding.
"Migration Mysteries is an excellent scholarly release aimed at a wide readership within the citizen science community and beyond. Rappole creates a skillful presentation of the different facets of bird migration, combining it intelligently with personal annotations of his own research contributions and enriching it with some stunning answers derived from most recent bird behavior studies."
– Karl-L Schuchmann, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig
"In his insightful and thought-provoking new book, ecologist John Rappole explains that birds migrate in order to locate seasonally abundant food resources, not, as commonly assumed, because of seasonally unfavorable weather. This theory shows that most familiar migrant species evolved from resident tropical species."
– Bruce M. Beehler, author of Birds of Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia
"John Rappole distills a life of study and contemplation of the tantalizing and challenging phenomenon of bird migration into wonderfully accessible prose. This is a once-in-a-generation, highly readable, and insightful overview of the topic. A landmark volume for scholar and amateur alike."
– Thomas E. Lovejoy, coauthor of Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet
