Wingbeats and Heartbeats: Essays on Game Birds, Gun Dogs, and Days Afield

by Dave Books, Christopher Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

Wingbeats and Heartbeats is a wingshooter's odyssey to the wild places where, at the end of the day, the companionship of faithful gun dogs and good friends matters more than a bulging game bag.             In this sometimes humorous and sometimes poignant collection of essays, Dave Books celebrates a time-honored connection to the land and the hard-earned hunting rewards of an outdoor life. Through these essays, readers tag along on adventures in the forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota, the fields of Iowa and North Dakota, the prairies of eastern Montana and Nebraska, the mountains of western Montana and Idaho, and the deserts of Arizona. Books also writes of the game birds that hunters pursue and admire: grouse, quail, woodcock, doves, chukars, Hungarian partridge, and waterfowl.             A heartfelt tribute to the freedom and magic of the hunt, Wingbeats and Heartbeats is a book that has much to say about work and fun, success and failure, and the sights, sounds, and smells of a day afield.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299294731
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	02/19/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dave Books is an award-winning writer and former editor of Montana Outdoors. He has followed his gun dogs through forests, fields, and marshes across the Midwest, Northwest, and Southwest for close to forty years. His stories have appeared in Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Sporting Classics, Gun Dog, and The Upland Almanac.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments                  Introduction                  Part I: Upland Tales Autumn Magic                                    Completing the Picture                                   The Unassuming Hun                         Snowbelly                               Chukars Don't Come Easy                             Sonoran Safari                         Edgar's Bird                             Jailhouse Blues                                   Hunting the Sagebrush Sasquatch                               Judge Owen Denny Day                                An Ammunition Maker's Best Friend                                    Don't Forget the Bear Spray                           A Lonely, Wild Bird                           Gentleman Bob                                     Part II: Helpers in the Hunt A Dog's Life                            Dogs May Be Smarter than We Think                                   Bird Dogs and Buzztails                                 Strange Happenings Afield                             Second Chances                                  Rite of Passage                                      Part III: People and Places A Nose for Valley Quail                                 Longtails and Liars                              Taking One for the Team                                Conjugal Bliss                         Country Folks and City Slickers                                The Hi-Line                            Sundown Roosters

Editorial Reviews

"Dave Books writes with the spare, honest beauty of the northern Great Plains, where he has spent much of the past forty hunting seasons chasing pheasants, sharptails, Huns, and other upland species. Reading his entertaining and informative stories will make you want to grab a shotgun, whistle up your dog, and head out the door."—Tom Dickson, editor of Montana Outdoors


"Dave Books has spent a long and happy lifetime hunting the high plains of Montana and other Western and Midwestern haunts—and it shows in his new book, seasoned with his wit, humor, and wistfulness for the hunter, hunted, and the outdoors."—Mark Herwig, editor of Pheasants Forever Journal


“Books writes with flair, is irrepressibly good natured and infuses quiet humor in much of his material.”—Sporting Classics Magazine 



“The strength of his book . . . is that you can dip into each envy-inspiring essay and come out of it with a great appreciation for the sport.”— Big Sky Journal



“Books has mastered the art of the well-paced bird-hunting essay. He has a gift for quickly establishing a sense of place, whether he’s working up an arroyo in the Sonoran Desert or crossing cropland in northern Montana’s Milk River country. . . . His fine prose embraces terrain and cover, the character of dogs and the qualities of good guns, the natural history of the game he pursues and the temperament of his companions.”—Gray’s Sporting Journal

From the Publisher