Birds of a Feather
Paul Fournier
9781939017048
252 pages
Islandport Press
Overview
In this new collection, Maine guide, bush pilot, journalist, and professional photographer Paul Fournier spins more stories of the wild outdoors in the inimitable style that earned him the Best Book of 2011 Award from the New England Outdoor Writers Association for Tales from Misery Ridge. In the title essay, Fournier tells the fascinating story of how devoted scientists, citizens, and outdoor professionals brought back the bald eagle in Maine one nesting pair at a time. Other tales strike a similar vein: a group of volunteers and biologists strive to save the rare Arctic char in a remote Maine lake, the author attempts to spy a cougar in Maine, and he and a friend find a daring way to film a world famous clowning skier’s downhill run in one "take." Among his adventures and misadventures over the decades, Fournier covers the Sonny Liston/Mohammed Ali fight in Lewiston, gets perilously close to a rutting moose, and witnesses how a pair of deer poachers are literally caught in their own trap. Experienced outdoorsmen in particular will nod with appreciation and pleasure at the author’s experiences, and armchair explorers will enjoy his entertaining essays about the strange habits of forest fauna. This diverse collection of stories finds its unity in the author’s humor, authority, and love of his subjects: Maine and its wild and civilized inhabitants, whether they climb, slink, swim, fly—or walk on two feet.
Author Bio
Paul J. Fournier has been a registered Maine Guide, bush pilot, sporting camp owner, nature photographer and videographer, a television producer and a longtime official with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Tales from Misery Ridge, One man’s adventures in the great outdoors is his first book about his experiences and adventures in Maine’s great North Woods and beyond. Readers will soar with him on his first solo flight in a Piper Cub, see how a master builder makes Fournier’s dream canoe a reality, meet brave flying Maine Wardens on rescue calls, net some spectacularly large salmon, and take part in an historic mission to transplant caribou from Newfoundland to Maine. Tales from Misery Ridge is a collection of those and other stories from a special time— and place.
