"Birds of the Chesapeake Bay" collects 40 of Taylor"s recent paintings. Reproduced in full colour, they depict many of the Chesapeake"s most important and best-loved birds. One of the world"s largest and richest estuaries, the Chesapeake Bay attracts millions of birds to its marshes and waterways. For 30 years, the artist John Taylor has lived and worked along its shores - walking the woods and beaches, looking for birds, and recording the extraordinary life of the Chesapeake in his paintings, drawings, and journals. Some of his subjects - the Canada goose, laughing gull, and osprey - are familiar sights to those who live near the Bay. Others - the snowy egret, sora rail, and peregrine falcon - are more rarely seen. All are rendered with exceptional attention to physical detail and subtlety of form, whether treated in portraits or landscapes. This book looks at the Bay"s wildlife and habitat through the eyes of a talented artist and experienced naturalist. Accompanying each painting is an account of the bird"s natural history, including details of its life in the Chesapeake region and how that life has changed because of increasing development and more energetic conservation efforts. Excerpts from Taylor"s field journals offer vivid accounts of the Bay"s sights and sounds - describing the elaborate greeting ceremony of the tundra swan or the haunting voice of a courting oldsquaw.