With a deft touch and a naturalist"s keen eye, Mary Parker Buckles introduces herself-and us-to wondrous adventures in the land, air, water, and intertidal zone that make up the Long Island Sound ecosystem. While the Sound has been threatened by pollution and development, it is far from dead, as some picture it, and has been virtually uncelebrated until now. She discovers the magic of shorebirds on stopover during their semiannual migration and comes to appreciate the temperament of owls, the intricacy of barnacles, the crustiness of horseshoe crabs, and the fragility of osprey chicks. Buckles explains what the ongoing battle over wetlands is all about and elucidates other complexities of a place she describes as "inherently sacred by virtue of being alive."