For more than three decades, Anchorage-based writer Bill Sherwonit has written extensively about wilderness, the natural history of animals and plants, wildlife management, connection to place, conservation issues, and notions of wildness. He’s contributed stories and photos to a wide variety of national publications and is the author of over a dozen books about Alaska. He also teaches nature and travel writing in his adopted hometown of Anchorage. www.billsherwonit.alaskawriters.com.

“In his ANIMAL STORIES, Bill Sherwonit reminds us that community is built and sustained not only by humans caring for one another, but by humans noticing, coming to know, and caring about their animal neighbors. From the black-capped chickadees at his feeder, to the wood frogs in an urban pond, to the wolverines he encounters on the alpine tundra, Sherwonit celebrates Alaskan wildlife in all its forms with his eyes, ears, heart, and curiosity wide open. In prose that’s clear as a rain-washed sky, he observes and writes as a true citizen-naturalist and nature writer.” —Eva Saulitis, author of Into Great Silence: A Memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas

• Introduction/Author’s NoteI. Meeting the NeighborsThe Songs of Robins Stretch Across Time and SpaceThe Hidden Lives of Hares and ShrewsLiving with Moose Through the Seasons and Across the YearsWatching BelugasPoint Woronzof’s Spectacle of SwallowsSquirrelly BehaviorLeaving the NestRavens in WinterRedpoll Serenade: Celebrating the End of WinterOf Bears and Bird SeedListening to OwlII. Along City and Highway FringesA Gathering of SwansCalled to a Primeval Presence: Anchorage’s Sandhill CranesNesting GoshawksArctic Terns, the World’s Greatest Long-Distance FlyersCampbell Creek’s SilversOn the Trail, Finding LynxValley of the EaglesIII. Backcountry EncountersIn the Company of BearsCrossing Paths with PorcupineLooking into Wild EyesSeeking Caribou, Touching the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal PlainFourteen Ways of Viewing Alaska’s Wild, White SheepMeeting a Legend: WolverinePaddling with PorpoisesWilderness Music: Sharing a Valley with Howling WolvesIV. Oddities, Surprises, and DilemmasA Gift of HalibutLeonard Peyton’s Redpoll ProjectOtter Catastrophe“Nice” Weather Gets Seals Hot Mystery of Alaska’s Deformed-Bill ChickadeesAn Overlooked Marvel: In Search of Anchorage’s Wood FrogsOf Waxwings and Goshawks and Standing Up to PowerA Tale of Two Wolverines and One Beloved Dog

For more than three decades, Anchorage-based writer Bill Sherwonit has written extensively about wilderness, the natural history of animals and plants, wildlife management, connection to place, conservation issues, and notions of wildness. He’s contributed stories and photos to a wide variety of national publications and is the author of over a dozen books about Alaska. He also teaches nature and travel writing in his adopted hometown of Anchorage. www.billsherwonit.alaskawriters.com.

“In his ANIMAL STORIES, Bill Sherwonit reminds us that community is built and sustained not only by humans caring for one another, but by humans noticing, coming to know, and caring about their animal neighbors. From the black-capped chickadees at his feeder, to the wood frogs in an urban pond, to the wolverines he encounters on the alpine tundra, Sherwonit celebrates Alaskan wildlife in all its forms with his eyes, ears, heart, and curiosity wide open. In prose that’s clear as a rain-washed sky, he observes and writes as a true citizen-naturalist and nature writer.” —Eva Saulitis, author of Into Great Silence: A Memoir of Discovery and Loss Among Vanishing Orcas

• Introduction/Author’s NoteI. Meeting the NeighborsThe Songs of Robins Stretch Across Time and SpaceThe Hidden Lives of Hares and ShrewsLiving with Moose Through the Seasons and Across the YearsWatching BelugasPoint Woronzof’s Spectacle of SwallowsSquirrelly BehaviorLeaving the NestRavens in WinterRedpoll Serenade: Celebrating the End of WinterOf Bears and Bird SeedListening to OwlII. Along City and Highway FringesA Gathering of SwansCalled to a Primeval Presence: Anchorage’s Sandhill CranesNesting GoshawksArctic Terns, the World’s Greatest Long-Distance FlyersCampbell Creek’s SilversOn the Trail, Finding LynxValley of the EaglesIII. Backcountry EncountersIn the Company of BearsCrossing Paths with PorcupineLooking into Wild EyesSeeking Caribou, Touching the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal PlainFourteen Ways of Viewing Alaska’s Wild, White SheepMeeting a Legend: WolverinePaddling with PorpoisesWilderness Music: Sharing a Valley with Howling WolvesIV. Oddities, Surprises, and DilemmasA Gift of HalibutLeonard Peyton’s Redpoll ProjectOtter Catastrophe“Nice” Weather Gets Seals Hot Mystery of Alaska’s Deformed-Bill ChickadeesAn Overlooked Marvel: In Search of Anchorage’s Wood FrogsOf Waxwings and Goshawks and Standing Up to PowerA Tale of Two Wolverines and One Beloved Dog