Get Your Free Audiobook
-
A Naturalist at Large
- The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Categories: Science & Engineering, Science
Non-member price: $48.75
People who bought this also bought...
-
The Trees in My Forest
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book destined to become a classic, biologist and acclaimed nature writer Bernd Heinrich takes listeners on an eye-opening journey through the hidden life of a forest. A lifetime observer of the natural world shares his vast knowledge and reflections on the trees of the Northeast woodlands and the rhythms of their seasons, from the DNA contained in an apple seed to the great branches beyond reach.
-
Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs
- How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior
- By: Roger Lederer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we see a bird flying from branch to branch happily chirping, it is easy to imagine they lead a simple life of freedom, flight, and feathers. What we don't see is the arduous, life-threatening challenges they face at every moment. Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs guides the listener through the myriad, and often almost miraculous, things that birds do every day to merely stay alive. Like the goldfinch, which manages extreme weather changes by doubling the density of its plumage in winter.
-
-
Enlightening!
- By Anonymous User on 12-10-2020
-
Great Adaptations
- Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels, and Other Tales of Evolution's Mysteries Solved
- By: Kenneth Catania
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From star-nosed moles that have super-sensing snouts to electric eels that paralyze their prey, animals possess unique and extraordinary abilities. In Great Adaptations, Kenneth Catania presents an entertaining and engaging look at some of nature's most remarkable creatures. Telling the story of his biological detective work, Catania sheds light on the mysteries behind the behaviors of tentacled snakes, tiny shrews, zombie-making wasps, and more.
-
Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
-
-
Loved this book
- By Inge Buchanan on 23-06-2020
-
The Home Place
- Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature
- By: J. Drew Lanham
- Narrated by: J. Drew Lanham
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina - a place "easy to pass by on the way somewhere else" - has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, listeners meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be "the rare bird, the oddity".
-
Braiding Sweetgrass
- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
-
-
Most important & beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By Anonymous User on 28-07-2020
-
The Trees in My Forest
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book destined to become a classic, biologist and acclaimed nature writer Bernd Heinrich takes listeners on an eye-opening journey through the hidden life of a forest. A lifetime observer of the natural world shares his vast knowledge and reflections on the trees of the Northeast woodlands and the rhythms of their seasons, from the DNA contained in an apple seed to the great branches beyond reach.
-
Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs
- How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior
- By: Roger Lederer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we see a bird flying from branch to branch happily chirping, it is easy to imagine they lead a simple life of freedom, flight, and feathers. What we don't see is the arduous, life-threatening challenges they face at every moment. Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs guides the listener through the myriad, and often almost miraculous, things that birds do every day to merely stay alive. Like the goldfinch, which manages extreme weather changes by doubling the density of its plumage in winter.
-
-
Enlightening!
- By Anonymous User on 12-10-2020
-
Great Adaptations
- Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels, and Other Tales of Evolution's Mysteries Solved
- By: Kenneth Catania
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From star-nosed moles that have super-sensing snouts to electric eels that paralyze their prey, animals possess unique and extraordinary abilities. In Great Adaptations, Kenneth Catania presents an entertaining and engaging look at some of nature's most remarkable creatures. Telling the story of his biological detective work, Catania sheds light on the mysteries behind the behaviors of tentacled snakes, tiny shrews, zombie-making wasps, and more.
-
Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
-
-
Loved this book
- By Inge Buchanan on 23-06-2020
-
The Home Place
- Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature
- By: J. Drew Lanham
- Narrated by: J. Drew Lanham
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina - a place "easy to pass by on the way somewhere else" - has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, listeners meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be "the rare bird, the oddity".
-
Braiding Sweetgrass
- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
-
-
Most important & beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By Anonymous User on 28-07-2020
Publisher's Summary
From one of the finest scientists and writers of our time comes an engaging record of a life spent in close observation of the natural world, one that has yielded marvelous, mind-altering insight and discoveries.
In essays that span several decades, Bernd Heinrich finds himself at his beloved camp in Maine, plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster fly) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs), and unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants in Botswana bruising mopane trees.
Heinrich then turns to his great love - the extraordinary behaviors of ravens - before going on to chronicle a magical sighting of hundreds of loons congregated on a lake in Maine and observing that the human species has biological roots as endurance runners. Finally, he asks "where does a biologist find hope?"
In A Naturalist at Large, Bernd Heinrich delivers an answer.
Critic Reviews
"If there's such a thing as ideal spring listening, this audiobook is it.... Narrator Rick Adamson provides a clear, spirited voice that is informative but also captures the author's everlasting sense of wonder.... Adamson's affable tone opens the door onto Heinrich's world, and listeners will want to stay there awhile." (AudioFile)
More from the same
What listeners say about A Naturalist at Large
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Thoughtful Learner
- 03-06-2018
Listen and See the World Anew!
Bernd Heinrich has no living equal in his ability to convey the joys of becoming intimate with the natural world. He has a child's open wonder and curiosity combined with the mind and experience of a brilliant scientist. With his compellingly constructed real-life stories, Bernd will draw you into a world that is better than magic--it's real, available to you, and you'll learn how to access it just by listening and being entertained. Start now and see the world anew!
5 people found this helpful
16 Best Audiobooks by Aboriginal Authors
Across genres, there’s no shortage of brilliant titles from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers of Australia.



25 Best Celebrity Audiobooks
It’s always a pleasant surprise to pick up a familiar story and find an unexpected famous friend in the narrator’s booth.



Best Audiobooks of 2020
We've crunched the numbers, heard from our listeners and gotten expert opinions to round up the best listens of 2020.


