WMRA's Books & Brews: Jennifer Ackerman

WMRA’s October 2023 Books & Brews features NYT bestselling author Jennifer Ackerman, discussing herbook, What an Owl Knows; The New Science of the World's most Enigmatic Birds.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 7pm.

Live at Seven Arrows Brewery and available later on WMRA's Books & Brews Youtube Channel and on Facebook.

Signed copies of What an Owl Knows will be available at the event and online at Stone Soup Books.

WMRA's Books & Brews is made possible thanks to our series sponsor, Gaines Group Architects. The Gaines Group has offices in Charlottesville and Harrisonburg.

About What an Owl Knows:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific investigation into owls—the most elusive of birds—and why they exert such a hold on human imagination For  millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with  these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand  years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their  forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom,  knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do  we really know about owls? Though our fascination goes back centuries,  scientists have only recently begun to understand in deep detail the  complex nature of these extraordinary birds. Some two hundred sixty  species of owls exist today, and they reside on every continent except  Antarctica, but they are far more difficult to find and study than other  birds because they are cryptic, camouflaged, and mostly active in the  dark of night. Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and  natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific  discoveries about their brains and behavior. She joins scientists in the  field and explores how researchers are using modern technology and  tools to learn how owls communicate, hunt, court, mate, raise their  young, and move about from season to season. We now know that the hoots,  squawks, and chitters of owls follow sophisticated and complex rules,  allowing them to express not just their needs and desires but their  individuality and identity. Owls duet. They migrate. They hoard their  prey. Some live in underground burrows; some roost in large groups; some  dine on black widows and scorpions. Ackerman brings this  research alive with her own personal field observations about owls and  dives deep into why these birds beguile us. What an Owl Knows is  an awe-inspiring exploration of owls across the globe and through human  history, and a spellbinding account of their astonishing hunting skills,  communication, and sensory prowess. By providing extraordinary new  insights into the science of owls, What an Owl Knows pulls back the curtain on the nature of the world’s most enigmatic group of birds.

 Jennifer Ackerman  has been writing about science and nature for more than three decades. Her

previous book, The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think, was a finalist

for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her New York Times bestselling book, The

Genius of Birds, has been translated into 25 languages and was named one of the best nonfiction books

of 2016 by the Wall Street Journal, a Best Science Book by NPR’s "Science Friday", and a Nature Book of the Year by the London Sunday Times.  Ackerman's articles and essays have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and many other publications. She is therecipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.