My manuscript is a collection of 55 informal essays about the local wildlife of Shiawassee County, Michigan. It opens in the spring and follows events in nature throughout the year. Most essays are about birds, but some treat mammals, some insects, a few native plants, even a turtle. These biographies are detailed life histories of the subjects. They draw on my own journals of hundreds of excursions around the county over a period of 44 years. My book also contains pen and ink drawings by my artist son Doug Wilson.