Introduction

Abstract

On a fine day in late spring or early summer, preferably around sunrise or sunset, go to a patch of uncultivated or wooded land as far as possible from people and traffic. Find a comfortable place where you can remain quiet and still for half an hour. Wait, watch and listen. For a while you hear only the sounds of insects, the alarm calls of small birds and the breeze among foliage; nothing moves except leaves and clouds. But after ten or fifteen minutes there is a transformation. Birds settle and feed. Shiny beetles sidle down tree trunks and over the ground. Furry bodies dart to and fro. The world around you has come alive.