"Cast as the author's "swan song" on the topic of bird migration, this lively account of the life's work of distinguished ornithologist John H. Rappole will delight birders, researchers, and general readers alike. The developer and chief proponent of the "dispersal theory" of bird migration, Rappole takes readers on a tour of the decades-long process by which he developed the conclusions that led him to propose a counter to the still-widely accepted "northern home," or weather-based theory of migration. Along the way, Migration Mysteries: Adventures, Disasters, and Epiphanies in a Life with Birds delivers for readers, both specialist and general, everything promised in the subtitle. In a delightfully non-technical style, Rappole introduces readers to the people, the places, the quandaries, and even the dangers encountered during the years he spent in Mexico, Central America, and the United States, studying the migration patterns of birds. His account is also a wake-up call for conservation in Latin America he watches the habitats for migratory birds disappear year by year"--