My Place Among Birds

Find the largest grouse in North America with Emmy-winning outdoor journalist Kris Millgate. In the fourth installment of her My Place collection, Millgate follows disappearing sage grouse through the high deserts of the American West for the wildlife film Sage Wisdom West. Her journey through the brushlands of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming reveals the challenges people and wildlife encounter as the presence of this upland bird shrinks.

With the loss of sagebrush comes the loss of greater sage grouse. The wild bird’s population has declined by eighty percent since 1965. To save what’s left, we must save what we’ve overlooked for a century. The West’s dominant landscape, sagebrush steppe, is evolving from perceived wasteland to cherished wild land.

My Place Among Birds is the story of how one woman, sometimes crawling and sometimes crying, goes looking for feathers only to discover it is the desert that heals all hurts.

“Essential reading for anyone trying to understand what we’re losing and why it matters. The desert is lucky to have Kris as its witness. We all are.” —Avalon Radys, book editor and author coach