. >> patrick, in your book about mark catesby, you didn't have a plethora of original sources or letters that mark left behind. you do a splendid job researching and putting context in and around that period of time in england and in early charleston, but talk a bit about, i guess, that struggle and how you overcame it in bringing your subject to life in the book and then walking us through his life until his death, i believe, at the age of 66. >> sure. before i do that, i do want to say that i wanted to mention jack knows this pretty well, but catesby's first plate in the natural history of carolina was the bald eagle. speaking of ecological relationships, the bald eagle persuaded an osprey to gift the eagle a fish that the osprey has caught and you have the osprey in the background looking, i'm not sure what the expression is. [laughter] >> anyway, that's plate one of the natural history. >> yeah, i love that. i love that image and, but, yes, the sources were a little thin on the ground. we have no known image of catesby himself. we have no letters of his before he reaches south caroli

interesting times can definitely drive a narrative like the ones we're going to talk about today and mark catesby, certainly at the time. from rien at the present with some extinctions and resuscitations and recoveries, to mark, who landed in charleston in 1722 at a time when almost no one in great britain had any idea what an ivory-billed woodpecker looked like or a magnolia tree or an american bull frog and he's largely responsible for the fact that many saw those images for the first time. his masterpiece, the natural history of the carolinas, between 1731-1746 is the landmark in natural history and books about natural history and the story of how he got to america, what he did while he was here and his going back and creating this masterpiece. it's pretty much the story of my book. he's a landmark ecologist, i think we'll have time to talk about today. he was exceptional for many reasons, had many firsts to his name and i think he's definitely worth talking about, especially since he has sort of found himself in the shadow of that audubon guy. so looking forward to talking about it today. >>