Cape Cod: Once around the Sun

An intimate photo essay tracks Cape Cod's natural world through its seasons of dormancy, awakening, and migration.

From winter's dormant woodlands and barren beaches, to the whales and waterbirds of high summer, this book explores Cape Cod's animals and plants through a year of dormancy, rebirth, and migration. In more than 150 photographs with captions, field biologist Peter Trull describes the cape's intricate ecosystems and reveals how the seasons come together.

In spring he observes spotted salamanders mating after the March full moon, and in summer he watches bluebirds feed their young. In autumn he looks for the colorful caterpillar of the monarch butterfly on wild milkweed, and in winter he focuses on the many species of arriving birds that gather along pond edges. The result is an intimate, often-exhilarating tale of Cape Cod and its seasons.

Peter Trull is a field biologist, teacher, and photographer who has been documenting the life cycles of organisms on Cape Cod for over 40 years. A seabird specialist, he has published in scientific journals, written eight books, and studied the great whales in over 1,500 sea trips.