Wood ducks and Warblers began as a photo book about Chicago birding and ends as a chronicle of the pandemic of 2020. In March 2020, the author, Chicago photographer Paul Vriend, started sending bird photos to Mrs. Mary Schultze, a family friend, life-time birder, and 89-year old resident in an assisted living facility as a way to break up her isolation. This book is a compilation of the 100 days the two spent corresponding during the shelter-at-home period.

Watch Mary and Paul experience the natural world through three seasons, a global pandemic, civil unrest on an international scale, crumbling economic conditions, and the birth of Mary's great-great-grandchild. This collection stands both as a coffee table book of midwestern animals and a very revealing and personal reflection about a significant period in world history.

This unlikely pair formed a true friendship while Mary was in isolation. Together they watched history unfolding every day and, in their own parallel world, they watched the changing of the seasons in Chicago one precious day after another as it was slowly revealed to Paul's camera.