Currently Reading

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker

Strycker is a writer, photographer, and bird man based near Eugene, Oregon. In 2015, during a quest spanning 41 countries and all seven continents, he set a world record by seeing 6,042 species of birds – more than half the birds on Earth – in one calendar year. He is Associate Editor of Birding magazine.

Currently Reading
The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist by Tim Birkhead

Waiting to be Read
The Peregrine by J. A. Baker
Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile
Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder by Kenn Kaufman
The Bird Watching Answer Book: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Birds in Your Backyard and Beyond by Laura Erickson
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Goshawk by T.H. White

And waiting to buy in paperback (March 2020)
Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America by Rick Wright

Anyone else have new birding books?

I realize that this is a stretch, but fictional birds are of as much interest to me as those on my realistic radar. =) Bingeing on Gothic Literature currently, mixed with The Weird Tradition group offerings, brought The King in Yellow into view. One of those ten short stories by Robert William Chambers had so much description about the birds and butterflies and fish that in researching his origin, I discovered that not only was he big on environmental causes but also an avid birder!

Recently, several authors have crossed my path, specifically for their interest in our wild and free feathered friends, ie. Margaret Atwood and the late Graeme Gibson, who owned a rental cottage on Pelee Island. I've been to Point Pelee National Park many times, and to the island once by 90min ferry, and the birds are numerous and seem happy with their safe haven.

I will need to go back to my gothic thread to hunt down the specific story title...

>3 frahealee: It was called The Street of Our Lady of the Fields.

Having dusted off three books that I just listed in the children's bird book thread, I'm going to attempt to read them cover to cover over the approaching spring/summer months. I've only ever dipped in and out of bird books, looking up this or that, but maybe it's time to deepen the experience. They will be;

Finding Your Wings

Eastern Birds: An Audubon Handbook

Sibley's Birding Basics

Just finished The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. Intense recording of tracking peregrine falcons for ten years. Condensed into a short account. I found it interesting. Since the book takes place in England, I have many bird names to look up because there are many I am not familiar with.

Just got a new book. So far great pictures! Looking forward to reading it. Birds of Prey by Pete Dunne

For the past year, I've been trying to read Song and Garden Birds of North America, a lovely, illustrated, 2 volume work by Alexander Wetmore. I'm trying to read 5 pages per week. I also have The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from a Remarkable Bird and Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl that I would like to get to this year.

>7 perennialreader: That comes highly recommended.

Finished Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. Slaght. It was a non-fiction read in which the author recounts his quest to identify, tag, and create a conservation program for Frog Owls, the largest species of owls. These owls reside mostly in northeast Russia, Japan, and Korea. This PhD. research project was not without its problems, primarily being that the tagging transmitters did not work in spite of having a high price tag. This was a very interesting look at how one scientist tried to stave off the extinction of this owl, which is on the endangered list. 370 pages 5 stars

I'm presently reading Flying Dinosaurs and enjoying it a lot. I would recommend it to anyone interested in birds, dinosaurs, or evolution.

I purchased this book for $1 at a thrift store--looks like it has never been read! From the cover I learned that cuckoos are nest parasitical. Probably won't get read right away, but is on the top of Mount TBR.

After spotting bluebirds in a nearby tree, I was introduced to a network of neighbors who put up bluebird houses and monitor them in an effort to protect nests from house sparrow predators. The neighborhoods preeminent “bluebird lady” loaned me the 1990 memoir “Beakless Bluebirds and Featherless Penguins” written by Sister Barbara Ann, a nun who rescued and adopted two bluebird babies that survived an attack on their nest. It is wonderful! A good story, a lovely nature journal including the author’s sketches, and I am learning a lot.

I'm not sure if this group is still active, but I'm newish to birding and have embraced it wholly. Recently I've read Notes from an Unintentional Birder by Canadian Julia Zarankin who uses birding as a parallel to describe her own migration patterns.
and Birding Without Borders by Noah Strycker who describes his challenge to break a record of most observed birds in one year: it definitely gave me FOMO!

I am finding Adam Nicolson's Bird School an excellent read: thoughtful, informative, and well-written. UK setting may not suit all readers here, but there is a good deal of general interest - Nicolson's cultural interests are formidably wide.

edited for spelling

>14 Cecilturtle:

Welcime to the group. Yes, it is indeed still active, albeit not as active as it has been in the past, but we look forward to your participation and hopefully there will be many more conversations about birds, birding and books.

I just finished reading Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan Slaght, a wonderful retelling of the efforts necessary for a comprehensive conservation plan.
I'm glad to see others enjoyed it as much as I did!

I'm reading The Birding Dictionary by Rosemary Mosco which is a good mix of information (and helpful for vocabulary building) and humour.

>17 Cecilturtle: Oh, I own that one for Kindle! I have to bump it up the TBR stack. So glad you enjoyed it.

>18 Cecilturtle: Just downloaded that one!
Books I have read lately:
The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne by Chris Sweeney
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl similar to Amy Tan's book, but I must admit that Renkl's book was more fun.
The Complete Birds of a Feather Mysteries by Marty Wingate 4 books in the series

>20 perennialreader: It's a cute book that has me sometimes laughing out loud!
The mystery series looks fun!

>19 clamairy: I hope you enjoy it, Clare!

I finished Ten Birds That Changed the World by Stephen Moss which I really enjoyed although some passages of hunting, persecuting and destroying habitat were pretty gut wrenching.

If you have the chance to peruse this book, I recommend it! It's like traveling around the world.