Excellent choice of words

The Life of skies by Jonathan Rosen
Right from the word go i.e the title, every word adds meaning to the experience had by Jonathan Rosen as a bird watcher. This is the first prologue that I didnt look for to end, as it already seemed like the book.

The book is divided into two parts :
PartI - Backyard Birds
PartII- Birds of Paradise.

Through the experiences of Audubon with his pet parrot and the killer monkey, Whitman's with mocking birds and the resultant poetry, Roosevelt's contribution to preservation of wildlife and his own from a decade of birdwatching, the author tries to get to the core of what this act means to him.

Looking at the evolution of his answers, looks like he will find many more spokes out of it other than the ones hes already meditated on. One tough nut is the instinct of hunting Vs conservation of birds. Theres a bit of history of land as it relates to migration, borders from his experience birdwatching in Palestine.

He blends fictional stories like 'The Bear' by Faulkner with non fictional acounts of bird sightings to bring across his point to the reader. Solomon stories, conference of birds, DH Lawrence, Thomas Hardy - everyone's welcome to the bounty.

The first essay 'the Ghost Bird' is about the history of Ivory Bill's extinction or man's desperate attempt at falsifying it by spotting one. This concern carries into other chapters and winds up the book too.

Illustrations make the book even more interesting.
p232. Stork with spear is very touching

Initially the book leaned more towards extinct birds
like passenger pigeons(it took me a while to imagine their number when present and believe that they are none now), carolina parakeets, eventually it did rake up my interest in putting the bird guide book to use.

If you decide to go birdwatching and its the first time, its better to go on a guided bird walk.

Whats bioblitz? Be open to know lots of such new things...

5/5. 5.9.2009