This guide gives young readers the basics to participate in this popular hobby. An estimated 44 million Americans enjoy bird watching. They usually carry two essential tools; binoculars, and a bird guidebook. Then when they spot that red-bellied woodpecker making his distinctive call from the top of an ash tree they’ll know what it is.
I never saw goldfinches in Iowa. In Ohio I see them often. “The Young Birder’s Guide” informs that they’ll twitter in flight with calls that sound like “potato chip, potato chip.” Did you know that the American goldfinch is the only songbird that feeds only seed to their young? This guide could make a fine gift for young bird lovers.
“What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” by Jon Young (Houghton Mifflin, 241 pages, $22).
A phone company repairmen was working in the hedgerow near the house. A robin was raising a ruckus nearby. The robin’s message seemed clear: “You guys are too close to my babies — back off!”
Do you ever wonder about the messages we might obtain from the birds around us? “What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World” takes the art of bird watching to a new level. The author, Jon Young, demonstrates how we can learn to blend in completely while having new experiences observing nature.
He explains: “because the birds are not firing off alarms, the mammals are no longer beneficiaries of that early warning system. They don’t know you’re there. A positive feedback loop is setting up. If you’re in the woods, you’re well on your way to seeing wildlife you couldn’t have dreamed of seeing before. You may find the deer in their day beds, doe and fawn feeding peacefully.”
“The Lord God Bird” by Tom Gallant (The Quantuck Lane Press, 218 pages, $24.95)
Communicating with animals is one magical element in the novel “The Lord God Bird.” Tom Gallant heard about the sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas. These legendary birds are extinct. This report inspired his story about a man who lives quietly in the forest until he spots what was known as “The Lord God Bird.”
This amazing news spread quickly. Scientists come to see the man, together they go searching for the proof that these woodpeckers might still exist. The main characters in this story are “the man” and a woodpecker. There is some form of communication that takes place between them. This little gem will surely delight those lovers of nature who are perusing this review.
Vick Mickunas, of Yellow Springs, interviews authors every Friday at 1:30 p.m., repeated Sundays at 11 a.m., on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, go online to www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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