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Posted by joel rosenthal on 22:39:27 03/11/08
I've stopped by Barnes Park a few times this weekend, and, at least near the nature center where I spent most of my time , it has been especially quiet despite many berries/fruit hanging in the trees. The kestrel pictured was in one of his usual perches(as you may observe) near the baseball field, but typically,wouldn't let me get close enough for a respectable portrait-hence the extreme crop..I've posted a link to some other Barnes bird photos from the last few days, but it's been so slow I wouldn't even recommend a turn off Bird Road (if you're driving by ), to see what's going on.
Meanwhile, I was fortunate enough to get and finish reading a copy of Jonathan Rosen's new book "The Life of the Skies" which was favorably reviewed in the NYTimes recently. The book is part natural history, philosophy, travelogue,literary analysis and personal reflections/memoir, all considered in the context of the author's birdwatching.
A quote:
"I'm a little wary of talking about making the impulses behind birdwatching "explicit". It is an activity that lives in the doing, as its humble name implies. But just as it is possible to hold the named, individual identified bird in your sight while recognizing the wild animal that eludes all classification, so I think it is possible, even necessary, to pair the humble act of looking with the hidden desire to see in all birds a bird of paradise. Wandering off the beaten path and looking for rarities-only to realize that your rarities are another person's backyard birds-is a noble part of birding."p201
perhaps TAS can get Amazon to add it to its TAS list so that both may benefit if some of our members choose to buy it?
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