Description:
When a bird stops to glance sideways at us, it is inviting us into its world, if only for a moment. A bird's song can transport us into distant realms of the imagination; the sight of birds in flight can reconnect us to childhood, and to what matters in life. Bird enthusiasts Larry Habegger and Amy Carlson have assembled an extended celebration of the restorative and mysterious powers of our winged fellow travelers, enlisting well-known and emerging writers alike. Among the standouts of their anthology is Sigurd Olson's homage to the loons of the wilderness lake country of northern Minnesota; Diane Ackerman's lyrical memoir of a sojourn among the endangered short-tailed albatrosses of East Asia, whose flight "is the wind's way of thinking about itself"; David James Duncan's provocative essay "Bird-Watching as a Blood Sport," which addresses the unfortunate power humans have over the animal world; Jake Page's excursion into the byways of the minds of humans and redbirds; and, best of all, Peter Matthiessen's journey to Siberia in search of the sandhill crane, "the oldest and largest of the earth's flying creatures." Birdwatching enthusiasts and students of nature writing alike will find much of value in this lively, well-chosen collection. --Gregory McNamee
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