Something to Tweet About

Welcome To Subirdia

By John M. Marzluff

The weekend of February 12^th, will be the Great Backyard Bird Count.  Every year Participants are asked to count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the four-day event and report their sightings online at birdcount.org. Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from beginning bird watchers to experts, and you can participate from your backyard, or anywhere in the world.  This book is a wonderful complement to that coming attraction.  Its appeal spans bird lovers, and naturalists who are looking for insights into the evolution occurring all around us.

The author’s other name is James W. Ridgeway, Professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington.  The many stories, studies, and examples specific to Seattle and many of its named suburbs, including the Edmonds Ferry line are particularly fun for local readers.  Some of his bird studies spans across the United States as well and also reach into many other nations around the world.  The book discusses the fascinating ways that many varieties of birds, and some other background animals, are adapting to the conditions of the increasingly developed world.  We may know that so many of our actions and decisions affect our feathered friends, but this book explains that cause and effect, and also provides practical strategies that can improve the environment for our nature’s neighbors too.  As the author says, “we learn about each bird’s place in the web of life and begin to see ourselves within that web as well.”

The book includes many beautiful sketches depicting the birds and stories discussed throughout the book.  Jack DeLap is the artist.  His illustrations have appeared in a variety of other books and publications as well.  His appreciation for the lives and souls of these little creatures is apparent in every picture.

What I mostly appreciate in this book that the author laces science deftly between the everyday examples and explanations.  I learned so much because he kept my interest alive.  Instead of lecturing at me, this Professor conversed about a topic so obviously dear to his heart.

I’m a bird feeder, and I learned so many interesting things about the birds that my feeder is attracting.  The author shows ways that these creatures are not only adapting, but also evolving.  As the author says, “Evolution is not something that happens only in the abstract eons of geological time.  It is happening right now, in your own backyards.  You are a force, as potent as the glaciers of the last ice age, shaping your feathered neighbors.”  This book gave me hope that with understanding and education that people like the Professor is spreading, nature will prevail.

For those of you looking for something with a little more of the naturalist’s scientific information, yet still enjoyable reading, another book by the same author is Gifts of the Crow.  If you’re especially a crow fan, you’ll really enjoy this exposition into the smart behavior of these birds, and the others in the “corvid” family.

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .