Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding

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Description
F rom the moment Europeans arrived in North America, they were awestruck by a continent awash with birds--great flocks of wild pigeons, prairies teeming with grouse, woodlands alive with brilliantly colored songbirds. Of a Feather traces the colorful origins of American birding: the frontier ornithologists who collected eggs between border skirmishes; the society matrons who organized the first effective conservation movement; and the luminaries with checkered pasts, such as Alexander Wilson (a convicted blackmailer) and the endlessly self-mythologizing John James Audubon. Scott Weidensaul also recounts the explosive growth of modern birding that began when an awkward schoolteacher named Roger Tory Peterson published A Field Guide to the Birds in 1934. Today birding counts iPod-wearing teens and obsessive "listers" among its tens of millions of participants, making what was once an eccentric hobby into something so completely mainstream it's now (almost) cool. This compulsively readable popular history will surely find a roost on every birder's shelf.

Reviews

Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.

Publisher’s Weekly (07/09/2007)
Weidensaul (Return to Wild America ) traces bird watching in America from colonial times to the present, when powerful binoculars and other sophisticated technologies have revolutionized the sport. He entertainingly describes many early naturalists who shot and collected birds, including Mark Catesby, John and William Bartram, some military men and an intrepid woman named Martha Maxwell. By the late 19th century, when entire bird populations had been decimated for sport, food and the millinery trade, formidable society ladies began demanding avian protection, the Audubon Society was created and recreational birding, featuring binoculars instead of guns, was born, aided by the emergence of field guides like Roger Tory Peterson's. Today, says Weidensaul, there are millions of birders in the United States, and the sport has entered a new phase, emphasizing competitive birding, lists, rarity chasing and Big Year records. For Weidensaul, this is not a good thing. He finds that people who concentrate on competition and listing often forget the enjoyment of mere observation and the importance of conservation. A naturalist and federally licensed bird bander, he is passionate about birding. His vivid descriptions of his own experiences should send many a reader out of doors to look for "the small, contained miracle that is a bird." Photos. (Sept.)

Library Journal (08/15/2007)
Continuing his run of quality nature writing, accomplished naturalist Weidensaul (Living on the Wind; The Ghost with Trembling Wings ) offers an engrossing survey of American birding from Colonial times until today. There is much history set forth here, beginning with accounts of the early pioneers like John and William Bartram, the Peale family, Alexander Wilson, John James Audubon, and many others. Weidensaul also describes with special vividness how ornithology in the latter part of the 19th century fell into the hands of explorers of the Southwest, especially a long line of unusual characters, many of them U.S. Army doctors posted to the frontiers. In the 20th century, the author reveals, birdwatching transformed from the province of presumed eccentrics and shotgun-toting scientists into a mainstream hobby, recreation, or avocation (sport, even), but popular citizen science surveys also made key contributions to our knowledge of the natural world. Engagingly told, Weidensaul's rich "brief history" is much more than brief. Highly recommended for all natural history and birding collections. [See Prepub Alert,LJ 5/15/07.]-Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia

ISBN: 0151012474 | EAN: 9780151012473
Publisher: Harcourt  | Publication Date: September, 2007

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