Author really for the birds.Byline: Review by BOB KEEFER The Register-Guard RARE ENCOUNTERS WITH ORDINARY BIRDS: NOTES FROM A NORTHWEST YEAR By Lyanda Lynn Haupt (Sasquatch Books, 191 pages, $21.95) Nobody in the American bird world likes starlings. By "the bird world," I mean that community of people who not only know one bird from another - even the rather obscure ones - but who keep lists of their sightings and who will drive 100 miles on almost no notice to add one more species to the total. They don't call themselves "bird-watchers." These are "birders." Lyanda Lynn Haupt is one such birder. A former education director with the Seattle Audubon Society, she writes in this, her first book, with grace and good humor Noun 1. good humor - a cheerful and agreeable mood amiability, good humour, good temper humour, mood, temper, humor - a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; "whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time"; about her own lifelong obsession with birds. It's an obsession that leads her, for example, to start her daughter's life list some time before the child is actually born. On this list, the mere prenatal presence of birds is what counts. "I want Claire to get ahead of all the hotshot birder tots she'll meet in preschool," Haupt writes facetiously. "My birder ex-boyfriend's child is 3 years old and has an unfair advantage on Claire - she must catch up!" Less facetiously, though, she makes a whimsical but sincere case for starlings - a European import widely despised de·spise tr.v. de·spised, de·spis·ing, de·spis·es 1. To regard with contempt or scorn: despised all cowards and flatterers. 2. in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. by birders, many of whom will destroy starling starling, any of a group of originally Old World birds that have become distributed worldwide. Starlings were brought to New York in 1890; since then the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) has spread throughout North America. nests (or starlings themselves) if given half a chance. Even though starlings have driven out such better-loved species as bluebirds in some areas, Haupt finds them intelligent and even charming. She describes a starling baby she hand-raised at home after a child brought it into a raptor rehabilitation Raptor rehabilitation is a field of veterinary medicine dealing with care for sick or injured birds of prey, with the goal of returning them to the wild. Since raptors are highly specialized predatory birds, special skills, facilities, equipment, veterinary practices and husbandry center where she worked, and where the policy was not kind when starlings were concerned: "I was utterly unprepared for the congenial con·gen·ial adj. 1. Having the same tastes, habits, or temperament; sympathetic. 2. Of a pleasant disposition; friendly and sociable: a congenial host. 3. , intelligent camaraderie offered by this little bird," she writes. "Even after it was well fed, the juvenile starling, now completely feathered feath·ered adj. 1. Covered, provided, or adorned with feathers. 2. Having feathering, as an animal's coat. 3. Moving swiftly: feathered feet. 4. out, would run up and down the hall after me, wait impatiently outside the bathroom door for me and read Proust over my shoulder. He would look me straight in the eye and `talk' for minutes at a time, imitating my intonation pattern Noun 1. intonation pattern - intonations characteristic of questions and requests and statements intonation, pitch contour, modulation - rise and fall of the voice pitch ." This little, reflective book sits firmly in the genre of natural history memoir that has become so popular in recent years. Nevertheless, Haupt's book is a strong contribution to the form. It ought to end up in many birders' Christmas stockings. |
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