In this dazzling literary collection, writers explore and celebrate their lives with and love for birds--detailing experiences from Alaska to Bermuda, South Dakota to Panama. In When Birds Are Near, fresh new voices as well as seasoned authors offer tales of adventure, perseverance, and fun, whether taking us on a journey down Highway 1 to see a rare California Condor, fighting the destruction of our grasslands, or simply watching the feeder from a kitchen window.
But these essays are more than just field notes. The authors reflect on love, loss, and family, engaging a broad array of emotions, from wonder to amusement. As Rob Nixon writes, "Sometimes the best bird experiences are defined less by a rare sighting than by a quality of presence, some sense of overall occasion that sets in motion memories of a particular landscape, a particular light, a particular choral effect, a particular hiking partner." Or, as the poet Elizabeth Bradfield remarks, "We resonate with certain animals, I believe, because they are a physical embodiment of an answer we are seeking. A sense of ourselves in the world that is nearly inexpressible."
When Birds Are Near gives us the chance to walk alongside these avid appreciators of birds and reflect on our own interactions with our winged companions.
When Birds are Near is an extraordinary exploration of the many intersections--strange, exhilarating, heartbreaking, transformative--between people and birds. The writing in this collection is literary cream, as uniformly superb as its insights are illuminating. --Scott Weidensaul, author of Living on the Wind
These essays rise from the page with a startling yet commonplace wonder in a time we need such glory. --John Lane, Author of Neighborhood Hawks
"From gods to goddesses to indicators of ecosystem health, birds have been in our lives for millennia. We ignore them at our peril. We watch them with delight. This rangy and wonderful collection reminds us that human and avian sinew are entrained together in time. That we travel together along flyways of wonder, heartbreak, kinship and more."--Christopher Cokinos, author of Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Nighthawks: Lake Perez
2. Spotted Owls
3. Birding in Traffic
4. Buried Birds
5. The Problem with Pretty Birds
6. Red-headed Love Child
7. Crane, Water, Change: A Migratory Essay
8. The Black and White
9. One Single Hummingbird
10. Assault on the French Canal Bridge
11. Wild Swans
12. The Snowy Winter
13. Koan
14. This Is My Tribe
15. In the Eyes of the Condor
16. Little Brown Birds
17. The Keepers of the Ghost Bird
18. The Hour (or Two) before the Dawn
19. Secret of Owls
20. Guardian of the Garden
21. Chasing the Ghost of the Imperial Woodpecker
22. Extralimital
23. Death and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak
24. Birding on Bleaker Island
25. Nest Watcher
26. My Bird Problem
Susan Fox Rogers is Visiting Associate Professor of Writing at Bard College. She is the author of My Reach and the editor of ten previous anthologies, most recently Antarctica.
Target Age: 18 and up
Comstock Publishing
Pub Date: October 15, 2020
0.81" H x 8.87" L x 6.1" W
304 pages
paperback