It was delightful to hear yellow warblers once again, but I didn’t see a one them! Did catch sight of a dusky flycatcher (thank you Merlin for the sound ID) and later saw one “catching dinner on the fly” in my backyard! Pear trees in bloom, and there’ll be proper leaves on the trees any day now!
Daily Archives: May 7, 2022
Highly Recommended Reading
Instead of talking about birds I’ve seen, I want to highly recommend a book. The title is “The Bald Eagle, The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird,” by Jack E. Davis. It combines natural history with our country’s history in a blend that
is compelling. There are dark moments, such as when Alaska offered a bounty for the talons of dead Bald Eagles or when DDT was killing the species slowly, but there are uplifting moments as well. For me, the final section, about a Vietnam Vet who gets over
his PTSD by a return to nature and a connection to the eagle, was very close to home. I had been back from Vietnam, back in “the world’ (aka the U.S.) about 6 months when I started birding. It definitely helped me to adjust. That section of the book was an
unexpected emotional end to a great book.
Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox. Read the book!
Tom McCabe, Boise