The Verb 'to Bird': Sightings of an Avid Birder

Peter Cashwell, an English teacher, has written a graceful book that discusses birding in a light-hearted manner. It will delight those of us who love birds and those of us who love the English language. I often laughed out loud at the various situations Cashwell creates for himself in the pursuit of birds. After reading it, I felt inspired to look at the visitors to my backyard far more closely.

Readers with no interest in food or nature are missing out on some of today's most humorous, personable and evocative writing. Take Peter Cashwell, for instance, an English teacher (why couldn't I have had a teacher like him?) and self-styled victim of Birding Compulsive Disorder, whose first book, a lively and very funny loose-knit collection of essays, begins a description of pelican flight: "If pelicans were drivers, they'd own huge, rectangular American luxury cars with plush interiors...."Or how about this perfect picture of Skimmers off a damp, chilly beach: "thirty or forty slim, scissorlike black birds wheeling around in the deepening gray; they looked like feathered knives tossed aloft by a master juggler."Cashwell, who cross-references an eclectic knowledge of popular culture (particularly rock music and comic books), serious literature, and research with his birding, divides the book into three sections: Birding, Birds, Birded. The first section leans toward the evolution of a birder - boyhood experiences with birds and mosquitoes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, his later establishment of a life list (the move from casual to avid), migration counts, haiku from the Peterson Field Guide, and the serendipitous birding experiences of daily life, like the inherently funny attempted rescue of a vulture in the front yard.The second section focuses on individual birds - how the cardinal got its name, why the starling deserves our hostility, the "social cachet" of raptors, and the poignant, funny tale of the owl that saved Christmas. And the third leans a bit more to the outings of the experienced birder, trips to add to the life list in Delaware, Iowa, even Long Island, NY. These are particularly evocative and full of the surprises that Cashwell finds especially rewarding in birding. Those who pick this book up for the funny stories and incisive visuals of chilly, drizzly beautiful dawns, and then succumb to Cashwells' infectious enthusiasm will also find plenty of practical information on birding whens, wheres and hows. A word of warning though; casual backyard birders are likely to find themselves itching to get up at dawn and go tramping around bug-infested habitat with a pair of binoculars and a Peterson guide.

Mr. Cashwell has written a delightful book that all would enjoy. Regardless of whether or not you can tell the difference between a warbler and nuthatch, Cashwell enthusiasm for birding and his skill with the language will keep you chuckling throughout. If you love stories about family, friends, travel, and well, birds, this book is sure to please.

I am soooo NOT the target audience for Mr. Cashwell's book, given the fact that the only thing that might normally make me hyper-aware of birds would be if a very large one suddenly landed on my head. Taking that into consideration, then, the fact that I find his book so delightful and enlightening says more to me than if I considered myself to be more of a fine-feathered friend. It also means that I'll be giving Mr. Cashwell's book to all of my more ornithologically-minded friends, not to mention language/literature buffs, since Mr. Cashwell's amusing musings are by no means confined to things that fly and should therefore not be - dare I say it? - pigeonholed into just one category.

This is the kind of book my husband hates...it's the kind of book that makes me grab his sleeve so that I can read the funny bits out loud. Except the funny bits keep coming, so he can't ever get away!Peter Cashwell manages to dissect his birding obsession, give you nuggets of information, and throw in snippets of history all while making you smile, chortle or laugh out loud. I don't know that I learned a lot...but then I have a bird-obsessed mother so have heard a lot of these facts before, but I enjoyed every step of this birding expedition. I'd love to go bird-watching with the author because I'd be sure that even if we saw no birds, we'd have a great time and I'd come home smarter.