This absorbing collection of memories from a wide variety of writers in the Americas brings us bird observations and tells us a lot about life. Rob Nixon recalls the trip and the guide on the occasion that he saw Spotted Owls. Elizabeth Bradfield, poet, tells us how whale-watching got her interested in seabirds. Andrew Furman muses about the migrating painted buntings that interrupt a domestic discussion by enlivening the bird feeder. WHEN BIRDS ARE NEAR, somehow everything else stops.

The citizen naturalist: the unpaid, untrained observer, is becoming critical for observations. So we are told in this fact-filled, wry look at our possibly cheapest pastime, bird-watching. A rare bird came to New York and popped in for a bite to eat, drawing birdwatchers in the area to haunt a park in the hope of spotting this dainty tourist. Cranes grandly stalk a riverbank in Nebraska, seen by J. Drew Lanham who demonstrates that people of many kinds enjoy birds.  A snowy owl travels from the Arctic to Cape Cod, seen by beachcombers. Another beachcomber on the Falklands spots penguins.

Jenn Dean reflects upon the history of Bermuda, and an oil-rich nocturnal bird eaten by mariners and settlers until it vanished: the cahow or Bermuda petrel. Then he tells us about the couple of people who were determined to find this bird, if it still existed, and preserve it despite the utter removal of all wilderness on Bermuda. And the best part is, you can now go to YouTube as I did, and watch cahows on a nest cam. This was my favourite story in the book, drawing together history and heritage from the days of exploration and piracy, modern history, and conservation history.

Susan Fox Rogers has edited WHEN BIRDS ARE NEAR: Dispatches from Contemporary Writers. She brings together tales of one bird or of a day spotting a multitude of species. Women and men, people of colour or otherwise, trekking the Sierra Madres, sailing a yacht or sitting at home, all can get involved. Tim Gallagher brings us the most sobering tale, of how drugs gangs are burning down old growth forest in Mexico, every year making it more dangerous for him to mount an expedition to find woodpeckers. We can’t all travel, nor risk danger. But we can read about the wonderful bird species, and their champions, their friends, their surprised spotters on a casual picnic. Make time to see the birds. They are your heritage.  

Book Summary