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When Birds Are Near: Dispatches from Contemporary Writers
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 perseverance, adventure, and fun; whether taking us on a journey down Highway 1 to see a rare 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. They expand as the authors reflect on love, loss, and family, engaging a broad array of emotions from wonder to humor.
As Rob Nixon writes in his essay, "Spotted Owls": "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 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.
But these essays are more than just field notes. They expand as the authors reflect on love, loss, and family, engaging a broad array of emotions from wonder to humor.
As Rob Nixon writes in his essay, "Spotted Owls": "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 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.
304 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2020
About the author
Susan Fox Rogers
18 books13 followersI am the author of MY REACH: A HUDSON RIVER MEMOIR, to be published by Cornell University Press in September 2011. In this memoir, I explore the Hudson River from my kayak. As I encounter snapping turtles and great blue heron, visit crumbling ice houses and cement factories, you will learn about the rich natural and built history of this river. In the process I also tell my own story of family and loss.
In addition to MY REACH, I am the editor of eleven book anthologies including Solo: On Her Own Adventure, Going Alone: Women's Adventures in the Wild and Alaska Passages: 20 Voices from Above the 54th Parallel, and Antarctica: Life on the Ice. I teach creative writing at Bard College--the creative essay, nature writing and a course on the Hudson. I live in the village of Tivoli."
In addition to MY REACH, I am the editor of eleven book anthologies including Solo: On Her Own Adventure, Going Alone: Women's Adventures in the Wild and Alaska Passages: 20 Voices from Above the 54th Parallel, and Antarctica: Life on the Ice. I teach creative writing at Bard College--the creative essay, nature writing and a course on the Hudson. I live in the village of Tivoli."
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 25, 2020
These essays are not just field reports. They expand with reflections on love, family, life, and death and engage a range of emotions from wonder to humor. And because birds magnify our relationship to the natural world, you will read stories about habitat loss, declining species, birds that collide with buildings, or birds now extinct. Some too tell of small victories...It's a perfect read for a winter night when the wind is blowing and you are feeling out of sorts; it's an anthology to keep near when the birds are not. ~ Susan Fox Rogers, Editor
When Birds are Near is a collection of twenty-six essays, all focussed on birds, all written by serious birders. If they have anything in common it might be a feeling of avidity: whether the writers are commenting on the species visiting their backyard feeders or describing the lengths they have gone to in order to track down some rare sighting for their "life lists", these are no casual observers; these are people with immense mental catalogues of field marks and birdsong, accumulated through years of study and experience in the field, and who are so in tune with the variety of birdlife surrounding them, that they have a heightened sense of their own place in nature. Not surprisingly, this enhanced communion with wildness makes for many essays lamenting humanity's deleterious effects on the natural world, but this collection is not a downer – there are many beautiful moments of awe, hope, and humour. The collection is a little uneven – I liked some essays much more than others – but there is much more good than otherwise and earns a solid four stars overall. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted might not be in their final forms.)
Nearly every essay had something quotable in it, so I'm just going to use this space to record a few highlights. To start with the timely: J. Drew Lanham (a university professor, poet and author) writes about his passion for birding in Red-headed Love Child. As a black man, he mentions the casual racism he can encounter while out in nature, and while chasing down Sandhill Cranes and rising early to watch the mating dance of Greater Prairie Chickens, he muses on the very different experience the Nebraska prairies must have offered to those men remembered to history as Buffalo Soldiers:
More than 100 years ago, black men of the U.S. Army's Ninth and Tenth Calvary and Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Infantry followed orders and endured the extremes of heat, cold, dust, mud, insects, and disease that often plague the out-of-the-way places I go by choice to find birds. In between the daily tasks of surviving rampant racism from the U.S. Army, skirmishes with American Indians fighting (rightfully) to hold onto homelands, and incursions from Mexican patriots (trying to understandably reclaim lost homeland), I'm sure there wasn't much time for the leisure of watching birds or rising at dawn to witness a prairie ritual. But then again, this Nebraska trip was breaking brain barriers I'd long held as dogma. Maybe I was giving these brave men short shrift. I'd like to think that all of us, regardless of circumstance, find some way to appreciate the wonders of the world around us.
By way of contrast, Richard Bohannon (cartographer and college lecturer) writes in Little Brown Birds about being confronted by soldiers while entering a nature preserve adjacent to the site of a missile silo in North Dakota:
It's worth saying here that I'm a middle-aged white man driving a relatively new car, and all of the military personnel appeared to be white men, young enough to be my students. If any racial profiling was going on, it was to my benefit.
Jonathan Franzen (author of note and ardent bird-watcher) writes presciently in the humorous and thoughtful My Bird Problem:
When I went inside, no kids came running to meet me, and this absence of kids seemed to clinch it: I was better off spending my anxiety budget on viral pandemics and dirty bombs than on global warming. Even if I had had kids, it would have been hard work for me to care about the climatic well-being of their children's children. Not having kids freed me altogether. Not having kids was my last, best line of defense against the likes of Al Gore.
(Be assured that whether or not Franzen spent some of his anxiety budget on viral pandemic preparedness, this essay goes on to describe his transformation into an environmentalist for the sake of birdlife.) And just because I liked the writing throughout this one, I'll include this bit from Alison Townsend's (award-winning poet and author) Wild Swans:
Life is always harder than we think it should be. But it is ours, isn't it? And here were these magnificent birds, sailing along on our lake, going about their business and filling me with an awe that knocked me sideways and took me outside my small human concerns. Bound by cycles of seasonal change and patterns of birth, and renewal, the sight of the swans comforted me on some essential level, offering what I can only describe as the solace of wild things. If they could manage to do something this enormous, guided by star patterns and earth's magnetic fields, I could navigate my life, couldn't I?
I particularly liked the hopeful essays that point to some of the successes of human intervention (Christina Baal's In the Eyes of the Condor [I especially loved her helpless awe in the presence of these “thunderbirds”]; Jenn Dean's The Keepers of the Ghost Bird [about Bermuda's success in bringing the cahow back from the brink]; and several writers' encounters with Sandhill Cranes [and for that matter, Franzen espying Whooping Cranes as the 400th bird species on his life list]), but there's no closing our eyes to the fact that between habitat encroachment and climate change, humanity is driving countless bird species to the edge of extinction – and how much poorer will our lives be when the birds are no longer near? Much to love in this collection that brings that question to the fore.
June 17, 2020
When Birds Are Near is a collection of 26 essays focusing not on birds and their behaviour, but on their watchers. This is a book about the appeal of birds, and the effects they have on the emotions and lives of birdwatchers.
So what’s in here? The shame of misidentifying birds in front of beautiful women, teaching a nighthawk to fly, leading tours in Alaska, taxidermy, birdwatching in the city, John James Audubon, playing god in the garden, being a wildlife steward, and failing to find the bird sought.
For me, the highlight was Jenn Dean’s ‘The Keepers of the Ghost Bird’: an account of the rediscovery of the Bermuda petrel and the naturalists on Nonsuch Island. Three other standouts are Sara Crosby’s ‘The Black and White��, David Gessner’s ‘The Snowy Winter’, and Alison Világ’s ‘Extralimital’.
Novelist and birder Jonathan Franzen wraps up the collection with humour. I particularly liked the comedy over the masked duck.
Among the golden eggs, however, are a couple of turkeys: a dream sequence, gushing over a son’s accomplishments, some gauche phrasing and punctuation, and an over-dramatic military encounter in the jungle. Several essays have awkward opening paragraphs. There are certainly excellent essays in When Birds Are Near, but it’s not an even read.
So what’s in here? The shame of misidentifying birds in front of beautiful women, teaching a nighthawk to fly, leading tours in Alaska, taxidermy, birdwatching in the city, John James Audubon, playing god in the garden, being a wildlife steward, and failing to find the bird sought.
For me, the highlight was Jenn Dean’s ‘The Keepers of the Ghost Bird’: an account of the rediscovery of the Bermuda petrel and the naturalists on Nonsuch Island. Three other standouts are Sara Crosby’s ‘The Black and White��, David Gessner’s ‘The Snowy Winter’, and Alison Világ’s ‘Extralimital’.
Novelist and birder Jonathan Franzen wraps up the collection with humour. I particularly liked the comedy over the masked duck.
Among the golden eggs, however, are a couple of turkeys: a dream sequence, gushing over a son’s accomplishments, some gauche phrasing and punctuation, and an over-dramatic military encounter in the jungle. Several essays have awkward opening paragraphs. There are certainly excellent essays in When Birds Are Near, but it’s not an even read.
August 19, 2020
The cover is too simplistic for this covey of personal tales about wild birds. While many writers share their memories of moments, of rare sightings and of their own journey to birds (via whale-watching for instance) two longer accounts remain firmly in my mind a few weeks later.
One is a history of the Bermuda petrel or cahow, a good-sized fishing bird which nested in cliff burrows and flew at night, shrieking. Until, of course, human explorers found a source of food, and that was that. The cahow almost went the way of the dodo and would probably have, if not for one young man who early decided to make it his life's work to find cahows, bring them back from the brink, and protect their population. He's out there now, rigging up nest cams in the burrows he's made, watching cahows fledge. Not on Bermuda, which is devoid of all original wild land, but on a rocky islet.
The other is an account of a man who wanted to drive around Mexico looking for a woodpecker in old growth forest. But every year it got more dangerous, and when he managed to get trekking, he discovered that the drug cartels are burning down the forests. If you want to have wildlife, folks - a source of excellent tourist income - you have to protect it; from drug cartels, timber merchants and other exploiters.
The other accounts are shorter and all are pleasant to read, if less exciting. I'm delighted that so many writers got to feature and I hope many readers will be inspired to feed the birds and protect wild spaces.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.
One is a history of the Bermuda petrel or cahow, a good-sized fishing bird which nested in cliff burrows and flew at night, shrieking. Until, of course, human explorers found a source of food, and that was that. The cahow almost went the way of the dodo and would probably have, if not for one young man who early decided to make it his life's work to find cahows, bring them back from the brink, and protect their population. He's out there now, rigging up nest cams in the burrows he's made, watching cahows fledge. Not on Bermuda, which is devoid of all original wild land, but on a rocky islet.
The other is an account of a man who wanted to drive around Mexico looking for a woodpecker in old growth forest. But every year it got more dangerous, and when he managed to get trekking, he discovered that the drug cartels are burning down the forests. If you want to have wildlife, folks - a source of excellent tourist income - you have to protect it; from drug cartels, timber merchants and other exploiters.
The other accounts are shorter and all are pleasant to read, if less exciting. I'm delighted that so many writers got to feature and I hope many readers will be inspired to feed the birds and protect wild spaces.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review.
May 2, 2020
Loved it! I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this book! I took notes. "Sometimes the best bird experiences are defined less by a rare sighting than by quality of presnece, 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."
On grief, "Rather birds and my departed had taken up residence together in a dense, tangled unconscious habitat of feeling and memory. Through birds the fullness of love and grief became fuller."
I enjoyed 'et all.' The simplistic cover, the compilation of authors reflecting on love, loss, nature and family.
Nature infused pearls of wisdom from a multitude of Authors.
Thank you NetGalley and Comstock Publishing Associates for the opportunity to review this wonderful book!
jb
https://seniorbooklounge.blogspot.com/
On grief, "Rather birds and my departed had taken up residence together in a dense, tangled unconscious habitat of feeling and memory. Through birds the fullness of love and grief became fuller."
I enjoyed 'et all.' The simplistic cover, the compilation of authors reflecting on love, loss, nature and family.
Nature infused pearls of wisdom from a multitude of Authors.
Thank you NetGalley and Comstock Publishing Associates for the opportunity to review this wonderful book!
jb
https://seniorbooklounge.blogspot.com/
April 17, 2020
I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for honest feedback. While I don't love the cover of this book, I did enjoy it. As a bird watcher myself who came to the hobby as a way to spend more time with my mother I found these stories heartwarming and relatable and informative.
July 28, 2020
An interesting bunch of essays on birds or birding life and the memories associated with them. Each chapter is by a different writer, and tells us a personal story that related to each one of them.
From birding across the country or even out of the country, these stories bring us knowledge of their favorite birds, the memories these bring up for the writers and for all the love of nature in some form, whether in a city, on the plains, shores or forests.
Well worth a read if you are a birder trying to define your roll in this exclusive club.
I am not a birder per say, but enjoy everything about birds and enjoy seeing the many that I have just around my house, and it made me more aware when I am out and about. I did a lot of looking up birds while reading this book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Cornell University Press, Comstock Publishing Associates for the copy of this book.
From birding across the country or even out of the country, these stories bring us knowledge of their favorite birds, the memories these bring up for the writers and for all the love of nature in some form, whether in a city, on the plains, shores or forests.
Well worth a read if you are a birder trying to define your roll in this exclusive club.
I am not a birder per say, but enjoy everything about birds and enjoy seeing the many that I have just around my house, and it made me more aware when I am out and about. I did a lot of looking up birds while reading this book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Cornell University Press, Comstock Publishing Associates for the copy of this book.
June 1, 2023
Another one of those books that’s a collection of essays/short stories that I really enjoy reading because I can take my time reading it. I started this book two years ago and just finished it the other night. That’s because the nature of the book allows me to read a couple of stories and put it down and walk away for three or four or five months and then pick it up again and there’s no narrative thread theat I’m going to have forgotten.
It’s a great collection of stories, most of the pretty poignant, a few of them with some funny moments in them. Of course, they involve encounters with birds in many ways, shapes, or forms. A really good read if you’re into bitds, also a good read if you’re someone who just enjoys good nature writing. And the writers really do share deep emotional moments with the reader, some seminal moments in their experience with birds and their lives, so it’s not just a book about “I saw this cool bird,” or, I” did this cool bird trip.” There’s some excellent writing here.
It’s a great collection of stories, most of the pretty poignant, a few of them with some funny moments in them. Of course, they involve encounters with birds in many ways, shapes, or forms. A really good read if you’re into bitds, also a good read if you’re someone who just enjoys good nature writing. And the writers really do share deep emotional moments with the reader, some seminal moments in their experience with birds and their lives, so it’s not just a book about “I saw this cool bird,” or, I” did this cool bird trip.” There’s some excellent writing here.
October 2, 2020
I love bird watching, to a degree! I also enjoy reading about other bird watchers impressions of birds they see in their neighborhoods, or travels. This book contains 26 accounts, by 26 different authors- enough that, even if an account wasn't all that appealing to me, there were others I could enjoy reading! If you enjoy birds and maybe little glimpses into the authors lives, you'll love this! I found quite a few chapters in this book worth note: Spotted Owls was interesting, Problem with Pretty Birds, Red-headed Love Child, Wild Swans,'Guardians of the Garden. Even though these were my favorites, there are easily more that enjoyed nearly as much! Great read! make a fine gift for a birder, I think!
I received a Kindle arc from Netgalley i exchangr for a fair reciew.
I received a Kindle arc from Netgalley i exchangr for a fair reciew.
August 26, 2020
When Birds are Near is a collection of twenty-six essays, not just about birds but also about the people who watch them, care about them and connect with them. At their best these essays capture the magic of being a bird watcher, finally seeing that elusive species that you’ve spent all day searching for, the frustration of seeing habitats destroyed and people who don’t care, the wonder of connecting with another living thing. I’m a birder myself, although my birding is of the relatively tame and local variety. And yet I recognised myself in several of these essays, felt seen in several others, and wished I’d been present in still others.
I didn’t enjoy all the essays equally. Some were better written than others; some I just naturally connected with because they so perfectly capture my own experiences. That’s to be expected in a volume with many authors. But there is something in here for everyone whatever level of birding they’ve experienced or wish to experience - even if just vicariously. An account of protecting nesting birds in the backyard mixes with a tale of a risky expedition through druglord controlled territory in Mexico in search of a possibly extinct woodpecker.
I wish the book had a more attractive and vibrant cover, not to mention at least one illustration per essay. I was lucky enough to read this as an eARC (thanks @netgalley and @cornelluniversitypress). Hopefully the final published version will come complete with illustrations and a more appealing cover. The essays deserve it.
If you are a birder I think you’ll enjoy this book. If you have a birder in your life this will make an ideal gift for them. But read it yourself as well - it’ll help you understand their passion.
.
“I love the sense of wonder I feel as I watch them live out their lives...I love the cyclical nature of their lives...But most of all I love them because they make me feel alive in a way nothing else can.”
I didn’t enjoy all the essays equally. Some were better written than others; some I just naturally connected with because they so perfectly capture my own experiences. That’s to be expected in a volume with many authors. But there is something in here for everyone whatever level of birding they’ve experienced or wish to experience - even if just vicariously. An account of protecting nesting birds in the backyard mixes with a tale of a risky expedition through druglord controlled territory in Mexico in search of a possibly extinct woodpecker.
I wish the book had a more attractive and vibrant cover, not to mention at least one illustration per essay. I was lucky enough to read this as an eARC (thanks @netgalley and @cornelluniversitypress). Hopefully the final published version will come complete with illustrations and a more appealing cover. The essays deserve it.
If you are a birder I think you’ll enjoy this book. If you have a birder in your life this will make an ideal gift for them. But read it yourself as well - it’ll help you understand their passion.
.
“I love the sense of wonder I feel as I watch them live out their lives...I love the cyclical nature of their lives...But most of all I love them because they make me feel alive in a way nothing else can.”
October 14, 2020
Thank you to the author, Cornell University Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This collection of essays is a great read for anyone interested in birding, or who has a birder in their life - you will understand their passion much better after having read this book. I like being out in nature, and I don't mind tagging along with my SO, but now I "get it". Of course, not all the essays appeal to the same degree, but all of them provide great insight into a pursuit that is often solitary and requires persistence - and can give great joy.
This collection of essays is a great read for anyone interested in birding, or who has a birder in their life - you will understand their passion much better after having read this book. I like being out in nature, and I don't mind tagging along with my SO, but now I "get it". Of course, not all the essays appeal to the same degree, but all of them provide great insight into a pursuit that is often solitary and requires persistence - and can give great joy.
June 4, 2021
This anthology felt like one of the romps I take outside, sometimes light and easy, sometimes contemplative and introspective, but always worth it. Like most readers, I had my favorite essays. But I lined my pockets with gems from all of them.
And for those of you who don't know, this editor is A HOOT! Naturally hilarious, sharp as a whip, and wildly personable.
And for those of you who don't know, this editor is A HOOT! Naturally hilarious, sharp as a whip, and wildly personable.
March 18, 2021
Wow, what a wonderful collection of essays. I so thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every author’s take on their love for the world of birds. A terrific concept for a book and beautifully done. My favorite book in a long time, without a doubt.
July 7, 2022
Some of these essays were really boring for me—probably because I’m not a birdwatcher. A few were pretty decent, but Jenn dean’s essay was so good that the whole book was worth it. Overall, I’m glad to be moving on.
February 5, 2021
A wonderful collection of personal essays by people who love birds and their environments. Finishing up with a fantastic piece by Jonathan Lethem. But, I wish there had been one about thé curlew.
October 24, 2021
NF- Essays
267 pages
Very enjoyable.
267 pages
Very enjoyable.
June 23, 2023
2.5/5
Some very good, very poignant essays, but others were all over the place, needed better editing, or to be left out of the book entirely. It didn't feel like a very cohesive collection.
Some very good, very poignant essays, but others were all over the place, needed better editing, or to be left out of the book entirely. It didn't feel like a very cohesive collection.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews