Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation

I bought this book over two years ago because I wanted a book about nature and being drawn to art and birds this one, plus the description of the novice birder year and dealing with an aging parent seemed like a perfect fit. Having lost my parents not that long before I was unprepared for how much the author’s wise and discerning words articulated my experiences with my ailing parents. It was hard to read and so healing as well to see that experience expressed so beautifully and shared in the world. Her depiction of learning to bird resonates as well with any that can relate not only to an appreciation of the natural world but the uncomfortableness with putting yourself out there as a novice, possibly to appear as ignorant as you feel. The author’s humanity, willingness to share her struggles and growing love for birds were a balm for my soul. I recently gifted it to a friend with an aging parent and I hope she is as blessed as I was by this treasure! And as a side, her included sketches added a lot…it’s a lovely book, on lovely paper, with wonderful sketches and photographs.

The author has written children’s books and this was the first time I encountered her writing. The title was alluring because of late, several articles and portions of books about art and birds have come across my desk. I thought this would be a book addressing that more specifically. Instead it was a very personal story of the author’s relationship with several people and her own emotional reflections. It was closer to being a memoir than and informative book. Birds were incidental vehicles, used to tell us about her. It was quite lyrical and I did enjoy reading it but it became clear early on that I was not part of her target audience.She did bring up a few topics that I think about in relation to avians. One was about her friend the musician, who dislikes “fetish” birds such as those found in the pet trade. Later she described the potential for geneticists to de-extinct birds like the passenger pigeon which potentially could darken the skies as Audubon wrote about 180 years ago. Personally I do not think that would work as well as imagined. It seems to me that there are only two options when re-introducing an extinct species. The first is that the species would present many of the conditions that assisted in their demise in the first place. Not everyone wants the skies darkened with pigeons. Everyone hears statements about pest birds like cormorants, crows and starlings. People who are really interested in animal behavior may ignore those comments but we are a very small metric in the western world at least.The other problem is the one the musician presented and that is the “fetish” bird, one to show off in the cage in the den or who populate confined areas for public consumption. I think it better to forget about extinct birds and to protect the ones that are here now. Besides, re-introducing a species their prey population or other food sources have to be available.She discussed Daniel Pauly’s 1995 term “shifting baselines” in which we humans regard our own circumstances in time and place as the norm. “This deterioration of wildlife has enabled a collective forgetfulness” she aptly quotes Pauly. That forgetfulness manifests itself in most every aspect of American life (and Canadian since this book is written from the perspective and experiences of a woman from Toronto). Popular culture re-focuses our imaginations to technological reliance on gadgets and immediate gratification of our whims. We are more likely to know about a species from a free app on our smart phone than a walk in the woods. That is of course if we even have a curiosity about a species.There is an adage that I have read several times that I’ll approximate here. ‘My grandfather saw thousands of (pick a species) and my father saw hundreds. I see tens and my daughter sees one in a lifetime. My grandson sees them stuffed and mounted at a natural history museum’.She also brought up a notion that is easy to imagine and it is that hobbies such as bird watching are often seen as being a pastime for the wealthy that have leisure time and resources enough to satisfy cameras and trips to Costa Rica. Additionally she imagines that many see such avocations as way to ignore societal ills. There is some truth to that as anyone who knows the history of the study of nature could attest. It was a rich man’s game for its first 100 or so years. People like Alfred Russel Wallace or Mary Anning earned their livings at least for a while filling the curiosity cabinets of wealthy Englishmen. So did other adventurers who did not write and were not written about.There are however many programs to re-introduce children to nature and there is a body of evidence to show fruitful results including more thoughtfulness as well as scientific reasoning for participants. My own uninspired classes of grade school and high school drove me away from the wonders of the natural world for many years and do not think that is a unique experience. She describes it as “a re-wilding experience”. Hopefully it is a course of action that will bear fruit in the years ahead.She suggested at the end of the book that “if you listen to birds, every day will have a song in it”. That has worked for me for a long time.

I can't even deal with how much I love this book. I've read chapters, then reread them again the next night to highlight them. I want to pass along my copy but I'm too afraid I'll want to look back to it again in a couple weeks! I feel like so many parts of the book said things I've been thinking or feeling, as a writer, artist, and anxiety-filled mama. I picked this book up because I had been looking for something to give me a bit of respite from life's crazy, and there in the first couple of chapters Maclear talked about looking to art and birdwatching for the same reason. I've found that the book itself has helped me be mindful of the world around me. Though it in itself does not teach you how to do birdwatching or art or life, it makes you appreciate the small and look for beauty. In turn, I am finding myself listening for birds even when I'm driving with the windows down, longing to sketch flowers, taking time away from my many duties to think and write, focusing on the sweet things at home. If you're looking for something to jolt you out of what the world says is important and remind you what really matters, read this book. And especially if you are an artist or an introverted, stressed out, new mother, you have to get this book. I'm not lending you mine!

I liked this book because I liked the author's sensibility: careful, intelligent, thoughtful, wry. I kept the book on the bedside and read it occasionally and slowly. It is a meditation on the things in its title -- and that's the best description I can come up with. It is not informational. It is not particularly enlightening. I learned little from it. That said, I enjoyed it because I enjoyed witnessing the world through the author's special eyes. I came to it as a bird watcher, and yet the birds are not really the point. In fact, there is no point -- and sometimes that is why we read, to be some one else for a little while.

Some parts were slow going. It is written in a relatively choppy style of short paragraphs in many of the chapters. I did enjoy reading it though. A very personal set of essays combining beginning birding with associated thoughts about life and death and points in between. I like that it was divided into months and that birds were specifically identified for each month. She provides many book references for further review and she has read a LOT of books.

This elegant, dreamy book melds all that is dear to me right now: my aging father, my new husband's shared love of hummingbirds in the morning as we gaze out over our mini-ranch that is just beginning, parsimony, quaint sketches and the quest for justice in an unjust, Trump presidency....it's all there in a year of telling. The tugs and pulls of marriage, the fears and hopes of parenting. Even the strain of being the only child of oddly matched parents. And the introverts fear of her own narcissism, bravely displayed. I love this book, and recommend it to all.

A dedicated Underliner for sixty years, I am able to revisit the 'gems' (pretty much near half of the text) again & again...& months later again, not intending to ever deny myself the joy, still. For someone so young to be so perceptive & wise, then so gifted at expression, Kyo Maclear is a precious gift to the discerning reader. "ENCORE!"

Gret for my nature loving wife. Grabbed it out of my hands and started reading.

well writtenkeeps your interest

ok