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Bird book -- good reading!




Just finished a pretty good read which I thought I'd mention to you-all.
The title is "Hope is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal History of
Vanished Birds," and it's written by Christopher Cokinos, published this
year. (The first part is a quote from Emily Dickinson.) It gives for the
first time as many details as possible (with some room for sentimental
conjecture, too!) about the demise of certain birds of North America: the
Heath Hen, the Carolina Parakeet, the Passenger Pigeon, the flightless
Auk, the Labrador Duck, and the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. As the title
implies, it's a very personalized history, a saga of one person's
commitment to documenting the lives of these birds and their tragic ends,
largely forgotten today. A very moving book that took him ten years to
research and write. I'm so glad he wrote it.

It came to my mind suddenly as a I read the posts lately about rails and 
the destruction of habitat. It's frightening to contemplate that even 
though we have as a race gotten somewhat better at not slaughtering 
animals into oblivion, the disappearing acts are still happening under 
our very noses...

By the way, does anyone know if there have been any other claimed
sightings of Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers since the last ones I know about
(1960s?)? Apparently they were also known as the "Lord God Bird" since
anyone who was lucky enough to see one might be heard to say, "Lord God!!"
:-)  
The first time I saw a Pileated (near West Point on the Eno, one early 
morning) I had somewhat the same feeling of awe...

Cheers,
Paula Mangiafico
Durham, NC