Description:
There was a time, and not so long ago, when the little island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, was the undiscovered hunting ground not only of the well-to-do, but also of birdwatchers from all over the world. The island has since been "discovered," overrun by tourists and casual visitors. Birdwatchers have changed, too; as E. Vernon Laux writes, tongue securely in cheek, "Birding is no longer the exclusive domain of little old ladies in sensible shoes and dottering Englishmen." But the birds have not changed, and Laux paints an exceedingly affectionate portrait of their lives in this little corner of the Atlantic Ocean, a place full of swallows, loons, kinglets, warblers, buntings, woodcock, orioles, murrelets, gulls, blackbirds, and other birds--some 300 species in all. Laux sings the praises of watertight boots and rubberized, close-focusing binoculars. He writes with clarity of the ecology of swamps and the harshness of a New England winter. He honors his fallen fellows, notably the great birder Roger Tory Peterson, and he encourages newcomers to the pleasures of ornithology. And he airs a few unabashedly eccentric sentiments, including a hurrah for hurricanes, whose winds sweep onto Martha's Vineyard all kinds of unusual bird species that make a birdwatcher's day. "This may not be a sane reaction," he admits. It is certainly a passionate one, and in this gentle book Laux does a fine job of sharing his love for birds of all kinds. --Gregory McNamee
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