The Peacocks of Baboquivari
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/4/2013
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/4/2013 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this slightly-battered ex-library softcover (large-print edition, different cover than shown) from Better World books. I'd enjoyed Fisk's book Parrots' Wood, and wanted to try more of her writing.
This book is the author's account of her five-month stint in an isolated cabin in the Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona, where she observed wild birds for the Nature Conservancy, coped with the difficulties of the climate and setting - and met a surprising number of people, from other bird-watchers to a variety of hikers and campers who passed by her cabin en route to the trails. Oh, and she also gets to cope with the peacocks - actual peacocks, the survivors of a flock that a previous inhabitant had imported.
Fisk describes the daily tasks of bird-counting, including the finer points of setting mist nets and of banding the birds. She also digresses - that's part of her style, and it charms me even as it sometimes frustrates me. Here she bounces from daily tasks to recollections of times past, including her first interest in bird-watching. (This didn't come until she was in middle age, when she leaped with shock at her first sight of a great blue heron, which amused her husband very much.) She muses on her widowhood from time to time, with a very real sense of pain and loss, mixed with the kind of "let's get on with it" practicality that seems to have saved her. The memories are poignant, but she rejects any advice such as "don't look back", and describes favorite books that help keep her connected to the past. "I...riffle its pages. Pausing, skipping, looking back, far away from Arizona. I do not lack for company."
She doesn't spend the entire time at the cabin, but makes a few trips - not merely into the nearest town for supplies, but occasionally to farther-flung spots to meet visiting birders or attend bird-themed gatherings.
Whether in the cabin or elsewhere, she describes hilarious encounters, surprise sightings, and poignant memories. I really enjoyed this book.
This book is the author's account of her five-month stint in an isolated cabin in the Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona, where she observed wild birds for the Nature Conservancy, coped with the difficulties of the climate and setting - and met a surprising number of people, from other bird-watchers to a variety of hikers and campers who passed by her cabin en route to the trails. Oh, and she also gets to cope with the peacocks - actual peacocks, the survivors of a flock that a previous inhabitant had imported.
Fisk describes the daily tasks of bird-counting, including the finer points of setting mist nets and of banding the birds. She also digresses - that's part of her style, and it charms me even as it sometimes frustrates me. Here she bounces from daily tasks to recollections of times past, including her first interest in bird-watching. (This didn't come until she was in middle age, when she leaped with shock at her first sight of a great blue heron, which amused her husband very much.) She muses on her widowhood from time to time, with a very real sense of pain and loss, mixed with the kind of "let's get on with it" practicality that seems to have saved her. The memories are poignant, but she rejects any advice such as "don't look back", and describes favorite books that help keep her connected to the past. "I...riffle its pages. Pausing, skipping, looking back, far away from Arizona. I do not lack for company."
She doesn't spend the entire time at the cabin, but makes a few trips - not merely into the nearest town for supplies, but occasionally to farther-flung spots to meet visiting birders or attend bird-themed gatherings.
Whether in the cabin or elsewhere, she describes hilarious encounters, surprise sightings, and poignant memories. I really enjoyed this book.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Coliseum Ave. (See Release Notes For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, March 27, 2014
GoryDetails at Coliseum Ave. (See Release Notes For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, March 27, 2014
Released 10 yrs ago (3/27/2014 UTC) at Coliseum Ave. (See Release Notes For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I plan to leave this book on a bench in the entrance to Nashua Eye Associates at 5 Coliseum Ave. at around 3:30 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!
*** Released for the 2014 Oh the Places We Can Go challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2014 Oh the Places We Can Go challenge. ***
