You'll find a flock of fantastic tales in new bird-related books

SHARON WOOTTON

Originally published Tuesday, April 9, 2002

While rare birds may be held in awe, ordinary birds are special to Lyanda Lynn Haupt, and so is her book, "Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds: Notes from a Northwest Year" ($21.95, Sasquatch).

It's one of several bird-related books that bear notice this spring.

The Seattle resident's 17 essays cover life lists (she started her daughter's before birth) and identification (impressing her fourth-grade teacher by identifying evening grosbeaks), and excellent insights on cormorants, crows and thrushes.

Haupt puts thoughtful, individual touches to an activity shared by millions, reinforcing the idea there is more to birdwatching than naming birds.

Diane Wells gives us the delightful "100 Birds and How They Got Their Names" ($18.95, Algonquin).

It's more than just a history of names, however. Wells, author of the popular "100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names", adds lore and biology: the flicker's tongue coated with sticky saliva so insects stick, the raven as prophet, the origin of the phrase wild goose chase, and John Audubon's short stint of having puffins as pets.

Part field guide, part memoir, part travelogue, Philip Keenan's "Birding Across North America: A Naturalist's Observations" ($29.95, Timber Press) is a good but time-consuming read from "The Wonderful World of Warblers" to "Extinction is Forever."

Most birders don't go beyond their state for an outing. Keenan went from watching a Wilson warbler nest in Newfoundland to seeing a Wilson warbler migrating in Arizona.

So hop aboard while the author ranges far and wide, from roadrunners to the evolution of bird painting.

Peter Matthiessen's focus is narrower in "The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes" ($27.50, North Point Press), although following his passion leads the National Book Award winner around the world.

Matthiessen's 349-page book reinforces mixed feelings humans have had about wildlife in general. In the case of cranes, fables, poetry and paintings in honor of their beauty and symbolism smash into realities of humans draining their wetland mating grounds or hanging them from poles as a warning to stay away from crops.

In Matthiessen's hands, it's a grand combination of stories about 15 species of cranes and human cultures, anecdotes and travelogue, politics and survival.

Crane numbers are dwindling, and it's sometimes difficult to reach them, but Matthiessen and other craniacs go to the ends of the earth to tag them for study and conservation to save them from extinction.

I wonder if any cranes will show up in Errol Fuller's next edition of "Extinct Birds" ($49.95, Cornell University Press). His second edition adds ones that have disappeared since 1987.

"Extinct Birds" is a gorgeous book of more than 80 obituaries that combines history and science of birds extinct since 1600.

You'll come to know the birds that have lost out to disease, competition, climatic changes and destruction of habitat.

Then there's the chicken, a bird once prized for feathers (used to stuff pillows) but now reduced to basics: egg-producing and a moment of glory at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

William Grimes pays homage in "My Fine Feathered Friend" ($15, North Point Press). Laced with humor as well as history, "Feathered" is the story of a chicken that decides to roost in the author's urban backyard.

The restaurant critic and card-carrying carnivore for the New York Times knows his chicken dishes, but by the end of the small book, it's obvious he learned far more than a recipe from his feathered friend.

Columnist Sharon Wootton lives on Shaw Island. She can be reached at songandword@rockisland.com or 360-468-3964.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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