Great Backyard Bird Count is
Great Opportunity to

Connect with Nature

Right now, birders in Rutland County and across the country are preparing for the annual Christmas Bird Count. But another “citizen science” opportunity will be coming up in February! Millions of novice and accomplished bird watchers can make their fascination with nature add up for science and for the future during the 11th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, led by Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. During “Presidents’ Day” weekend, February 15–18, 2008, anyone can count birds from wherever they are and enter their tallies online. These reports create an exciting real-time picture of where the birds are across the continent and contribute valuable information for science and conservation.

“These volunteers are counting not only for fun but for the future,” said Tom Bancroft, Chief Science Officer for Audubon. “It’s fun to see how many different kinds of birds can be seen and counted right in your backyard or neighborhood park. Each tally helps us learn more about how our North American birds are doing, and what that says about the health and the future of our environment.” “The GBBC is a great way to engage friends, family, and children in observing nature in their own backyard, where they will discover that the outdoors is full of color, behavior, flight, sounds, and mystery,” said Janis Dickinson, Director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

People of all ages and experience levels are invited to take part wherever they are—at home, in schoolyards, at local parks or wildlife refuges, even counting birds on a balcony. Observers count the highest number of each species they see during at least 15 minutes on one or more of the count days.

The web site provides helpful hints for identifying birds. Participants can compare results from their town or region with others, as checklists pour in from throughout the U.S. and Canada. They can also view bird photos taken by participants during the count and send in their own digital images for the online photo gallery and contest.

In 2007, Great Backyard Bird Count participants made history, breaking records for the number of birds reported, and the number of checklists. Participants sent in 81,203 checklists tallying 11,082,387 birds of 613 species. Vermont recorded 78 species with 31, 937 individual birds counted. The top three species reported in Vermont were American Goldfinch, Dark-eyed Junco and Black-capped Chickadee.

“Literally, there has never been a more detailed snapshot of a continental bird-distribution profile in history,” said John Fitzpatrick, Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Imagine scientists 250 years from now being able to compare these data with their own!”

Already, the count results show how the numbers of some birds species have changed in recent years, such as a decline in Northern Pintails and an increase in Hooded Mergansers, consistent with trends from the Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey.

“People who take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count see the results of their efforts in the news and in bird conservation work taking place across the country, said Audubon Education VP, Judy Braus. “Whether the counts occur at home, at schools or nature centers, they’re more than engaging and educational science activities for young people and adults, they’re a way to contribute to the conservation of birds and habitat nationwide.”

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From Rutland to Big Bend

Spring Birding in Texas

By Marv Elliott

To birders, the lure of a spring trip to Texas is irresistible—warm weather, species seen nowhere else in the U.S. and the opportunity to observe some of our familiar birds up close as they make their way north. Last April Sue and I spent a month there; it was a month well spent. We had visited Texas before, but never just to bird. We had read about places like Goose Island, South Padre Island, Falcon Dam, Big Bend National Park and the Davis Mountains so the attraction was great to go back to Texas and try our skills (and cross our fingers for luck) at finding the Texas specialties.

Painted Bunting (Photo Courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture)

We left on March 26, just about the time winter has become about four weeks too long and spring in Vermont is still a ways off. We traveled by car, taking our pop-up camper. This gave us some flexibility in detouring to interesting places along the way. It was also an affordable way to travel and cover a big area over four weeks. We armed ourselves with two guidebooks on birding, Birding Texas by Roland H. Wauer and Mark A. Elwonger and Exploring the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail by Mel White. The ABA Birders Guide to the Rio Grande Valley is also a great resource, but is currently being revised with a late 2007 publication date. We also took along one general guidebook, the Moon Handbook to Texas by Joe Cummings, which was invaluable for learning about the local culture and history and, very important, the local cuisine.

We arrived at Caddo Lake State Park in east Texas in four days (we could have made it in three, but stopped to visit relatives along the way). Texas State Parks are wonderful places to stay; besides being affordable, they are often great birding areas as well as good places to meet fellow birders. Texas State Parks are frequently staffed with “birding hosts,” who offer birding trips and can provide hot tips on the best places to bird inside and outside the park. Caddo Lake was no exception. Within minutes of our arrival we had spotted Yellow-throated Warbler and Prothonotary Warbler. As we leaned on the railing of a fishing pier jutting out into the cypress swamp, a Northern Parula landed at our elbows – quite a different view of parulas in Vermont where we crane our necks to catch fleeting glimpses in the treetops!

Our next stop was Brazos Bend State Park, just outside of Houston, a great park in itself and a good jumping off point for other birding hotspots such as Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge (Roseate Spoonbills!) and San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. The birding at Brazos Bend was great with 26 miles of hiking trails around small lakes that are filled with waterfowl, songbirds and raptors. The Black-bellied Whistling Duck became a favorite, a bird that somehow manages to be comical and beautiful at the same time. White Ibis is also abundant here and was a new species for us. Another new species was alligator! Frequently the trails would be littered with the sunning reptiles so we soon learned to have an alternate route in mind. It was also alligator mating season and their bellowing added to the prehistoric feel of the rich bottomland forest.

Acting on a tip from a local birding expert, we visited Quintana, a tiny woodlot along the gulf that acts as a “migrant trap,” a patch of greenery that is irresistible to traveling songbirds. In one binocular view was a study in red: a Scarlet Tanager, a Summer Tanager and a Northern Cardinal! Worm-eating Warbler was new for us here.

It was hard to leave Brazos Bend, but we had heard a lot about our next stop, Goose Island. It was Easter and Texas State Parks can become somewhat of madhouses over a holiday weekend. Unfortunately for many Texans, but fortunately for us, the weather was a washout as it was for most of the U.S. as it left the state park virtually empty but for a few birding diehards. The birding went from great to spectacular over the next few days as we enjoyed Goose Island and other spots in the area. Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Blue Grosbeak and Dickcissel were new for us at Goose Island.

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the winter home of the rare and endangered Whooping Crane, is nearby. Although the cranes had already departed, there was still plenty to enjoy. Acres of salt marsh, thick brushy cover and stretches of sandy beaches provide great habitat for migrating and resident birds. Weather that can be a mere annoyance to people can be a big (and life-threatening) obstacle for birds. At Aransas we saw dozens of Barn Swallows too exhausted to move off the road after the recent storm. As birders we were thrilled to see these birds so closely, but we also recognized the need for protective shelter of places like Aransas where birds can recuperate before continuing north.

The weather was especially dismal at Padre Island National Seashore, but we had the opportunity to see more Upland Sandpipers than we could hope to see in a lifetime in Vermont along with a good variety of shorebirds and terns. We were also treated to the improbable sight of seven Orchard Orioles huddled in the only shrub visible for miles.

For some South Padre Island conjures up images of wild college students on spring break, but for birders it’s a different story. As we pulled into the private campground that was to be our home for the next few days, we spotted several Hooded Warblers. Our campsite by Laguna Madre gave us up-close views of Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron and Reddish Egret and spectacular sunsets. The small shrub in front of our camper frequently contained Tennessee Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart and Common Yellowthroat. From South Padre we easily drove to Laguna Atascosa NWR. With 45,000 acres it is also an invaluable bird oasis among all of the development. We spent the day, hiking and taking the autoroute and tallying 70 species. Plain Chachalaca, Least Grebe, Crested Caracara, Great Kiskadee, Green Jay and Bronzed Cowbird were highlights here.

The Sabal Palm Audubon Center Sanctuary is also an easy drive from South Padre Island. Sabal Palm, As Texas’s only native palm, is an important component of an ecosystem that once stretched 80 miles along the coast, but is now reduced to a remnant. Here we saw a Least Grebe sitting its floating nest and watched a graceful Swallow-tailed Kite in flight. Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Great Kiskadee, and Black-crested Titmice were carrying nesting material.

Before we left South Padre Island, we visited the Convention Center. We were skeptical at first, especially as we found the center being set up to host a motorcycle gathering. But we quickly saw the attraction – a small grove of trees, literally dripping with birds. Two particular birds were particularly noteworthy. First, was a Painted Bunting, which we had wanted to see for ages. Wow! And second, was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The cuckoo was perched in a small tree, about five feet from the “bird paparazzi,” a group of photographers armed with the latest and largest in equipment. The bird, although healthy looking, was probably exhausted from migration and hungry. It dropped to the ground to pick up a caterpillar. Flying back to its perch, it promptly dropped it and the crowd let out a collective “Awww….”

Falcon State Park was next on the schedule. It is a 570-acre park on the Mexican border. You know you’re in the desert. Our car thermometer registered 102 degrees and all signs of the tropical coastal environment were gone. Texas is known for its extremes of habitat and weather and here was another taste of it. Chihuahuan Raven, Cactus Wren and Pyrrhuloxia reflected this change. The heat was too much for us after two days so it was time to move on. Before we left, though, we experienced a treat. A neighboring camper offered us a look at a Greater Roadrunner in her campsite – it was sitting on a nest!

Eager for the shade of trees and some cooler weather, we packed up. But before leaving the desert, we stopped to see the White-collared Seedeater in San Ygnacio, a tiny speck of a bird, seen only in a couple of spots north of the Rio Grande. We have to confess that we barely knew of this bird until we were tipped off to its existence by fellow travelers, who are always generous in sharing their knowledge.

Located in the Hill Country, Lost Maples State Natural Area is a delightful campground. It is home to the Uvalde Bigtooth Maple, a remnant from the Pleistocene Era, whose brilliant colors attract tourists in autumn much like Vermont. Spring is the time to be here, however, for birders. The main attraction is the Golden-cheeked Warbler, a bird that can be found in the breeding season only in the juniper-oak woodlands of Texas. It is not a hard bird to locate; its sound (and its appearance) is similar to our Black-Throated Green Warbler. We were fortunate to have several close up looks. We were also fortunate to see the Black-capped Vireo, another specialty of the area. Lost Maples offers a good opportunity to hike and bird. The Hill Country is beautiful and, even if you didn’t see a single bird, the wildflowers alone would make the trip worthwhile.

We really looked forward to our next destination, Big Bend National Park, one of the most remote parks in the system, and a summer home for the Colima Warbler. We had visited Big Bend before, but had been too early to see the Colima. Located in the southwest area of Texas where the Rio Grande River makes a big turn, the park contains both mountains and desert and contains a wide variety of plants and animals that have had to adapt to some tough conditions. We steeled ourselves for the hike into Laguna Meadows and Boot Canyon, where the warbler is found. We set out early to avoid the hot weather and within two miles had seen our first Colima Warbler! We ended up hiking ten miles that day, seeing some wonderful scenery, and lots of great birds such as White-throated Swift, Mexican Jay, Violet-green Swallow and Scott’s Oriole. Despite sore muscles, the next day we hiked the Window Trail, whose only drawback is that the return trip is uphill. Nevertheless we were treated to Golden Eagle, Lucifer Hummingbird, Crissal Thrasher and Varied Bunting. It was a nice way to end our stay at Big Bend before heading off to our last Texas stop, the Davis Mountains.

Davis State Park is a 2,700-acre park in the middle of the West Texas panhandle, and was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, to which many Texas state parks owe their existence. Western Kingbird, Western Scrub-Jay, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Lesser Goldfinch showed us we were now truly in the west. An unsatisfying look at a pair of retreating Montezuma Quail (which gave us yet another reason to plan another trip to Texas), was offset by another experience that more than made up for it. Alerted by fellow birders, we learned of an Elf Owl residing in a utility pole between campsites 2 and 3. Each evening a crowd would gather at said location and at the appointed hour of 8:45, the owl would appear in the hole for several minutes before flying off to an evening of hunting. Such a small bird, but what a thrill!

The habitat of the Davis Mountains provided a dramatic contrast to the beginning of our trip in the east Texas bayous and served as a reminder of how far we had traveled (almost 5,000 miles) and how much we had seen (256 species). We had traveled from the bayous of east Texas to the mountain desert of west Texas. Although we were sad to be leaving, we had learned a lot, including the fact there was a lot more to see in Texas!

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Time to Stock Up!

Audubon Annual Bird Seed Sale and Bottle Drive set for November 3rd

It is time to announce the Rutland County “Annual Bird Seed Sales and Bottle Drive”! However, before putting “pen to paper”, this writer was curious as to just how many bird sales has this chapter sponsored in the past. Looking through a stash of old diaries, there appears a notation on Saturday, November 10, 1984, “RCAS Fourth Annual Bird Seed Sale. Good day!” Well, that must make this forthcoming annual bird seed sale and bottle drive THE TWENTY-SEVENTH! So much for the historical foot note, but the message remains the same. Rutland County Audubon needs your support and participation.

As an all volunteer locally based environmental organization with a focus on the enjoyment of birds and the sustainability of their habitat, the field trips, the monitoring, the participation in Vermont-wide studies and the programs are all free to members and the general public. But there are financial costs and obligations, this newsletter being one, so in partnership and cooperation with Rutland Agway and Brandon Blue Seal, we offer members and the general public an opportunity to support financially Rutland County Audubon through the upcoming Annual Bird Seed Sales and Bottle Drive. Funds collected on deposits of bottles throughout the year are dedicated to conserving critical habitat in Central and South America in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy’s “Adopt an Acre” program. Over the past decade, over $2,500 has been collected and expended for this program. As to our educational outreach to participating elementary schools through Audubon Adventures, Rutland County Audubon does seek additional community support.

As a recipient of this newsletter and as a member and/or friend of Audubon, and as one who enjoys feeding and watching birds, you are encouraged to support Rutland County Audubon, either in Rutland or Brandon by purchasing your winter’s supply of bird seed on Saturday, November 3 between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.. And don’t forget to save those bottles and cans and drop them off when you come. The funds will be put toward supporting birds and their habitat in Central and South America.

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6 Years and Counting

RCAS Completes a Sixth Year of Monitoring the Birds of West Rutland Marsh

On August 15, 2007, Rutland County Audubon achieved another worthy milestone with the completion of six years of bird monitoring of the West Rutland marsh. Once a month come rain or shine, snow or bitter cold!

The data indicates that 128 different bird species have been recorded over those six years and 835 individuals have participated. As one may appreciate, with the passage of time new species are harder to come by but over the past 12 months there have been four, namely, hooded merganser, magnolia warbler, Wilson’s warbler and Lincoln sparrow. A complete listing of the 128 species along with the previous 12 months of sightings is posted at the kiosk at the entrance to the boardwalk at the marsh. Data for the past six years may be accessed at eBird.

Equally impressive is the number of individuals who have participated, all of 835 over the past six years. Of the 835 participants, 156 were logged during the past 12 months. Obviously, there are many repeat individual participants and in some instances the number includes a participating group, the likes of a second grade class from Lothrop Elementary School. Participation achieves at least two objectives. First, there is an initial awakening to the uniqueness of the marsh, its creatures and plants. Second, there is an opportunity to hone one’s bird identification skills, both by sight and by song, in the company of fellow enthusiasts whose love for birds is both contagious and willingly shared. Not to be forgotten is the 3.7 mile walk itself for those who complete the distance!

Marsh bird walks are scheduled to alternate between Thursdays and Saturdays in order to accommodate those who may be in school or working during the week. Check for dates in the calendar of events in this newsletter and also the Calendar in the Rutland Herald. Come, join in the fun!

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Heard at the Marsh

By David Yates

On the May 17 West Rutland Monthly Marsh Monitoring walk we picked up new two species: Black-throated Blue Warbler and Lincoln’s Sparrow. By the time you read this, we will have completed our 73rd marsh walk, recorded 128 species and enjoyed 856 participants.

In August a new guest register was placed at the information kiosk. We hope you’ll continue using it. Visitors have written in the logbook from 16 states, two Canadian provinces and Austria and Ukraine.

In May, Julie from Ukraine wrote, “… let it be here eternally.”

Creature viewings: several otters from the Water St bridge, Northern Harriers (marsh hawks) are seen frequently, and snapping turtles and catfish have been observed from the boardwalk. There have been several mentions of Sedge Wrens, but none have been reported on our marsh monitoring walks. Perhaps mistaken Marsh Wrens? We now mow the area immediately around the kiosk and parking area, but purposely leave the milkweed loved by butterflies and their champions. We cull the burdocks as best we can.

Enjoy! I can be reached at 459-3399 or dsyates31@hotmail.com.

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Century Count XII,
A New Record!

By Sue Elliott

Rutland County Audubon held Century Count VII on May 26. This is our annual attempt to tally 100 species in the county. 18 enthusiastic observers totaled 109 species, beating last year’s record by two!

b Pleasant Street power line, West Rutland: Cooper’s hawk, blue-winged warbler, prairie warbler, field sparrow

West Rutland Marsh: American bittern, pair of northern harriers, Virginia rail, sora, blackpoll warbler

Rte 4 rest area, Castleton/Ira: blue-winged warbler, Blackburnian warbler (gathering nesting material), blackpoll (2), Louisiana waterthrush

Castleton: yellow-billed cuckoo, American kestrel

Hubbardton (Roach Pond): great looks at a black-billed cuckoo

Bomoseen State Park: black-capped chickadee (entering nest hole right next to our picnic table) and warbling vireo building a nest

Benson Landing: herring gull

Lefferts Pond: Common loon, pied-billed grebe, American bittern, osprey (two!), black-billed cuckoo, northern parula, RUSTY BLACKBIRD (male singing on top of a snag)

Of note, wild turkey, hermit thrush or winter wrens were neither seen nor heard (a good number of wood thrushes were heard).

Many thanks to Roy Pilcher for a great trip! All our sightings have been reported to www.ebird.org/VINS/.

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Christmas Bird Count to be Held Dec.29,2007

By Roy Pilcher

With the passing of the hot, humid and hazy weather of early August, and with a September 1 deadline for the fall newsletter rapidly approaching, it is time to entertain some thoughts about the forthcoming annual Rutland County Christmas Bird Count. This will be our thirty-forth consecutive local count while at the national level it marks the one hundred and eighth.

Looking back one year to the thirty-third annual count, the record indicates that it was undertaken by 27 field observers in 8 teams that logged 22.5 miles on foot and 293 miles by car during 63.2 party-hours. Six feeder watchers managed 33 hours of observation, a valuable addition to the day’s data.

Over the past 33 years a total of 96 species has been observed and as we approach the 100 mark, one has to wonder what species are likely to make an appearance. If global warming is indeed a factor, a tardy summer migrant or two may decide to spend the winter here, the likes of a Cape May warbler observed two years ago! Every year a record or two falls and last year was no exception with four record highs. The high counts included 1,022 mourning doves, (previous high of 830 in 2002), 125 horned larks, (previous high of 66 in 2005), 216 Northern cardinals, (previous high of 191 in 2006) and 150 red-winged blackbirds, (previous high of 15 in 2000).

Last year’s count tallied 46 species as compared to a ten-year running average of 50.6 species while 10,091 individual birds were recorded as compared to a running ten-year average of 9,087.

The annual Christmas Bird Count is not only the largest but it is the longest running citizen science project anywhere. It is both national and international in scope and provides researchers a valuable and comprehensive data base to gauge trends for individual species as to their numbers and their distribution. Count results may be accessed through National Audubon’s website. Count circles once determined remain constant, each with a fixed center and each with a diameter of 15 miles. As tradition dictates, a pot luck follows the day’s efforts, a time of fellowship and camaraderie and the opportunity to establish a tentative list of the day’s observations. The Proctor Free Library is the venue and 6 o’clock the appointed time.

For those wishing to participate, and we encourage all to share in this unique annual quest, mark your calendar and reserve Saturday, December 29. Field team leaders can always use new participants while feeder watchers in the count area are very welcome. Give Roy Pilcher a call at 459-2851 to indicate your desire to participate by joining in this grand citizen science exercise.

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Vermont’s Audubon Chapters Keeping in Touch

By Marsha Booker

Twice a year, in November and April, representatives from all the Audubon chapters in Vermont, along with staff from the Vermont Audubon office in Huntington, meet for a “Chapter Assembly”. Also attending is Jane Moffat from Connecticut, National Audubon’s regional representative. The assembly is hosted in November and April by a local chapter on a rotating schedule. The November 2006 and April 2007 assemblies were hosted by the Taconic Tri-State Audubon Society, and the meetings were held in Bennington.

We have this assembly so that local Audubon chapters in Vermont can stay in touch with each other and with Audubon at the state and national levels. The first item on the agenda is chapter sharing, in which each chapter describes its activities during the past few months – programs, field trips, outreach, education. It’s a good way to get new ideas. For instance, Rutland County Audubon had developed, with the help of a friend, a tri-fold calendar of our events that we distributed through local libraries, merchants, etc., within our community. The Northeast Kingdom Audubon Society took that a step further. It created its own tri-fold and put it into acrylic brochure holders, along with two Audubon pamphlets, “Bird Feeding Basics” and “Seed and Feeder Selection Guide”, for distribution in the Northeast Kingdom area. Also we discuss during this session any land conservation issues that a chapter may be facing.

Audubon Vermont updates everyone on its activities. One exciting development was receipt of a grant to create decoys and tape recordings to attract Common Terns to nest on another island in Lake Champlain, in addition to their present nesting sites. The project is modeled on the successful Puffin nesting project in the Gulf of Maine. Doug Parker, director of Audubon Vermont, brought a decoy for all of us to see. We were also updated on the Northern Forest Bird Initiative, an effort to reach out to landowners and foresters to help them manage lands for important forest birds that breed in Vermont. The program was well-received in Ripton, and Audubon Vermont was to be working with the Stowe Land Trust this past summer.

During our lunch break we went over to a pond and trail which is being developed by Taconic Tri-State at an apartment complex in Bennington. We had our picture taken there holding a banner proclaiming our support for Step It Up, the day set aside on that April 14th to raise awareness about global warming.

Not surprisingly, when we returned, Jane Moffat told us that the National Audubon Board had made global warming a priority and would like ideas on how chapters can get involved on this issue. Warren King of the Otter Creek Audubon Society suggested that each chapter create a climate change group, as well as having one at the state board level. It was suggested that we set up a forum, similar to a listserve, which could get Audubon chapters to go into action on advocacy topics by writing letters to the editor, or having call-in campaigns to individual legislators or the governor.

These were just some of the important things discussed at our chapter assembly in April. You can see how these meetings serve to energize us through the exchange of ideas and the camaraderie of fellow Auduboners, not to mention the delicious snacks and goodies provided by the host chapter.

The next chapter assembly will be hosted by Ascutney Mountain Audubon and will be held in the Springfield area on November 10th.

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Book Review: Nature’s Child

By Renee Warren

Experiencing nature with a child’s eye of amazing wonder is a hackneyed cliché that is reborn with new meaning in John Lister-Kaye’s Nature’Child. As a field biologist in the Highlands of Scotland, he discovered that his six-year old daughter, Hermione, has an instinct to examine nature intimately, and filter her observations into insightful perceptions.

Linked by this connection to nature, father and daughter roam not only the field center that Lister-Kaye tends, but all corners of Britain, from tidal waters with throngs of shorebirds, to ammonite cliffs, and on to continental expeditions, viewing white rhinos in Swaziland, springbok in the Kalahari, and beaver colonies in Norway. Hermione collects not just cans of caterpillars and pairs of scorpions, but even a boatload of mating frogs! Her keen intuition shines, unshadowed by preconceptions. “She sees it [a red kite] through my binoculars; in silence she steadies herself on the windowsill; I can see she is following it closely, tilting her head this way and that, imagining that she is the kite, wheeling with it, sifting through invisible strata of sun-loaded breeze….’I can see why it’s called a kite’ she says.”

Such insight infuses respect, not panic, when Hermione encounters a snake in her tent. “With commendable sangfroid, she said calmly, “I’m not sure what to do.’” Actually, the snake was in the advance of floodwaters that later deluged the camp. Hermione concluded, “Perhaps the snake was trying to tell me something.”

Thus from Lister-Kaye we learn that we must be alert to a child’s quick-witted assessments and ability to see anew as adults, our seriousness has often been polluted by accumulated platitudes of nature as a lawless, ruthless world that must be subjugated or have economic utility to justify its existence. Or, to counter our discomfort with nature, we anthropomorphize (“big bad wolf”) or “cutesify” it (rabbits with ears so long they would trip over them, as yard statuary). Children will eventually confront these biased viewpoints, but their untainted minds must be allowed to face nature in the raw and not have it presented to them with a prejudicial agenda.

Therefore, it is critical to the author that his daughter not be exposed to nature solely as glossy calendar photos of cuddling polar bear moms and cubs. Rather, for Hermione, a formative experience in Alaska was coming upon a field of crystalline white snow mortified by the blood-strewn demise of seal pups as a polar bear mother provides for the sustenance of her cubs. This “does not disturb, but rather steadies Hermione in the recycling of the life and death.” And with this sensibility embedded during youth, the mature “nature’s child” will have acquired an open viewpoint. Lister-Kaye sees a swan plunge to the ground with shattered wing and legs after crashing into a high-voltage line and a moral quandary ensues. Is it crueler to kill it or to prolong its death by starvation or being torn to bits by a fox?

Moreover, Lister-Kaye’s thesis is not just to be aroused by a child’s astonishment of nature’s wonders. Rather he begs for this to a reciprocal relationship so that the adult learns from the child. To take delight in the cerulean blue of a robin’s egg or the zigzag flamenco flight of a monarch over a sun-drenched meadow is not to be mocked or brushed off as a child’s fantasy, to be abandoned like a sandbox at the coming of age. Rather it should be a daily aspiration to seek to discover even the simplest things in nature (and to find that the simple is quite complex), to transcend beyond our workaday hubris so that we are humbled down and can do no less than respect what we can never completely know even with our haughtily presumptive superior minds. Instead, we are to acknowledge nature for its rightful supremacy as the first created world; man was an afterthought.

One last comment: The author’s flowing prose style makes for an engaging, near-poetic read” [Seals], ghostly and serene, they swept beneath the hull in an ethereal curved ballet, rolling and spinning in an effortless grace.” There are a few “Britishisms” (shingle, a small shore pebble; byre, a cow shed). But if a new word sends me to the dictionary at 10:30 p.m. to consummate the context of a scene, then I know the book has captured me and has a message to take to heart.

(Nature’s Child is available at the Rutland Free Library. ISBN # 0349117608)

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