© Loree Griffin Burns
This weekend I will continue to gather material for my CITIZEN SCIENTISTS book by heading to New York City’s Central Park for the 109th annual Christmas Bird Count. Some people think counting birds in the middle of winter sounds a bit crazy, whatever would those same people think of me, who plans to spend several days watching people count birds in the middle of winter?
This weekend’s weather promises to be frigid, but I know firsthand that Christmas Bird Counters are a hearty bunch; a little wintry weather won’t keep these dedicated citizen scientists from counting Central Park’s winter bird population. Also? A dusting of snow and overcast skies should make for gorgeous photographs.
In preparation for the trip, I’ve been reading up on birds and birding. There are a LOT of field guides and birding books out there, but I went back to my trusty FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, Second Edition (National Geographic, 1987) and the newer BIRDING ESSENTIALS, by Jonathan Alderfer and John L. Dunn (National Geographic, 2007).
I’ve scoured the shelves for birding books for younger readers, too, and found several I adore. Sadly, both these favorites are out of print:
NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY’S FIRST FIELD GUIDE BIRDS (Scholastic, 1998)
I really like this little field guide. The introductory material has just enough information to get kids excited about birds and how to spy on them, while the guide itself covers fifty of North America’s most common birds in easy-to-digest two-page spreads.
A KIDS FIRST BOOK OF BIRDWATCHING, by Scott Weidensaul (Quintet, 1990)
This is not a field guide, but a book for lingering over at home. It covers many of the popular North American birds with a little more detail than the guide above and includes a narrated cassette tape that I found marvelous. (Although I may be one of the few humans who still has cassette tape capability?)
I found both in the collection at my local library, though, and you may too.
Anyway, that’s what is up with me … all birds all the time, at least until January 5. Whatever you’ve got planned these coming weeks, I hope you are thrilled about it, too!