WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE BIRD - 10/13/20
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE BIRD
BY: PEGGY WILLIAMS AKA Birdie of Mississippi
Last week after I shared about my broken tibia, I received a wonderful email from a Tate Record reader who lives in Hernando. She told me she is a faithful reader of my Birdie articles. Of course that really brightened my day to hear that someone enjoys learning about birds as much as I do. In her email she said that she was mostly a “local” birdie, but that she had seen real Ravens in the Tower of London in 2000 and during her lunch in a park in London saw Magpies! She also shared that the book What It’s Like To Be A Bird by David Allen Sibley was on her Christmas wish list. Last November I watched a CBS - Sunday Morning interview with David Sibley. Being a Birdie you become sort of a “FAN” of famous birdwatchers and enjoy hearing about them. You also like getting their new books! So, I, too, had this book on my wish list. So imagine my surprise when I shared my email with my daughter and she ordered me a copy that very day!
David Allen Sibley grew up as the son of a Yale ornithologist Fred Sibley and going out on walks with his Dad began his interest in birds. David spent 14 years traveling around the country bird watching and sketching birds. His wife, Joan Walsh, is also an ornithologist and it was she who encouraged David to write his first book on birds. David says that his publisher agreed to publish his book after being with him five minutes!
This latest book of Mr. Sibley is not “just” a field guide, but is more of a collection of small essays and little known interesting facts about different birds. It is filled with wonderful pencil sketches and water colors of Mr. Sibley’s. It is not intended to be a straight read through book, but as a book to enjoy and savor the artwork, the little stories and to learn more about the who, what, when and where of birds. Mr. Sibley shares his love and interest of birds. In reading his book, I have sensed a kinship with someone who loves birds and has feelings for them. I have received comments from some of my readers that I give birds “human” feelings and actions. Mr. Sibley says “Instinct provides the instructions and a suggestion, and the bird makes a decision based on all of the available information. We describe these feelings with words, but underneath the language they are all just feelings.” He says that in order to let us know what it’s like to be a be bird it “can best be explained in terms of how it compares to being human.” I personally don’t know whether birds have or don’t have feelings, but I have observed them expressing “emotions.” I have watched them “enjoying” a good bath in water that had been warmed by the sun. I have heard them share the “good news” that I have just loaded up the feeders with fresh sunflower seeds. I have observed a mother bird fly away screaming at a hawk that had just swooped down and grabbed her baby chick that had fallen from its nest. These are all “emotions” and “feelings” that I could easily have if I were in their shoes, so they may not be just feelings that “humans” alone may feel.
I send a shout out to “Cheryl from Hernando” for your friendly email and for your encouraging words. I am happy that I am enjoying my newly gifted book and that it helps me to continue to “Look at the birds of the air…” Matthew 6:26.
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