Somewhere in the beginning of this marvelous book, Scott Weidensaul tells us the story of the black-polled warbler, ("you could mail two of them for a single first-class stamp") and its migration across Canada and out over the Atlantic to its wintering grounds in Brazil. Ever see a kettle of hawks? A fall-out on the Texas coast? Neither have I, except here.
It might be counter-intuitive of me to select this book on this day, which has seen the publication of my first novel, on Kindle (sneaking it in here though, you might notice). But I was thinking on the way home yesterday about my friend Hall, who helped me through the publishing process, and about her mother, Barbara, who was kind enough to loan me this book a couple of years before her death. And I couldn't let the moment pass.