Birdology

I just finished reading a book called "Birdology" by Sy Montgomery.

If you are a nature lover I think you would find this book interesting. It was different from what I expected but I found it intriguing.

This author's name was familar to me. I remember reading her many conservation-animal articles in the Boston Globe. The ones I remember the most where about the plight of whales and dolphins. I remember thinking to myself, "thank God somebody with a nature/ literary background is writing about the virtues of these creatures!" It still never ceases to amaze me that countries such as Japan and Norway still hunt whales for meat or whatever bullshit reason , under the guise of scientific research. I still refuse to buy a Japanese car because of this.

I was hoping to learn something new by reading "Birdology".

And I did.

The author's quest to find and study the elusive cassowary bird was quite an adventure in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and Australia.

This giant bird is one of the closest relatives to the dinosaur. Many of it's features are similar to a velociraptor most notably it's huge razor knife claw that could easily disembowel a person.

And it has.

My husband reminded me that the bird that was in the animated movie "Up" was a cassowary.

Another chapter of fascinating interest was on falconry.

She actually participated in learning the art of falconry.

Falconry is basically hunting guided by a big dangerous bird. I never realized how dangerous birds of prey were. They target a victim's face (could be a rabbit, another bird or even a human) specifically the eye-balls with their steel-like dagger claws. She described them as "loaded guns" and so many things that could go wrong while hunting with them.

Of course, I enjoyed her chapter of intricate chicken societies, intelligence of pigeons, parrots and the strangely violent world of the hummingbird.

She has another (children's) book that just came out called, "The kakapo rescue: saving the world's strangest parrot". A Kakapo is flightless nocturnal parrot (that was) native to New Zealand. Sadly, only 100 remain in existence. They are on an isolated sanctuary on Codfish island off the southern coast of New Zealand in hopes of recovery. My sister sent me a book awhile back on kakapos called, "Hoki: the story of a Kakapo" by Alison Ballance. Kakapos look like a cross between an owl and a parrot.

Sy Montgomery seems to be a person who I would like to meet and chat with. She has a knowledgable background, respect and compassion for all kinds of animals.

She has even has a soft side towards pigs in her book "The good good pig".

I guess I have to read that book because right now I find pigs kind of gross and disgusting.

*photos above:

a) kakapo

b) cassowary