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The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature, by Jonathan Rosen. 300 pp. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The obvious audience for a book about birding may appear to be those who habitually look skyward for winged beauty, however Rosen’s appeal is much broader.
The birder will be seduced from the first chapter with a search for the ghost bird-- the ivory-billed woodpecker. This search weaves its way throughout the entire collection of essayistic ruminations. Those interested in even one of the threads of the national culture, science, philosophy, poetry environmentalism, history, spirituality, and/or literature will find an entry point into the fabric of these entertaining tales.
This is not a book to read quickly. Each chapter is dense with information and odyssey, so that the reader feels as if they borrow a bit of Rosen’s erudite sensibility. Consider, with Rosen, his early birding experience of seeing the migrating flocks of ibis, snow geese, and egrets against a Manhattan skyline dominated by the Twin Towers. At the time, the migrators seemed ephemeral and the Towers seemed more permanent.
Explore the changing culture of birding, from the time American birders collected with a gun, to the modern-day Israeli birder who watches with binoculars, but carries a shotgun over the shoulder. Rosen explores the words and adventures of Audubon, Darwin, Thoreau, Whitman and more. He travels to Louisiana, Arkansas and other sites of probable ivory-billed sightings. His sojourns also include Central Park, Manhattan, Israel, and even Graceland.
Readers may wonder if Rosen was correct when he proclaimed that birding tends to be a male, or male-brain-type, activity. Perhaps his maleness should be considered in this assertion. Readers will consider the meaning behind the shared experience of bird-watching; what does this activity have to do with being human? Like all good literature, Rosen’s ideas resonate beyond the experience of the text. Life of the Skies, will likely evoke thinking, but will certainly urge all to look skyward to find remnants of a seductive wilderness.
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