Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 139
extraordinary situation, rather
than any lyrical, digressive
spin on events. For the latter
I’d evangelically recommend
another bird-themed read,
Mark Cocker’s 2001 memoir/
social survey, Birders. Looking
at birdwatching culture,
Birders elegantly destroys one
of the idiocies of our age – that
anyone amazed by anything
outside a majority spectrum
must be ‘anorak’, ‘nerd’,
‘spotter’. With brilliantly lucid
writing, Cocker introduces
some cooly charismatic
birdwatching characters and
enchantingly considers the
physics of light bouncing
from a bird’s plumage
onto the human retina.
In similarly illuminating
style, Birds As Individuals
and Birders both place
human and avian existence
in astounding, mindquickening juxtaposition.
Further Reading
Birders
by Mark Cocker
The Natural History
Of Selborne
by Gilbert White.
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