Big Bird Book

No Sesame Street characters involved, this is a big book about birds. Huge, in fact. I didn't get more than half-way in before I was so chock-full of avian knowledge that I had to quit. But I'll be back. And gorgeous? The cover photo is accurately indicative. Pictures are amazing - there is one of a sleeping flamingo that looks just like a lush pink flower on a leafless stem. How can they sleep like that, balanced on one incredibly skinny and fragile leg? Looks mighty precarious to me. The book includes your garden-variety birds - sparrows, bluebirds, finches, crows. (Garden birds, get it? Ha!) Then there are those that appear to be creatures from another planet. I'm looking at you, Shoebill. When you get a chance, pick this one up. (Use both hands. I told you it was big.)

Bird : the definitive visual guide

Curse You Shakespeare!

So, are you a big fan of starlings? Who is! And those swarmers are not even a native American species. Want to know how they got here? Sure you do! A German immigrant, one Mr. Eugene Schieffelin, was greatly enamored of both his new home, (the U S of A), and of Shakespeare. How best to honor both? Why, by introducing into the United States every species that is mentioned somewhere, anywhere, in Shakespeare's works. Unfortunately Henry IV mentions - you guessed it - starlings. In 1890 Mr. Schieffelen released 40 pairs in Central Park. Not satisfied with this, he then released 20 pairs the next spring. Now there are more than 200 million starlings in the United States. Sigh. Shakespeare should have been more careful.

Source: American History, June 2002 p. 42