CMP Review 2024-09-28

September 28, 2024

The Backyard Bird Chronicles encompasses the nature notes and illustrations of Amy Tan (author of The Joy Luck Club) over a five-year-span. And, if you ever think it’s too late to nature journal, Ms. Tan began at the age of 64.

This truly is a book about seeing, as seen in this excerpt of one entry:

I saw only one squabble between a Pine Siskin and a Lesser Goldfinch. The Pine Siskin won, that is, it remained at the feeder and on the perch of choice. That’s impressive. The feisty Pine Siskin is smaller. That goes against my previous observation that size determines dominance. I am always happy to find exceptions to what I hastily judged to be the rule. Nature abhors a generalist.

@rbaburina