In The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, An Ancient Crab and an Epic Journey, science writer Deborah Cramer takes us along on the miraculous 19,000 mile round trip from the tip of South American to the Artic and back by the small sandpiper called a Red Knot. In The Genius of Birds, science writer Jennifer Ackerman describes the amazing brilliance of “bird brains,” that hide up to thirty- three thousand seeds scattered over dozens of square miles and remembers where it put them months later. There’s a species that solves a classic puzzle at nearly the same pace as a five-year-old child, and one that’s an expert at picking locks. There are birds that can count and do simple math, make their own tools, move to the beat of music, comprehend basic principles of physics, remember the past, and plan for the future.
And sometimes writers simply share their joy at finding out something new about birds, how they sound and look, or about other writers like Rachel Carson who, fascinated by the sound of an Eastern wood pewee, transcribed its notes and sounds in her field notes. Kathleen Dean Moore in “Rachel’s Wood Pewee,” from Earth’s Wild Music, writes, “How joyfully she would have made the little marks, tracing the path of bird songs on the page. How deeply she must have wondered about the meaning of the marks she made.”
As with artists, there are writers of all kinds and all ages who jot down their stories about birds and the wonder of them. Rachel Carson wrote a story about house wrens for her father when she was four. But you do not have to be Rachel Carson, or a published author, to send us your own bird notes, journals, blogs, or articles. We will share the most interesting here — right alongside some of the best professional writing about birds that we collect and curate to spread their wonder as far as the Red Knot wings across the continents.
It is this sense of mystery, of delight and wonder, of empathy that is essential if we are ever to change how we act in the world. It is why we act to save the birds and the birthright of our planet. The RCC Bird Watch and Wonder program invites you to share your own stories, photos, observations, art, essays, as well as your actions and advocacy, with us so we can share them widely wherever birds, and those who watch and wonder, can be found. Rachel Carson believed it was as important to feel as to think. We intend to do both with the latest news and science and stories about birds and the world that together we inhabit. Join with us now to enter into the long, proud line of those who have loved the birds and fought to save them — and us.
The Eyes Have it adjective. having extremely keen sight. vigilant, watchful, or observant. hawk-eyed scrutiny. Of all the senses, vision rules supreme in the avian world, since good eyesight is essential for safe flight, avoiding predators and finding food. Birds have the largest eyes relative to their size in the animal kingdom and a number of adaptations, which give them visual acuity superior to that of other vertebrate groups. Read more What’s it Like Being a Raven or a Crow? Fortunately, those days have ended, thanks in large part to pioneering work by scientists such as Donald Griffin, who argued from the 1980s to his death in 2003 that animal minds should be a topic for scientific study. Read more Past Issues of the RCC Bird Watch and WonderThe Latest on Bird Lore
What does it mean to have hawk eyes?
Many of us as children may have wondered what’s going on inside the mind of an animal – what are they thinking and feeling? Most animal researchers study science because of their fascination with animals, but for a long time scientific norms made it impossible to even raise the question of animal consciousness without losing scientific credibility.
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