After a whirlwind summer and autumn filled with birding and hiking, I have finally been able to crack the books and start digging into some of the reading material that is starting to pile up in my living room.

I recently finished two very different books and enjoyed them both. The first is Wesley the Owl by Stacy O’Brien, a delightful and remarkable memoir about a barn owl and the woman who was his caretaker for almost 20 years. It is a fascinating look into the mind of an owl and the relationship that can form between two species.

Stacy O’Brien, a biologist, adopted Wesley as a non releasable four day old owlet and lived with him for almost two decades. During that time, they forged an incredible bond, a bond that transcended their interspecies differences. This wonderful memoir is filled with humor, important life lessons, compassion and interesting facts.

Stacey was a research student when she took Wesley home. He, of course, became imprinted on her. Imprinting is when an animal takes its identity from whatever it perceives to be its parent. Many birds of prey in captivity are imprints and as a result, they can never be released into the wild. The danger to humans is too great and the chances of survival without proper training from a raptor parent is slim. Wesley thought of Stacey as his mother, and then his mate. His various sexual overtures towards her are a hoot (sorry, I couldn’t resist) to read about and her discomfort is priceless as she tries to explain Wesley’s “affection” to her professor.

This book carries you through the 19 years that they spent together. Some of it is very funny, and I especially enjoyed reading about Stacey’s various suitors and their reactions to Wesley. Perhaps my favorite anecdote is the one about the night Stacy was feeding wild barn owls and was approached by some rather sketchy characters. As she explained what she was doing, the boys were transformed into assistants as they became excited about her efforts and eagerly helped her out. Proof that education and awareness are key and I would bet that after that experience, every one of those boys developed a little bit of appreciation and compassion towards owls. Just as this book leads us into the mind of Wesley, and teaches us the “Way of the Owl”, these boys’ lives were probably changed for the better that night. Stacy’s life was absolutely changed for the better through her relationship with Wesley.

I think you will adore this book. Sweet, funny, heartbreaking, engaging and informative, you will not be able to put it down!

Switching gears, I also recently finished Birdwatcher, The Life of Roger Tory Peterson and enjoyed that a great deal too. This book is written by Elizabeth Rosenthal and is a terrific and thorough look into the life of Roger Tory Peterson. To me, Peterson was always an abstract and revered figure. Who hasn’t owned a Peterson field guide? It was the first one I owned, a gift from my mother for my 21st birthday, along with my first pair of binoculars. It took me a very long time to actually delve into birding, but I always had my Peterson Field Guide handy if I did need to ID something through the years!

Roger Tory Peterson was born in 1908 in Jamestown, NY. From an early age he was enthralled by birds and nature. In 1934 his Field Guide to the Birds revolutionized the world of birding and he is credited with bringing bird watching to the forefront of American interests. Thanks to his field guides, millions of people now had the tools to go out into the field and definitively identify what they were seeing. His influence and knowledge helped spur a national past time that can now boast over 48 million participants, with one in five Americans stating that they watch birds. This book is so much more than just a narrative about Roger the “birding legend”. What Rosenthal does is tear down the myth and legend and offer us a wonderful glimpse into the real person. His marriages, his relationships with his children, and with others in the field: it is all covered here. The love of nature that had begun as a small child had morphed into a force to be reckoned with. When he died in 1996, at the age of 87, as the father of modern birding, he left behind a lifetime of achievement and had influenced and helped to educate millions of people. This is terrific book and I recommend it!

Life List by Olivia Gentile
This is the story of a woman named Phoebe Snetsinger, who, after a devastating cancer diagnosis, was determined to see as many species of birds in the world as she could. But this book is much more than just a narrative of her life. It also asks the questions: at what point does passion become obsession? At what point do we stop enjoying the experience in pursuit of the goal, and is it ever worth it to allow relationships to suffer in our quest to fulfill our dreams and passion? This book also reminds the reader that life is short and anyone of us, at any time, could suddenly be told we have only limited time left.

Phoebe was a housewife, living a life in which she felt seriously miscast. Stifled in the traditional married lifestyle of the time, she found salvation in birding. A friend brought to her attention a blackburnian warbler and from that moment on, Phoebe was hooked. This blackburnian warbler was Phoebe’s trigger bird and her eyes were opened up to a whole new world, a world to which she could escape the banality of her everyday existence. She joined local birding clubs and might have lived the rest of her life out as “just” an avid birder. However fate had a different plan for Phoebe. At the age of 49 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given just about a year to live.

Therein began the obsession. Determined to see as many species of birds as she could before she died, Phoebe focused on her quest with steely determination and grit. Traveling the world (she was lucky enough to have a sizable inheritance from her wealthy ad agency father), Phoebe defied the doctor’s dire prediction and birded another 18 years. Each passing year, each subsequent battle with the recurring cancer, fired her up with even more determination. Missed family funerals and weddings, along with the near destruction of her marriage, did not slow her down. Even the brutal gang rape she endured while on an expedition did not cause her to skip a beat. With the characteristic stoicism of some rape victims, she brushed the incident under the proverbial rug and carried on.

Ms. Gentile brings a fresh perspective to the world of birding, and it is amusing to read her explanations of lingo that most birders consider part of their everyday language. She neither judges nor places Phoebe on a pedestal; instead she narrates this fascinating woman’s life in a matter of fact manner, leaving it up to the reader to decide if it was all worth it.

For Phoebe, being the first person in the world to see 8,000 birds was absolutely worth it. Worth the heartache, the physical pain, the fractured family relationships. Her quest defined her as a person, and perhaps gave her the will to live on. Or, maybe it was just sheer luck that she lived on for so many more years. Without a doubt, it was the fire that lit her from within and altered her life forever.

We are all living on borrowed time (Phoebe’s own memoir is called “Birding on Borrowed Time”). After reading this book I reflected on my own life, my own dreams and goals. If I was given a death sentence tomorrow, would I regret the things I haven’t done? It helped me to recognize my own restless spirit and I felt a kindred spirit in Phoebe. We all want a life well lived. It is up to us to define what that means to us as individuals. Abe Lincoln said it best: “It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years.”

I think Phoebe reached out, grabbed life by the horns and took it home in a spectacular manner. In the end, it wasn’t cancer that took Phoebe’s life. It was a vehicular accident while she was on a birding expedition. Phoebe died on her own terms, doing what she loved. In the end, she died with her boots on. Or, in this case, her binoculars.

I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it to non birders and birders alike. I also recommend a visit to the book’s website oliviagentile.com. The introduction is filled with gorgeous bird illustrations with such fun music that I find myself viewing it over and over!!!