MEMBER CORNER
Welcome to the DBC Book Club
Welcome to the DBC Club, where birders who are readers can share their thoughts about books that explore birds, birding, and related nature topics. The DBC Book Club is open to all members and will meet several times a year for a social evening during which we can talk about the selected book.
Now Reading
Date for next meeting Tuesday, September 8.
Read—The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
by Kirk Wallace Johnson
DBC Book Club members unanimously gave thumbs up to Among Penguins, Noah Strycker’s account of his months surveying Adelie Penguins at an outpost on Antarctica. Readers marveled at the extreme conditions Strycker cheerfully managed, the day-to-day rigors of life in a frozen world, and of course the endlessly enchanting penguins themselves.
Now let’s get ready for a fascinating true-crime story as you journey into the underworld of plume peddlers and fanatical hobbyists obsessed with the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying as we read The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson.
In 2009, a young American musician named Edwin Rist stole hundreds of rare bird skins from the British Museum of Natural History, many painstakingly collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Charles Darwin. The gorgeous feathers these rare birds sported were worth large sums of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying.
Years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson, himself a fly fisherman, learned of the shocking theft and was
consumed with questions about how Edwin pulled off the heist, what became of the feathers and the skins, if there was ever a reckoning. The quest for answers led to a years-long, worldwide investigation that reads more like a gripping novel than the bizarre true story it is. The Feather Thief details Johnson’s relentless pursuit of the truth and explores the nature of obsession and man’s destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
The next book club meeting with be Tuesday, September 8. If you would like to participate, contact Mike Warner at mwarner2543@gmail.com.
Other Books We’ve Read
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
By Kirk Wallace Johnson
In 2009, a young American musician named Edwin Rist stole hundreds of rare bird skins from the British Museum of Natural History, many painstakingly collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Charles Darwin. The gorgeous feathers these rare birds sported were worth large sums of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying.
Years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson, himself a fly fisherman, learned of the shocking theft and was consumed with questions about how Edwin pulled off the heist, what became of the feathers and the skins, if there was ever a reckoning.I
Among Penguins: A Bird Man in Antarctica
By Noah Strycker
DBC Book Club members unanimously gave thumbs up to Among Penguins, Noah Strycker’s account of his months surveying Adelie Penguins at an outpost on Antarctica. Readers marveled at the extreme conditions Strycker cheerfully managed, the day-to-day rigors of life in a frozen world, and of course the endlessly enchanting penguins themselves.
Best of Words on Birds
By Jeff Reiter
Authored by our very own Jeff Reiter, The Best of Words on Birds book selects favorite columns from his decades of publishing Words on Birds monthly in The Daily Herald. Columns focus on individual species, birding tips and know-how for beginners, interesting people or books in the field, and Jeff’s own personal experiences as a birder.
The Comfort of Crows
By Margaret Renkl
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year. Written by Margaret Renkl, the book’s 52 chapters follow the creatures and plants in the author’s backyard over the course of a year. Reviewer’s call it “a luminous book” that celebrates the natural world. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated with original color artwork.
The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem, and the Magnificent Life of Roxie Laybourne
By Chris Sweeney
The book is a biography of Roxie Laybourne, an expert in bird feather identification, who investigated feathers found at murder scenes and airplane-bird collision sites. The group found it to be interesting reading and would recommend it to birders and non-birders alike.
A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save our Vanishing Birds
By Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal
The book detailed the Gyllenhaals’ year-long road trip to visit bird conservation sites in the U.S. Living out of an Airstream trailer, they drove over 25,000 miles to see for themselves the people who are working feverishly to save endangered bird species.
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent and Think
By Jenifer Ackerman
This book explores the many strategies birds use to communicate, forage, court, breed, and survive, including fascinating behaviors like manipulation, deception, collaboration, altruism, teaching, and more. It holds a treasure trove of learning that is sure to enhance an appreciation of our avian friends.
Season On The Wind
By Kenn Kaufman
A Season on the Wind, Kenn Kaufman’s fascinating account of the science and magic of spring migration and its many perils as it is experienced at one key location familiar to many of us—the shores of Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio at the famed Magee Marsh and environs.
Wesley the Owl
By Stacey O'Brien
Widely lauded by the nature community and a New York Times Bestseller, Wesley the Owl tells the story of the special relationship that developed between an injured Barn Owl and the woman who adopted him and committed two decades of her life to his care when it was determined he could not live as a wild bird.
The Life of the Skies, Birding at the End of Nature
By Jonathan Rosen
Life of the Skies by noted author Jonathan Rosen is described as part birding history, part travelogue, and part exploration of man’s relationship to nature.
Kingbird Highway
By Kenn Kaufman
Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder, the much-praised account by Kenn Kaufman of his yearlong “Big Year” adventure as a teenager exploring America in the ‘70s. A unique coming of age story, the memoir recounts how the “thrill of the chase” evolved into a quest to connect with nature on a deeper level.