THE FEATHER QUEST

Avid birder Dunne (Director of Natural History Information/New Jersey Audubon Society) shares his enthusiasm in this entertaining and informative chronicle of a year of birding across North America. The Dunnes' year (wife Linda took the 16 pages of color photographs—not seen—that accompany the text) begins at dawn on New Year's Day 1989, in Whippany, New Jersey, and ends with the Christmas Bird Count in Baldwin, Kansas. During the year, the Dunnes travel to 21 birding sites from Massachusetts to California, Florida to the Arctic. But this is no dry catalogue of birds observed in different habitats. Dunne is not only an expert birder, but an acute observer of humans and of the world around him as well. Woven into his engaging narrative are perceptive profiles of birders, helpful hints on binoculars, a capsule history of field guides to birds, a brief examination of how attitudes toward birds have evolved, and thoughtful essays on the changing environment. Happily, Dunne is not a birding snob, though clearly he has met some. He welcomes amateurs (``birdwatchers,'' as distinguished from ``birders'' with their ever-present checklists) to the club, and his writing invites them in. Though few will be tempted to travel to the Aleutians after reading Dunne's description of the harrowing conditions willingly faced there by die-hard birders eager to add a new bird to their life list, many will no doubt venture eagerly into the backyard, the neighboring countryside, and even the state next door. Roger Tory Peterson, whose thoughts on birding's future are featured in one chapter, contributes a foreword. Bird lore laden with humor, insight, and intelligence.