It’s not unusual for me to show up at work and find bird things on my desk — photographs, books, newspaper clippings, feathers, nests. My office is avian chaos, but I don’t mind. It’s touching when the people you care about know what you love and bring offerings from their wanderings in the world.
Yesterday was a stand-out day. My friend Emily recently lost her beloved grandmother and came across several vintage bird books while sorting through her things. I found them in a little bag on my chair: A second edition Peterson’s guide, a field notebook from 1913 (complete with mysterious handwritten notes about warblers), and How to Watch Birds, by Roger Barton (1955). This last is my favorite, in part for quotes like this one:
There are several ways to keep nests or records of nests. One is to keep the nest itself, provided your wife will let you clutter up the house with them.
I would like to start a small collection of nests — entirely abandoned ones, of course. There’s an empty cabinet in the back room at Stewart’s that would be just right for it. So, even though I live in California and the Supreme Court says I can now have a wife (it’s about time), I think I will ask him if it’s okay.
Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Nana.
