On Watching Birds by Lawrence Kilham Illustrations by Joan Waltermire Foreword by John K. Terres

Eschewing species lists and the charts-and-graphs approach of professional ornithologists and competitive birders, Kilham’s On Watching Birds elegantly balances the aesthetic and humanistic with the scientific. The author offers a philosophy of embracing nature through discovery rather than a methodology for categorizing it.

Kilham begins this book with a simple premise: surely there are many people who are not scientists but nevertheless take great satisfaction from observing nature and the creatures that inhabit it.

"Watch everything," Kilham advises the novice, for one may be surprised by what one sees, even when observing the most common of birds. His observations become part beautifully told story and part life-lesson, as the habits and rituals of cranes, crows, owls—even otters—reveal a rich counterlife of often unnoticed behavioral variation and personality in living nature. "Behavior watching," Kilham concludes, "not only strengthens my bonds with the beauty of nature, but also my empathy with living things."

First published in 1988, this autobiographical account of a naturalist’s love affair with birds has already become a classic. Illustrated with Joan Waltermire’s delicately rendered line drawings, On Watching Birds is now once again available to readers who wish to discover the simple pleasures of connecting with the natural world.

LAWRENCE KILHAM's previous books on observing nature include The American Crow and the Common Raven, published by Texas A&M Unversity Press. He lives in New Hampshire.

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On Watching Birds
ISBN 0-89096-763-6 paper $13.95

LC 97-2883. 5 1/2x8 1/2. 208 pp.
7 b&w illus. Gloss. Bib. Index.
Natural History.

Publication Date: June 1997.

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