Brooklyn Birder Brings Book to Saw Mill River Audubon Annual Dinner
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Brian Kluepfel
The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do so in a way that others will join you.”
I think that is the guiding principle of the Audubon Society, and also of Heather Wolf, an author who will be the keynote speaker at Saw Mill River Audubon’s (SMRA) annual dinner on Mar. 24 at Ossining’s Center at Mariandale.
Audubon membership comprises people of various professions, ages and backgrounds who spread the joy of birding in various ways. Most of us care about the environment, the future of the planet and our fellow humans. SMRA’s annual dinner is a moment to revel in our shared passion for birding, pay tribute to those who are doing the good work of conservation and community building and to welcome new birders into the fold.
One person who’s done a lot to promote the concept of community birding is Wolf, a Brooklyn-based author. While her day job is centered on maintaining the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s websites (fittingly, she works on the citizen science eBird site, as well as Birds of the World and BirdCast), she maintains her own website, leads bird walks in her adopted borough and has authored two very accessible books on the avian world.
Wolf’s latest book, “Find More Birds: 111 Surprising Ways to Spot Birds Wherever You Are,” offers practical and sometimes funny tips on how to get up close with your avian neighbors. For example, “Ask the Locals,” “Visit a Cemetery,” “Scan the Airport Runways,” “Play Some Golf” and “Visit a Beautified Dump” are just a few of the mini chapters in her delightful 268-page volume, published by The Experiment Press in 2023.
Wolf’s first book “Birding at the Bridge: In Search of Every Bird on the Brooklyn Waterfront,” was a more seasonal and photographic approach to birding Kings County, beginning with wintering ducks on the bays and proceeding through the warblers of spring, the crows and egrets of summer and the thrushes and redstarts of autumn.
The personal stories of how she photographed each species in the book – with funny and often helpful anecdotes – are sprinkled with tips and self-deprecating humor that is easily relatable, such as running away from territorial nesting gulls and getting pulled over for speeding while pursuing a scaled quail. Tales about getting her first camera, as well as notching her 100th Brooklyn Bridge Park species, draw the reader in.
The sense of awe and wonderment are unsurprising in an information sciences academic who literally ran away with the circus – she spent six years as a musician with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey – until returning to academia and her eventual role as a web developer with Cornell. She calls birding “exhilarating, challenging, saddening, maddening and addictive.”
Remarking on Wolf’s dedication to the birding life, Englishman David Lindo (aka The Urban Birder) said, “With her remarkable photos and thousands of sightings, she’s proved that her own neighborhood park holds riches that stand up to the more famous New York birding sites.”
If I may again quote from Justice Ginsburg: “Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life.” Heather Wolf’s books are gateways that open wide access to birding for everyone.
If you’d like to learn more about birding, meet fellow birders and enjoy an evening sunset over the Hudson on a beautiful, yet wild property, attend the Saw Mill River Audubon annual dinner at the Center at Mariandale on Sunday, Mar. 24 from 5 to 8 p.m. You can register for the event at www.sawmillriveraudubon.org/dinner.
Brian Kluepfel is a member of Saw Mill River Audubon and a correspondent for the Lonely Planet travel series, Birdwatching magazine and many other publications. He lives and birds in Ossining.
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