Friday, April 24, 2015

No Finish Line - a fascinating new book on birding ( and more)

Hot off the presses is this excellent book that all birders will enjoy devouring. It is the biography of Dr. Bernard Master, renowned world birder, conservationist, physician, and businessman. In the interest of full disclosure, Bernie is a good friend, but that relationship would not, I believe, cloud my opinion of his first foray into the literary world.

I've just received my copy of No Finish Line (subtitled Discovering the World's Secrets One Bird at a Time), and have only had a chance to skim through, look at the some 140 photographs, and read select passages. Trust me, if you are a birder on any level, you'll enjoy reading this book. Few people have had the lengthy and well traveled birding career that Dr. Master has, and he pulls no punches when it comes to calling things as he sees them. Peppered throughout are accounts of his business endeavors, experiences in Vietnam, opinions on tour guides, and more. I'll write more about No Finish Line once I've had a chance to thoroughly peruse it.

You can get a copy RIGHT HERE.

Also, Bernie will be giving a talk next Tuesday evening, April 28, at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus, Ohio. The title of his presentation is World Birding: Finding the Rarest Birds in the World. Having seen some 8,000 of the world's 10,400 species, Bernie has lots of fodder from which to draw, and his talk will undoubtedly touch on his new book. Speaking of which, there will be copies available at the talk, and this would be a great opportunity to hear a wonderful presentation AND get a copy of Bernie's book. Details about the talk can be found RIGHT HERE.

1 comment:

Auralee said...

I was privileged to go on a field trip that he guided at Ottawa NWR and Magee Marsh in 2007. At Magee, EVERYONE saw the screech owl that was roosting a bit of a distance off of the boardwalk. For the life of me, I could not see it. But he would not let me not see it! And I think he was as happy as I was when I finally realized that the bark that I was looking at was really an owl.

Jim, I was equally privileged to go on a field trip that you led at the Lakeside Daisy Preserve that same weekend. In fact, this was the first guided field trip I had ever been on. Until then, I thought I never wanted to go birding in a group. You and Bernie changed my mind that weekend.