num_pages: 104
description: You are a rare bird easy to see but invisible just the same. That thought is close at hand in Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts as renowned naturalist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores his obsession with birds and all things wild in a mixture of poetry and prose. He questions vital assumptions taken for granted by so many birdwatchers: can birding be an escape if the birder is not in a safe place? Who is watching him as he watches birds?With a refreshing balance of reverence and candor Lanham paints a unique portrait of the natural world: listening to cicadas tracking sandpipers towhees wrens and cataloging fellow birdwatchers at a conference where he is one of two black birders. The resulting insights are as honest as they are illuminating.
language: English
title: Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts
publisher: Hub City Press