My main task between now and the end of September is to finish writing a book ‘on’ the passenger pigeon for Bloomsbury – and for me and for you!
1 September 2014 will mark the centenary of the extinction of this bird – probably the most numerous bird in the world a few decades before its demise.
I will be flying to Houston, Texas on 16 May and returning from there at the end of June.
This blog will continue during that period but it will be an account of travels, birds and conversations with waitresses across the USA (see examples from a previous trip here, here, here, here). I hope the change of pace and subject will appeal to some of you at least – and maybe attract some new readers.
For my friends in the USA – and potential birding friends too – this is my itinerary (subject to change).
16 May – arrive Houston, Texas
18-20 May – Kentucky
21-24 May – Ohio
25 May – Pennsylvania
28 May – talk at Cornell Lab of Ornithology
early June – Michigan and Wisconsin
later in early June – Kansas and Colorado
mid June – birding and writing in New Mexico, Arizona, California??
24 June – leave Houston, Texas
If you are a birder in the USA and I am passing close to you – and if you’d like to meet up and show me some birds – then do get in touch ([email protected]). I’m happy to give talks to birders on my travels.
[registration_form]
Bon Voyage Mark. What an adventure! It is amazing how a love of birds and the natural world brings people together. I can’t wait for your book on the Passenger Pigeon, it is a subject I have been fascinated with since childhood but know too little about. I always thought (and think) if the most numerous bird can become extinct what hope is there for anything else?
Really good news. I enjoyed your last series of blogs from the US & look forward to the PP book and your US blogs. Jim
Have a good trip , Mark. Look forward to reading the Blogs you send off en route! Many thanks for your support in recent weeks for the E-petition aimed at improving circumstances for raptors in the uplands.
(http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46473)
See you at the BirdFair?
John.
Hope you have a enjoyable trip Mark,personally enjoy your U K blogs more than the U S A ones but feel in a minority which I have become accustomed to.
Think yourself and the U S A will both gain from your trip and for sure you are a good ambassador for wildlife in the U K.
Looks and sounds a busy month, look forward to reading all about it….I dare you to try a take few images too 🙂
Have a great trip Mark. I really enjoyed your first American blog and learned more about their history, geography, wildlife and waitresses than from any other source!
Hi Mark. Sounds like an exciting project and I’ll be interested to see (and maybe buy) your book. But this project and itinerary is rather a contrast from what I remember reading in ‘Fighting for Birds’ about your great dislike of air travel due to the damage it does to the planet. And before you come back at me about my own lifestyle – I don’t fly. All my wildlife watching (and therefore travel) is done in the UK and most of it within a 20-mile radius of my home. This surely has to be the way forward? Particularly for people like me who are in below-average-salary jobs, and especially given our impact on the planet of carbon emissions. Plus the fact that many of us would rather fly to the Med / Africa / USA / etc to look at exotic birds rather than take a real interest in trends, populations, etc of local biodiversity. Perhaps you should have undertaken a project looking at the massive declines in farmland birds across the UK’s agricultural landscape. You might argue that that’s been done to death, but there is still much to explore, for example, an in-depth exploration of why the farming community doesn’t like skylark plots. Or would that not sell enough books? Sorry to be critical but this is such a contrast from what you wrote in ‘Fighting for Birds’.
Anita – fair enough comment. It’s the first time I’ve been on a plane for 2 years and the passenger pigeon project is a great opportunity to write about nature conservation. And to be fair the chapter on Climate Change in Fighting for Birds sets out a whole range of options for cutting one’s carbon emissions of which one is reducing the amount you fly (and it does say ‘sometimes you just have to fly’. Read Chapter 10 again please.
But the point is a fair one.
You do, though, have to know about my total carbon emissions from eating, car use, other travel, heating, lighting etc before you can get a full picture of carbon emissions. If we all had a personal carbon allowance (which would be a good idea) then it would be easier to know whether someone getting on a plane is also turning up their thermostat, eating lots of meat and driving a gas- guzzler – all will make big contributions to their total carbon emissions.