Yesterday was a really nice day. I did a radio interview early in the morning on the fact that it was the exact centenary of the death of Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon on Earth, and then had breakfast in the garden before taking my ‘new’ son-in-law and daughter to the airport to set off…
Category: AUTHOR: Reflections, Inglorious, Message from Martha, Remarkable Birds etc
The centenary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon
It’s surely worth pausing today, around 1730 UK time would be appropriate (1230 Ohio time), to remember that we drove the most numerous bird in the world, the Passenger Pigeon, to extinction exactly a century ago. Listen to, and watch, me being interviewed about Passenger Pigeons by Martha Kearny on the BBC World at One…
Passenger Pigeon centenary looms
Here’s a piece by me in today’s Guardian about the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. They slightly mangled the ending (Grrrr!) So here’s the original version of the penultimate paragraph. ‘And I can’t see that we would be worse off if the US had kept the Passenger Pigeon and more of its forests, and the…
A Message from Martha published in the USA today
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Today, A Message from Martha is published in the USA – six days before the exact centenary of Martha’s death in Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914. Here are 10 reasons to buy and read my book if you are living in the USA or Canada: this was the most numerous bird in the world…
The book to buy at the Bird Fair
This morning I am talking about Passenger Pigeons in a double act with Tristan Reid in the Main Event Marquee at 1100 (until 1145). Come and listen to the tale of the Passenger Pigeon and what it signifies for us today in a countryside which is losing its farmland birds – and another pigeon, the…
St Martha’s day
St Martha is the patron saint of cooks – and this is her day. Page 148 of A Message from Martha will give you details of stewing, baking, frying and broiling of Passenger Pigeons – but first, catch your Passenger Pigeon, which might be a tad difficult today. Yesterday I saw the proofs of my…
Guest Blog – Pop songs and pigeons by Karla Kane of The Corner Laughers
The Passenger Pigeon went extinct in 1914, the same year the Great War began. To commemorate the centenary of those two events, my band, The Corner Laughers, has released an ode to the last Passenger Pigeon, Martha, in the style of a First World War-era song (but with synthesizers, for no good reason, really). …
Sunday books – more books than pigeons
This week I’m going to talk about three books – all about the extinct Passenger Pigeon. The first of these is a classic if you are interested in the story of the Passenger Pigeon – AW Schorger’s The Passenger Pigeon: its natural history and extinction. This time last year, I probably consulted Schorger every day…
Live on BBC Radio 4 on The World at One
I’ll be talking to Martha Kearney on The World at One today – some time after 1pm (because they told me to turn up at 1pm!). It’s A Message from Martha to Martha Kearney. Publication is a week today but you can order right now.
Two weeks until publication
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Just a brief reminder that A Message from Martha is published two weeks today. To order in advance of publication, and get this book as soon as possible, then click here.