Jacki Lydon did an interesting  interview with Jonathan Rosen author of Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature last night on NPR. Rosen is an urban birdwatcher, novelist and contributer to The New Yorker. Here are two excerpts:

Rosen contends that everyone is a birdwatcher. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that 47.8 million Americans call themselves bird watchers. Rosen says playfully that while some people admit to being bird watchers, or even “bird dweebs,” others don’t yet know that they are moved by birds. Rosen’s book will soon make a believer out of you.
Each chapter of The Life of the Skies cites a poet or an artist, and there are beautiful poems and contemplations embedded throughout the book. His title comes from a poem by D.H. Lawrence who declared that “birds are the life of the skies, and when they fly, they reveal the thoughts of the skies.”