DARE TO BIRD

I was honoured that so many esteemed birders, authors, photographers and ornithologists have reviewed my book so far, from Peter Pyle to Melissa Groo and all the other amazing birders in between! I am truly touched! The words they all have written are so moving and it means so much to me that birders of their calibre liked it so much. “Like Melissa Hafting, I enjoy helping others via email. And throughout our more than seven years of such correspondence, Mel’s questions indicated a sharp and enthusiastic birder whose passion and curiosity transcended simple species identification to delve into molt status, age/sex, subspecies, and various wondrous behaviors. But email does not always fully  reveal  a person: what they stand for, what adversities they have faced. In  Dare to Bird , through exquisite and spectacular photographs and words of pleasing cadence, you really get to  know  Melissa: her sense of wonder, eye for beauty, and passion for sharing her love of birds with youth and tho

Male Bee Hummingbird in Playa Larga, Cuba - Photo: Melissa Hafting My friend Chris Charlesworth invited me to go to Cuba with him with Avocet Tours . One of the tour participants from my first NFLD tour I led with Avocet was Nimali Seneviratne an d my friend Chris Siddle from Vernon as well. I also got to meet nice folks from TX, AB and BC. March 13 I flew in to Varadero via Air Canada and took a coach to our casa in Havana. En route I had Palm Warbler, Greater Antillean Grackle, Turkey Vulture, Magnificent Frigatebird, Cuban Blackbird and a Gray Kingbird. At a rest stop for lunch,,when the bus stopped on my way to Havana, I saw a huge wild and endangered Cuban Rock Iguana. At dinner in Havana at a restaurant called Esteban we had a nice dinner of whitefish and I gave some of the begging cats some food scraps. Here a Red-legged Thrush serenaded us. There were Cuban/Purple Martins flying overhead. The male Cuban Martins are impossible to distinguish from Purple Martins. You need a perch