Richard Koeppel had grown up wanting to be an ornithologist. He had a particular love of birds and wanted to study them. However, his parents and his father in particular had a different vision of his son. So, Richard began his life studying to become a physician. He continued with his life long love of birds and went birding whenever he could. Eventually, Richard met the love of his life and married her. She was a hometown girl and was beautiful and was swept away by this man. Richard continued his studies and graduated as a physician. He now had responsibilities because his first born son was born. He didn't like the life of a physician, and he had various jobs that at leas paid him a decent salary. By this time there were two young boys and his marriage was going sour. He and his wife divorced and he never married again. He saw his boys on weekends.

Dan saw both sides of the marriage and was unsettled. He lived with his mother, and her boyfriends were sometimes nasty and abusive. She would also take out her frustrations on her sons. Life was not good. He would go birding with his father and this became fun for him. But he didn't get to see his dad often enough.

By the time Dan was ready to get to know his father better, Richard was on his way to identifying his 6,000 bird. The birding world is a different species. There were many people who love birds and there were 9,600 birds to identify in the entire world. People spent millions of dollars traveling to various parts of the world just to find that bird. This is when Dan started going on birding trips with his dad. His dad was now an ED physician which gave him plenty of time to pursue his love. He had been all over the world and was so pleased that Dan wanted to continue with him. He had a few more birds to identify and he wanted to make it to 7,000 birds. Thus began the quest for Dan and his father, Richard, to find the birds.

I love birds, love their coloring , their calls and their existence. However I have never been that much interested in identifying birds. This book opened up the world of birding, and these are crazy people in a sense. They will do anything; go anywhere to find that bird. I loved that Dan got to know his father better while they both developed their relationship birding. I learned a great deal about birds and that kind of life. Dan Koeppel writes well and his sense of nature reveals the world around us. Highly recommended. prisrob


Stunning insight into a secret world.   October 1, 2005
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Having been surrounded by family and friends that are all keen bird lovers (and being one myself), this book showed me a hitherto unknown world of truly dedicated fanatics! Never dull and well documented, Koeppel uses his relationship with his father as a powerful literary device to explore the surrounding terrain; everything from the creation of Israel to the history of birding. A remarkable book; funny, moving and strangely life affirming.........and liking birds isn't a prerequisite.