In Field Notes From An Unintensional Birder Julia Zarankin tells how she became obsessed with birds and everything that goes with being a birder. Everything includes, binoculars and scopes, field guides, groups and societies, bird watching trips and bird decorations. This is an autobiographical and even confesional story. The reader learns how Julia and her parents came to Canada from the Soviet Union and had to leave her grandparents behind. We learn about her failed first marriage and her successful second marriage to a man who tolerates her birding obsession. A truly delightful book that makes me want to go see more birds and visit the places Julia writes about. ( )

A delightful book of a woman who finds the
meaning of life through birds.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Julia Zarankin became curious about birding at the age of thirty-five, but she never expect that it would change her life. Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder is Zarankin’s story of finding meaning in her life through birds. Zarankin learns more from birds than she ever anticipated. Not only would she eventually come to identify proudly as a birder, but birding would ultimately lead her to find love, uncover a new language and lay down her roots.

REVIEW
Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder was intriguing because I feel much the way Julia did about birding at the beginning of her book. I am curious, I wish I knew more, but I’m not real keen on that multi-pocketed khaki vest. This book really gave me an eye opening look at the realities of birding.

The book is not so much a story, as a collection of Zarankin’s life and bird experiences, hence the title. There are tidbits about the people she met while birding and unique birds sights. Her writing was casual, interesting and informative. It was easy to read and her descriptions of the birds and the areas she was birding were highly visual. She cleverly tied her life experiences, her marriage, and her relationships with her stories about birds and birding.

Zarankin’s descriptions of the bird characteristics that she came to admire and even envy were delightful. She shares about the confidence and proudness she saw in the the Ross’s goose, the soft and silky hair of the cedar waxwing and the beautiful singing voice of the wood thrush. Her litany of the admired and enviable traits for other birds was thoroughly enjoyable, and nudged me to pull out my old binoculars.

Zarankin also shares about the down and dirty side of birding. It’s not all about walking in a beautiful park and gazing skyward. She encounter freezing temperatures, landfills, early mornings, and sewer lagoons to find birds. This part actually cemented my birding decision. Despite the joy of new discoveries and surprising pleasures in spotting elusive birds shared by Zarankin, I just don’t think I can handle the sewage lagoons (or the multi-pockets khaki vest).

Nature enthusiasts, and readers who enjoy memoirs of self-discovery will truly appreciate Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I listen to the audio version of this book and thoroughly enjoyed the narration.

Publisher Dreamscape Media
Published January 5, 2021
Narrated Nan McNamara
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com ( )

I confess, if it had not been for COVID making me stick close to home, this book would have caught my interest. But now, stuck at home, I have become a backyard birder, and I enjoyed the audiobook. Julia Zarankin’s journey from someone lucky to find a bird in a tree to a full-fledged birder with a scope to see distant birds was interesting. I loved the connections she made to her two marriages and other aspects of her life. But most of all I was struck by her feeling of wonder as she grew to love spending cold, wet days looking at birds. And from her I finally found out how to know a downy woodpecker from a hairy woodpecker if you are unable to to determine the size. The best advice be like a northern flicker. A fashion diva would say NO to the combination of stripes, polka dots, big black slash on the breast, red and orange and black, gray and brown, but the flicker wears it all well. Her book is a definition of life. “Progress is incremental. … We showed up, we paid attention … we listened, we hoped, we imagined, we waited.” ( )