-- O.T. --

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I suspect IBWO news may be slow between now and mid-Feb. (NOT that it will necessarily become faster at that point!) so may fill in with some off-topic posts (O.T.) as needed --- Apologies in advance to those who stop by here ONLY for IBWO news, but will operate on the assumption that any posts are better than silence, which sometimes generates false speculations). So with that said:

Sight unseen, for several months elsewhere on the Web I've promoted Jonathan Rosen's new work and homage to birding, "Life of the Skies," expecting it to be excellent based on some of his previous writing. It is due out mid-Feb. A review on Amazon says, "Jonathan Rosen set out on a quest not merely to see birds but to fathom their centrality—historical and literary, spiritual and scientific—to a culture torn between the desire both to conquer and to conserve." Keep an eye out for it.

And you know birding has hit mainstream when it shows up on NPR's Sunday puzzle with Will Shortz: the basic weekly puzzle as presented today is to take the 13 letters that form the names, "owl," "crane," and "egret," and form 3 different common bird names. Go to it birders, and show NPR how easy this puzzler was....

Finally, just to swing back on topic to finish with, a link back to Sufjan Stevens haunting tribute to the "Lord God Bird," from over 2 years ago, here (mp3 -- originally written for NPR).

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