John Yow here, author of The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds (University of North Carolina Press, Spring 2009).

I see from roaming the blogosphere that I’m not the only armchair birder out there, but the term may mean different things to different people. For me it means not only watching the birds from my armchair (or office chair, actually), but also reading about them–reading about them, especially (but not exclusively), in the vintage works of people like Arthur Cleveland Bent, Edward Howe Forbush, and John James Audubon (where you will find, for example, Audubon’s hilarious account of being chased into the river by a wounded, and very angry, sandhill crane.)

It doesn’t mean that I don’t “go birding.” Actually, I’ve been birding once or twice. But it does mean that I’m not likely to get in my ratty, broke-down truck here in Acworth, Georgia, and drive to Choke Canyon State Park in South Texas to witness the first-ever appearance in the U.S. of the pine flycatcher. Some folks did. Steve Matherly drove down from Houston, three and a half hours away, and admitted, “The dollars [spent to get here] per gram of bird is kind of amazing.” Wes Biggs flew in from Orlando, and Dotty Robbins made the trip from Gainesville, Florida. “He’s not spectacular,” said Dotty, “but the sighting is unique.”

Now those people are birders–no armchair needed, thank you very much. And more power to them.

But I have to say: there’s a whole lot going on right here outside my window. Every day another question I don’t know the answer to. Like, why have the pine siskins descended upon me this year in flocks of up to 50 birds, when I’ve never had more than a handful before? Why have the bluebirds let the chickadees take over their box? And where the dickens have my redbellied woodpeckers gone to?

That’s the idea behind the book: OK, I know who you are, but what are you doing? And why are you doing it? That will also be the idea behind this blog. I hope you’ll talk to me.

(And if you want to buy the book, that’s okay, too.)