Comments on: Ask the Bird Folks: award winning short nature-humor articles

Ask the Bird Folks: award winning short nature-humor articles

stbalbach — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:23:09 -0800

Mike O'Connor, owner of Bird Watcher's General Store in MA, writes a column "Ask the Bird Folks", for The Cape Codder newspaper. Five of O'Connor's short but humorously enlightening pieces were chosen by Steven Pinker to be included in the 2004 edition of the Best American Science and Nature writing. Those five can be read here: [1],[2],[3],[4],[5]. The full set of articles here. He started in 2001 and is sort of a "Car Talk" of bird watching.

By: rtha

rtha — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:44:02 -0800

w00t! /bird nerd

By: jazon

jazon — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:49:48 -0800

These are great! Boot Tom & Ray from NPR and get this guy a gig.

By: kenko

kenko — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:56:39 -0800

And yet … the third one, at least, is actually not very well written.

By: saucysault

saucysault — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:47:51 -0800

Aww, my favourite bird is the chickadee too! I hadn't heard of Mike o'Connor before so thank you.

By: Stewriffic

Stewriffic — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 11:43:40 -0800

Also birdnerditude going on here. Thanks.

By: McGuillicuddy

McGuillicuddy — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:00:35 -0800

Thanks for the links. I've shopped at Bird Watchers' General Store often, been to their website ages ago, am a fan of the entire "Best American ..." series, and read the Cape Codder sometimes when I remember it exists, but "Ask the Bird Folks" was still new to me. It's not too often that the Best of the Web and the Best of Cape Cod intersect.

By: eritain

eritain — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:22:03 -0800

Nope. This guy does not beat Tom and Ray, Dave Barry, or even Strong Bad. Factual enough and occasionally amusing in a droll sort of way, but ... there's still only one way to get to Carnegie Hall, and O'Connor needs to do some more of it. Totally correct about the chickadee though. One of the neatest birds ever. Seriously, if you've never watched them up close, go into some brush with a cup of black sunflower seeds and just hang loose till they arrive. It's excellent. Also: Didn't Steven Pinker used to have a productive job?

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 15:45:17 -0800

McGuillicuddy: "It's not too often that the Best of the Web and the Best of Cape Cod intersect." Your right McGuillicuddy. It was unusual to see such an off-beat author make the book. With all the high-profile star writers and national magazines, this was a real delight, and by far the funniest thing in that particular edition.