What struck me was the foreignness of it all.
Is the jungle in Madagascar truly more exotic than a dump in England? What is stranger: the birds who fly the seas eating any scrap of edible looking trash or the people who obsessively chase them?
I have no interest in bird watching, but this book was a compelling read.
Any endeavor fully pursued begins to weave together the entire world. A singular focus on one subject becomes a window on the universe. Though they come from the sea and the air, these gulls are now intertwined with our human world, inhabiting our cities and farms. The landfill is a record of our activities, a living testament of who we were yesterday. The categorizations of these birds highlight our scientific era’s obsession with creating ever finer distinctions of specificity.
Tim Dee’s anecdotes in the field and interviews with experts transforms this niche subject into a exploration of humanity. The book is an example of how a deftly managed lens becomes a mirror that reveals our other selves.
The world is rich, we just need to truly look.