After being rejected by four other publishers who thought the market for such a book was too small to be worth their time, when Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds: Giving Field Marks of All Species Found in Eastern North America was first published on 27 April 1934 by Houghton Mifflin in […]
Some Native American traditions teach that it is only through a profound experience in your life that you discover your true name. Not long after taking up bird watching, I discovered mine: Stumbles Through the Forest Frightening the Wildlife. No matter what I did, the minute I stepped out of the car and onto the […]
Whether or not the commonly used bird watching term “giss” actually has its origins in an old British military acronym for General Impression Size and Shape (GISS) is a question perhaps best left to the etymologists.