Exciting birth of an e-book on birding

Last year during the Biggest Week in America Birding I had the pleasure to meet Gunnar Engblom at the first Meet and Greet in Ohio for Facebook Ohio birding friends. I have been following him on FB ever since. He is Swedish, leading birding tours in Peru, yet very knowledgeable as a worldwide birder, and obviously has been birding in our area.

On FB he has just started posting about a book he is writing. It will be available for free on the internet. It is a very different approach to birding. Basically it acknowledges that many (maybe now, most???) of us get into birding differently in this digital age that in older days. It sure rings true to me! I started birding by taking pics and wondering what I shot. After quite awhile of sharing pics locally in my neighborhood, a neighbor told me she had a relative who was into birding, and turned me onto the University of Michigan list serv. My life changed forever!!! All the subscribers have been instrumental in my rebirth as a birder! 

ref: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/birders_FAQ.html (Thanks again, Bruce Bowman for such a wonderful accepting forum!!!)

Check out the link to Gunnar's book:
http://birding.com.co/birding-101-starts-now/

Gunnar lists the chapter headings for now. Fascinating! Makes sense!

Birds are universal. Birding is universal!

I truly suspect this e-book might draw many new birders into our passion! Indeed, I think we will all learn from it if Gunnar gets the support I think he will!

I would appreciate seeing comments.

Yeah, I could have waited until the book was e-published to send out a note, but I really believe that we in Michigan are so far ahead of many other places for sharing birding experience that I wanted some of our advanced birders to have a chance to input or comment on this e-book.

And yes, I started with pics, but now have a good pair of binocs – and even a cheap scope – and damn near all the local field guides and even more specialized books - so it really rings true for me. I am always learning! And it all started with “whazzat bird?”!!!

Good birding in 2013!!!