Lessons From A Birdbrain

"Lessons from a Birdbrain: Winter, Ohio" introduces 21 birds that spend the coldest months in the Buckeye state, where I call home. With each bird, I include reflections and a quote I encourage readers to ponder along with learning more about the birds. I've tried to make the learning fun and different from what you would find if you looked up the bird in a typical field guide. This may be related to their nicknames, their breeding behavior or something about my experience with getting the picture. Reflections are all about mindfulness, an "aha" that has helped me live life more serenely. Why or how, you may ask, does birding go with mindfulness? From Oxford Languages, "Mindfulness is defined as 1) the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something 2) a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations." Birdwatching is all about the state of being conscious and aware. If I'm not paying close attention, I can miss a lot. And birdwatching brings me alertly into the present. Acknowledging and accepting feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations, admittedly I often have to work at?but everything else about birding is practically the definition of mindfulness itself.The 'birdbrain lesson' component of this book starts to address the harder feelings work. I've frequently been one to discount, misinterpret, ignore or flat out flee from that icky "f" word. But I'm working on it and through my continued growth, I hope to share insights that will help others on their journey. Someone once said when the student is ready the teacher appears. For me, the teacher often has feathers. I say that because many times, solutions to problems and insights of great value come to me while birding. One could surmise this is the result of letting my brain work in the background on something while I focus my awareness on the present moment to spot that Common Merganser or that lively Carolina Chickadee. Feedback, questions, newsletter, check out my https://lessonsbirdbrain.com/Happy birding!

Lessons from a Birdbrain combines beginning birdwatching, photography and mindfulness. My hope is readers will encounter a concept or a visual they may have heard or seen before that will resonate differently based on the combination. "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" and I hope that outcome will be encouraged by this book...and/or the teacher is a bird. -- description from prefacem, p. 7

Lessons from a Birdbrain: Migration Celebration introduces 21 birds found in Ohio during spring and fall along with a "birdbrain" lesson; simple concepts I learned from studying mindfulness. Birding and mindfulness go hand in hand because while birding I am present and intently tuned in to the world. When I take a photo, I am 100% dedicated and quite literally focusing. Like an athlete, I slow my breath and zoom in for the 'win'. Perhaps corny, but real for me. I also repeatedly learn lessons of attachment, expectations, success and failure. I can't control what birds will be around, the lighting when the bird lands or if my battery is about to die. I can prepare and plan but I can't force outcomes. I can take failures in stride OR I can brood. Allowing disappointment or elation to pass has been key for me to rise above my tendency to get caught up in thoughts.My greatest gift from birding is the ability to "see" thoughts and feelings from a distance. If I don't see that black chinned hummingbird who showed up in Ohio, oh well. The elation I felt when I saw my first surf scoter, while lovely, is fleeting.If you're in Ohio in fall or spring, you could try to find the birds I've included here. If you are reading this book in winter or another part of the world, I hope you can simply enjoy learning about these amazing traveling warriors, survivors and songsters. 21 chapters coincides with the number of days it takes for a habit to begin to take hold. I encourage you to read a chapter each day and reflect on the lesson. Can you step aside and let a worry pass? Can you mindfully experience a precious moment by recognizing its impermanence? More important than finding a warbler, I hope you find a "birdbrained" lesson (or ten) that speak to you. I hope you hear an idea at the right time that allows you to step aside and regain balance and serenity from the lesson that bird(s) bring(s).

What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise?Bird Sense addresses questions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses - vision and hearing - but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? And what about a birds' sense of taste, or smell, or touch or the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away - how do they do it?Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird's head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed and constrained by the way we watch and study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate and inhibit discovery, it identifies ways we can escape from them to seek new horizons in bird behaviour.There has never been a popular book about the senses of birds. No one has previously looked at how birds interpret the world or the way the behaviour of birds is shaped by their senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of observation and an understanding of birds and their behaviour that is firmly grounded in science.

Comments from Kids of All Ages It is a Rare and Admirable Educational Effort" Ms. Ramona Van Riper *President*National Turkey Vulture Society "A fun kid's book and you learn a lot about owls" Allison*Age10*Grade 5*Virginia "Gaylord the Prairie Dog is tooo cute" Geri*Age 62 yrs*Office Manager*California "Albert the Wood Duck is funny and cool, I really liked Albert" Willie*Age 13 yrs*7th Grade*Florida "Great Story-Good Facts" Bob*Age 54*Minister*Wisconsin "I was thoroughly "Edu-Tained" by the wonderful stories of Professor Birdbrain" Joanna*Teacher/Educator *www.mothernaturelive.com*California "I Think the story is full of facts and that it is a great story" Mathew*Age 8 yrs*Grade 38*Virginia "Professor Birbrain's creation and development of Edu-Tainment is an important contribution to educational literature" Daniel*Age 59 *Recycling Plant Manager*Minnesota

Oh no! Lovable Amos is heartbroken that his tick bird Amoeba has found a new, fun friend. Even worse, Amoeba’s new friend isn’t even real! Amoeba actually prefers her imaginary friend to her real-life hippopotamus one. Ready to swim any river necessary to regain Amoeba’s affections, Amos sets off on a big adventure—a road trip to the Serengeti— just to prove he’s Mr. Fun. But like most vacations, things don’t always go as planned. Crocodile traffic jams, strange local beasts, and unmarked forks in the river all spell potential doom for Mr. Fun. But leave it to our befuddled hero’s own imagination to turn this disaster-in-the-making into an adventure Amoeba will never forget. As laugh-out-loud funny as the original, Birdbrain Amos, Mr. Fun is a trip kids will want to revisit over and over again.

"This book was conceived, designed and produced by Ivy Press"--Title page verso.

Lessons from a Birdbrain: Central Belize introduces 21 birds photographed in spring of 2021 during a visit to central Belize. These are generally birds that would be relatively common and easy to spot in a brief visit. Along with each bird, I have paired a concept related to mindfulness and personal growth. During the time I spend birding, I typically reflect and become open to what the universe is teaching me at that time through that bird. Belize is an AWESOME birding location, being home to over 580 birds who migrate or reside there. Belize offers sea going birds along the coasts and a wide variety of inland habitats, including lush, tropical jungles, orchards, mangrove forests and mountainous regions. Located beside Mexico and Guatemala to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east, Belize is an important travel route for many birds who spend colder months in South America and move north to the United States and Canada in the spring and summer to breed. I hope readers will enjoy learning about these amazing birds from central Belize and embark on their own journey to travel themselves, physically, mentally and/or spiritually through connecting with the natural world. In this book, I will focus the lessons and quotes on a central theme of personal growth largely based on a quote by an American author and playwright, Eda LeShan."Excellence in life seems to be the way each human being makes the most of the adventure of living and becomes most truly and deeply him/herself, fulfilling their own nature in the context of a good life with other people."In this edition, I also include 'hack' ideas on traveling to and around Belize as well as mindfulness. For anyone who has read the Ohio editions of Lessons from a Birdbrain, I include hacks ideas on getting started with birding, and photography. Here, I will place more emphasis on the travel side of the hacks as well as a Belizean perspective on mindfulness. I highly recommend Belize as a friendly, relatively easy and safe spot to travel with amazing birding.

A unique and moving real-life story of the extraordinary bond between a young teacher and a penguin, this book will delight readers who loved Marley & Me, Dewey the Library Cat, The Good Good Pig, and any book by Jon Katz. In 1975, twenty-three-year-old Englishman Tom Michell follows his wanderlust to Argentina, where he becomes assistant master at a prestigious boarding school. But Michell’s adventures really begin when, on a weekend in Uruguay, he rescues a penguin covered in oil from an ocean spill, cleans the bird up, and attempts to return him to the sea. The penguin refuses to leave his rescuer’s side. “That was the moment at which he became my penguin, and whatever the future held, we’d face it together,” says Michell in this charming memoir. Michell names the penguin Juan Salvador (“John Saved”), but Juan Salvador, as it turns out, is the one who saves Michell. After Michell smuggles the bird back to Argentina and into his campus apartment, word spreads about the young Englishman’s unusual roommate. Juan Salvador is suddenly the center of attention—as mascot of the rugby team, confidant to the dorm housekeeper, co-host of Michell’s parties, and an unprecedented swimming coach to a shy boy. Even through the collapse of the Perónist government and amid the country’s economic and political strife, Juan Salvador brings joy to everyone around him—especially Michell, who considers the affectionate animal a compadre and kindred spirit. Witty and heartwarming, The Penguin Lessons is a classic in the making, a story that is both absurd and wonderful, exactly like Juan Salvador. Praise for The Penguin Lessons “I loved this book, and you will, too! It’s as charming, heartwarming, and surprising as a penguin on a roof terrace. What’s more, The Penguin Lessons teaches an important truth: that a single act of compassion can be repaid a thousand-fold.”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Good Good Pig and the National Book Award finalist The Soul of an Octopus “[Tom Michell’s] tone suits the material perfectly. . . . You believe every word. . . . No fool, this penguin. No fools, these publishers, who have unleashed such a delightful and charming book just in time for Christmas.”—Daily Mail (U.K.) “Heart-warming is a wholly inadequate phrase to describe this captivating story that is pure delight from beginning to end.”—The Bookseller (U.K.)

“A chatty, appealing introduction. . . . Small and accessible, this is jam-packed with accurate information likely to increase any potential birder’s enthusiasm and knowledge.” — Kirkus Reviews(starred review) This conversational, humorous introduction to bird-watching encourages kids to get outdoors with a sketchbook and really look around. Quirky full-color illustrations portray dozens of birds chatting about their distinctive characteristics, including color, shape, plumage, and beak and foot types, while tongue-in-cheek cartoons feature banter between birds, characters, and the reader. Interactive and enjoyable tips bring an age-old hobby to new life for the next generation of bird-watchers, and eighteen new pages of activities, including drawing, mapmaking, and a scavenger hunt, make this paperback edition a must-have.