Acknowledgments

Many thanks to my birder-hating birding friend Bill Holm, whose presence in this book almost guarantees bestseller status. Bill’s companionship on birding trips has turned many a bad day out into a bad day out with laughs.

Thanks to all the experts who either provided material for the pages of Feather Brained or impressed me in the field by being outstanding in their field: Bruce Bowman, Allen Chartier, Darlene Friedman, Jim Kortge, Scott Manly, Peg and Roger Markle, Sy Montgomery, Stacey O’Brien, Caleb Putnam, Bill Rapai, Steve Santner, Jeff Schultz, Dave Sing, Sherri Smith, and Keith Taylor.

Other birders who influenced this book in some fashion include Tim Baerwald, Ric Brigham, Adam Byrne, Gary Dietzel, Brian Drake, Skye Haas, Janet Hinshaw, Cendra Lynn, Greg Miller, Keith Miller, Mark Obmascik, Elisabeth Paffhausen, Tom Pavlik, Ric Pedler, Dirk Richardson, Alan Ryff, John Smith, Kim Smith, Joe Soehnel, and Jerry Ziarno.

Bill Holm, my nonbirder birding buddy, who may or may not have once been my boss at a weekly newspaper.

Special thanks to Marcia Davis, Bill Holm, Brian O’Malley, and Linda Tarte for reading chapters and providing helpful feedback and to my editor Scott Ham at the University of Michigan Press, project coordinator Elizabeth Frazier, copy editor Carol Sickman-Garner, and the rest of the excellent staff. Much gratitude to Cayr Ariel Wulff for feedback on my cover design. Huge indebtedness to Laura Kittens for her final proofing of the page proofs.

Lifelong thanks to my wife, Linda, who first introduced me to birds and then had to put up with my enthusiasm forever after.