A-Birding on a Bronco

Saddle up for birdwatching, 1890s style. Florence A. Merriam, one of America's first great women ornithologists, spent a California season studying birds the gentle way: from the back of a patient bronco named Billy. Her account mixes sharp field observation with warm humor as she tracks orioles, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds through oak canyons and ranch gardens. Written when watching birds through opera glasses instead of over a gun barrel was still a radical idea, it remains fresh, funny, and quietly pioneering. Swing into the saddle and ride along.