Journalist Stalks Birds

5/10/2007

Auckland, 9 May 2007 … Journalist Stalks Birds

A year ago, award-winning journalist Steve Braunias took up a new interest – bird-watching. Braunias, whose previous journalistic obsessions have included tearooms and steak, was enchanted by a gull that flew past a balcony where he was standing. He was struck by a sudden and unquenchable desire to know more about birds.

His previous bird-watching efforts had been confined to not very much. All gulls were just seagulls, tuis made an intolerable morning racket if you were hung over, parrots and budgies were amusing in cages…

Now he bought every bird book he could get his hands on (including one that cost $150, money wheedled out of his publisher after several cups of coffee and a very good breakfast), interviewed many of New Zealand’s legendary bird-watchers, joined the Ornithological Society, and stalked New Zealand’s estuaries, beaches, woods and sewage ponds in company with birders he befriended along the way.

Next he went international, taking advantage of a journalistic scholarship to Cambridge to become closely acquainted with British birds, in the unwitting company of a member of the British National Front.

The result of all these peregrinations is Braunias’s enticing new book How to Watch a Bird, to be released by Awa Press on May 17 ($24.99). Advance praise has flowed in.

Lloyd Jones, author of the international best-seller Mr Pip, says:
‘A great book, compelling to the end. ‘All the hallmarks of Steve Braunias’ distinctive voice are there – curiosity, quirkiness, a fantastic reportorial eye for the telling detail, all packaged with a warmth for humanity in all its foibles. He's our trusted guide into the world of birding – its history, its cast of characters, and most importantly its cast of birds. I got to the end of the book and wondered how I'd got to my age without becoming a birder, with a pair of bins slung around my neck, wandering the shoreline for a sighting of the first godwits staggering about like drunks after their 11,000 kilometre flight.’

Artist Grahame Sydney says:
‘With affection and characteristic honesty, Braunias describes a significant year in which he steps from bird-watching (“I lead a dozy, indolent life..”) to fully-fledged “birder”, one of the birding tribe, taking notes, doing things on behalf of birds – and experiences a giddy event in his personal life as well. He trains his “bins” on personal birding milestones, the surprisingly rich history of NZ’s ornithological society, both avian and human, and finds there a wonderful subculture and an extraordinary wealth of Things We All Should Know, told with all his trademark wit, warmth and sharpness.’

Television’s Jeremy Wells sums up:
‘Steve Braunias has done for feathered New Zealand what Kerry Packer did for cricket. Even though they don't know it, birds will never be the same again’

ENDS

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