Melissa Mayntz wrote: In its most basic sense, birding, or bird watching, is the recreational hobby of observing species of wild birds, including their physical characteristics and behavior. In reality, birding is much more than a simple hobby and there are many benefits of birding that can be enjoyed by both novice and experienced birders. Melissa states that today there are more than 50 million birders in the United States and millions more throughout the world, making it one of the most popular and most rapidly growing hobbies in the world.
It’s because of this growth this wonderful easy to read, large print well written book “For The Birds” is such an important piece of work for the birders of today. Fred’s recollections and rambles bring history dating back to the 1940’’s to life. As he states in the Preface “I trace the evolution of birder from a curious six-year old to someone who has recently attained octogenarian status and who has not yet lost his passion for the pastime of birding.” I loved his response to the question asked of him about how long has he been birding and his stock answer has been “About a hundred years”. This book goes into a detailed account of the places and people of the early formative years of birding in Ontario, Canada giving credit (or blame) to individuals, who played significant roles in that transformation. As Fred states in his book birding in the 1940’s was not the beginning of birding in Ontario that he credits to people like Thomas Mcllwraith, J.H. Fleming, and W.E. Saunders as prominent individuals in the Ontario history of birding as far back as the 1903 and still others even further.
Fred starts his journey after arriving from war torn Austria and receiving two little bird books from welcoming Canadian’s. Then having shown such a keen interest later is enrolled at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto children’s program in the early 1940’s. The book tours the many adventures of Fred’s birding growth with each page filled with memories of sightings of amazing birds some of which would be difficult to find today. As well as, people and places that have played a part in developing and fueling Fred’s quest to find that rare bird throughout the many years to come.
You will also read in this little bird book about Fred’s support for young birders who I know today he still loves to take out on sightings and just chat with. He loves to encourage any youth who turns up at Presqu’ile Park with an inquisitive mind about birds. This book will assist their inquiring minds in looking at the past and how it differs from today.
I loved how Fred acknowledged that after 53 years of marriage to Lois, mentioning their love, patience and companionship during their birding together. I can honestly say through personal relationship with this couple that Lois is quite the birder in her own right. As we all know behind every great man [birder] there is a great woman.
Fred retired to Presqu’ile Provincial Park, in 1999 and sends a weekly summary of bird sightings in that park to “The Friends of Presqu’ile Park. He has a bird sighting board posted on his garage wall where birders can check out his sightings in the park daily and update what they themselves have spotted. On any given day you will find him out on his bike with his equipment riding through the park seeking that next rare sighting. This book is a wonderful legacy to an extremely amazing birder, husband, father and grandfather.
Fred says in his book “It is my hope that it will serve as a record of what it was like to be among the pioneers of a sport that is now widely enjoyed and that has become a mainstream pursuit of thousands.”
Fred have no fear my friend your “For The Birds” is going viral as we speak… You will be keeping that post office busy for months to come. Well done!
Book purchase: $20.00 plus $2.50 shipping in Canada. Shipping rates for United States and International to be determined at time of purchase. All proceeds are being donated to the “Friends of Presqu’ile’s Environmental Fund”
For information on the book contact the publisher at:
FRED HELLIENER , 186 Bayshore Road, Brighton, Ontario K0K 1H0 Canada Email: fhelleiner@trentu.ca
Telephone: 613 475-5309
