Birding on Borrowed Time

Lots of birders have written memoirs by now, and if you've tried reading some, you'll know the quality is uneven. Phoebe Snetsinger's is quite readable. I wouldn't say it's a great book, or one that tries to appeal to any but a narrow audience, but if you're in that audience, it's consistently interesting, and there are stories of great birds and great places. I ended up with a deepened appreciation for what she accomplished--not just the number she put up, but the style she was aiming for--and she was honest enough to convey a good understanding of why her husband was driven to ask for a divorce. That said, it was worthwhile to read her memoir alongside Olivia Gentile's Life List, a good biography that is neither hostile nor fawning.

Phoebe Snetsinger was the first person to see 8000 bird species or, in her preferred terms, 84% of known bird species. 'Birding On Borrowed Time' is her birding autobiography. Her title alludes to her learning she had cancer with perhaps only months to live. She decided to see as many bird species as possible before she died. She wrote, "If it's my last trip, so be it - but I'm going to make it a good one and go down binoculars in hand." She birded on borrowed time for 18 years.While she recounts some of her personal life and some of her birding exploits, her memoir is surprisingly cursory in both. If a reader wanted a fuller account of her personal trials and tribulations, the reader would be better off reading Olivia Gentile's ' Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds '. On her birding, Snetsinger captures the fun of identifying species, as well as the challenge and hard work that makes a difficult identification so rewarding and satisfying. She describes the ambivalent feelings of birders with the triumph at having finally seen and identified a species, yet the sadness that it "now no more there to look for". Nevertheless, with exceptions such as her account of breaking her wrist while in the Philippines and continuing to bird for weeks, much of her account is a list of where and when she saw which birds.It is rewarding to know where she birded and to dream of going to some of those places with the hope of seeing even a fraction of what she saw. For this reason and because she did "go down binoculars in hand", it is worth reading 'Birding On Borrowed Time'.

Phoebe Snetsinger was in the next door cabana during my 1991 birding trip to Cuba. Her reputation preceded her - how she chose to go birding when told she had three months to live due to a melanoma. She was the first person to see over 8,000 bird species in the wild, and she saw 10 of those during our first morning in Cuba. The single paragraph she devoted to that trip in her autobiography only mentiobned those birds she missed: like Zapata Rail and Stygian Owl. Two years later I got the owl while leading another trip to Playa Larga, probably the only bird in the world that I had and she didn't when she died in an auto crash in Madagascar in 1999. Phoebe fundamentally changed how we do international birding, keeping copious notes on races which might someday be split, and refusing to count species that she heard and did not see. . She was all business, but possessed a puckish sense of humor, like the time she erected her umbrella during a shower, unbuttoned the top button and stuck it in her bra, leaving both hands free on the binoculars. "It's the only advantage a woman has in the field - the only one!" she said with a wink, and went right bacik to studying a Cuban Green Woodpecker. Reading her autobiography gave me an opportunity to recall this and other incidents. Her writing is no-nonsense. Anyone who aspires to be an international birder should read this book, and would do well to emulate her example..

I obviously did not look inside the book before I ordered it. I wanted a bird book that shows a photo or 2 or a bird, a short description and area of Habitat. This book goes on for pages of birders' stories of spotting birds. NOT interesting to me!

Thoroughly enjoyed !!

I bought this book with the sincere hope that I would be able to enjoy and relate to the material, as: (1) I am a female birder; and (2) I have multiple autoimmune illnesses, undoubtedly at least one of which will someday prematurely end my life, or at least my birding. Phoebe was very clearly a wealthy White woman to whom the word “no” was never spoken, and was largely accustomed to not taking responsibility for any of her actions. I was horrified by the sheer number of trips she took to isolated regions of the world, not in the quest for creating knowledge or improving the state of affairs for humanity or wildlife; rather, Phoebe’s trips were for her and for her alone. She parachuted in, gave the natives some cash to show her what she wanted to see, and left. Even her husband and children were largely excluded from her travels. It was painful to read each chapter, one after another, recounting the thousands of dollars squandered on this woman’s folly, not to mention the carbon footprint she left in her wake. This is not how responsible birding is done, and Phoebe is a role model for no one.

Phoebe Snetsinger's autobiography is the story of a woman who was told she was dying and decided to do what she wanted in the little time available. She went birding. She lived, despite repeated episodes of cancer, and she continued birding. She became the first person ever to see 8,000 different species of birds. On Borrowed Time is her story. It is much better written the mediocre biography Life List, which has a great advertisement despite the less than great content of the book. On Borrowed Time is for birders and people interested in life lived with purpose.

This is absolutely a great book! To be able to travel & Persue your love for birds - It's Amazing!! This is very detailed on all bird species! This Woman endured what many would cry & complain about. Peace Be With Her.

Liked the content.

世界に約1万種といわれる鳥のうちの8千種の鳥を、世界で初めて見たおばさんの回想記です。フィービ・スネツィンジャー(1931-1999)は、30代なかばにバードウォッチングに目覚めます。子育てと家事の多忙のさなかに、隣家の奥さんが見せてくれた、春の渡りで通過中のアメリカムシクイで鳥を見る楽しみを知ったフィービは、徐々に熱心なバーダーになってゆきます。しかし、彼女に本当の転機がおとずれるのは、40代の終わりに悪性の腫瘍が発見され、医師に1年の命と宣告されたときです。彼女は自覚症状がないことを幸い、たとえ数ヵ月でも日常生活ができる間はこれまでどおり鳥を見てあるくことを決断します。この本を読んで驚いたのは、この人がただのお金と暇だけある、自分では鳥の識別のできない、思いこみの激しいおばさんではなくて、探鳥旅行の前にはみっちり予習をして、近似種の識別点なども頭に入れてゆき、実際に鳥を観察するときも自分の目で見て納得することを重んずる、いわば正統派のウォッチャーであるということでした。この本は一言で言えば、このおばさんがガンの宣告から17年生きて、8000種を達成してゆく過程の話なわけですが、それは面白いのか、と疑問を持たれる方もいらっしゃるかと思います。私も読む前は少し心配しましたが、その心配は杞憂でした。珍しい鳥にどうやって出会って、鳥はどんなだったかという、バーダーならぜひ体験してみたい情景はもとより、ウォッチングの喜びや悲しみ（？）について考えさせられるいろいろのエピソードや、内省的なコメントもあり、非常に興味深いものがありました（ただ、日本に紹介するときの難点は、録音のプレイバックによる誘引を多用していることでしょう。日本のように人跡未踏の場所のない国では、外国では行われているからといって、プレイバックが流行するのは鳥類保護上大変まずいと思います）。