"Catch the Tail of the Twelve Magpies", from the bird-watching experience of the Polish "Nike Award" winning author

Extreme News Reporter Xu Ying

Correspondent Li Ran

In recent years, birdwatching has gradually entered the public eye from a niche hobby, what makes more and more people fall in love with birdwatching, and even forget about it? In a new book "Catching the Tails of Twelve Magpies" published recently by the People's Literature Publishing House, author Stanisław Ubinski speaks of the infinite charm of birds and the natural world.

In the Polish saying, "grab the tails of two magpies" is a metaphor for doing many things at the same time and wanting to kill two birds with one stone. "Catching the Tail of the Twelve Magpies" is a humorous way for Polish nature writer Stanisław Ubinski to express his original intention: to use a book and 12 stories about birds to tell as much about nature and people as possible, and to show the micro and macro worlds behind the bird world as richly as possible. He depicts the figures of various birds in nature and literary works with poetic brushstrokes, writes about the interaction between humans and birds, and shows people's fascination with the natural world and the pleasure and enlightenment brought by this fascination.

As a veteran birdwatcher, the author has traveled to Hungary, Scandinavia and the Danube Delta

"It turns out that the passion for something changes you forever. Perhaps we no longer trudge through the mud or forest, but our eyes will always be drawn to a flying woodpecker; Looking at the first starlings flying in on a spring day, we will never be indifferent to that beautiful figure; We will always stop by a strange and gentle birdsong, and we will never, never stop birdwatching. "The book describes in the simplest language the pleasure that birds and nature bring to the senses and sensibilities.

A veteran birdwatcher, Ubinski has traveled to Hungary, Scandinavia and the Danube Delta. He reflected on the natural ideas and cultural psychology behind birdwatching. The book writes about all kinds of people in the birdwatching community: there are rare bird watchers called "carts" in the circle, they are "amateur players" in the bird-watching army, and when they hear where rare birds are, they rush to "check in" and take a look from afar, just to tick their birding record sheet. There are bird photographers with long guns and short cannons, in order to take good photos, they do not hesitate to set up camp in the harsh natural environment, and even disturb the peaceful life of the birds in order to capture wonderful shots. The author reflects on the culture clash behind "bird watching" and "bird shooting." In the book, he asks, "Who is more passionate and sincere about birds?" Are photographers who don't care if they scare the birds, sometimes even unscrupulously, but willingly spend hours concentrating on bird watching, or birdwatchers who keep a safe distance and are satisfied with just one glance from a distance in order not to disturb the birds? ”

"Catching the Tail of the Twelve Magpies" combines nuanced natural observations, poetic philosophical reflections and beautiful literary writing, and has won Poland's most prestigious literary award, the Nike Prize Readers' Vote Award, and won many authoritative awards in Polish literature such as the Warsaw Literary First Prize and the Gdynia Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for the Artist's Passport Award selected by Politico Magazine, and was translated into English, French, Spanish and other Chinese.

He also recorded birds in human activities such as history, literature, music, film, and painting

"Catching the Tails of Twelve Magpies" contains 12 beautiful and delicate nature observation essays, but the author's perspective is not limited to nature, but integrates birds in human activities such as history, literature, music, film, and painting.

The famous 007 James Bond, whose name is actually stolen by the author from an ornithologist , is also full of tribute to this ornithologist in the 007 series of movies; Baker, the author of the nature literature classic "Peregrine Falcon", is an unsociable "eccentric" who lives in the English countryside and may only write about the peregrine falcon; Jeremy Clarkson, author of the popular "Clarkson's Farm", once "overturned" for eating a precious bunting, which was met with mass protests from fans; In Hitchcock's films, there have been various images of bird "villains"... There are "Easter eggs" buried everywhere in the book.

Author Ubinski said at the Nike Prize ceremony: "This book perfectly combines my identity as a nature observer and humanist, I hope that readers who are interested in nature can feel the charm of culture from nature, and those who are not interested in nature can be inspired by the paintings, music and film fragments mentioned in the book, which evoke the softest feelings for nature." ”

The author writes biographies of extinct and endangered birds in nature

In the final chapter of the book, the author writes biographies of extinct and endangered birds in nature. He lovingly records the rare birds that have disappeared into the embrace of the earth due to human hunting: dodo, passenger pigeons, northern curlews, great auks; There are also wild creatures struggling to survive and on the verge of extinction in the midst of urbanization: buntings, blue-breasted Buddhist monks... With the development of large areas of arable land, large-scale use of pesticides and herbicides, and the promotion of modern agricultural methods such as monoculture, birds and nature are becoming victims of modern urbanization.

The authors remind us that biodiversity is declining dramatically as photogenic canola fields or cornfields become ubiquitous, nature reserves are cut apart by increasingly dense asphalt roads, and cars speed up and accelerate. Should we stop and think, "Where will such roads lead us?" ”

In order to better present the diverse forms of birds, the Chinese Simplified edition uses two styles of bird art illustrations. The design of the chapter page adopts 12 bird cut-out illustrations created by the naturalist Flashbird specifically for this book, which is quite Chinese style. The book also includes 12 color illustrations of bird museums by the famous British ornithologist John Gould in the 19th century, which greatly enhance the artistry and interest of "Catching the Tails of Twelve Magpies".

According to reports, "Catching the Tail of Twelve Magpies" is the third book launched by the "Humanistic Nature" book series of the People's Literature Publishing House, which also includes Richard Mabe's "Heart to the Field" and David George Haskell's "Thirteen Ways to Smell Trees".

"Catch the tails of twelve magpies" golden sentence:

Nature is the only destination of this trip. Swallows flew into the camp's dineras through the open doors, skimming over table after table, circling around the nests under the ceiling. Nature is like a lot, day and night. The blade of grass is a great instrument, with thousands of crickets chirping and improvising varied melodies in different ranges. The nature of nature falls in the human ears, sometimes without logic.

Caged birds are not real birds, they are just fakes that make people happy in exchange for food.

(Source: Polar Eye News)

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