Sneed B. Collard III—Birding for Boomers: And Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

Cover of the book Birding for Boomers: And Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity by Sneed B. Collard III, with illustrations by Tanner Barkin, showing the title superimposed on a comic-book style Western illustration that includes two birders and a binocular-wearing bird surveying the scene.

BIRDING FOR BOOMERS—
AND EVERYONE ELSE BRAVE ENOUGH TO EMBRACE
THE WORLD’S MOST REWARDING AND FRUSTRATING ACTIVITY
Sneed B. Collard III. Illustrations by Tanner Barkin
Mountaineers Books, September 1, 2024, $21.95
ISBN-13: 978-1680516708

Collard reports:

Anyone who has attempted birding knows how intimidating it can be. With roughly 11,000 species of birds on the planet, how is a novice to begin? I know I felt that way when my son, Braden, and I began birding just over a decade ago.

But a remarkable thing happened. As we hauled our binoculars out the door time after time, we developed some expertise! We not only learned how to tell most of our local species apart, we learned how they behaved, where to find them, and how to help them in an imperiled world.

Portrait photo of Sneed B. Collard III outdoors holding his birding binoculars.

Naturally enough, this new knowledge seeped into my professional life. I wrote several books and articles about birds. I began giving talks about them. I got invited to birding festivals and even began leading birding field trips.

For me, however, the journey proved especially challenging. Only three years after embracing birding, I discovered I had significant hearing loss. This set me back seriously since listening can play a major role in locating and identifying birds. Like most people suffering physical challenges, however, I gradually came to terms with this disability. I got hearing aids and learned strategies for accommodating my hearing loss. Sometime during the Covid pandemic, I realized, “Geez, I should write a book.”

I had two major goals for Birding for Boomers. One was to create a comprehensive how-to guide for beginners. This includes addressing everything from what equipment a beginner needs to how to identify birds, locate them, set up backyard feeders, take photos, improve your home habitat, and much, much more.

My second goal was to help people with disabilities or other challenges enjoy birding. As a result, the book includes chapters on hearing and eyesight issues, other physical disabilities, cognitive issues, and, perhaps most important, equity issues such as race, sexuality, and socio-economic forces.

My main message? Birding is fun and can be enjoyed by everyone. I hope that the book’s lively style and humorous tone will give people the same joy I find every time I hang binoculars around my neck and head out the door.

Contact info:

Sneed B. Collard III, sbcollardiii@gmail.com, https://www.sneedbcollardiii.com/, https://fathersonbirding.com/
Instagram: @sneedcollard
Facebook: Sneed Collard
Book: Birding for Boomers—and Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity
Publicist, Marissa Litak, MarissaL@Mountaineersbooks.org

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Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

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