ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Local author and columnist Bob Meyers wants to put in a good word for birds with his newest coffee table book.
Released this year, Meyers’ “Celebrating Backyard Birds” is a love letter to some 40 species of birds photographed in his backyard in Crabapple over two years.
Although Meyers has always appreciated the beauty of birds, he said his interest was really sparked 10 years ago while visiting Florida to board a cruise ship.
“A lot of the ships would sail out of Cape Canaveral, and there are some birding areas there in that area,” he said.
Meyers said he would spend the day before departing shooting photos of water birds such as roseate spoonbills, which have a large population there.
“I think that birds make people healthier,” he said. “They make people more focused. If you’re interested in birds, you have to really listen. You have to observe where the birds are. In a sense, I think birds are revealing themselves to us in the way they live. Each species of bird has a different history, and a different way of living.”
Meyers observed books about birds are typically guidebooks, or they use scientific terms for those who are already familiar with the subject, but he wanted to take a different approach.
To write “Celebrating Backyard Birds,” he took notes from his first two books “Bygone Treasures and Timeless Beauties: Barns of Old Milton County” and “Irish Pubs in America: History, Lore and Recipes.”
“I had two previous books, which had followed a pattern,” Meyers said. “And, I felt comfortable with it. So, I said, ‘I can do the same thing. Each one of these birds will have a chapter, and each chapter will be unique.’”
Each chapter opens with a quote, lyric or excerpt, and includes notes about a different bird and its history or behavior. Some focus on the bird’s life cycle,…
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