From the introduction to Pilgrim on The Great Bird Continent

This book is not in any way meant to pose as a biography; it is a gleaning of those instances in Darwin's life and work that inspire a renewed vision of the relationship between the human and natural worlds, and a glimpse into the various ways these older stories might mingle with newer ones. Darwin's very personal scientific methods grew out of the observations contained in his field notes, and in their creases he foists upon us his strict but beautiful maxim. Nothing in the natural world is beneath our notice--he almost whacks us on the head with it. Nothing. In a modern scientific era that discards heaps of organisms as unworthy of representation in a scientific journal because they lack "statistical significance," I try to take Darwin's vision to heart.

...In 1830, Darwin could not have foreseen the current unraveling of ecological balance, a wild earth that requires "defense." But it is in light of these realities that Darwin's own evolution as a naturalist holds such meaning for us today — as activists, as scientists, as birdwatchers, as homespun naturalists, as everyday humans whose lives constantly brush the perimeter of a wilder, natural world.

Read the first chapter online.

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