Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay, by Merilyn Simonds

[sophia_sol]

This is a nonfiction biography of a woman who was an amateur scientist in pretty much the end of the era when you could have a successful career publishing academic articles without formal credentials, and only the beginning of the era when women could have a successful career in academia. She was born to Swedish nobility, her first husband died in the Russian revolution, she was a nurse to the famous Dionne Quintuplets, and she spent decades living in a tiny cabin in the woods in northern ontario taking intensive observations of birds.

A fascinating woman! But obviously I read this book because BIRDS. And it does mostly focus on her life after she falls headfirst into what became her true life's work of studying and understanding birds. I loved reading about her passion, her efforts, her extensive correspondence with bird experts across north america, her growing and deep familiarity with all the birds of her area, her dedication to keeping careful records of everything she saw and heard. Some of the things she studied continue to be relevant to ornithologists today!

But one through-line in the book was Louise's knowledge of the declining numbers of songbirds over the years, even from the very earliest days of her birding efforts in the 1930's. She knew, too, that the declining numbers were due to human activity, and she mourned their loss. Near the end of the book, the reader is provided with some numbers of just how great the decline in songbirds has been from when Louise began her records to now in the 2020's and it is honestly heartbreaking. Even just within Louise's life, she talks about the obvious and stark change in the experience of the morning bird chorus. It brings me near tears to think of how things used to be! Between habitat loss in both breeding grounds and wintering grounds, the effects of herbicides and insecticides, disappearing food due to the collapsing insect population, and more, songbird presence is a shadow of what it once was.

The other important thing I learned from the book is that the things I want to know about birds ARE out there, I just need to acquire bird books that are focused on specific species or specific families, instead of field guides, if I want to know everything about a bird's life and behaviour. NOTED. My bird library WILL be growing.

Comments

[oracne]

It is heartbreaking.

[sophia_sol]

Just devastating!

[lirazel]

She was born to Swedish nobility, her first husband died in the Russian revolution, she was a nurse to the famous Dionne Quintuplets, and she spent decades living in a tiny cabin in the woods in northern ontario taking intensive observations of birds.

WOW.

That is so so sad.

[sophia_sol]

She was a lot! also part of the reason we know so much about her is because she was a consummate correspondent and wrote lengthy letters to many people on a highly consistent basis, including like, CONSTANTLY to her mother overseas in Sweden

[lirazel]

That reminds me of reading that big fat Virginia Woolf biography that was so long precisely because she wrote so many letters and diaries that we know what she was doing virtually every single day of her life!!!

I feel like the biographers of the future are either going to find no useful information about people of my generation or they're going to have so much that it will be impossible to sort through. Either way, I do not envy them the challenge of writing about late 20th/early 21st century people!

[sophia_sol]

oh, yeah, there is ENDLESS information about current people online, and almost all of it is in places that can be so easily lost due to the ephemeral nature of digital data. fun times for future historians!

[lirazel]

I really suspect it's the most mundane/least interesting/most consumption-oriented data about us that will be preserved, and all the stuff that really matters (like how we contextualize our own lives, our own feelings about things, etc.) will disappear completely. Which is sobering to think about but also not my problem!

[sophia_sol]

oh dang, I am afraid you are very right about that! good thing neither of us is in a place of having to make that our problem

[chestnut_pod]

Some people were just so INTERESTING. Like Lauren, I mourn the loss of letter-writing as a major form of literary and historical production, but I'm so glad this person's correspondence survived.

[sophia_sol]

Yes agreed! There are a few small gaps in her correspondence but overall a remarkably intact collection.

[luzula]

I remember reading about this woman in the Swedish Birdlife magazine!

[sophia_sol]

Ohhh huh yeah that would make sense that they'd write about her!