An Extraordinary Birder

I haven't taken any bird close-ups lately because my trusty old Nikon has been acting up, and it's the one with the zoom lens. Most birds don't look too interesting when photographed from a distance. Here is a shot that looks cute to me because of a pair of house finches decided to perch on a satellite dish.

There are many people who take better bird pictures than mine, and you can see some of them on Wild Bird Wednesday. One of my daughter’s friends has become a celebrity birdwatcher. Christian Cooper has a new book out and a TV series on the National Geographic Channel. His credentials include a Harvard education and serving on the board of NY Audubon Society.

 You may recall that Mr. Cooper made national news when a white woman called the police while he was birding in Central Park. My daughter Marie has known him for years from when they both worked at Marvel Comics.  I was excited to catch part of an interview with him on NPR the other day. He actually mentioned Marie by name! 

Of course, I looked up the transcript to copy that paragraph. Here Terry Gross asked him about a comic he wrote about a Black birdwatcher. 

COOPER: “It was actually Bobbie Chase, my old boss at Marvel, who was now working at DC, or, at that time, she was working at DC and Marie Javins, another old Marvel alum and dear friend of mine who was - who is now the head of DC Comics, and they approached me about writing a comic, which - I hadn't written a comic in years at that point. And I was really nervous that the old comic-writing muscles had atrophied. But it was a joy to bring that story to life on the page once we figured out what it was going to be 'cause they had a title. And once they told me the title, it just fell into place for me what I wanted to do, a story that was magical-realist to bring the points home. So that was a joy to do.”

I should probably clarify that Marie is not the head of DC Comics, she is the editor in chief, which is still pretty awesome and I am proud of her. I wish Mr. Cooper great success with the TV show. His book is already getting great reviews.