Saturday, February 23: Mozart’s Starling and Other Avian Tales

Lecture and book signing with Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Co-hosted by Sedgwick Reserve
Saturday, February 23, 7:00 p.m.
UC Sedgwick Reserve, Tipton House
Depending on conditions, there may be a pre-lecture outing to view Starlings at Sedgwick at 5:00 p.m.

Featured photo courtesy of Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Lyanda Lynne Haupt will present her latest book, Mozart’s Starling, the story of the composer and his pet bird that led her into the workings of the symphony, the opera, ornithological labs, the depths of music theory, the field of linguistics, and the nature of creative inspiration, and to the crazy experience of raising a starling in her own home. The book explores the spirit of the natural world and our wild animal companions. Robert Michael Pyle, author of Through a Green Lens and Mariposa Road, writes,
“A brave thing it is to write a love-song to starlings, in a conservation culture inclined not only to struggle with exotic species, but to demonize them. But Lyanda Haupt has done just that–not as apologist for wildlings in North America, but as celebrant of an utterly extraordinary, beautiful, and deeply engaging animal in and of itself. In prose as lovely as birdsong and as clear and sharp as the cool air itself, she has given starlings–hers, Mozart’s, the whole species–the kind of loving and rigorous Life that every kind of creature deserves but very few get. I thought of Gerald Durrell, Konrad Lorenz, and Jane Goodall, none of whom I loved reading more. The story of Carmen, Star, and their humans is as riveting as a good novel, and I learned as much about Mozart as about birdsong and birdbrains. I enjoyed Mozart’s Starling immensely, and I challenge anyone to read it and still treat starlings inhumanely. Lucky is the bird that finds its Papagena.”

We are in for a treat. We also hope that we can take a walk to the pond to see the nightly spectacle of starlings and blackbirds returning to roost for the night among the cattails.

Lyanda Lynne Haupt is an award-winning author, naturalist, ecophilosopher, and speaker whose writing is at the forefront of the movement to connect people with nature in their everyday lives. She holds a master’s degree in environmental ethics and philosophy. Her newest book is Mozart’s Starling (Little, Brown, April, 2017). Lyanda’s other books include: The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild; Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness; Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin’s Lost Notebooks; and Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds.
Lyanda has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and been a seabird researcher for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Orion, Discover, Utne, LA Times, Image, Huffington Post, Wild Earth, and Conservation Biology Journal. She lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter, a mixed backyard chicken flock, and Carmen the starling, featured in her newest book.