Judy, thank you for making one of the most important contributions to this discussion. The job you're doing is already a tough and largely thankless one, and feral cat hoarders are making it even harder.

Thanks for pointing out a deeply disturbing aspect of feral cat "management," John. Among the few published studies I've read that claim reduction or elimination of feral cat colonies by TNR (conducted by TNR advocates, so hardly unbiased), the reduction/elimination has been accomplished mainly by removal for adoption. Re-releasing adoptable cats is hoarding, and any organization or agency that condones such behavior is doing a grave disservice to both cats and its TNR volunteers.

As a sufferer of Attention Deficit Ooooh Shiny!, I empathize with Montgomery's lack of focus. Birds offer so many tempting tangents that it's hard to know where to stop. Reading other reviews, I imagined Birdology being like a more focused version of one of John McPhee's collections: eclectic, but with an underlying unity. Still, it sounds like a good choice for someone with a casual interest in birds, who wouldn't be likely to read a whole book dedicated to pigeons, parrots, falconry, chickens, etc.