Don't Die in Autumn: The Magic and Madness of a Life for the Birds
Written and Narrated By: Eric Dempsey
Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
Yeh yeh yeh—like watching paint dry… BUT if you’re NUTTY about birds? AWESOME!!!
My husband and I once upon a time rented a house… with a garden no less! and once I got a bird bath, I was delighted with the whole setup. Watching papa and lady cardinals, watching female grackles with the fledglings, watching sparrows cheep and spar. DeLIGHTful. Then we moved to a garage apartment for more affordability and DUDE! We were surrounded by trees up there on the upper floor. Oh such birds!
And then we had to move here, surrounded by vaaaast swathes of pavement and concrete and lord I wanted to die! -Until- I was made aware of The Merlin App where I could record bird sounds, and the app identified birds I was listening to. Oh HUZZAH! Barn Swallows, Chimney Swifts, Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wrens and Chickadees, Red-Shouldered Hawks. And always always always Pissed Off Blue Jays cuz there are ALWAYS raptors around. Good gosh, that little app has opened my eyes to the joys that lurk above, around, all throughout this massive concrete and pavement, the oh such blandness!
So it was with extreeeeme delight that I found Don’t Die in Autumn where I listened to 10+ hours of author and birder of note Eric Dempsey talking exACTly like I do when I babble excitedly to m’ husband: No, really, DUDE, it was a Ladderback Woodpecker! At the freaking Post Office!
Yessss, you’ll spend HOURS of Dempsey describing in minute detail pretty much each and every bird encounter he’s had. Yessss, you’ll learn birding lingo like What is a Tick (A bird seen and noted)? What is Twitching (Dashing around to find a bird that another birder found)?
Could this all be boring?
You betcha! If ya ain’t nutty about birds, yes by all means: Do go watch paint dry to get some stimulation and some ya-yas out.
But if you’d like to listen to someone enthusing on what is obviously a grand passion? Oh, how wonderful! Add various charming and hilarious anecdotes (Squashed down flat on one’s belly, patiently waiting for a special bird to come closer, cloooser, clooooooser: And WHAM! School kids running over asking what the heck are you doing? thereby scaring special bird off. This can ONLY earn the response of FEK Off (The phonetic spelling for an irate Irishman’s oaths and recriminations)!
And oh glory, that’s a perfect segue to the narration oh so capably done by Eric Dempsey himself. Oh good golly gosh, I had to slow my usual x1.3 speed to x1 cuz dude is that Irish brogue brogue-y or what?! Even after catching the rhythm and the lingo I didn’t jack the listening speed up cuz I was just so gosh-danged enthralled with each bird’s name and characteristics. Dempsey lovingly (oh so lovingly) waxes poetic on whatever bird he’s Ticked, and he’s oh so woeful when it comes to the birds that eluded him.
“Don’t die in autumn” is the phrase his family tosses about to tease him that they’re perfectly aware that should they drop dead in autumn, Eric shan’t be there but off birding during the best migration period of the year. Still, at the very end, we’ve a beautiful portrait of a loving son as he sits at the bedside of a much-loved father, the man who taught him to live properly and to boldly follow the heart. His Ma and Da are very much a part of this entire story, his journey, that we’re well and truly fond of both of them, and we’re stirred to grief. Even tho’ Eric is grieving, it’s truly a celebration of his Da’s life, this whole book is.
Seriously, I was beYONd charmed with this audiobook. The occasional profane interjection when a bird is missed or when a best-laid-plan goes awry, but very clean otherwise. A man with a good heart who is soooo engaged with his environment, and SUCH enthusiasm. It kinda makes a person look deep inside the self to ask: What is it that makes MY heart hammer?!
Yeah, I like watching paint dry, but boy do I LOVE standing stock still in the Post Office parking lot, phone outstretched with the Merlin app recording: Oh goodness!
A White-Eyed Vireo!!!!
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