Cerulean Blues: A Personal Search for a Vanishing Songbird

by Katie Fallon

Taking the reader from the mountains of Appalachia to a coffee plantation near Bogotá, Colombia, this investigation into the plight of the cerulean warbler—a tiny migratory songbird—describes its struggle to survive in ever-shrinking bands of suitable habitat. This elusive creature—a favorite among bird watchers and the fastest-declining warbler species in the United States—has lost three percent of its total population each year since 1966. This precipitous decline means that today there are 80 percent fewer ceruleans than 40 years ago, and their numbers continue to drop because of threats including deforestation, global warming, and mountaintop-removal coal mining. With scientific rigor and a sense of wonder, Fallon charts their path across more than 2000 miles and shows how the fate of a creature weighing less than an ounce is vitally linked to that of our own.

Genres: Birds, Nature, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I certainly know more about cerulean warblers that I did before--I had known that they are elusive little birds. I have only seen two, a female that showed up in Point Pelee National Park on one of my visits there and one male that I saw for nano-seconds (really high) in Texas. I'm still searching for that satisfying look at the gorgeous male Cerulean. Now I know why they are so difficult to track down.

The bird information in the book was very good. And I realize that it is as much a memoir as anything else, but that's the part that was annoying me by the end of the book. The author seemed to be obsessed with how much she sweated--it was mentioned at least once per chapter. Really? You worry about that when you are birding? And I came to dread the self-righteous preachy bits. Yes, mountain-top removal mining is destructive. Write a really good description of it and let me make up my own mind from that--don't just repeat your judgements ad nauseum. Plus, she is busy judging the scientists working on conserving the warbler and the people she meets in Colombia. Anywhere she sees a gun, we get a paragraph about how scared it makes her. Now I realize that she'd been on Virginia Tech campus during the shooting there, but she's an American. Probably plenty of her neighbours are packing heat and to be nervous about a solider holding a gun seemed a bit hypocritical. As she is a teacher of creative writing, I would have hoped that the repetitiveness and irrelevant bits would have been edited out.

To her credit, I think Katie Fallon is young and I'm certain her writing will improve. And she has actually written a book, which I have not. Plus, having googled her, I have discovered that she has actually started a non-profit to protect Appalachian wilderness. Bravo!

[Kelly Lynn Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my Nature Writing class. This book does many things well. It conveys the author's love and passion for cerulean warblers (which is the idea, after all), and more importantly, made ME care about cerulean warblers. It also made me change my behaviors. I'm only going to buy shade grown coffee now, because I don't want to be killing birdies.

Another thing this book does well is make birding exciting. When Fallon takes us out in the field with her in search of ceruleans, it's an adventure and a quest, not a simple nature hike. There's always a real sense of movement and discovery, even if Fallon doesn't get to see exactly what she was hoping for.

Fallon also picks out really wonderful details to highlight the people, places and animals/birds she meets and visits, and it's a real joy getting to know them along with her.

The thing that kept this book from four stars was the amount of repetition. The book deals with a lot of scientific fact, and handles it well for a lay audience, but winds up repeating basic things over and over. Instead of saying "the plot study", which has already been explained in good detail, it explains it again. For some, this repetition might be welcome, but I felt it slowed the narration down quite a bit.

Another thing the author repeats frequently is the evils of mountaintop removal mining. Now, I 100% agree with her. Mountaintop removal mining sucks in every possible way. But many times, simply letting the reader SEE the devastated mountain would have been enough to break our hearts. We didn't always need to be told how awful it is when we were looking at a removal coal mining site along with the author and could see the impact it had on the environment.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly good

I enjoyed reading about the Cerulean Warbler, but so much of the book is pointless filler. Being on the Virginia Tech campus the day of the mass-killing and the prolonged sections about Columbian history were completely irrelevant and a chore to read.

[Hahncris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Katie's style of writing and found her personal story very touching. Cerulean warblers are so beautiful and it is very special to see one. She captured that feeling well.

[Jessica Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the ethnographic approach to writing about the Cerulean Warbler in this book. I also appreciated the author's attempt to connect the disappearance of the single bird species that she followed to a larger story about the ecological collapse through which we find ourselves living. The author did this best in her discussion of habitat destruction by environmentally destructive practices linked to energy consumption, such as Mountaintop Remove Mining, as well as coffee growing practices that, especially when most lucrative, are incredibly destructive to the birds' habitat. I found the book less interesting the further I read. I really appreciated meeting the Cerulean Warbler researchers and specialists and following the birds through their Appalachian forest habitat. The early part of the book felt textured and nuanced with vivid and thick description. However, the part of the book about Colombia seemed like a thinly descriptive, over-generalized, under-contextualized travel narrative. The part of the book about Colombia seemed to lack the commitment to "getting it right" that the author seems to have in relation to the Appalachian context. The most startling example of this is that a book that begins with a mass shooting on American soil worries over and over about the safety of the author and her ornithologist friends in Colombia. Are they in danger? Do they need the protection that is provided for them? Is there some danger lurking under the surface friendliness of the communities encountered by the author and the international entourage of which she is a part? These questions are asked but not answered, leaving the reader with a sense of the peril behind travel to Colombia, which is quite odd considering the only dangerous encounter in this book is one that happens in Virginia, USA. There is no sense of connection between the very real danger in which the author found herself on Virginia Tech's campus and the stories of danger that circulate in relation to travel in Colombia. Instead, these vague suggestions of danger in Colombia are reflected on without irony at the conclusion of a book that began with a mass shooting in America. The book's conclusion did not make much effort to tie together the two contexts or to connect the singular bird species to a larger, global picture, of which it IS most certainly a part. Though the author promised to demonstrate the connection between larger processes of environmental devastation and the story of this one bird species, it seemed that she often argued for the preservation of this species at the cost of any other consideration. While I think it could be argued that nurturing and protecting this bird is connected to nurturing and protecting other life on the planet, I don't feel that the author made that argument, even though she promised to at the beginning of the book.

[Claire Binkley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book honestly terrified the daylights out of me. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do, as a good writer, so bravo to Katie Fallon! But that is my explanation for my lackluster rating. Take a look for yourself to see what I'm talking about!

The focus of the story is on the cerulean warbler, a cute little blue bird. To make it through the prose I focused on how much I loved pwning in Pokémon Blue that second city after Pallet Town, but those were really fractured pixelly twenty-two year old memories. I found the book scary.

It won't be scary if you can donate to some of the save the birds funds! To donate to Audubon, please go here. Thank you and have a nice day.

Looking over this review, it looks like I was just severely shellshocked. The book's epilogue actually has a couple other handy links I totally ignored.

[Storey Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful combination of small-scale examination at the personal and small-bird level with the macro indictment of our treatment of the environment. Unexpected currents run throughout, such as the impact of automatic weapons on our psyche and well-being, or the nature of organizing and bonding over a common interest.

[Steven Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and educational read. Katie is very descriptive when writing about her experiences. Though I feel that she has more of a "preservationist" mindset than myself (perhaps not), I believe she did a great job explaining the conservation needs of Cerulean Warblers. A recommended read for anyone interested in birds, nature, and/or conservation.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully written. A beautiful, moving account of one species, and the challenges facing its survival .

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paperback – November 1, 2011
I happened to hear Katie speak at the Amish Bird Symposium this March, and was fascinated by her presentation of this tiny Appalachian highlands songbird endangered by mountaintop removal, as well as an epic migration of thousands of miles to the rainforests of Columbia.
Katie teaches creative writing at West Virginia University and was a finalist for the Southern Environmental Law Center's Reed Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment. She is not only an advocate for this tiny bird and its shrinking habitat, but she tells a very personal story beginning with her very emotional experience of the Virginia Tech shooting when she was an English professor there, and her subsequently increasing passion for the Cerulean warbler, which included a trip to Columbia with some of the foremost birders in the world. (She is a writer, not a biologist, and at one point laments everyone else’s cool zip off nylon pants as she slogs through the rainforest in soggy wet jeans and sneakers.) She weaves in information that was very interesting to me- types of shade grown coffees to look for (be SURE they’re certified somehow) and how to BE bird friendly. She describes different bird songs by “words” they sing (the Carolina chickadee’s ‘hey there, sweetie’ for example), and much more. She writes in a very inviting, sometimes humorous way that is captivating!!

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

a most excellent natural history of this warbler that summers in usa appalachias and winters in colombia mountains, chronicles the little birds precipitous decline toward extinction. author tries to figure out why (usual culprits, pollutions of all kinds, air, water, light,etc, loss of habitat in both n and s amer, house cats etc etc) and really hits the woods to get her facts. she becomes really, the pop expert and reporter on the little buggers and is good at relating her personal journeys with that of science and modern world, even up to quite an in-depth look at colombian society (rural, poor, embattled) and some of the things folks are trying to do (there and in n. amer) to convince people that the health and furtherance of the cerulean warbler will also in fact further humans endeavors to be happy, healthy, rich is what is important (not mcmansions, but you knew that right?) . very nicely written and informative, if rather dispiriting, story of song bird natural history and decline in 21st century.

[Danni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part scientific journalism, part travelogue, and part personal memoir. At the surface, this book serves as an introduction to the people and the work being done to protect a disappearing warbler species. However, this is more than just the story of a single species. The story and the struggle of the Cerulean Warbler is representative of every bird species, endangered or otherwise, and how the daily actions of human beings, even something as simple as buying a cup of coffee, can have bigger ramifications than we might realize. Furthermore, this book is a testament to the healing powers of the natural world: as the author struggles to deal with the aftermath of the horrific Virginia Tech shootings, it is clear that the experience of searching for answers and searching for birds helps the author to find peace, comprehension, and healing. Accessible to new-comers, and full of information and stories for all others, this is a compelling, honest, and heart-felt book that I highly recommend to all.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was uneven for me but I will still recommend it to fellow birders. For a long-time nature lover and birder, I found much of the material elementary. I'm still uncertain what made the author so fascinated by ceruleans. She wasn't a very experienced birder, so why ceruleans? Were they merely good book material? As others have noted, she does become rather preachy. Still the descriptions of some her camping trips and adventures in the field appealed to me. The best part was about the trip to Columbia. I savor ceruleans when they visit my state, but don't often consider where they spend the rest of the time. I hope she keeps growing as a naturalist and writer. I'd read this author again. PS I wished the photos were in color.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the book - I devoured most of it over the course of two plane flights in a single afternoon. Katie's passion for these birds is clear the moment you start reading, and her story is a two-continent adventure that makes you been like you're right there in the woods with her.

I will include a trigger warning for some people: I hadn't expected to read a first-hand account of the events of April 16 so quickly into the book. The wounds of that day are still raw for many; if you're one of those people, I'd suggest skipping chapter two.

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katie Fallon's book of creative nonfiction mixes science, birding, memoir, the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting, sustainability science, and environmentalism into this rich celebration of an at risk warbler, which she discovers both in its breeding grounds of Appalachia and its winter habitat in Colombia. And as she wonders about the fate of these birds, the broader implication about our own fate flutters just off the page.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

West Virginia is hands down the most beautiful place on earth, says Fallon. A big part of this book is about the beautiful places that nurture the beautiful things on the earth.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a little uneven, but with some good bits of information in it

[Doug Pepper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great novel from a new writer. Even though the subject seems a little "underwhelming" at times, the writing is great and the book is tops for eco-readers and birders.