Winging Home: A Palette of Birds

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

In the hands of this incredible stylist, a simple account of bird life
observed at his home in northern British Columbia becomes a vibrant,
colourful tapestry. Rhenisch brings the poet’s skill of isolating
essential details to his birdwatching and then communicates these with
humour and insight. He concentrates on only a few bird species—robins,
geese, starlings, crows, ravens, eagles, coots, loons, redwing and
yellow-headed blackbirds, terns, barn swallows, and grouse. While all
birders will be familiar with these common species as birds, it is a joy
to be introduced to them as characters. Blackbirds, we’re told,
“vote for the Republican party … drive diesel trucks … have big
belt buckles.” Crows, on the other hand, perch on the edge of
dumpsters and tell bad jokes. Crows, of course, “find most things
funny,” while robins, who live on communes, take money from their
relatives and give it to their lovers. These feathered characters
sparkle against a vivid backdrop of vegetation, landscape, and weather
as Rhenisch shares his philosophy of each species inhabiting a parallel
earth and the importance of “being in the world.” The descriptions
are highly imaginative and totally original, lyrical, and involving.

Tom Godin’s illustration of a Canada goose is priceless. Rhenisch
paints more colourful, evocative bird portraits with words than most
artists can achieve with pigments and brushes.