The past week was eventful and significant. On Mar. 30 I delivered some books to the Aerie Resort on the Malahat. They are promoting birding as one of their feature tour packages, and my book will be part of the package. For anyone who hasn't heard of the Aerie, it has been consistently rated as one of the top resorts in the world. On the other hand, I also tried to deliver books to the Galloping Moon Gallery in Lake Cowichan. The only problem was that no one in Lake Cowichan had ever heard of it. Apparently, some one's good intentions have yet to materialize.

On Apr. 1 I was the guest of Nature Trust's Tim Clermont for the Brant Festival nature tour. It was my pleasure to meet 2 of the tour leaders who are also icons of the B.C. birding world, John Cooper and Dick Cannings. John was a co-author of the Birds of B.C. and Dick is a well-known researcher, author, and Bird Studies Canada co-ordinator.

After meeting John, the planets must have been aligned for me as a long lost friend, Larry Lee, (not seen or heard from since 1962) called out of the blue and offered me the first 2 books of the Birds of B.C. (He had heard through the grapevine that I was into birds.) The books had been a gift from his good friend, Mike McNall, who was also a co-author of Birds of B.C. Now, it just so happened that I had Barb and Garnet Hunt's frozen Merlin (window victim)in my freezer. I was saving it for RPO, but David Allison emailed that they no longer needed it and suggested I try the museum. On Apr. 3 I attended Friesens Corporation publishing workshop at the Laurel Point Inn and afterwards, personally delivered the Merlin to Mike McNall. To top it off, Mike handed me the first 2 volumes of Birds of B.C. that Larry had dropped off on the weekend! I felt guilty trading for 2 copies of my book, but it's the thought that counts, isn't it?

I have always heard of the Birds of B.C. but never seen it. Now in the span of 3 days I not only inherited the first 2 volumes, but I met 2 of the co-authors. How strange is that? Do you believe in 6 degrees of separation? My next stop was to visit Agnes Lynn and her Anna's Hummingbirds. Guess who her neighbor is? Ian McTaggart-Cowan! I should have gone over to pay my respects, but I didn't. Any more 6 degrees? Yes, I ran into Ian and Mary-Ann Kennedy 2 weeks ago at Chapters in Nanaimo. I taught with Ian in Parksville and his picture is in Birds of B.C. as he was one of the childhood birding buddies of Wayne Campbell. I actually met another of the co-authors, Neil Dawe, last summer at Marshal-Stevenson, and I'm still looking for him as he ordered my book.

By the way, I have been browsing through the books, and am fascinated by trmendous amount of data and information. It is an amazing resource. I can truly appreciate the thousands of hours that went into it's production. I wish I had the complete set 3 years ago. Wouldn't it be great if a supplement were produced every 5 years to update the information?