Books by Mike O'Connor

Children's folk tales from Cornwall especially selected by a professional storyteller

In 1983, Mike O'Connor opened the Bird Watcher's General Store on Cape Cod, which might well have been the first store devoted solely to birding in the United States. Since that time he has answered thousands of questions about birds, both at his store and while walking down the aisles of the supermarket. The questions have ranged from inquiries about individual species ("e;Are flamingos really real?"e;) to what and when to feed birds ("e;Should I bring in my feeders for the summer?"e;) to the down-and-dirty specifics of backyard birding ("e;Why are the birds dropping poop in my pool?"e;). Answering the questions has been easy; keeping a straight face has been hard.Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? is the solution for the beginning birder who already has a book that explains the slight variation between Common Ground-Doves and Ruddy Ground-Doves but who is really much more interested in why birds sing at 4:30 A.M. instead of 7:00 A.M., or whether it's okay to feed bread to birds, or how birds rediscover your feeders so quickly when you've just filled them after a long vacation. Or, for that matter, whether flamingos are really real.

A collection of humorous Q&As about everything you've always wanted to ask about birds and birding Mike O'Connor knows bird watchers as well as he knows birds. He knows that if you're even slightly interested in identifying birds or attracting them to your backyard with a feeder, then you've also had your share of strange and silly questions about birds and their sometimes inexplicable behavior. In Why Do Bluebirds Hate Me?, O'Connor applies his deep knowledge of all things avian to answer the questions that keep birders up at night. Questions like Should you clean your birdhouses? Do swallows have a feather fetish? How much does it cost to run a heated birdbath? Is drinking coffee bad for birds? Other questions O'Connor covers range from the practical (Should I rotate the seed in my feeder?) to the quirky (Why are vultures eating my vinyl screen door?) to the just plain adorable (Are those birds kissing or feeding each other?). And he also explains why bluebirds just don't seem to like some people.

Cornish folk tales

Manfred von Richthofen became a fighter pilot on the Western Front in August 1916. By January 1917, Ruchthofen had shot down fifteen aircraft had been appointed commander of his own unit. He painted the fuselage of his Albatros D-III a bright red was was nicknamed the Red Baron.