Parrot's Wood

“Jonnie Fisk has that rare gift of taking an engaging personality—inquisitive, observant, sympathetic, humorous, and above all indomitable—and conveying in intact into print. Within the first few pages of her books the reader feels that he has made a new and valuable friend.” —Robert Finch

Erma Fisk, known to her friends as Jonnie, was a contented housewife until the sudden death of her husband. Mostly by accident (she claims) she became an amateur ornithologist and naturalist, winning awards as her horizons expanded to include research and birdbanding duties from Maine to Peru. On one occasion, in her early seventies, she lived alone in a remote cabin in Arizona. The Peacocks of Baboquivari was her highly acclaimed chronicle of that experience. Parrots’ Wood is a journal of another expedition, a month in Belize, Central America, spent on tropical research. While recounting her day-to-day experiences, Fisk reminisces on earlier times in her life. With honesty that brings tears as well as laughter, she writes of her life as a series of doors to be opened, and some to be shut. Irritated but undaunted by her eighty years, she continues to say yes to life’s challenges and encourages us to do so too.