...I sit at the breakfast table gazing over my cereal at the symphony of bird life, summer and winter, that fills the air with song and dance. I get to know the way the birds behave, their habits, their calls, the way they express their unique character. I photograph them and paint them. I imagine what it would be like to think and feel and fly like a hawk, a chickadee, a cowbird. By loving them I feel myself transported into their world, and by learning what they have to teach become myself transformed. --from the introduction