In the course of the research for my book, I discovered that (gasp), the real James Bond was a closet bird-watcher (or he slept with one).

On one of Mary Wickham Bond's notepads for the summer of 1956, I found the list on the left. They were living on Davidson Road in Chestnut Hill, Pa., at the time.

I found it most interesting in light of quotes from James Bond in newspaper interviews which he insisted he was not a bird-watcher (see below).

I also loved some of the vernacular for for various birds back then, including "chewink" (Eastern Towhee) and "sparrow hawk" (American Kestrel).

I know that Sharp-shins were also called sparrow hawks, but there's already a Sharp-shin on the list. The list, by the way, includes some pretty neat birds.

(Not sure why some birds are crossed out.)

Here are my earlier posts for the Cape May Spring Weekend: