Who Says Birdwatchers Can’t Be Tough?

By Corey • October 30, 2009 • No comments yet

On the occasion of a new biography on Freddie Chapman being published, Jon Henley of The Guardian has a column celebrating Mr. Chapman’s extraordinary exploits, including the fact that he and two others, in their first two weeks behind Japanese lines in Malaya during World War II, “blew up 15 railway bridges, derailed seven trains and exploded 40 military vehicles, mostly using homemade bombs of gelignite hidden in bamboo sticks.” How much of a birder was Mr Chapman? Well, he would announce “his own nocturnal arrival with the cry of a British tawny owl.”

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About the Author

Corey

Corey is a New Yorker who has lived most of his life upstate but has spent the last three years in Queens. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their two indoor cats, Hunter and B.B.