Birding-a pursuit that can lead you across continents, or offer insights closer to home. In "El Refugio," Michael Ivkov tells how his own interest in the avian world began with a chance excursion and grew into a passion. The story he tells is rich in both precise observation and unexpected poetry. Well before you reach Ivkov's final page, you will be swept up in the humor, the honesty, and the ambition of the first stages of his life as a birder.