"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was  ten years old at the time, was trying to get a  report on birds written that he''d had three months to  write. It was due the next day. We were out at our  family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen  table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper  and pencils and unopened books on birds,  immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my  father sat down beside him, put his arm around my  brother''s shoulder, and said, ''Bird by bird, buddy.  Just take it bird by bird.''"