Co-sponsored with Lake-Cook Audubon

When Ian Fleming was looking for a name for his fictional British secret agent, he looked at the cover of his birding bible, Birds of the West Indies, saw the author's name, and simply stole it. The real-life James Bond was an ornithologist and noted naturalist/adventurer from Philadelphia who was an expert on the birds of the Caribbean. Jim Wright, the New Jersey-based author of the just-published The Real James Bond, will discuss Bond’s iconic field guide, his identity theft by Ian Fleming, and Bond’s solo expeditions to the Caribbean. Wright will also discuss the birds that Bond discovered or helped popularize, and the connection between Bond and ornithologists who became spies during World War II -- including two from the Field Museum. Wright's other books include The Nature of the Meadowlands, Jungle of the Maya, and Hawk Mountain. He is the birding columnist for The (Bergen) Record and a marsh warden at a nature preserve in northern New Jersey.  The Real James Bond is available at https://www.realjamesbond.net/2020/06/how-to-get-a-copy-.html