The book is a compilation of 84 stories that have appeared in her “Bird Poop” column, which is published weekly in the Big Spring Herald.

While the new author will be on hand to autograph copies of the books, which will be on sale during the event, the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, which works with McCasland in rehabilitating injured animals, will conduct an environmental education program that will feature several birds of prey, including a barn owl, Swainson's hawk, peregrine falcon and red-tailed hawk.

“I'm really excited about this and looking forward to it,” McCasland said. “At first it looked as if the books wouldn't be arriving from the printers until later this month and we thought it would probably be January before we could hold this. As it is, though, we'll be able to hold it before Christmas, and this is definitely the kind of 'coffee table book' you could give as a Christmas present.”

McCasland is state and federally licensed to rehabilitate wild birds, and has been helping them for 35 years. Earlier this year, she was honored with the DAR National Conservation Award.

McCasland, the retired principal of the old St. Mary's Episcopal School, was somewhat stunned when former Big Spring Herald Publisher Suzanne Reed asked her to begin writing her column. In fact, she agreed that she could write a column, but told Reed she would write one or two and see if it was something the Herald "really wanted to publish."

The first column was simply entitled "Bird Poop" — a title some questioned, but the Reed liked. So did many of the newspaper's readers. They also liked the stories of Bebe's experiences in rescuing birds.

"People kept telling me, 'You've got to put those in a book,' and eventually I got convinced that was something I was interested in doing," McCasland explained.

While several proposals to publishers were turned down, Bebe came across Bright Sky Press, headquartered in Albany, Texas, which specializes in publishing nationally marketable Texana, which liked the book proposal and lined up artist Don Collins, who provided the drawings.

Proceeds from all sales of the book, McCasland said, go to the rescue and rehabilitation fo birds. “Birds helping birds,” as she put it.

Contact John A. Moseley at 263-7331 ext. 230 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it