Abstract:
Who is the bird watcher? Why does he steal airplanes?

When Jerry Christensen’s Cessna 172—a small white airplane with a thousand clones and a hundred places to hide—disappears from its tie-down, Air Traffic Control can’t help. The runway at Palo Alto is so close to the 'duck pond' that birders with binoculars can read aircraft tail numbers. Jerry discovers a terrorist who poses as a bird watcher and steals Cessnas after scouting from across the fence, but the FBI writes him off as a nut case. Jerry, a schoolteacher and unprepared to pursue a criminal, acts on hunches and outrageous plans to chase the thief across California and the western states.