Standing up for Nature
There is no such thing as the complete naturalist – that’s part of the fun of nature. There is always more to learn – more mysteries to unravel. And I doubt that Nick Baker would claim to be the complete naturalist. But when you get past the title of the book, and stop harrumphing about…
A book about birds in towns didn’t immediately appeal to me. Birding in built up areas has always seemed to me to be making the best of a bad job rather than a good choice. But I was persuaded by the tales that the Urban Birder tells here. David Lindo – he of the national…
Matthew Oates has worked for the National Trust for ever and is one of the country’s leading experts on butterflies. With this book, he becomes a leading writer about them too. The book is a celebration of British butterflies and is an account of butterfly days going back for over fifty years. Do you remember…
This is another book that I approached with some hesitation. It’s the story of the rescue and rehabilitation of a Peregrine that fell into the sea between the Pembrokeshire coast and Ramsey Island. I wondered whether it might be a bit soft and fluffy for me –…
Nice cover! This is a book about loss – and about joy, and about wonder, and about hope. There’s a lot about the loss of nature over the last few decades and the author mixes this with memories of personal loss. A love of nature can be a support and strength during one’s life. And…
This is a lovely book. I did wonder whether I was going to enjoy the travels of a lone woman through the rainforests of central and South America in search of lots of things including Harpy Eagles – but I very much did. Sarah Woods now works for the RSPB, which I didn’t realise until…
What a hoot! This is a book about owls and owl sounds – it’s a Sound Approach Guide after all. It’s a very smart-looking and well-written book. And I found myself surprised by how much it gripped my interest. The description of the discovery of the new species, the Omani Owl, is a very good…
This is an interesting read. I like learning things and I learned a lot here. There is quite a lot of chatter about de-extinction – the process of bringing extinct species back to life through some genetic wizardry. Think Jurassic Park with proper science! It sounds far-fetched, and it isn’t imminent, but this book tells…
This book is about the author’s travels to see 25 of Britain’s ‘rarest’ and ‘most threatened’ animals; five birds, five mammals, five ‘herptiles’, five fish and five ‘everything elses’ in one year. It’s a good read and we readers are taken to some interesting places, some which I would definitely like to go to in…
I recommend this book as the antivenom to George Monbiot’s book on rewilding (Feral), and vice versa, for this is a book that will make you like sheep and those who, to some extent, look after them in the hills. It’s a very good read and I enjoyed it very much. However, this book is…