The current month’s Birdwatch has extracts from my forthcoming book A Message from Martha: the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and its relevance today. I’ve been touched by how many people have emailed me, after reading Birdwatch, to say that they are definitely going to buy it. The book looks at the story of the…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
A Message from Martha
In two months’ time, A Message from Martha: the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and its relevance today will be published in the UK. Chris Packham is one of only about half a dozen people who has read it so far and he says: ‘This hugely thought provoking and important book is the kick up…
Sunday book review – A Field Guide to Monitoring nests by Ferguson-Lees, Castell & Leech
I’m rubbish at nests and eggs. I have little experience in finding them and am usually pretty clueless at identifying them when I do stumble across them. This, then, is a book for me. The book is a handy size to take into the field. Each of 146 British breeding species gets its own account…
Sunday book review – The Birds at the Bottom of the Garden by Carl Mynott
This is a small book for small people of around pre-school age. I’m a bit older than that, and so are my kids, but I bet they would have loved this book 20 years ago. The words, which are mostly in rhyming verse, and pictures, which are diagrammatic, are both by the author. It’s a…
Sunday book review – Top Gun of the Sky by Martin Bradley
This is a beautifully illustrated book. It is illustrated and written by Martin Bradley who works at the Exxon Mobil Fawley Refinery in Hampshire (where Peregrines nest). The illustrations are bold and just a little bit different – have a look and you will see what I mean (and see above). The book is aimed…
Sunday book review – Tweet of the Day by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss
For early risers, the few moments at around 6am on BBC Radio 4 for several months has been a date with nature. More specifically, a 90 second date with the song or call of a species of British bird. The birds were the stars, they always are, but a range of well-known birders and naturalists,…
Sunday book review – The Art of Conservation by Gillmor, Davies and Appleton
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This is an attractive book which tells some of the story of the 25 years of Bird Fairs at Rutland Water. The story is told through the artwork of the posters of the different fairs. The first Bird Fair was in 1989 and raised £3000 for the ICBP ‘Stop the Massacre campaign (let us note…
Sunday Book Review – The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmark
‘I never paid much attention to pigeons until one defecated on me’ is not a bad opening line for a book. This book is about the interaction between pigeons and people – which of the two gets more defecated upon? Domesticated pigeons, and urban feral pigeons, are derived from the Rock Dove but are normally…
Sunday Book Review – The Twitch by Kevin Parr
This is one of two books I bought in Oxford the week before last. The first was in the shop window and caught my eye so I went inside and then this cover and title caught my eye so I bought it too. Both purchases were testaments to the power of advertising – or communication. …
Sunday Book Review – The Birds of Berkshire by Bucknell et al.
Yet another county avifauna piggybacking on the back of the BTO/BWI/SOC Atlas? Of course, and how lucky we are to be deluged with such a large number of these excellent works. Some chap writes at the front of this book ‘Everyone, who has contributed to this splendid work, deserves the highest praise.’ and he is…