This book takes us through Rob Sawyer’s life and the birds he has seen, missed and misidentified. The title refers to the fact that Sawyer regards himself as a cross between a ‘dude’ and a ‘birder’, and that his life list reached 344 species. I don’t know Sawyer but he comes across as a reasonable…
Category: BOOK REVIEWS
Sunday Book Review – Tracks and Signs by Lars-Henrik Olsen
This book covers animals and birds (birds are animals!) of Britain and Europe (Britain is part of Europe!). It’s quite a good book. Because it covers the whole of Europe you will learn how to spot signs of Musk Ox or White Stork in your locality. I don’t know much about identifying species from their…
Sunday Book Review – The World’s Rarest Birds by Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash and Robert Still
This book is actually about threatened birds rather than rare birds – it deals with those 197 species which are regarded as Critically Endangered and those 389 which are Endangered. Having said that, many of these species are very rare. For example, there are (or were) 27 Sulu Hornbills in the world (on three islands…
Sunday Book review – Scilly Birding by Simon Davey.
Oh to be on Scilly now September’s here! I’ve only been to the Isles of Scilly once, as a child, on a day trip on the Scillonian from Penzance, and around Easter time. It must be time to go back! It’s a pity they are so far away – but if they weren’t out west,…
Sunday Book Review – The Natural Eye by The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA)
The Society of Wildlife Artists is 50 this year – Happy Birthday SWLA! I was quite surprised it had been around that long. The funds raised from sales of this book will assist the SWLA in giving bursaries – so think of it as an easy Christmas present for anyone with an interest in wildlife…
Book Review – The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle
This is a guide to the 56 warbler species of the USA and Canada. You might think that there is hardly any need for a guide to a group of birds that are so patterned, so marked, so coloured and so …well, obvious! But there is, because they are quite confusing. The Peterson Guide has…
Bank Holiday Monday Book Review – Mariposa Road by Bob Pyle
This is a book about butterflies in the USA – and about the people who like butterflies and the people met ‘on the road’ while looking for butterflies. The road is quite a long one as Bob Pyle tried to see all the USA’s butterflies in a year – which meant criss-crossing the USA several…
Sunday Book review – Birds of the Heart of England, edited by Trevor Easterbrook
This volume is about the birds of 12 10-km squares in the middle of England, centred on Banbury. The Banbury Ornithological Society was founded in 1952 and this volume is a very impressive record of their work (and play) over the last six decades. I used to live in this area, and am ashamed to…
Sunday Book Review – Birds Coping with an Obsession by Derek Moore
Derek Moore is a character. This is the story of Derek’s 70 years of working in a bank, playing in a band, playing cricket, birding and being a nature conservationist working for the Wildlife Trusts. I found all the different bits interesting – and that photo of him playing cricket makes him look like quite…
Sunday Book Review – Birds and People by Mark Cocker (photographs David Tipling)
This book arrived on Thursday and I have to admit that I have not read all the 400,000+ words, but I don’t have to, to be able to tell you that this is a fantastic book. It is a book to dip into for knowledge and pleasure. I have dipped into some of those places…