Book reviews
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A selection of book reviews features in our members’ magazine, BTO News.
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Aves Elektron: Death of the Nightingale
Author: MiE Fielding
Publisher: Voert Digital, New York
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781399984812
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 118pp
Price: £35.00
At first glance this book appears to be a somewhat random collection of black and white photographs of, mostly, dead birds, litter, and housing developments. But as one delves deeper, it becomes apparent that this is not simply a bird book. Or at least, not a bird book by normal standards.
With Aves Elektron: Death of the Nightingale, author / creator MiE Fielding sets out to “outline the sorry tale of the UK’s catastrophic loss of biodiversity and particularly its bird life... read more
Jon Carter
Maurice Bird: The Gilbert White of The Broads
Author: James Parry
Publisher: Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists’ Society, Norwich
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9780993017339
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 140pp
Price: £14.00
The name Maurice Bird might not the most instantly recognisable, but it may be familiar to anyone who has read the author James Parry’s 2020 work (co-written with former BTO Director Dr Jeremy Greenwood) Emma Turner: A Life Looking at Birds. The Reverend Maurice Bird (1857–1924) was the Rector of Brunstead in Norfolk for over 30 years, and as a neighbour with shared interests in photography, ornithology, and natural history, he and his family were close friends with the pioneering... read more
Lesley Hindley
Bird Pellets: A Complete Photographic Guide
Author: Ed Drewitt
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, Exeter
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781784274719
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 258pp
Price: £26.99
Many of us will have found owls pellets while on a walk, and some may have even extracted the contents to see what has been eaten, but most will be unfamiliar with the range of species which produce pellets and how to go about finding them. Ed Drewitt’s Bird Pellets: A Complete Photographic Guide aims to fill this gap and goes about doing so in a thorough and digestible manner on a (literally) indigestible subject.
The book is mainly divided into two parts, the first helping... read more
Rob Jaques
Call of the Kingfisher
Author: Nick Penny
Publisher: Bradt Guides, Chesham
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9781804691113
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 248pp
Price: £9.99
Following the author’s journey along the River Nene at Oundle in Northamptonshire, this book is set out in specific months of the year. The reader can fall into step with the writer as he explores the river habitat, along with explorations further afield, and watches the unfolding lives of Kingfishers over the changing seasons.
As a musician, it may not be surprising that the author has added an element of audio into his work. Throughout the book there are numbered speaker icons that... read more
Alice Johnson
The Best Nest Contest
Author: Luke Western
Publisher: Brown Dog Books, Bath
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781839527999
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 48pp
Price: £9.99
Luke Western was inspired to produce this charming book, which he wrote and illustrated, upon introducing garden birds to his baby daughter. The book itself is aimed at slightly older children – aged four to eight. Fortuitously enough, I have a six-year-old son who was on hand to help me write this review.
First impressions were good. My son could confidently identify all the birds from the illustrations, which include examples in the author’s signature ‘geometric birds’ style. I... read more
Viola Ross-Smith
From Wasteland to Wetland: A History of Woolston Eyes
Author: Brian Martin
Publisher: Privately published
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9781838163525
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 212pp
Price: £25.00
As a birder growing up in Greater Manchester in the 1990s, I would regularly phone Birdline Northwest (remember those days of having to phone up for bird news?!) and very often, the site Woolston Eyes, in Cheshire, would feature. Although I never had the chance to visit the site as it requires a permit to access, the name has always been a familiar one to me, and in my role as one of the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) team, I have had a few phone conversations with Brian Martin about a few of... read more
Neil Calbrade
Australian Bird Guide: Concise Edition
Author: Jeff Davies, Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Peter Marsack & Kim Franklin
Publisher: Christopher Helm, London
Publication Year: 2022
ISBN: 9781399406291
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 252pp
Price: £25.00
Although there are many bird books available for birders visiting Australia, the best by far is The Australian Bird Guide. However, this book is somewhat too large, heavy and bulky for use in the field. Even taking with you would add weight to your luggage. Thankfully, a concise version of this field guide has now been released and I was fortunate enough to visit northern Queensland earlier this... read more
Neil Calbrade
The North Sea Bird Club 1979–2019: Birds, bats and beasties – forty years of offshore wildlife recording
Author: Andrew Thorpe
Publisher: North Sea Bird Club
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781999988258
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 240pp
Price: £17.50
When it comes to migration hotspots, most birders will immediately conjure up windswept headlands, wave-battered islands, or perhaps famous far-flung locations as Gibraltar or Point Pelee. And, thanks to the efforts of a few dedicated souls stranded on massive industrial infrastructures out at sea, we may even think about the somewhat less glamorous migrant-magnets that are oil and gas rigs.
The North Sea Bird Club was something of a niche organisation, that produced detailed annual... read more
Jon Carter
RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds
Author: Mark Carwardine
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, London
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9781399404549
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 176pp
Price: £18.99
During my 20 years of birding, I have only modestly dabbled in bird photography (with the same camera from the 2000s I’ve had since school), so when beginning to read this new RSPB book by Mark Carwardine I was curious to see how well it would read to a beginner such as myself, and whether it would inspire me to join the growing photographer community and to properly partake in this popular pastime.
I was pleased by Mark’s clear message that you don’t need to travel to far-flung and... read more
Gethin Jenkins-Jones
The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife: Britain and Ireland between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution
Author: Lee Raye
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, London
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9781784274078
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 398pp
Price: £44.99
As the title suggests, this book is presented as an atlas of the wildlife on our ‘Atlantic Archipelago’ from roughly 1519 to 1772. The term ‘wildlife’ covers a range of vertebrate species (from mammals to fish) together with a scatter of predominantly marine invertebrates, which together cover 151 species or grouped taxa. The mapped records and accompanying text draw on a few dozen key regional texts, largely produced by gentleman naturalists, such as Thomas Browne’s Notes and Letters on... read more Mike Toms
The Painted Stork: Exploring Ecology and Conservation in India
Author: Abdul Jamil Urfi
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, London
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781784274399
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 191pp
Price: £24.99
Abdul Jamil Urfi’s latest work on his beloved Painted Storks takes us to India and provides an accessible but richly informative account of the lives of these globally Near Threatened birds. Urfi has a deep association with the wild colony of Painted Storks that breed within the Delhi Zoo, and the chapters draw on his years of careful observation of this interesting urban population. He also takes us to humid swamps, marshes and woodlands in the wider Indian countryside, where as well as... read more
Anthony Wetherhill
The Vanishing Mew Gull: A Guide to the Bird Names of the Western Palaearctic
Author: Ray Reedman
Publisher: Pelagic Publishing, London
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9781784274627
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 374pp
Price: £65.00
At first glance, this book might appear to be another volume exploring the declines of bird species, as a result of Anthropocene activity. But reading beyond the title, it soon becomes clear that the eponymous gulls are disappearing in name only.
There is currently a great deal of debate surrounding the names of birds, much of which is focused on the controversial announcement by the American Ornithological Society that it will be renaming species which bear names honouring... read more
Jon Carter
Field Guide to the Birds of Dominican Republic and Haiti
Author: Steven Latta, Chris Rimmer & Kent McFarland (authors), Dana Gardner (principal illustrator)
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton
Publication Year: 2022
ISBN: 9780691232393
Binding: Softback
Page Count: 228pp
Price: £19.99
The island of Hispaniola, comprised of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, is among the Caribbean’s most exciting birding destinations. With an excess of 300 species recorded, the island is home to an impressive 30+ endemics (more than any other Caribbean island) with all but one of those, Grey-crowned Palm-tanager, found in the accessible Dominican Republic. One of the most celebrated endemic birds of the region is the Palmchat, which is the sole representative of its genus and is the... read more
Jon Carter
Ben Rothery’s Weird and Wonderful Animals
Author: Ben Rothery
Publisher: Ladybird Books, London
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9780241532294
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 48pp
Price: £14.99
Divided into sections covering some of the world’s strangest creatures found inhabiting the air, earth and water, Ben Rothery’s latest children’s book takes the reader on a journey peppered with some astounding facts and figures, and truly outstanding illustrations. The book touches upon 16 categories of animal, and these range from single species, such as the Bearded Vulture, Paradise Flying Snake and Giant Anteater, to an entire phylum in the case of the tardigrades. On the way, it takes... read more
Viola Ross-Smith
Haunted by the last tide: The SWLA in the Danish Wadden Sea
Author: Colin Williams (text), Marco Brodde (editor)
Publisher: Society of Wildlife Artists, London
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN: 9788793477216
Binding: Hardback
Page Count: 168pp
Price: £35.00
The result of two two-week trips by 19 artists, all members of the Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA), this beautiful book documents the birds and landscapes of Denmark’s Waden Sea National Park. While the artistic styles vary, from pencil and watercolour to oil and scrap metal sculpture, the similarities of tones used – drawn from the places visited – create a unifying vision of the area’s rich wildlife and haunting presence. As powerful as the images is the richly woven text by Colin Williams... read moreMike Toms
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