Read reviews of the books we hold in the Chris Mead Library, written by our in-house experts. A selection of book reviews also features in our members’ magazine, BTO News.
All the Birds of the World
Featured review
Lynx have had a long-term project to produce an exhaustive guide to the birds of the world. It started out with the 17 volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992-2013) which has family and species accounts for all birds. This was followed by the two volumes of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (2014-16). They have now published the third and final stage of this avian odyssey with this current book.
Britain's Habitats: a Field Guide to the Wildlife Habitats of Great Britain and Ireland
Author:
Sophie Lake, Durwyn Liley, Robert Still & Andy Swash
Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford
Published: 2020
To understand the distribution of our birds it very much helps if we know the preferred habitats of each species. For example, Knot winter on mudflats, Dartford Warblers live on lowland heaths and Dotterel nest on mountain tops. But habitats are messy things. We all have an idea of what we mean by a woodland, but how many types of woodland are there, and how do they differ? This book will help you get at the details, and details can prove to be important.
Lynx have had a long-term project to produce an exhaustive guide to the birds of the world. It started out with the 17 volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992-2013) which has family and species accounts for all birds. This was followed by the two volumes of the Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (2014-16). They have now published the third and final stage of this avian odyssey with this current book.
Author:
Verena Keller, Sergi Herrando, Petr Voříšek, Martí Franch, Marina Kipson, Pietro Milanesi, David Martí, Marc Anton, Alena Klvaňová, Mikhail V. Kalyakin, Hans-Günther Bauer & Ruud P. B. Foppen
Publisher: Lynx Edicions
Published: 2020
Considered by the judges of British Bird Book of the Year 2021 to be the most significant, influential and far-reaching title of the past 12 months, all six awarded their top marks to EBBA2. The book’s wide appeal, broad application and significant contribution to science were all commended. The judges praised both the high value of the publication’s content and the accessible way in which information was presented, from the readable texts to the different maps, which deliver data in clear and easy-to-interpret ways. With a growing number of species showing changes in population and distribution, this title not only offers an up-to-date overview of the current situation for each species but will also act as a vital checkpoint to look back on and compare against over the coming decades.
Multimedia Identification Guide to North Atlantic Seabirds: Shearwaters, Jouanin’s & White-Chinned Petrels
Author:
Bob Flood(Author), Ashley Fisher(Author) & John Gale(Illustrator)
Publisher: Scilly Pelagics
Published: 2020
Those who have seen previous titles in the Guide to North Atlantic Seabirds series will not be surprised to see this latest offering score highly in Bird Book of the Year 2021. The text, the photographs, the artwork and the accompanying video footage were all praised by the judges for being of exceptional quality, with much of the material in the book presented for the first time. This is the definitive guide for the identification of shearwaters in the North Atlantic and sets a high bar for coverage of seabirds across the world’s other oceans.
A thriller surrounding illegal wildlife trade, focusing on tropical birds and remote locations, is certainly a new find in the ornithological section of the library. Robinson’s crime novel is a welcome new genre, and I was excited to get tucked into what was bound to be an exciting read.For the most part, it proved to be just that. The scenes are set with knowledge of the area, describing Cairns to a level of detail that brought me back to my backpacking days in the city. The story, which follows Philip Royle as he chases his missing colleague, follows a nice arc with a dramatic plot-twist that I hadn’t seen coming. Epic chases across the Australian outback and Washington politics, all with a hint of kidnapping and several murders, most certainly keep you on your toes as you work your way through the book.However, the writing overall is at times a bit long-winded and there is a lot of repetition throughout the novel, often within sentences. There are some minor factual errors, such as referring to the Bengal Tiger as Indian Tiger. The GPS-tags that the author kindly describes as being used by BTO for tracking migratory birds, which are used in the novel to track crates of eggs being transported, most certainly wouldn’t be cut out for this kind of work, but these kinds of small errors can easily be forgiven for the thrill of the story. Slightly less easy to forgive are the descriptions of almost all female characters by their dress, long-leggedness or “scantily-clad bodies”, which was in stark contrast with the way in which male characters were described. Royle’s partner-in-crime, Charlie Lacey, came across as literary eye-candy rather than a well-developed character, which I hope will be rectified in future novels.Despite this, I found myself unable to put the book down easily; I just had to know what the next clue would be in the chase for the truth. This is what makes for great crime writing, and I do hope Robinson will continue to publish the stories of Philip Royle and his quest for justice, but perhaps with Charlie Lacey in a pair of jeans instead of a dress – that way she can at least go for her gun when needed.Book reviewed by Faye Vogely
Rostherne Mere: Birds of Mere and Margin: One Hundred and Thirty Years of Observations
Author:
Steve Barber, Bill Bellamy and Tom Wall; with Ray Scally (illus.)
Publisher: Tom Wall (privately published)
Published: 2019
This book is a nice local avifauna of the famous Rostherne Mere National Nature Reserve in north Cheshire. But if the word ‘avifauna’ makes readers think of their standard format – a dry catalogue of species, with interrogation of old records to see if they meet modern identification criteria – they will be in for a surprise; in my opinion, a pleasant one. The authors have adopted a charming style, enlivened by copious anecdotes and plenty of photographs and illustrations (by Ray Scally), making an eminently readable volume. One surprise is their loose adherence to taxonomic order, with some birds dealt with in groups according to habitat, the allotted amount of space varying greatly according to the amount of study that each has had. For instance, the chapter ‘a miscellany at the margins’ covers 19 species from Marsh Harrier and Osprey to Kingfisher and Starling. Of course this means an element of referring to the index to find out where a species occurs, but probably no more than needed in all bird-books to keep up with the frequent changes to the systematic list.The records cover 130 years, from 1886 to 2016, the site having inevitably had varying intensity of study during that time. Rostherne is fortunate that for the first half of the 1900s it benefited from the attention of two local ornithologists who had risen to national prominence through their writings (T.A. Coward and A.W. Boyd), and records from their network of correspondents. In the last half-century or so, events such as appointment of Nature Conservancy wardens, construction of an observatory building, donation of a monster telescope and a programme of ringing all encouraged observations so that birds have been recorded on most days.This book is a welcome overview of the birds of Rostherne Mere and will, I believe, be enjoyed by anyone, whether or not they have ever been there. Those interested in more than just the birds will learn much from the companion volume Rostherne Mere – Aspects of a Wetland Nature Reserve.Book reviewed by David Norman
Rostherne Mere: Aspects of a Wetland Nature Reserve: Wildlife, Science and People Through Time
Author:
Tom Wall and Gisèle Wall (eds.)
Publisher: Tom Wall (privately published)
Published: 2019
In 1912, the grandly-named Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves for Britain and the Empire, fore-runner of The Wildlife Trusts, started to compile a list of 284 potential reserves in the British Isles. Rostherne Mere was included, although the benevolent ownership by the Egerton family meant that there was not seen to be any urgency in securing its conservation by other organisations and the site, especially its birds, was well-recorded. But eventually its vulnerability was recognised – including as a picnic and bathing spot for Manchester residents! – and numerous behind-the-scenes negotiations in the 1950s, masterminded by Max Nicholson, Director-General of the newly-formed Nature Conservancy, led to Lord Egerton, with no heirs, bequeathing the Mere to the nation. So, Rostherne Mere became, in 1961, our 99th National Nature Reserve (NNR). This is an imperfect précis of half a century’s progress to NNR status, described in fascinating detail in the first part of this book, with interesting insights into the mixture of personal relations, politics and finance, with a focus on conservation helping to hold it all together.Physically, Rostherne is the most northerly and deepest of the Ice Age meres of the Cheshire-Shropshire Plain, reaching over 30 m, and the last to freeze over. It is thus not surprising that its main importance was seen as a wildfowl refuge. As an NNR, Nature Conservancy wardens undertook more surveys of flora and fauna themselves, as well as lots of management work, and went out to recruit numerous academic and other researchers into other aspects of the Mere’s natural history. Accounts of the management – especially grappling with water quality, eutrophication and pollution – and of research, mostly on fish, make up the rest of the book, some with chapters written by the lead researchers themselves. There is a little overlap with the Birds of Mere and Margin volume, with a summary chapter on the birds, including a long-running study of Reed Warblers, but they have a different focus and I doubt that any purchaser of both books would feel cheated by their repeated appearance.Tom Wall, as principal author, must be congratulated for his vision in conceiving, and the immense scholarship in producing this masterpiece, all written in an engaging style and including every imaginable document, map, graph and photograph. It is a joy to read, and also repays study and thought, with lessons to be learned even now.Book reviewed by David Norman
Author:
Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, Tim Inskipp & Sherub
Publisher: Helm, London
Published: 2019
The original Birds of Bhutan published by Helm in 1999 was the first field guide to the avifauna of this Himalayan nation; the new work however, is not simply just a second edition but has been extended to include the neighbouring Indian states of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, and also adds the renowned Bhutanese bird expert Sherub as a fourth author.Whilst much of the book is devoted to the superbly illustrated plates and corresponding species accounts, the introductory section is extensive. Along with the usual guide to using the book which in this case also covers the taxonomy used, there is a really useful account of the main habitats found within the geographic area covered, including habitat features, elevation; as well as listing a few characteristic, threatened, or range restricted species that may be found within them. A table of globally threatened or range restricted species found within the geographic scope of the book is another useful feature.A brief guide to the some of the key and more accessible birdwatching areas found within the region provides those considering a visit to the region with a list of nature reserves, national parks and other areas that offer notable birding experiences. Location, habitats and target species are detailed along with an indication of the best time to visit; making this a useful place to begin when putting together an itinerary.A section of the introduction is devoted to conservation issues affecting birdlife within Bhutan and the surrounding regions of the Eastern Himalayas. Like so many other parts of the world land use is a major concern and while forest cover remains high, commercial forestry and other human activities are impacting forest quality, particularly at lower altitudes; as a result Bhutan has imposed a ban on timber exports. Agriculture expansion, necessary to feed growing populations, is responsible for the degradation of lowland grasslands and wetlands; the latter also being affected by the increased use of hydropower. Fortunately the region has many protected areas, most notably in Bhutan where almost 50 percent of the country, inclusive of all major ecosystems, is designated. In addition to formal conservation measures the dominant religious beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism usefully convey implicit protection to most wildlife, particularly within Bhutan itself.The introduction concludes with maps of Important Bird Areas within the region, a glossary, references, regional organisation details, and an illustrated guide to bird families occurring within the geographic scope of the book.The larger part of the book however, is comprised of the species accounts and the accompanying 152 colour plates. The plates, printed opposite the accounts of the species depicted, are skilfully illustrated by many prominent artists with sex and age difference shown where appropriate. Birds in flight are presented for species that are more frequently encountered in transit such as raptors, gulls and herons; or where salient features are only visible when on the wing, such as nightjars.Species accounts, whilst concise, include an abbreviated list of the regions in which the bird can be found along with a handy range map; residency status usefully details altitude. A brief guide to identification lists features used to separate a species from those most similar where confusion is possible; details any age and gender differences; describes voice including song and call; and provides an indication of preferred habitats as well as any notable behavioural traits.For those visiting Bhutan or the Eastern Himalayas this definitive field guide really is the only one you need to pack. If however, your concern is for your carbon footprint then the guide still serves as a great insight into the amazingly diverse avifauna that needs conserving in the face of inevitable climate change.Book reviewed by Justin Walker
