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Best Days with British Birds (1 Viewer)

M

mountain man

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Having seen a few threads about general birding reads, I thought I'd give my favourite...

My all time favourite birding read is Best Days with British Birds. It was published in 1989 by British Birds magazine and is a collection of many legendary birder's best days out birding in Britain.

There is a very bizarre one from Bill Oddie in New York (British Birds...?), a very moving one from David Glue about his first day back in the field after become wheelchair bound, great tales of rarity finding at Porthgwarra by Steve Madge and at Cley by Steve Gantlett, and the definitive account of the legendary 1983 seawatch at St.Ives by Andrew Harrop, plus loads and loads more.

But the best of all comes from top twitcher Steve Webb and his account of his infamous, sublimely lucky and truly gut-busting twitch from Scilly to Fair Isle in October 1980... He went for Yellow-browed Bunting and just happened to arrive when Brunnich's Guillemot and Pine Bunting were found.

It's out of print and very tricky to get hold of, but if you ever see it BUY IT.

Anyone else read it?
 
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yes Tom

bought it on Scillies about 1990 - great read. I've often thought about compiling one of Best Oriental days or even Best world days.....there must be some amazing stories out there....can think of a couple myself!

My friend was in that car with Steve Webb - horrendous journey - I'll tell you more in person one day!
 
tom mckinney said:
It's out of print and very tricky to get hold of, but if you ever see it BUY IT.
Click to expand...

A couple of years ago the local erm "store" Trago Mills were selling these off at 65 pence each. My friends and I bought the lot! about 40 copies, and have been giving them away as prizes in Bird Club competitions ever since! - but if they make money on ebay!!!!!

Darrell

P.S - yes it is a fantastic read
 
Oh dear! Just a minute while I press the Grumpy Old Man button.

Sorry to disagree with everyone and apologies in advance to any of the authors who might be members here, but I found this a very dull read. The idea was good, but the trouble is that few, if any, of the authors were selected for their flare at writing.

They aren't all bad: Tom is right about the accounts by Bill Oddie, David Glue and Steve Madge; the tale of the 1834 Great Auk is also fascinating. There are one or two others. The one that really does shine above the rest is by the chap who planned the book, Stuart Winter - but then, IIRC he is/was a journalist.

As for the legendary St Ives seawatch, I know what it was like from talking to people who were there, but not a shred of the excitement comes across in this book. It's hardly more than a tally of birds seen: I would not have thought it possible for anyone to make it sound so mundane.

Maybe I should read the book again to see if I'm still as disappointed as I was when it was published.

The way I would sum it up would be: great content, but poor communication. A musician once suggested that what Wagner needed was a good sub-editor. So did this book.
 
Tom, mentioned this book and I have never come across it but would love to read it. Does anyone have a copy they would like to sell me?

Mike
 
Sorry - I've not got a spare copy - but I enjoyed it.

I took it on holiday to read and it lasted a day - I just kept reading - and it inspired me to get out and try to have a "Best Day" myself - well worth a read.
 
Andrew said:
Great read in most of it. Our gavin haig is in it!
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Hi,
I'd love to hear what Gavin is up to now. We became good mates on the causeway at Staines back in the 80s but subsequently lost touch.

Glad to read that some people found Best Days a good read. Thinking of doing something like it again but focussing on foreign birding. Any views?

Stuart
 
stuart winter said:
I'd love to hear what Gavin is up to now. We became good mates on the causeway at Staines back in the 80s but subsequently lost touch.
Click to expand...
Send him a PM (Private Message) as he is a keen member of BF.


stuart winter said:
Glad to read that some people found Best Days a good read. Thinking of doing something like it again but focussing on foreign birding. Any views?
Click to expand...
I'd be up for a copy!
 
For me this is one of the most inspirational bird books ever. Although you know that, say, incredibly rare birds turn up in Cornwall in autumn or stunning passages of skuas go past the Outer Hebs in late May, to read the first hand accounts of those who have been there and done that just shows that it could be you! I made my first trip to the Hebs last spring and am going up again next month, autumn will again see me searching the cornish valleys - `cos you never know... I`d say every british birder should read this book.
 
stuart winter said:
Hi,
Glad to read that some people found Best Days a good read. Thinking of doing something like it again but focussing on foreign birding. Any views?

Stuart
Click to expand...

Hi Stuart

Having taken over from you after you'd done all the hard work of getting the authors to actually deliver, it's amazing to see it suddenly being referred to again.

I'm certainly not prepared to agree with "grumpy old man" Bluetail, that it is "dull", but then I was the person who edited the texts! Perhaps he should read it again and accept that the whole point of the book was to have a great variety of birders telling their own stories in their own style.

Malcolm
 
stuart winter said:
I'd love to hear what Gavin is up to now. We became good mates on the causeway at Staines back in the 80s but subsequently lost touch.
Click to expand...
Greetings, Stuart, if you read this. It has been a while!

I was quite amused to stumble on this thread, being one of the chapter authors of 'Best Days'. Hadn't been birding all that long, felt very unqualified, and resultant youthful prose a bit bland and wordy when I read it now. Ah well, not all DIM Wallace I guess.....

What am I up to now? Birding-wise, working a rather nice patch in E Devon. You can catch up with our antics on the 'Backwater Birding' thread in the Local Patch forum, which seems to fill my need to write something occasionally.

The Fair Isle twitch is one of my favourite chapters too. Couple of my old London buddies were in that car. Excellent tale of pre-pager angst.
 
tom mckinney said:
My all time favourite birding read is Best Days with British Birds. It was published in 1989 by British Birds magazine and is a collection of many legendary birder's best days out birding in Britain.

It's out of print and very tricky to get hold of, but if you ever see it BUY IT.
Click to expand...

Just found it second-hand on Amazon and have duly sent off for a copy. God, I'm addicted to that site...or, more accurately, I'm addicted to buying books from that site!

*I just LOVE ressurrecting old threads...*
 
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