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A Glut of new European Field Guides? (1 Viewer)

John Cantelo

Well-known member
I pottered into my local Waterstone’s today looking for the new edition of “WWB in Southern Spain” and found no less than two new field guides! The first was the ‘New Holland Bird Guide by Peter Barthel & illustrated by Paschalis Dougalis. Apparently it was published in German in 2006 as “Was fliegt denn da?” (apparently inspired by a book of the same name first published in 1936!). It covers 500 bird species and claims to be the most taxonomically up-to-date book currently available with splits like Caspian Gull, Yelkouan Shearwater, Balearic Warbler, Sykes’s Warbler & Redpolls etc. included. It’s certainly up-to-the-minute, but the claim seems a bit over inflated since the recent Philips guide (a revised version of the old Hamlyn guide) and Peter Hayman’s pocket guide cover most of the splits. (Although I think it’s the first guide to split Iberian Green Woodpecker).

The illustrations are beautifully done – perhaps they don’t have quite the technical virtuosity of the Collins guide, but they’re very, very good. The artist, Paschalis Dougalis, is an interesting character – a Greek theology student turned wildlife artist living in Germany who has a great website/blog … in English! (see - http://dougalis-wildlifeart.blogspot.com ; http://dougalis-art.com/links/ ). It’s a small and portable book, but this smallness is its Achilles heel. With only 70 plates for the claimed 1,700 bird images and the text squeezed onto the opposite page the illustrations are tiny, the ID notes brief in the extreme and the maps really tiny. A pity as a larger book with illustrations shown at a size to do them justice and more text it might have been very useful. As it is, really tricky species simply don’t get the space they need. Good idea, it fails only because it’s over ambitious trying as it does to get a quart into a pint pot.

Another new field guide just out is ‘A Field Guide to the Bird Songs and Calls of Britain and Northern Europe’ by Dave Farrow - I didn’t much like the illustrations but I’m sure the two CDs will be useful.

Still, if neither of these books please then perhaps “Identifying Birds by Colour” (256pp) by Norman Arlott (due this April) and covering a more modest 300 species will do the trick. And if not, then maybe ‘Birds of Britain and Europe’ (256pp) by Volker Dierschke (A & C Black) which is due in June covers 440 species and may please!
 
I tend to collect field guides too!
I have admired previous work by Paschalis Dougalis - especially a gorgeous painting of Lesser Kestrel for a front cover for 'BB'. I think his work here is very impressive particularly since it must have been executed in a relatively short time. It's just very annoying that the individual portraits are so small that his great artistry is somewhat lost. I've had another look since my first post and I liked it all the more. The maps are ludicrously small and the text telegraphic, but the worst thing about the book is the totally naff front cover!

John
 
Yes, doesn't it? "Packet of bird seed" has it exactly

I'm back from Canterbury's branch of Waterstones where they had a copy of "Identifying Birds by Colour” (by Norman Arlott & Moss Taylor). I hate to be negative, as a lot of work clearly went into the book, but I didn't like it at all. Nice enough illustrations (very competent, but uninspired), but I was utterly unconvinced of the logic of the book. Arranging birds 'by colour or size/shape' didn't work for the Collins Pocket Guide and it hasn't worked here. It just wastes space. It may attract beginners, but I suspect they'll soon move on to a more conventional field guide,

John
 
...... I'm always after field guides (I tend to collect them).


I'm kind of in the same boat, so to speak. But I'm afraid that is why a number of superfluous books are being published, just speculating that the "collectors" will buy them anyway. As I tend to collect a number of other items as well, I have become wary of my own urge to be complete in my collections. As for now, at least, I don't think I need the "Packet of bird seed".
 
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I'm a complete sucker for good artwork no matter how many guides I have nor how unlikely it is that I'll atually use them. Of the twenty plus books I have that can reasonably be called 'field guides' to the birds of Britain and/or Europe I regularly refer to only three; Collins Bird Guide (of course), Peter Hayman's little pocket guide (new edition) and 'Aves de Espana' (for the maps & population info). I've little doubt that were I to get this new book I'd rarely, if ever, use it for it's intended purpose, but I just can't resist such attractive plates. The absurd ting is that I very rarely actually take them into the field! I've never done so with Collins, sometimes take Hayman with me when abroad (where I'm less familiar with the birds & to use if I meet other birders) and sometimes the Spanish guide when in that country (for much the same reasons). I learnt my birds with the golden rule that if you don't know what it is you write notes, not look it up in a book. The only time I've broken this rule was birding in America when I didn't know owt so took Sibley with me. Despite this I'm addicted to good artwork field guides - damn stupid really,

John
 
I'm a complete sucker for good artwork no matter how many guides I have nor how unlikely it is that I'll atually use them. ..... The only time I've broken this rule was birding in America when I didn't know owt so took Sibley with me. Despite this I'm addicted to good artwork field guides - damn stupid really,

John

John, good artwork is definitely ONE reason for me to buy a field guide. Though, if I can get a larger edition, I prefer that for greater pleasure.

I never found enough discipline to write notes, except when there was no bird book available. Like 1971 in Costa Rica, or 2000 in Peru. The problem is, many of those species I never manage to identify anyway. Much better to have the book in the field. So I usually carry a FG with me, even in Switzerland, just in case. But as I love to travel extensively, I need books, preferably two per area, regularly in the field.
 
I'm a complete sucker for good artwork no matter how many guides I have nor how unlikely it is that I'll atually use them. ...Despite this I'm addicted to good artwork field guides - damn stupid really,

John


That's why I buy field guides, too. I love the artwork. I don't buy photo guides because they don't do anything for me.
 
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