Another rubbish book about birdwatching (1 Viewer)

[bobblejack]

I have just finished reading "How to be a bad birdwatcher" by Simon Barnes. An easy, enjoyable read. It has empowered me to be able to go birdwatching without necessarily having to be able to identify each bird. I tend to go to a local site which is popular with serious birders. Usually I spend about an hour or so just enjoying the birds. I will eavesdrop to maybe discover what I am actually looking at, if I don't already know. At the moment just watching the birds is enough, but this could change in the future. The point is, I used to feel slightly intimidated being amongst seasoned birdwatchers but reading this book has made it ok for me to do this.

 

[Monahawk]

Indeed, I have some old wet film pix of RR299 at low level in the Pennines (Dambusters 60th I think) which are among my most precious possessions.

However Hoof was sadly killed at Duxford in a P38 Lightning, the Mossie crew was from BAe.

John

Myself and my old man witnessed that crash at Duxford. Not nice.

However, on the subject of books I agree with your list. Good reads.

One to avoid. Someone in there innocent wisdom gave me a copy of Bearded Tit by Rory McGrath. I reluctantly accepted it, read 4 or 5 pages and sent it promptly on its way to a charity shop. Can't stand the bloke and the title of the book says it all.

Si.

 

[Nightranger]

I think these things are a matter of taste (a la music) although some of the books recommended are the same I would choose:

Bill Oddie's Little Black Book (I lost my copy some years ago)
Gripping Yarns - Bill Oddie (a compilation but still a good read)
The Big Bird Race - Bill Oddie & Stephen Tomlinson (I wonder how many people noted ST's admission of cheating on one species)
How To Be A Bad Bird Watcher - Simon Barnes (the follow-ups are not as interesting)

I must confess that birding books are not really my thing if only because style of birding is also a matter of taste so it is easy to be irritated by the way someone approaches the descriptive elements of what they do, which seems to be what the OP is saying. I much prefer monologues albeit that it can be difficult to get past the rather dry scientific data in terms of getting the most out of the actual reading experience:

The Sparrowhawk - Ian Newton
Devil Birds - Derek Bromhall
Magpies - Tim Birkhead
Swallows - Peter Tate
...also both J. Denis Summer-Smith books covering house and tree sparrows and Ian Newton's now old book covering all the British finches.

 

[Nightranger]

Indeed, I have some old wet film pix of RR299 at low level in the Pennines (Dambusters 60th I think) which are among my most precious possessions.

However Hoof was sadly killed at Duxford in a P38 Lightning, the Mossie crew was from BAe.

John

Kevin Moorhouse and Steve Watson were the crew sadly killed at Barton due to a carburetor failure...or rather the needle float that is a characteristic of the Merlin engine. It is tentatively believed that a contributing factor was that the engine came from an Avro York and may not have been ideal for task in something as agile as a Mosquito. Geoffrey De Havilland demonstrated a Mosquito by looping it on one engine so there is no suggestion that the aircraft was being incorrectly flown as suggested on some forums. RR299 was flown in a sprightly fashion but always in a limited way compared say, with Shuttleworth's Spitfire.

Kevin Moorhouse's widow was selling off his desktop model collection through a local aviation society a few years back at Woodford and I bought an Air Cal Boeing 737-300, which I sadly no longer have. My sister's then boyfriend bought a superb model of a BA Tristar but I wish I could have afforded the TWA Martin 4-0-4 on a wooden display stand - beautiful!

 

[West End Birder]

Martin 4-0-4 now there is a rare aeroplane

 

[David Ferguson]

Kenneth Allsop, a well-known journalist and Tv broadcaster of the 60s wrote two novels about birds abd birding. Both are good reads.
Adventure Lit Their Star, published in 1949, recounts the colonisation of England by Little Ringed Plovers. Much of it is written from the point of view of the birds.
Rare Bird, published in 1959, is a satire on the media who, in a slow news week, descend on a village in southern England where 3 pairs of Black-winged Stilts are nesting on a nearby marsh. In one scene, the hero, a birder, is walking in a wood with an attractive TV producer when she trips over a bramble. He joins her on the ground and he is just about to administer comfort when he hears a reeling Grasshopper Warbler - a first for the site. What does he do - stay where he is or go looking for the bird? The book is also interesting in showing the changes in birding and in the status of the birds - the hero regards Red-backed Shrikes as commonplace, for instance.

 

[John Cantelo]

A number of my favourites have already been mentioned although, personally, I found 'the Biggest Twitch' virtually unreadable - one of the few birding books I've never finished. Two stand out books for me, both by D I M Wallace, which I don't think anyone's mentioned are 'Discover Birds' and 'Beguiled by Birds'. Rarely mentioned in this sort of doscussion is Joey Slinger's 'Down and Dirty Birding' which is an American 'Little Black Bird Book' with added attitude!

 

[Peter C.]

... Rarely mentioned in this sort of doscussion is Joey Slinger's 'Down and Dirty Birding' which is an American 'Little Black Bird Book' with added attitude!

[*A-hem!*]

"...a Canadian 'Little Black Bird Book' with added attitude!"

|;|

PC.

 

[chris butterworth]

[*A-hem!*]

"...a Canadian 'Little Black Bird Book' with added attitude!"

|;|

PC.

Bl**dy hell. TWO Canadianites with attitude. The world's getting a scary place.

Chris

 

[John Cantelo]

[*A-hem!*]

"...a Canadian 'Little Black Bird Book' with added attitude!"

|;|

PC.

Apologies for the error - I picked it up in the US fifteen or so years back & quite forgot that Mr Slinger is a Canadian. I thought - and still think - it's funnier and than Bill Oddie's book, but isn't nearly as well known as it ought to be.

 

[dantheman]

... forgot that Mr Slinger is a Canadian. I thought - and still think - it's funnier and _______ than Bill Oddoe's book, but isn't nearly as well known as it ought to be.

... now that's intriguing.

(And re original comment, you might have gotten away with it if you'd put a small 'a' american ... ? )

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Oh what a gaffe. The P38 was Duxford, the Mossie Barton I believe? Shame both nice planes great Airfix kit models.

By the way, did I even mention I wrote a book about my love of aviation? ;-) (True!)

I was at Cresswell Pond one day last summer trying to catch up with a hobby that had been frequenting the area for a few days. I'd seen it several times but I was wanting better views and maybe some photos. I'd seen it the day before at East Chevington and I was to see it on the following day just behind me at Druridge feeding on newly emerged dragonflies in the tree-tops in heavy rain.

I got partly lucky that day at Cresswell when the hobby flew low and close along the dunes towards me as I stood in the car park with a friend, but it turned off just before I could get the camera up. Hobbies are a rare occurrence around our parts


A strange experience had occurred a few minutes earlier - something I'd never seen in real life before. It was an apparition that I got my eye onto approaching from the north. At first I couldn't make out whether it was a group of large birds or a machine. It seemed insubstantial, but its constant speed and heading made me think of machine. Not a sea king from Boulmer, another helicopter maybe? An aircraft? It just looked strange.

It's a good job I was standing next to my car and the boot was open, because as it got closer in the few seconds when I realised what I was looking at I had time to pick my camera from the boot and fire off three or four shots before the apparition disappeared to the south.

When I looked at what I'd photographed the reason for its insubstantial appearance became clear. It was so highly polished in a gloss chrome finish that it consisted purely of reflections of the sky, the sea, the beach and even the dunes and the fields behind us.

Incredible.

It's a pity the light was so poor that day, with a heavy overcast. What would it have looked like in good sun and a blue sky? I did some googling and found out that it was on its way from a display at Sumburgh to another one down south.

Hobby shot in the rain (attacking young dragons resting in the alders - the white spots are raindrops) and 'apparition' below.

 

[Archie Opteryx]

Nobody mention The Peregrine by J A Baker? Dull in places, I admit, but some of the prose is very good indeed.

 

[Peter C.]

Apologies for the error - I picked it up in the US fifteen or so years back & quite forgot that Mr Slinger is a Canadian. I thought - and still think - it's funnier and than Bill Oddie's book, but isn't nearly as well known as it ought to be.

Yea, that's me, Mr. Attitude.

Actually, not such a big fan of Mr. Slinger, just thought I should give credit etc. I've read the book (may still have a copy somewhere), and I heard him speak on the subject of birding once - I find him just a bit too flippant. But I'm even less keen on the "Little Black Bird Book", which I found rather snide.

 

[chowchilla]

Yea, that's me, Mr. Attitude.

Actually, not such a big fan of Mr. Slinger, just thought I should give credit etc. I've read the book (may still have a copy somewhere), and I heard him speak on the subject of birding once - I find him just a bit too flippant. But I'm even less keen on the "Little Black Bird Book", which I found rather snide.

I think the reason that BOLBBB has enduring popularity in the UK is because it is a rather accurate portrayal of birding, and more specifically twitching, at least as it was then in the UK. It may still be just as applicable now.

Bill's rather cynical approach is as much a reflection of how things are/were in the UK birding scene as it is his rather um... 'irascible' personality.