Collins Bird Guide - to buy now, or to wait? (1 Viewer)

[birdles]

I've just bought the current one, as like you, I need the info NOW!

 

[GiG]

Wait a bit longer

Just checked the Harper Collins web site and they now have a publication date of 03.09.09.

Will have to wait a bit longer to use my book tokens!

Gi

 

[Larry Lade]

My 2006 printing of the guide has the descriptive text for Zitting Cisticola, Cisticola juncidis (alternate name: Fan-tailed Warbler) on page 290, with an illustration on facing page (p. 291). However, there is no map shown.

On page 292-293 there is descriptive text, a map and illustrations of the Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Locustella cerhiola. The map shows the bird ocurring all around the Med.

 

[John Cantelo]

Shall we start a book on when it will actually appear? My money was on late August, but this latest intelligence rules that one out. I've a sneaking suspicion that someone may have calculated how long it's going to take them to sell off the current (recently reprinted) stock. I can't see that it's because the necessary revisions haven't been done. So instead of waiting, perhaps we should all rush out to buy up as many copies as we can to persuade them to move the date forward!

 

[colonelboris]

By the time it comes out, half the species will have evolved into something else...

 

[John Cantelo]

By the time it comes out, half the species will have evolved into something else...

:clap:
Bravo, Boris!

 

[jurek]

By the time it comes out, half the species will have evolved into something else...

8-P

Problem is that such a book takes helluva time to do well!

 

[TwoDipsfromAmsterdam]

My 2006 printing of the guide has the descriptive text for Zitting Cisticola, Cisticola juncidis (alternate name: Fan-tailed Warbler) on page 290, with an illustration on facing page (p. 291). However, there is no map shown.

On page 292-293 there is descriptive text, a map and illustrations of the Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Locustella cerhiola. The map shows the bird ocurring all around the Med.

In my 1999 version the map for ZC is on page 292 and this is mentioned at the end of the first paragraph of the text. The map you describe for the PGW on p292 is labelled ZC in this edition. Might be worth checking again as this could be misread easily.

DiP

 

[Larry Lade]

In my 1999 version the map for ZC is on page 292 and this is mentioned at the end of the first paragraph of the text. The map you describe for the PGW on p292 is labelled ZC in this edition. Might be worth checking again as this could be misread easily.

DiP

At the end of the first paragraph of text for Zitting Cisticola on page 290 states that the "(Map is on page 292"). The only maps on page 292 are for 1. Grasshopper Warbler, 2. Lanceolated Warbler and 3. Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler.

So, should the map labeled Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler be re-labeled to Zitting Cisticola? Or is the map actually for the PGW?

My Bird Guide shows no map for the Zitting Cisticola!

 

[TwoDipsfromAmsterdam]

At the end of the first paragraph of text for Zitting Cisticola on page 290 states that the "(Map is on page 292"). The only maps on page 292 are for 1. Grasshopper Warbler, 2. Lanceolated Warbler and 3. Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler.

So, should the map labeled Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler be re-labeled to Zitting Cisticola? Or is the map actually for the PGW?

My Bird Guide shows no map for the Zitting Cisticola!

Sounds like something went very wrong with the reprint then! The third map on the right -after Grasshopper and Lanceolated Warblers - is definitely labelled ZC with a bracketed comment - "see p.290". Given the text for the PGW ("reeds in Siberia, parts of Central Asia, Mongolia and further eastwards") it's hard to relate the map to the text!! So I think we can confidently say the map is ZC and not PGW.

 

[Larry Lade]

Thanks, David, I think I have it sorted out now!

 

[Egret]

I can recommend the small post-it notes in various colours for sticking to the relevant start pages for the various groups.... I know they don't stay put for long but at a couple of quid for 100 post-its it's a small price to pay.
That way the taxonomic ordering doesn't matter.... you know that the yellow tab is for waders, the green for gulls and the red one for warblers etc. Let's face it other than those groups how often do you go to the guide?

Great idea! As my eyesight fades; it's such a pain to put on specs to find the page I want; to take them off again to argue about the bird; to put them on again to find the page I've lost...

Andy

 

[Fozzybear]

Something I've been meaning to do too, have already got loads of these little post-it markers, just haven't gotten around to it... like so many things!

 

[jedigrant]

I just noticed that Amazon.com now has the second edition listed, and says that it will be published on August 23.

 

[John Cantelo]

I just noticed that Amazon.com now has the second edition listed, and says that it will be published on August 23.

..... and the 'Books for Birders' page in this month's "Birding World" has it down as a September publication ...... so it'll be Christmas then?

 

[Lichfield Birder]

Is it possible to buy the current edition in electronic format to load onto my mobile. If so where do I get it from?

 

[colonelboris]

I've seen the Collins E-guide on Amazon before.

 

[Lichfield Birder]

Whats it called exactly as I cannot find it?

 

[Hubert]

Collins Bird eGuide
It works on Windows Mobile, but as far as I know won't go on Symbian.

http://www.nhbs.com/collins_bird_eguide_tefno_144626.html&tab_tag=desc

 

[hollis_f]

Shall we start a book on when it will actually appear? My money was on late August, but this latest intelligence rules that one out. I've a sneaking suspicion that someone may have calculated how long it's going to take them to sell off the current (recently reprinted) stock. I can't see that it's because the necessary revisions haven't been done. So instead of waiting, perhaps we should all rush out to buy up as many copies as we can to persuade them to move the date forward!

Well, your plan seems to have worked. Somehow I seem to have lost all three copies of the paperback version I had. Can I find one for sale anywhere? Nope! Amazon have used copies for sale - at anything from £35 to £115!!!!!

Looks like I'll be cleaning out the boot of my car, I'm sure there's one in there somewhere.