Your most anticipated futures books (4 Viewers)

[Ries]

Whaaaaaaaat, couldn't Lynx have stated on their page until when the €65 for "Bird Families" would last?! Now it's €87 again and that's a bit of too far a stretch for me, especially with ABOTW... Could almost buy the Illustrated Checklist set as well for that... Crazy prices. Think I'll be going with the Elphick now. Enough info to browse the abotw with, for the same price as Lynx's has now increased.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Whaaaaaaaat, couldn't Lynx have stated on their page until when the €65 for "Bird Families" would last?! Now it's €87 again and that's a bit of too far a stretch for me, especially with ABOTW... Could almost buy the Illustrated Checklist set as well for that... Crazy prices. Think I'll be going with the Elphick now. Enough info to browse the abotw with, for the same price as Lynx's has now increased.

Can you open the site at this moment?

I haven't been able to access it for 24hrs now.

 

[Ries]

Yes, haven't had a problem with their site today, nor last few days.

 

[Swissboy]

Can you open the site at this moment?

I haven't been able to access it for 24hrs now.

I also had no access all of yesterday. At this moment, I do have access, but not to the "new releases" and the "coming soon" pages!

 

[Andy Adcock]

We may as well blame it on Brexit

 

[Melanie]

NHBS has announced new books on threatened and extinct species for 2021

Beloved Beasts Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction
Gone A Search for What Remains of the World's Lost Creatures
The Last Butterflies A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature

 

[John Cantelo]

I see from another BF thread that there's a new book on gulls nearing completion (see here ).

 

[Swissboy]

I see from another BF thread that there's a new book on gulls nearing completion (see here ).

Interesting, but I wonder whether there is really a need for another Gull book. I feel the authors also don't think that they'll sell all that many. Otherwise, the only redemption for providing photos (that are being used) coming in the form of one free copy of the book would seem rather pitiful.

 

[James Lidster]

Interesting, but I wonder whether there is really a need for another Gull book. I feel the authors also don't think that they'll sell all that many. Otherwise, the only redemption for providing photos (that are being used) coming in the form of one free copy of the book would seem rather pitiful.

this book will be head and shoulders above all others, you only have to look at the reputation of the main authors. Yes other gull guys are good, but

Interesting, but I wonder whether there is really a need for another Gull book. I feel the authors also don't think that they'll sell all that many. Otherwise, the only redemption for providing photos (that are being used) coming in the form of one free copy of the book would seem rather pitiful.

seeing who the authors are this will undoubtedly be the best book on gulls for some years to come.

 

[John Cantelo]

this book will be head and shoulders above all others, you only have to look at the reputation of the main authors. Yes other gull guys are good, but

seeing who the authors are this will undoubtedly be the best book on gulls for some years to come.

I can't find any details of the book online let alone who the main authors are so can you send a link or tells us who they are? The post and the link provided only refers to "Smiths" & "adriaens" (presumably Dutch author Peter Adriaens). I think the key to the success of the book will rest even more on the skill of the authors to explain identification details as clearly and as concisely as possible without getting too bogged down in detail than their merits as observers; reading Olsson & Larsson is a bit like chewing cardboard!

 

[Andy Adcock]

I can't find any details of the book online let alone who the main authors are so can you send a link or tells us who they are? The post and the link provided only refers to "Smiths" & "adriaens" (presumably Dutch author Peter Adriaens). I think the key to the success of the book will rest even more on the skill of the authors to explain identification details as clearly and as concisely as possible without getting too bogged down in detail than their merits as observers; reading Olsson & Larsson is a bit like chewing cardboard!

I remember reading some of Killiam Mullarney's articles in Birding World and I could hardly ever, see any of the details he talked about and yes, who are these authors, I can't see names anywhere either??

 

[Stonefaction]

What I'd like to see in a Gulls book are photos comparing similar plumage stage birds (of anything remotely likely to be confused) grouped together on same page, rather than having to skip back and forwards between sections/species accounts, along with explanations as to what to look for (or at least arrows). Not all of us get the chance to practice with actual birds (YLG & Caspian still both very rare up here, for example) so trying to 'learn' Gulls is proving difficult despite having pretty much the current range of books, and a selection of gull ID websites bookmarked. I'd settle for an app, though I'd much prefer a book.

 

[CerambyX]

I think the key to the success of the book will rest even more on the skill of the authors to explain identification details as clearly and as concisely as possible without getting too bogged down in detail than their merits as observers; reading Olsson & Larsson is a bit like chewing cardboard!

I disagree a bit - gull identification often isn't possible without really going into small details. The recent gull book (photographic guide of Gulls of the World by Olsen) has tried to be as concise as possible (on average ~4 pages of text and ~4-6 pages of photos per species) but I think it just doesn't work that good as it in one way oversimplifies things - that can lead to overconfidence in identifying difficult plumages in situations when maybe the ID is not reliably possible?

So to me it is the opposite - I would love to see that future Gull book to be like a spiritual successor to the Olsen & Larsson 'Gull bible'- a book that gathers all current knowledge on WP gulls as detailed as it possible in a book format. Of course it will depend very much on the layout and structure of the book how user friendly it will be. I agree that the Olsen & Larsson book has some flaws in that regard and that makes it very overwhelming at first and not very exciting read - I think I needed some 3-5 years of having it on my bookshelf until I could finally start to enjoy reading it

 

[James Lidster]

I can't find any details of the book online let alone who the main authors are so can you send a link or tells us who they are? The post and the link provided only refers to "Smiths" & "adriaens" (presumably Dutch author Peter Adriaens). I think the key to the success of the book will rest even more on the skill of the authors to explain identification details as clearly and as concisely as possible without getting too bogged down in detail than their merits as observers; reading Olsson & Larsson is a bit like chewing cardboard!

Hi John,
not a title or link but this was the request for photos on DB site, authors listed at the end
https://www.dutchbirding.nl/varia/1686/we_need_gulls its been talked about a lot here in the gull world (understandably due to Mars and Peter being involved). For those interested in gull identification these two are generally regarded as the very best, not only because of the work they have done with http://www.gull-research.org but their amazing knowledge. Yes there are lots of good gullers, but when the good gullers get stuck who do they ask? well usually Mars and Peter!
Cheers
James

 

[James Lidster]

I remember reading some of Killiam Mullarney's articles in Birding World and I could hardly ever, see any of the details he talked about and yes, who are these authors, I can't see names anywhere either??

as Killian is one of the best communicators in bird id i suspect that the problem might lie elsewhere....

 

[Andy Adcock]

as Killian is one of the best communicators in bird id i suspect that the problem might lie elsewhere....

I'll take that as a compliment from someone who enjoys hanging around rubbish dumps and sewage outfalls

 

[Torcol]

Do you think Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson will publish a non-passerines volume for Western Paleartic Birds ?

​

 

[James Lidster]

I'll take that as a compliment from someone who enjoys hanging around rubbish dumps and sewage outfalls

sorry Andy i had missed this reply from you, unfortunately i didn't miss the vulgar reply you sent that the mods thankfully deleted.
And my comment above is meant as a compliment, the fact is Killian Mullarney is better than you, he's better than me, he's better than most of us. The difference is that most of us have enough self reflection to realise that.
You even said to me in a pm that you believe the reason you can't see the features he mentions are down to his imagination. Of course, it's always someone else's fault.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I disagree a bit - gull identification often isn't possible without really going into small details. The recent gull book (photographic guide of Gulls of the World by Olsen) has tried to be as concise as possible (on average ~4 pages of text and ~4-6 pages of photos per species) but I think it just doesn't work that good as it in one way oversimplifies things - that can lead to overconfidence in identifying difficult plumages in situations when maybe the ID is not reliably possible?

So to me it is the opposite - I would love to see that future Gull book to be like a spiritual successor to the Olsen & Larsson 'Gull bible'- a book that gathers all current knowledge on WP gulls as detailed as it possible in a book format. Of course it will depend very much on the layout and structure of the book how user friendly it will be. I agree that the Olsen & Larsson book has some flaws in that regard and that makes it very overwhelming at first and not very exciting read - I think I needed some 3-5 years of having it on my bookshelf until I could finally start to enjoy reading it

Totally agree

 

[Melanie]

Do you think Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson will publish a non-passerines volume for Western Paleartic Birds ?

​

Not in the near future. Shirihai seems to have no time to publish his book projects.