Four years ago my knowledge of birds went Seagull, Blue Tit, Sparrow, Robin, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Pigeon, Duck, Coot, Moorhen, Swan, House Martin (but I was aware of swift and swallow). Then April 19th 2002 I was made redundant and sometime over the next two months I picked up and old pair of bins and the rest as they say....
but not quite.... how did I identify birds? No one I knew was into birds. I bought a cheap guide from the wildlife trusts at a National Trust shop, it had the commonest 125 birds in it. 125 ? Wow 125 birds. And then very shortly I saw a bird I couldn't identify... it was common it was a Grey Wagtail and someone else (Nat Trust chap at Hatfield) told me what it was and it wasn't in my book. Also where else could I go to see birds?
Scratches head..... I did two things I joined the RSPB (which gave me a list of its reserves and I discovered Rye Meads) and I went into Bishops Stortford to Ottakars to look at every bird book they had and decided that this new book The RSPB Handbook of British Birds by a Peter Holden and Tim Cleeves looked pretty good. It referred to Britain not Britain and Europe and it said it referred to ALL birds seen in Britain at least 20 or so times a year.
That book is now dog eared and well thumbed. It went with me on my daily trips to Rye Meads and Hatfield Forest in my first months as a tyro birder. That I don't use it anymore doesn't mean I don't like it just that ... well we'll get there. When I'm old and grey (ok older and greyer) it will still be a treasured possession. Perhaps more than any other book it changed my life.
Sign on to any Birdwatching Forum and ask what field guide to buy and they will, almost to a birder, say the Collins Bird Guide. Even if you say youv'e never seen a Great Tit (I hadn't - well knowlingly) they will tell you to buy Collins, and they are wrong!
Firstly let me say that Collins is superb. The artwork is wonderful, BUT it covers the whole of Europe and for the novice/casual birder this is overkill. I've sat in hides whilst less experienced birders than me have looked at there collins and come up with some wonderful ids. The number of rarities I've heard called - uh its a Pochard! Uh its a Mallard in eclipse. Buy Collins by all means but temper this with a bit of practicality and buy a suitable first guide aimed at the UK market and aimed at the beginner/novice. Learn to walk!
I mention all this because on Saturday I walked into the visitors centre at Titchwell and picked up the 2nd edition.
The RSPB Handbook of British Birds - 2nd Edition - Peter Holden and Tim Cleeves.
The book covers the 282 commonest birds seen in the Britain. The only difference from the first addition is the inclusion of Parrot Crossbill and Hooded Crow. I'm not sure that the book includes everything it should. It excludes a few birds that perhaps really should be included but for the target audience it has a pretty good coverage. The inclusion of Parrot Crossbill corrects one of the two big mistakes of the 1st edition, still no Melodious Warbler though which should be included if disccussing Icterine.
If you've looked at any field guide before you will know that the first bird you are likely to find is the Red Throated Diver and the order of all guides follows the same species order. Recently "the powers that be" have changed the ordering of species. The first bird you will now find is Mute Swan, this is the first guide I've seen using the new system.
The book sticks to a standard format of one species per page. The decision has been made not to slavishly follow the classification order. This is sensible, they've taken the view to move Wood Warbler so that Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler are opposite each other. They've done this a few times. It was one of the drawbacks of the first edition and greatly improves usability.
There are standard paragraphs for each bird these are identification, habits, voice, habitat, food, breeding, movements and migrations, population, conservation and distribution. Each bird has a colour coded banner, these indicate conservation status. The maps are clear and easy to read. I'm told they are generous on distribution. The most obvious changes from the 2002 edition are the population sizes with big falls in birds like Spotted Flycatcher and Turtle Dove.
Pictures are distributed throughout the page and there are a range of plumage types. Artwork is taken from the Handbook of Bird Identification, it is not as universely good as Collins but is more than acceptable. On a few species greater variety of plumages would be helpful but there are space restrictions enforced by the scope of the book.
For each species it gives a list of confusion species (with page numbers). This is rather handy if you know that the bird is similar to something else you've seen but this one is different it gives you a starting point to find it. Although it is a bit odd that Sanderling has the Knot and Dunlin listed as its confusion species where Little Stint has Dunlin and Sanderling (and no Temminck's Stint! - they are opposite I suppose).
There is a glossary at the back listing alternative and local names for species.
The changes from the first edition are marginal but an improvement. If you own the first you have no real reason to buy the second unless you want the updated population statistics.
As I say I don't carry it anymore. This is because an equally good field-guide, the Pocket Guide to the Birds of Britain and North West Europe fits nicely into my belt bag. It includes birds I don't need like Black Woodpecker but I feel comfortable now that I'm not going to make such such big howlers. Its the size that made me change.
The book is not perfect, perhaps it tries to be too much, but to my mind there is so much good stuff here it deserves a place in any birders library. Until someone comes up with my ideal guide to carry in the field (a cut down version of Collins covering about 300-350 commonest species at the size of the Pocket Guide mentioned above) this will still be, to my mind, the best fieldguide for the beginner and novice and it remains a superb one volume guide to British Birds.
No comments:
Post a Comment