The Passenger Pigeon - A Review

Perhaps like many people I had some vague notions about the tale of the now extinct North American Passenger Pigeon but until this week I had never read anything substantial to make the story register in my own bird brain. 

To coincide with the 100 years anniversary of the Passenger Pigeon’s extinction I set about reading the sad and tragic story as retold in a new book entitled simply enough The Passenger Pigeon, on release now from Princeton University Press. 

The Passenger Pigeon - Princeton University Press

 

In the Introduction the author Errol Fuller makes it clear that the book is not a scientific textbook or a species monograph but more a commemoration of the Passenger Pigeon’s former existence. He magnanimously suggests that if readers desire a more technical book they should seek out earlier works of 1907, 1955 or perhaps another published recently in early 2014, A Feathered River Across the Sky by Joel Greenberg. 

While there are nine chapters to The Passenger Pigeon, not counting the Prologue, Introduction, Appendices, Acknowledgements, Further Reading and Index, the substance of the tragedy is essentially told in just four or five of the nine chapters. 

“Imagine” does indeed require a leap of imagination to understand how the Passenger Pigeon was once more than common, 25 to 40% of the total bird population of the United States, their numbers estimated at between 3 and 5 billion. And no, that’s not a typo it’s a “b” for “billion”. The number of pigeons literally blackened the skies, their vast flocks a mile or more wide and hundreds of miles long. As the pigeons descended from on high their combined weight would send trees crashing to the ground, their all-consuming need destroying whole crop fields and orchards while leaving trails of destruction in their wake. 

The chapters “Downward Spiral” and “Extinction” relate how the early explorers and colonists of North America were in awe and wonder of the flights of Passenger Pigeons, flights of such dimensions and numbers that the huge droves could take whole hours or even days to pass by an observer. Taking their cue from native Indians it didn’t take long for the newcomers to realise that the Passenger Pigeon was an apparently bottomless food resource and very soon pigeon meat was commercialised as cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century. 

There was a further reduction in numbers of pigeons from habitat loss when European settlers cleared millions of acres of forest for agriculture and townships, contributing to declines between about 1800 and 1870, and then a calamitous decline between 1870 and 1890. Throughout the years there was also hunting on a massive scale, the combined losses from the variety of pressures resulting in the previous abundance becoming unsustainable. 

As early as 1856 and as a consequence of the wholesale slaughter taking place, one Benedict Revoil dared to suggest that future ornithologists would never see Passenger Pigeons. One year later the Ohio Senate declared that the “wonderfully prolific” Passenger Pigeon “needs no protection”. Martha, thought to be the world's last Passenger Pigeon, died on September 1, 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. 

Is it more than ironic then that the name "passenger pigeon" derives from the French word passager, which means "to pass by" in a fleeting manner? Should we excuse the human race from blame as they had little or no understanding of the concept of extinction? While the words “extinct” or “extinction” had been in figurative use from the 15th century to refer to fires, lights, or the wiping out of a material thing such as a debt, its use in reference to a species did not appear until the late 1780s. 

Although there are many plates scattered throughout the book, from historic photographs, through to  the reproduction of the magnificent and impressionist painting Falling Bough (2002) by Walton Ford, and to those of the masterly and revolutionary artist John James Audubon, separate chapters are devoted respectively to “Art and Books” and “Quotations”. I rather enjoyed the poignancy and compassion of these pages as an antidote to the enlightening but ultimately depressing chapters which document the pigeon’s short existence on Earth.

In these pages I discovered that the Passenger Pigeon was included in H. Meyer’s Illustrations of British Birds as a “Rare Visitant” to these shores, and what a beauty it was, somewhere between a Mourning Dove and a Turtle Dove. Whether from their numbers one or two became Atlantic blown casualties is debatable but highly likely. And now I simply can’t wait to visit downtown Cincinnati where a mural of Passenger Pigeons covers one side of a large building at the corner of Eighth and Vine Streets and where Martha herself measures twenty-one foot from beak to tail. 

“Quotations” includes several graphic and meaningful descriptions of The Passenger Pigeon dating from the early 18th to the early 20th Century with just a couple quoted here:

The pigeon was known by our race as O-me-me-Wog… they naturally called it a wild pigeon, as they called us wild men - Chief Simon Pokagon 

The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers and continued to do so for three days in succession. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men and boys incessantly shooting at the pilgrims….. multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or more the population fed on no other flesh than that of Pigeons and talked of nothing but Pigeons - John James Audubon 

In the Introduction the author cautioned against using the word “celebration” to describe his book. I’m sure he was correct because The Passenger Pigeon is more a fitting memorial, an honouring of a bird that was simply too successful, too available and too numerous, but never a match for the greed and stupidity of man. 

Would that we never repeat the mistakes, but we invariably and inevitably do. 

The Passenger Pigeon by Errol Fuller is on sale now from Princeton University Press priced at $29.95 or £ 19.95. 

A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Book Review

Today there’s a review of A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring, a newly published book by David Cobham with Bruce Pearson. 

There is a fascination with birds of prey which can propel them into headline news, not just rare bird bulletins, but very often the TV news and the popular press. Sometimes it is good news but very often there is controversy, disagreement or debate around birds of prey where the quarrels reach into politics and beyond, even the Royal Family. 

Enquire of a bird watcher their favourite bird and more often than not the answer will be a bird of prey, even though in the course of everyday bird watching many British birds of prey are difficult to engage with as we glimpse them but briefly. Such is the passion for raptors that on occasions, perhaps yearly, bird watchers travel long distances, making costly and time consuming special journeys to see birds of prey like Goshawk, Honey Buzzard, Golden Eagle or White-tailed Eagle. 

When Princeton University Press sent a copy of A Sparrowhawk’s Lament for review on Another Bird Blog I admit to niggling thoughts about the need for yet another book about birds of prey, what might be added to current knowledge on the subject, and who might stump up £25 for a new one. With so many books devoted to raptors already out there it was hard to imagine where a new volume might begin and end. 

A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Princeton University Press

So I got stuck into A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring, a book containing 15 chapters, one for each British Breeding Bird of Prey together with the obligatory Introduction and Conclusion. That translates to roughly 20 pages to each species, good sized chunks with which to digest the contents and consider a verdict.

From the beginning I was struck with the detail and sheer readability of the text and finished the first 40 pages of the Introduction, The Sparrowhawk and The Osprey without a break. 

 Sparrowhawk - A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Princeton University Press

As I live in the North West of England, just a flap and a glide from the infamous Bowland Hills, and where after 200 years of persecution the Hen Harrier has been wiped from the landscape, I took a particular interest in the chapter devoted to Circus cyaneus, the original Silver Ghost. These 20 pages make for illuminating, disturbing and often emotional reading, from the crucified Hen Harrier on a barn door, the introduction of the double-barrelled breech-loading shotgun, Famous Grouse whisky, on through quad-biked keepers kitted out with night-vision goggles, and ending with a moving poem and the predictable fate of Bowland Beth. Read it all, I think you may never buy Famous Grouse again and will in all probability have a tear in your eye. 

Fortunately not all of the chapters make for reading as depressing as the saga of the Hen Harrier, the magnificent Golden Eagle or the elusive Goshawk, with chapters charting success stories like Buzzard, Hobby, Montagu’s Harrier, Red Kite and Honey Buzzard to redress the balance somewhat. 

 Red Kite - A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Princeton University Press

By the time I reached The Conclusion at page 269 my own thought was that the book’s sub-title rather undersells it. A Sparrowhawk’s Lament is much more than a summary of how British birds of prey are faring in 2014, more like an entertaining read about the historical, cultural and even literary background to British raptors, the chapters peppered with anecdotes, experiences and observations from the author and conservationists engaged in the study, safeguard or reintroductions of such species. This detail gives the whole book an instructive, authentic, expert, and above all a caring feel for our often maligned UK raptors. 

David Cobham has spent a lifetime studying birds and is a vice president of the Hawk and Owl Trust. In addition he is a film and television producer and director, notable for such films as The Goshawk, The Vanishing Hedgerows, and Tarka the Otter. The author’s Acknowledgements for his interviewees reads as a who’s who of raptor expertise, including luminaries such as as Ian Newton, Roy Dennis, Robin Prytherch, Wilf Norman and the late Derek Ratcliffe. 

The book is generously sprinkled with more than 90 black & white illustrations by Bruce Pearson. These vignettes add greatly to the accompanying text in providing a perfect fit to the overall feel of the book. 

All in all A Sparrowhawk’s Lament is a desirable little volume which I thoroughly enjoyed, and one I can recommend to blog readers for the next rainy, non-birding day. 

A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring: David Cobham with Bruce Pearson. Princeton University Press - $35.00 / £24.95 

Back to birding soon on Another Bird Blog.

Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin - A Review

I was thrilled to receive for review by Another Bird Blog a copy of Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin, due for publication by Princeton University Press on 26th February 2014. 

“Eager anticipation” barely described my six month or more wait for this book, the most recent and potentially the best in a line of books devoted to the history of ornithological study. I noticed immediately the dust jacket bearing praise and recommendation from the likes of Ian Newton, Walt Koenig, Jeremy Mynott and Frank Gill; so after my marathon wait would the book live up to the expectations of a bog-standard, open minded, always curious, but mostly unscientific bird watcher? 

Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin - Princeton University Press

The Preface quickly sends readers to Appendix 1, a list of approximately 24 “histories of ornithology”, very few of which actually hold information of late twentieth century advances in the study of birds, most of the books dealing with early ornithology up to the mid-twentieth century at best. Through a simple but highly effective line-graph heading inexorably north the authors display how ornithology has exploded since 1960 and continued to advance during the 2000s - “Since Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 we estimate there have been no fewer than 380,000 ornithological publications. In 2011 there were as many papers published on birds as there had been during the entire period between Darwin’s Origin and 1955”.

This sets the scene for the pages which follow, a comprehensive exploration and analysis of ornithology during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, a riveting, entertaining, enlightening and frequently inspirational read. It is the history, science, art, and where necessary the politics of ornithology since Darwin to present day, each themed chapter skilfully leading the reader through the years.

The Preface describes how the authors Tim Birkhead, Jo Wimpenny and Bob Montgomerie set about deciding the book’s scope and approach and whether that should be chronological order, one based upon the “top” ornithologists from Darwin to date, or one written around topics. Wisely they chose the latter approach whereby the 11 topics start at the beginning with Yesterday’s Birds and the first fossil discovery of Archaeopteryx and finish at Page 423 with Tomorrow’s Birds and a graphical timeline for conservation study, a chapter devoted to a future of ornithology which will be heavily focused upon the preservation of birds.

In between those two poles come compelling historical accounts discussing and describing themes such as Origin and Diversification, Birds on the Tree of Life, Ebb and Flow, Adaptations for Breeding, Form and Function, The Study of Instinct, Sexual Selection and Population Studies.

If anything the chapter titles give little away as to their contents and might fool a reader into thinking the text to be the dry and dust that history is reputed to be. Far from it, each and every chapter makes for engaging, exhilarating and often exciting reading encompassing the day-to-day science, the exploration of ideas, the trials and tribulations of a workaday ornithologist and the sanity or otherwise of the early collectors whose egos or lust for fame led them to visit dangerous realms.

I very much liked the topic based approach of the chapters, the main advantage being that each section can be read in isolation without detriment to the overall understanding and enjoyment of the whole book. I don’t recommend trying to read this book from cover to cover in one go, or even in a week or more, it is far too good to rush through, more one to savour slowly, a piece at a time.

Each chapter opens with a superb coloured plate from artists such as Raymond Ching, Robert Bateman, Eric Ennion, Robert Gillmoor or Rodger McPhail to set the scene, and within the first few pages a handy at-a -glance graphical timeline to indicate the contents. I recommend that to fully appreciate where the ensuing pages will take them, a reader study the timeline summary before embarking upon the chapter.

Graphical Timeline from Ebb and Flow from Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin 

As is my particular mind set, I headed to the first chapter “Yesterday’s Birds” to learn more about work on the origins of birds and then made a bee-line for the chapter “Ebb and Flow” to satisfy my interest in migration. As a sampler for blog readers and those already adding the book to their wish-list I have summarised the two chapters below.

Yesterday’s Birds reminds us that right up to the present day the world of birds never lacks controversy or political intrigue, a world where too often the goal of scientific study takes second place to personal aggrandisement. This chapter takes the reader from the first Archaeopteryx fossil discovered in 1855 and then through the “Bone Wars” to the present day where 11 Archaeopteryx specimens exist alongside recent revelations of colouration in fossilised feathers. Along the way the story relates amongst other things how a newly discovered specimen of Archaeopteryx insured for a million pounds found its way into a battered cardboard box, and how claims of Archaeopteryx fakery aimed at ornithologists by respected scientists from unrelated areas of science was played out in the popular press of the “enlightened” 1980s.

 

Archaeopteryx lithographica in LIFE magazine c 1959 - from Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin

The section Ebb and Flow begins with the pioneering work of William Eagle Clarke and Studies in Bird Migration of 1912, finishing with the remarkable and only recent discovery that Bar-tailed Godwits fly from one end of the earth to the other in a single 175 hour non-stop 6500 mile flight. In between there’s the celibate, obstinate, but devoted to bird study Alfred Newton, Christian Mortensen and his early bird ringing, Thomas Alerstam and Bird Migration, Fair Isle, Ian Newton’s Ecology and Bird Migration, Gwinner and Berthold and their studies of Sylvias, and much, much more.

It was in Ebb and Flow that I found an autobiography of the great Peter Berthold and how at the age of ten he was illegally catching Great Tits when he came across one ringed by an accredited scheme, a crucial experience which led to him joining the German Ornithological Society and to finally reach his “true heaven of ornithological research”. The rest, as they say, “Is History”.

Most chapters are dotted with these personal autobiographies, tales which make for entertaining and often amusing vignettes, sprinkled as they are with descriptions of the writer’s ornithological awakening and their later adventures in the search for knowledge.

I’ll quote from a couple here as examples of how wide ranging, stimulating, simply down-to-earth and not without humour this book is, but perhaps only by going out and buying the book will blog readers discover the name of the self-confessed birdy beginnings of the now highly respected ornithologist below.

“I was an amorphously nerdy, science-oriented and myopic kid without any clear direction. Before birds I was passionately engaged in memorising unusual facts from the Guinness Book of World Records … I got my first pair of glasses. Within six months of the world coming into focus I was bird watcher. I never looked back or even considered any other option in my life”

Or Nick Davies from my own part of the world, and an extract which as I read it caused an immediate lump in my throat, “One of my earliest memories is making a hide out of deck chairs and using operas glasses to watch chaffinches. We lived thirteen miles north of Liverpool and were surrounded by wildlife. Pink-footed Geese used to fly low over our house and I have worshipped them ever since”.

As the authors state early in the book, “Although bird watching was a pre-cursor of scientific ornithology and many ornithologists began their careers as bird watchers, this book is not a history of bird watching.” Well hooray for that, and the advice from Richard Feynman US Physicist, Writer and Educator (1918-1988) in the section entitled “Afterword”.

"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatsoever about the bird….. So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing- that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

Silver Gulls on a Tasmanian Beach - from Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin

There are over 150 mixed illustrations, charts and photographs dotted around the text, many of them black and white pictures of the individuals or groups of ornithologists featuring in the text, pictures so personal that they may well have originated from family albums. Others show ornithologists with their charges the birds, or show them engrossed in experimentation, exploration or simply posing for the historic record.

Fernando Nottebohm - from Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin

I could go on to describe and praise this brilliant book, picking out some of the simply wonderful stuff within but I would prefer that blog readers discover it for themselves.

At Myriad Birds or Princeton University Press you can read about the original motivation for the book, the authors, the artists who provided the superb plates, but most of all sample some of the superbly crafted writing.

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan - from Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin

I imagine that Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin is a book which will be bought by every professional or amateur ornithologist the world over. Almost certainly it will be on a wish list of many, many amateur and professional naturalists, whether their speciality is birds, bees, butterflies or other more esoteric disciplines.

It is a book which should be bought and read by every serious bird watcher, but as is today’s focus on instant thrill, it may not be. I sincerely hope that my praise will influence some who may not otherwise have done so to buy this book; better still that a young person may somehow find this book the inspiration they need to follow a career in science and ornithology in particular.

As we have come to expect from Princeton University Press the fit and finish of Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin is immaculate, and of simple but understated quality. When I looked at the selling price I was amazed to see that Princeton University Press marks it up at £29.95 or $45, while at the same time allowing Amazon to knock it out for closer to £21 and its dollar equivalent.

Now I know nothing about the economics of the production, publication and sale of books but after studying the contents of Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin, I can only think that Princeton has either done their sums wrong or are adopting a “Pile ‘em high, Sell ’em cheap” strategy.

Whatever, it’s simply the best value for money bird book out there and at those prices there will be a huge demand for this book on 26th February. So my advice to readers of Another Bird Blog is clear. Place an order now, you won’t be disappointed.

I'm linking this post to Anni's Birding Blog where I'm sure lots of readers in North America and elsewhere will want to know about this book.

Sneak Peek - Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

I couldn’t resist more than a peek at the new Crossley, and the chance to tell Another Bird Blog readers about this exciting book, plus share my initial impressions of it, even though the regional blogathon isn’t until November. 

The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

This new work follows the same format as the previous two published for the North American market, volumes which received an enthusiastic welcome for their innovative, almost revolutionary style. The Crossley ID guides use photographic techniques to display a species as it looks in the field and in a typical environment, rather than the more usual artistic but ”flat” portrayal found in traditional field guides. 

The first thing to note is that this new Crossley is aimed mainly at a UK market of “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels”. This qualifying note explains why some 300 species are covered rather than the 598 or so species on The British List, the number that might be encountered in half a lifetime of determined birding rather than the 300 or so which the average birder might see in a series of normal years. Because of the stated target audience this would seem an eminently logical and sensible way of selecting the species featured. 300 species alone is quite challenging to a novice birder and the only issue I have found with the species featured is the authors potentially confusing treatment of the redpolls. 

Species are displayed by “proportional representation” i.e. the more common a species is the more space it takes up, typically a full page for very common birds, half a page for scarce species and a quarter page for rarer species. 

The next thing to note is that the book doesn’t use a traditional taxonomic sequence, which as the authors (Richard Crossley and Dominc Couzens) point out, does not always makes sense in the field. Instead the book splits species into just seven groups based on habitat and physical similarities so that they can be more easily compared. Again, the authors make the point that a bird’s appearance is largely influenced by its environment and therefore the taxonomic order is not necessarily broken too often. 

So the species accounts use two simple main headings of Waterbirds or Landbirds. Sub-headings break these down into Swimming Waterbirds, Flying Waterbirds, Walking Waterbirds, Upland Gamebirds, Raptors, Miscellaneous Larger & Aerial Landbirds and finally, Songbirds. This proves a simple but effective innovation, helped by a corresponding opening section where all the species are displayed at their relative size. These pages are a handy quick reference for a novice birder struggling with for instance, a beach full of waders or a freshwater packed with wildfowl. 

I picked out just a couple of double page plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland to whet readers’ appetite. The first one, Flying Waterbirds, is taken from the opening sequence of pages which show birds at their relative size, structure and shape, that element of “jizz” so vital to the “mystery” of bird identification. 

Flying Waterbirds - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The second shows Goosanders and Red-breasted Mergansers in absolutely typical, accurate and realistic scenes. Those Goosanders could well be on Conder Pool, and the Red-breasted Mergansers look for all the world to be ensconced on  Fleetwood  Marine Lake.

Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The third plate shows Purple Sandpipers with Turnstones, a characteristic situation which will help new birders to find and identify Purple Sandpipers in their strictly coastal environment. Ruffs are shown in many of their distinctive changes of both size and appearance, a wader designed to trap the unwary or inexperienced. With this page in front of them I would hazard a guess that many “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels” birders would quite happily put a name to the strange looking bird in front of them. 

 

Purple Sandpiper and Ruff -  The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

I just realised, I didn’t mention the textual description and explanation which accompanies each species. The accounts are accurate, concise and more than adequate to aid identification, especially since on turning to a species the text is relegated to second place as the eye and the brain automatically focus on the birds. It’s reality birding where visual learning is the norm and seeing is believing. 

I wish I had time and space to feature many more plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland as many of them are quite superb, especially the wildfowl and waders. Maybe the best way to experience and enjoy them is to beg, steal or borrow this book for yourself as soon as it is available; however I’m sure that Princeton University Press would prefer that you buy it. To help you decide they have published a selection of plates of common garden birds to download at Princeton University Press.

Princeton's timing of release for this book is either fortuitous or a master stroke because the book will make a superb Christmas gift for a youngster, a kid of a certain age showing an early interest in the real world rather than the electronic domain. Also I can see this book being a huge hit with folk of an older generation, maybe those who leave work with newly found time on their hands but with a desire to learn about birds. This book is an ideal companion with which to both absorb and enjoy their new found love. 

There’s more about Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland in early November. Meanwhile I’m putting my copy in the car, then if I get stuck in a downpour at least I can carry on birding by browsing the pages of this splendid book.

Bird News, Book News

If there are marks for trying then I surely deserved 10/10 this morning by hitting the road early for yet another mission to find some autumn migrants during the continuing easterlies. 

I was heading north again so called into Lane Ends for an early perusal. The geese were just leaving the marsh, heading inland in search of food. The many skeins totalled more than 2000 birds before the noise of the Little Egrets’ early morning squabbles distracted me. The egrets too were about to set off for the day’s undertakings so I abandoned my goose counting to watch 26 or more egrets leaving the roost and heading off north, south, east and west. Here’s a project for a determined ringer - to find out how far the egrets travel to this roost, the turnover of birds, age composition etc. 

Three Jays were about the woodland and a Kestrel hovering over the sea wall but otherwise quiet. Maybe I was too early for small birds. 

Little Egret

Kestrel

There were small birds at Conder Green, mainly small yellowy-green things called Chiffchaff, and not the widely anticipated and sought after yellowy-green things named Yellow-browed Warbler. There were at least six Chiffchaffs in the area of the railway car park, most of them feeding hurriedly and silent with just the odd one or two giving out their forceful and tell-tale contact calls. Try as I might, the best I could find with the chiffys were migrant Chaffinches, some of those arriving from the north and dropping into the welcoming trees. As I watched Chaffinches arriving from the direction of the Lune a single Swallow flew over and then disappeared beyond the trees. 

Chiffchaff

I couldn’t find the large flock of Goldfinches of a couple of days ago, just a small group of about 15 today, but there was a wildfowler stalking the marsh where the finches had fed. The wildfowler swung a trophy Teal below his shotgun so I cursed him before moving on. 

Conder Pool and the nearby creeks held 7 Little Grebe, 40 Teal, 25 Redshank, 4 Snipe, 2 Cormorant, 2 Lapwing, 1 Grey Heron and 2 Pied Wagtail. The pool surface looked too rippled to expect the Kingfisher to sit around but it put in an appearance by flying upstream towards the road bridge. 

Fluke Hall seemed a likely spot - an infrequent haunt of less than annual rarities but “a needle in a haystack” job if ever there was one in the lush vegetation. A Peregrine on the sands greeted me, and it then flew around slowly as if to taunt “camera-in-the-car” me. 

Two Sparrowhawks along the road, and at last a gang of small birds to search. Fifteen or more Long-tailed Tits, 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Goldcrests, plus odds and ends of Blue Tit and Great Tit was the sum of my efforts. Better luck tomorrow. 

Long-tailed Tit

Back home the postman had left a parcel. So the new Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland is here on my desk for a pre-publication gander. The official publication date is 6th November but Princeton University Press sent me a copy knowing that regular readers of Another Bird Blog would be more than interested to hear all about this third volume in the ground breaking series, Crossleys’s invasion into the European market. In a week or two, and to coincide with official publication, there will be other UK bird bloggers joining in for a regional blogathon to take a close and detailed look at the book. 

 The Crossley Guide: Britain and Ireland 

 

The Crossley Guide: Britain and Ireland 

First impressions of Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland just as soon as I’ve taken a sneaky look - stay tuned to Another Bird Blog.

Gone Tracking - Book Review

A rainy old morning, so with no bird news today's post concerns a new book which should interest many bird watchers.  

My friends at Princeton University Press sent a book for review on Another Bird Blog - Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe. So while it’s a book that isn’t just about birds it is one that many birders will be interested in hearing of. 

The book’s publication data shows that it was first released in Denmark in 2012 as Dyr & Spor (Animals and Tracks). The author Lars-Henrik Olsen is a zoologist, writer and lecturer who has worked at the Copenhagen Zoological Museum and the World Wildlife Fund, and is the producer of a number of Danish radio and television programmes. The book is available at Princeton University Press for £17.95. 

Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

As a bird watcher and field worker and on my regular explorations, I often come across little bits of the unknown, whether they be tracks in mud or grass, paths through a field, scats, pellets, skulls or the many signs of feeding by birds or mammals. With the simple things it isn’t too bad whereby I can assign an owl pellet to a species, recognise signs of woodpecker activity, distinguish fox poo from domestic dog dirt and know when a deer has walked a muddy path. More often than not I cannot answer the more difficult conundrums that nature and animals leave in their wake. Any book that can help explain such mysteries is welcome indeed, so I set about this book with a great deal of interest and enthusiasm, hoping to learn a little more about the countryside and the animals in it. 

 Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

“Tracks and Signs” has an unusual and tiny introduction of less than half a page, sufficient enough since the book’s title, likely contents and probable usage are in themselves self-explanatory. It was actually a welcome change not to read pages and pages of introduction, preface and "how to use this book", but instead to get down to the nitty-gritty as soon as Page 6. 

Roughly the first third of the book is devoted in several pages of each section to describing, illustrating and annotating the clues that birds and animals leave behind. The headings to these sections include for instance, antlers, bird and animal tracks, feeding signs on trees and on crops, pellets, nests & dens, and summaries of bird droppings, the scats of carnivores, small mammals, rodents and small herbivores. I found some really useful snippets of information in these sections e.g. why Brown Hares and Rabbits shear off the branches of trees in contrast to deer which twist branches until they break, and how different the results appear to a trained human eye: or how to tell which bird or animal has been eating the fruit of rose hips. There are lots more secrets of wildlife in these pages, interspersed as they are with the splendid photographs, illustrations and drawings. The publishers don’t quote the number of photographs but at 4 or 5 per double page spread it must reach into many hundreds. 

 Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

The remaining 170 pages of the book are devoted to the specific mammal species, with information on size, distribution, behaviour and habitat as well as a more detailed summary of tracks and scats. There are many fine photographs in this book, not just of the marks, signs and tracks themselves, but photographs which do not show an animal or bird in simple isolation but which relate in a very informative and useful way to the textual account. For instance, and even as hard as it is to select one or two from so many, the Red Fox leaving tracks in the snow or sand as it listens for mice; the Wolf at a den accompanied by pictures of a Wolf’s hind foot together with a picture of Wolf tracks in the sand; or the Mink clamped on a Mallard complemented by pictures of a Mink scat and typical remains at a Mink’s den.

Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

If anything Tracks and Signs is rather “light” on birds, focusing mainly on tracks in relation to footprints of larger waders, ducks/geese and game birds, feeding signs on fruit, nuts and cones, pellet ID or the signage that raptors make. Some of the birds shown do not occur in the UK or occur very rarely e.g. Nutcracker, Hawk Owl, Three-toed Woodpecker, species which are much more relevant to the original book written in Danish and targeted at a non-UK audience. 

On the other hand the book is voluminous on mammals, perhaps a welcome change for most bird watchers who like me proably have far too many books which are all about birds to the exclusion of other wildlife. In fact we bird watchers are sometimes so focused on, some might say obsessed by, birds that we miss out or fail to engage with other wildlife, despite the (hopefully) innate curiosity which initially fuelled the interest in wild birds. This book isn’t aimed at simply bird watchers, more at amateur field workers and naturalists of many persuasions and specialised interest who are out to broaden their knowledge and expertise of birds or mammals.

The 175 creatures covered in the 270 pages range in size from the tiny House Mouse up to the rather larger Brown Bear and include along the way rarely seen species such as Pine Marten, Wolverine, Common Dormouse or the Wildcat. 

Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

When I started to dip into the book I realised what a wealth of animals the rest of Europe has in comparison to the islands of Britain and Ireland, surrounded as we are by a number of seas. There are animals featured in the book which I had not heard of, for instance Raccoon Dog Nyctereutes procynoides, not be confused with the North American Raccoon Procyon lotor which also breeds in Belgium and Denmark but from introduced stock. Then there is the European Souslik Sperophilius citellus, a large rodent found near The Black Sea, a few species of voles found only in Scandinavia, or the Mouflon Ovis orientalis, a large goat from Corisca and Sardinia with a wild population in mainland Europe established by escapees from nature parks and zoos. The point is that the book covers an awful lot of species which a UK reader will never encounter unless they travel extensively in Europe. 

It was while studying some of these detailed pictures in the 6x9 inches of the book, a size clearly intended as a field companion that I thought it would benefit from a larger format. As such it would make a superb coffee table volume and home-based reference where the many photographs and illustrations would display at their very best and allow greater study of their detailed elements. 

That is not to say that anyone in the UK will not enjoy reading, dipping into or actually using this book in the field, albeit it in a somewhat limited way in mammal-deficient Britain. On the contrary; it is a book to enjoy and to savour, one which is packed full of insight to offer the reader a whole new way of thinking about the birds and animals which have left marks for us to fathom. If anyone has a particular interest in learning how to track animals they should buy this book. If on the other hand they are someone who likes to understand the countryside and delve below the surface more than a little, this book will help them to do just that in a handy-sized, non-scientific, and highly readable guide.

Tracks and Signs of the Animals and Birds of Britain and Europe

Now you must excuse me, I'm off to look around the garden. More soon from Another Bird Blog

What IS That Warbler? - Book Review

Identifying North American warblers was never an easy task. My first trip to Long Point Bird Observatory Canada to coincide with spring migration proved an eye opener in every sense. Luckily I’d spent weeks beforehand swotting the Peterson Guide so had a reasonable handle on species I might encounter as a volunteer bander and field worker. But as a UK birder used to seeing, hearing and instantly recognising the dozen or two warblers of a typical UK Springtime, nothing quite prepares for the diversity of colours, plumages and often similar calls of the warblers of the USA and Canada. 

So when a new guide to the continent’s warblers promises to be “groundbreaking” and make warbler identification “easier than ever before”, with the undertaking to help the reader to “effectively learn songs and calls”, I had to take a look. The book in question is “The Warbler Guide”, by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle. The book is not on general release until July 2013 but was kindly sent to me by Princeton University Press in advance and for review on Another Bird Blog. 

The Warbler Guide

My first impression was that although The Warbler Guide covers just 56 species it is a hefty book of 550+ pages and at 7 x 9 inches and 2 inches thick would fit more easily in a handy bag or rucksack rather than a jacket pocket. As in the style of many guides nowadays, the aides to identification in The Warbler Guide are based upon photographs, in this case more than 1000 coloured pictures of US and Canadian warblers. The photographs are in the main excellent, many are quite outstanding given the challenges in photographing such an intensively active family of birds. 

If someone is looking to open the pages of The Warbler Guide and begin birding, they may be initially disappointed as it is page 138 before the species accounts begin. Any early frustration should be quickly dispelled because while those initial pages add to the bulk of the book, they contain a number of useful innovations which should be studied in depth before using the species accounts. This is especially true for less experienced or starting-out birders who could well find themselves overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task they face in IDing warblers at any time of the year, more so in the fall when less easily identified youngsters appear with moulting adults. This book will be invaluable to that learning curve but will also prove a useful assistant to the more experienced birder who twice a year has to tackle the Everest of warbler ID. 

The early part of The Warbler Guide includes sections entitled “What to notice on a warbler”, with illustrative photographs highlighting characteristics like size, shape, behaviour, the face, the body and the undertail. There is a short summary of general ageing and sexing techniques which includes advice on how to use the age/sex codes at the species account pages. 

The Warbler Guide - What to notice on a warbler

There follows a lengthy, 38 page section devoted to helping readers ID warblers by listening to them. The authors explain about sonograms, how to listen to warbler songs and also how to learn chip and flight calls. As one who struggles with sonograms I am somewhat biased in thinking that there is no substitute for the old-fashioned way of learning bird calls and song by experience in the field. However I applaud the authors for their very detailed charts and explanations and their willingness to share the latest understanding of this element of birding. Luckily for me and probably for many others, the authors will make a library of warbler songs and sounds available via their web site in time for the book’s publication in July. Furthermore a Smartphone App and an enhanced ebook will follow in spring 2014. The fact that Smartphones Apps are now almost universal raises the question in my mind of whether this section of the book and the two-page sonograms placed at the species accounts will be redundant sooner rather than later, and that reducing the number of pages devoted to this subject could usefully condense the book and achieve a more portable size? 

An innovative “Quick Finder” section contains valuable sections on face portraits, side views of the whole bird, 45 degree views, under views, and also separate pages of Eastern and Western undertails. In addition there is a “quick finder” for the geographical East in springtime or the autumn/fall periods, together with a “quick finder” for the West based upon spring only birds. This “Quick Finder” section contains another 20 plus pages devoted to identifying a species through highly descriptive and comparative sonograms of similar sounding species. 

Faces - The Warbler Guide

Undertails - The Warbler Guide

The actual species accounts are designed to help a reader narrow down the possibilities, including as they do views from above, the side or below, but also additional photos and “distinctive” views. Where applicable a species is shown in both ”bright” and “drab” versions with bullet pointed features of note, together with additional photographs depicting a comparison of colouration, brightness or hue via a set of skins or a set of partial views. The latter is an often incomplete picture a birder knows only too well. Variations in colour or brightness occur all too often so the direct comparisons offered here are highly useful and extremely valid additions to the information. Another innovation is the use of a set of icons which indicate basic colouration patterns, silhouettes, ranges, and where you're most likely to see the species. 

Wilson's Warbler - The Warbler Guide

Here it is worth mentioning how the authors have included colour-coded maps at each ageing and sexing account, the map detailing where a species takes a different migration route in spring and fall/autumn. Each map has a migration-span chart alongside illustrating how Early, Middle and Late waves of warblers can occur in locations during each season. This small but important feature shows a great deal of thought by the authors in helping readers to understand how adult birds, but more especially inexperienced juveniles, can turn up out of place and/or out of time, thus pointing out why a birder should always expect the unexpected. 

Cape May Warbler - The Warbler Guide

The alpha-order species accounts take up pages 138 to 525. These pages also include pictures and descriptions of non-warbler species which nonethelesss share shape and size characteristics, ID traps for the unwary which occur with warbler flocks, e.g. bird families like kinglets, verdins, gnatcatchers, vireos and even sparrows. 

At the end of the book a set of picture quizzes with answers allow readers the opportunity to test out their new found skills, while more pages illustrate and describe the warblers in flight. For those of a scientific bent there is a taxonomic and evolutionary chart compiled from the latest DNA research and analysis, plus a table of weights and measurements. 

North American Warbler Taxonomy - The Warbler Guide

In summary The Warbler Guide is a fine book crammed with photographs, tips, expert advice, innovation and information designed to help identify a unique and beautiful set of birds. As noted at the start of this review my only caveat is that because the book is so comprehensive and chockfull of guidance the actual physical aspect of it may make it rather unwieldy when used in the field. 

There is a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WarblerGuide with more information and the book is available to order now at Princeton Press priced at $29.95 or £19.95.

Are You Into Rare Birds?

Here on my desk is a copy of a new book from Princeton University Press entitled The World’s Rarest Birds. The content makes for disturbing reading, packed as it is with evidence and insight into how man is slowly but surely eliminating many of Planet Earth’s 10,000 bird species. 

The bare facts from The World’s Rarest Birds are not simply worrying, alarming or even disturbing, they are far worse. On a scale of scary words perhaps “chilling” or “frightening” could more accurately describe how: 

• 197 Critically Endangered bird species face an extremely high risk of extinction within the lifetime of the present human generation 

• 389 Endangered species are also at a very high risk of extinction 

• 4 species extinct in the wild now exist in captivity only 

• 60 more species are so poorly known they are classified as Data Deficient 

The World's Rarest Birds - Princeton University Press

Fortunately there are conservationists motivated enough to document this appalling situation in the hope it will stimulate others into action sooner rather than later. I have to sympathise with the trials and tribulations of the authors Erik Hirschfeld, Andy Swash and Robert Still, who together with the publishers Princeton University Press and BirdLife International decided to compile this book, the aim being to raise the profile of bird conservation efforts worldwide. In 2012 the book was scheduled to publish when events overtook the project, entailing a complete revision to account for the release of a major update to BirdLife International’s list of threatened birds. “Good News” they thought when seven species were removed from the list thanks to conservation measures or new population discoveries. The bad news for them was that 23 species had to be added, but following no further setbacks The World's Rarest Birds was finally published on April 3rd 2013. 

After spending a couple of days exploring the book I have no doubt that if it receives the circulation, attention and acclaim it clearly deserves their efforts have not been in vain. 

For all the wrong reasons The World’s Rarest Birds is an impressive book, remarkable for the fact that in the large format 360 pages of 8 ½ x 11, there are 977 colour photographs and 610 coloured maps which document and detail the many birds of the world under serious threat. It is worth repeating those figures - 360 pages, 977 photographs and 610 maps describing, listing, picturing and mapping threatened birds. In other words, this is not a tiny problem that will go away if we ignore it, but more precisely a major catastrophe that the whole world should act upon.

 Globally Threatened Bird Species - The World's Rarest Birds

The Introduction to The World’s Rarest Birds sets the scene for the remainder of the volume, describing the background to the book and the source and inspiration for the many fine photographs contained therein. There are short accounts of the diversity and distribution of bird species, the endemic and important bird areas, together with an illuminating section on the interaction between birds and the human race. Humans are of course at the root of the many problems that birds face but thankfully this latter discussion is not entirely negative. Witness the fact that despite the pressing need for this book, more is known about the status and distribution of birds than about any other order of plants and animals. This apparent contradiction is due in no small part to the mainstream involvement of ordinary bird watchers in Citizen Science such as the Christmas Bird Count in the USA, the Big Garden Birdwatch in the UK and to the many, many hours of field work donated by bird counters, bird ringers and amateur ornithologists all over the world. 

More than 25 pages are devoted to discussion of the pressures that birds face, ranging through agriculture and aquaculture, hunting, climate change, human disturbance, pollution, energy production, mining, damming and water abstraction, fishing, logging etc. and ad infinitum - The list seems endless. 

The major part of the book which lists the species of concern is entitled The Regional Directories and sub-divides into geographic regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceanic islands, The Caribbean with North and Central America, South America, and Europe with the Middle East. This vital and detailed section is sure to become the main focus of a reader wherever they are based in the world, including as it does snapshots and photographs of the species themselves, on-going or planned conservation measures and risks to the particular species. 

Naturally enough I focused on the section for Europe and the Middle East where I found familiar names and faces.

 Europe and The Middle East - The World's Rarest Birds

Approximately 730 species have been recorded breeding or wintering on the landmass of Europe and the Middle East or migrating regularly through the region. Forty of those species - or over 5% - are globally threatened, including Red-breasted Goose, Balearic Shearwater, White-headed Duck and Velvet Scoter. 

The book touches upon other European species which may be “Next On The List”, the naming of which ensures the calamity becomes personal and immediate to any reader. European Turtle Dove is depicted, a victim of habitat loss in the UK and unsustainable hunting in blackspots like Malta where European Birds Directives seem to be regularly and quite belligerently ignored. 

European Turtle Dove - Phil Slade

It is in Europe also where agriculture and fisheries policies are implicated in declines of many species. Once a common enough bird in the UK, the only time I see Turtle Doves nowadays are on holidays to the Balearic island of Menorca where old-time agriculture holds sway - for now. 

The Egyptian Vulture, another species I see regularly in Menorca and the Canary Islands is globally endangered due to multiple threats across the 82 countries it occupies in Europe, Asia and Africa. For the Egyptian Vulture its disastrous decline is caused by the disappearance of wild animals on which it depends for food, poisoning of carcasses near the birds’ breeding grounds, collisions with power lines and the growing veterinary use of anti-inflammatory drugs in Africa; as the book explains and illustrates throughout, there is no single threat to a particular species, but more likely a series of misfortunes or deliberate acts which lead down an often short road to danger or even extinction.

Egyptian Vulture - Phil Slade

The Critically Endangered species Balearic Shearwater is another species I see in Menorca and where I admit until now I failed to appreciate the true extent of the endangered status of the species. That’s the other problem, endangered species don’t fly around with an “Endangered” label attached - the key to understanding is education and awareness of what is at stake for humans, birds and the environment alike. 

Menorca - Balearic Shearwater project 

The European pages mention others too, once common farmland species like Starling and House Sparrow which may be sinking towards threatened status. On a purely local level will other species like Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer soon appear on such shameful lists? 

In a section entitled Threats Without Borders the authors remind us that almost one-fifth of the world’s bird species migrate, making regular movements beyond their breeding grounds, often crossing one or more national boundaries on their long-distance travels. Strategies such as this can expose birds like the Basra Reed Warbler to threats on not only its main breeding areas but also in the wintering area of Kenya. Another example of this cross boundary phenomenon centres upon especially threatened groups of soaring birds such as cranes and raptors which migrate along narrow corridors of land subject to rapid changes in land use: also waterbirds which find more and more of their coastal wetland sites disappearing because of land reclamation or change of use.

Threats Without Borders - The World's Rarest Birds

There is a fine Appendix and Index to The World’s Rarest Birds, part of which is a three page list of extinct birds dated according to their passing. The 130 strong inventory stretches from the 1500s with the St Helena Dove all the way up to the Kauai Oo declared extinct on Hawaii in 1987. Along the way this sad list takes in the likes of Mauritius Night Heron in the 1600s, Jamaican Red Macaw circa 1700, Bonin Thrush in the early 1800s and Labrador Duck in 1875. We could go on adding to this roll of misfortune and we probably will. 

As the publishers quite rightly say with their accompanying literature, “this is a book that we all wish wasn’t necessary” (my emphasis). This is a sentiment that will resonate to most reading this blog but the book needs to find a wider audience rather than simply reach the already converted. The World’s Rarest Birds deserves that wider audience and I sincerely hope it reaches them; otherwise we may need to produce another and more desperate volume in a short number of years. Let’s hope not. 

This is a great book, and I have a suggestion. Buy two and send one copy to your elected representative at the highest level possible. I think I’ll send a copy to my European Member of Parliament, include a photograph of a Turtle Dove and a promise to use my vote wisely at the next European election.

Buy this book at Princeton University Press  $45 or £34.95.

I'm linking this post to I'd Rather Be Birding .

And The Winners Are..

Thanks to everyone who took part in Another Bird Blog’s recent draw for a copy of The Crossley Guide:Raptors. I put the correct answers in a hat and Sue pulled out the two winners, so congratulations to Mr E. Newman of  Somerset UK and Mr W Jones of Florida USA who both gave the answer to the question as American Kestrel Falco sparverius - if you are reading this Errol and Wally, please let me have your full postal address. Soon a copy of the Crossley book will be winging its way to them courtesy of Princeton University Press and I'm sorry that only two people could win a copy of this super new book.

Here’s a copy of part of the official British List of birds from the BOURC website, where American Kestrel is listed just below our UK/European Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus.

 

The British List from BOURC 

Yes, just two accepted records of American Kestrel in the UK, both in 1976, the first on the remote Fair Isle north of Scotland and a later one in the extreme south of England in the county of Cornwall. There are no further records of Amercan Kestrel in the UK since 1976, but there's lots of people hoping to get one on their own Britsh List, including me.

Although we are fairly used to seeing small passerines whisked across the Atlantic in autumn low pressure systems to then landfall in the UK or Ireland it is rare for raptors to be so involved. I guess the primary reason is that birds of prey are strong fliers and can normally outpace and outmanoeuvre an adverse weather system, whereas a tiny falcon like an Amercan Kestrel of just 10 inches and the size of  a Jay, is much more likely to be caught up in such extremes.

There was a false alarm here a couple of years ago when in November 2010 thousands of UK twitchers raced across country to Sussex, England in the hope of seeing an American Kestrel, only to discover it had escaped from a wildlife sanctuary. Perhaps they didn’t know that American Kestrels are commonly kept in captivity and used in falconry, especially by beginners? So don’t despair UK birders, there’s a likelihood of more escapes but also the possibility that eventually a “real” American Kestrel will turn up again in Britain or Ireland.

There are a couple of pages from the book below, plates which show American Kestrels in their natural habitat, in lifelike scenes and in a range of age and colour variants. The whole book is based upon this pioneering approach to bird identification, a method employed in the first Crossley Guide and continued here to even better effect. The new guide is an ideal way for beginner or novice birders to learn about raptors and an opportunity for the more experienced to sharpen up their skills on the "Mystery Image" pages.

American Kestrel - from The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors 

 

American Kestrel - from The Crossley ID Guide:Raptors

I found this on Wiki - The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), sometimes known as the “Sparrow Hawk” is actually a small falcon, and the only kestrel found in the Americas. Until the sixth edition of the AOU Checklist of North American Birds was published by the American Ornithologists' Union in 1983, the most commonly used name for the American Kestrel was the “Sparrow Hawk” or “Sparrowhawk”. This was due to a mistaken connection with the Eurasian Sparrowhawk, however the latter is an accipiter rather than a falcon. Though both are diurnal raptors, they are only distantly related. 

In fact, and I read this up on Wiki too, the American Kestrel is not a true kestrel at all. DNA analysis indicates a Late Miocene split between the ancestors of the American Kestrel, and those of the European Common Kestrel and its closest relatives. The colour pattern of the American Kestrel with large areas of brown is reminiscent of kestrels, but the colouration of the head - notably the black ear patch, which is not found in any of the true kestrels - and the male's extensively grey wings are suggestive of a closer relationship with the hobby family. 

American Kestrel by Greg Hume via Wikimedia CC.

Oh, why is this birding stuff so complicated? 

Call into Another Bird Blog soon for more news, pictures and points of view about our feathered friends.