Birding Guides of British Isles

Following the notion of sharing bird field guides from other parts of the world, let me begin with the British Isles. There are many many birders in Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland and some books focus exclusively upon specific areas of these beautiful landscapes. Other guidebooks include birds of Europe.

I enjoyed browsing several bird guides and saw splendid photographs of birds I have never seen. That is one of the fun parts of preparing to write for this blog and looking for books at Amazon. There are so many that allow you to “Look Inside”.

An exceptional and authoritative guide for birds is the Collins Field Guide.

Collins Bird Guide

This is considered to be the ultimate reference for birders in the UK and Europe. The publisher description says the Collins Bird Guide “provides all the information needed to identify any species at any time of the year, covering size, habitat, range, identification and voice.”  Maps and identification guides and answers to commonly asked birdwatching questions make this an exceptional bird guide. This is the second edition.

It seems to cost more than your average field guide but it has a lot more to offer in terms of content too. I checked into the publisher site  and noticed the pre-publication price is a LOT more reasonable. $17.50- 25.00 and free shipping in the UK.  It is sold only by Amazon.co.uk where you can make a pre-publication order today.  Note if you go to Amazon.com you will find a used first edition copy being promoted for an outlandish price.

The Collins Bird Guide is due to be released in September, 2009.

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Birding Guides – - Whose Top Ten?

I was starting to write about what bird guides I think are the best a short while ago.   I thought,  perhaps I should see what other people have written.  And the very first thing I discovered was such a surprise  – - I have not felt so ignorant in many years.

I knew this would be a case of opinions and without knowing what the methods of evaluating the bird guide books it would be hard to tell where other writers or birders might be coming from,  so to speak.

Then it finally hit me like a rock dropped from the top of a cliff. The TOP TEN BIRDING GUIDES will be DIFFERENT for each part of the WORLD. Not just regionally.

How myopic of me to just think about Peterson Field Guides or Sibley’s or the National Audubon Society‘s birding guides!

Of course the Top Ten Bird Guides or Bird Books will be unique to the region — wherever it is in the world.  So it was refreshing to browse through several categories listed on a major British site.  And then to find the Top Ten Bird Books for the UK listed right before my eyes!  I felt really churlish.

In a way, telling you about this is an admission of surprise when I realized how provincial my perspective had become. I was busy simplifying my life and recognize now that,  in so doing, I had marginalized the entire rest of the birding world. Good Grief.  I am so sorry. That was never my intention!

In truth, I see birding as a common bond across nationalities and really do communicate with birders from several different countries and across the USA.  Nonetheless, there was a gap in my link with reality compared with theirs.  A gap I never realized was there.  Wow.

We learn something everyday.  When we cease to learn, we cease to grow and our world truly becomes diminished. By sharing this, perhaps someone else can also grow today and our world will be enriched instead.