I have for decades owned the author's other work, The Irish Wildlife Book, an anthology of articles by various writers which he edited; but I didn't cI have for decades owned the author's other work, The Irish Wildlife Book, an anthology of articles by various writers which he edited; but I didn't connect that when I went to hear this gentleman speak at the RDS. Having listened to his account, as the only living Irish person to have overwintered in Antarctica, and seen the slides, I was delighted to buy the book and explore the full adventure.
At times this is heartbreaking, for an animal lover and for humanity.
This memoir shows a relatively ordinary young man living the extraordinary. With a basic training in Zoology, Fergus (an Irish volunteer from the Civil Service of UK) was assigned to supervise seal killing and some whaling in the bitter South Atlantic. He says all the sealers were Norwegians, working in the Antarctic summer and going home to idle their northern hemisphere summer away. To this end, they killed bull elephant seals on the beaches for skins, and any whales they could get, sneaking in the pregnant females and calves after the official supervisor had gone for his evening meal. The whales only started to be hunted after the seals had been wiped out, and now with sparse regulation, seals were making a minute comeback.
On to the wintering in the South Shetland Islands. Fergus was reassigned to a science and weather outpost. Again, the honesty and detail are extraordinary. With constant heat the several young men could have drawn water and bathed any time; they were filthy and stayed filthy. The one occasion when Fergus was obliged to bathe is a comedic masterpiece. At this point the islands and much continental coastline had yet to be mapped, and Fergus did some of that in small boats and sleds. He studied birdlife and seals. He also climbed in the footsteps of Shackleton and Crean. The rations included endless butter, and the men used it in everything. They were totally dependent on a ship coming by in six months' time, so when a tragedy befell the hut, that was that.
All this and as much in the way of shipboard and Falklands socialising as Fergus, a teetotaller, could arrange. This was during the International Geophysical Year of 1958 - 59 and obviously a lot has changed since. I asked at the talk, how much Fergus was paid. The answer is not in the book: £8 a week, paid to his mother and spent before he reached home. The book itself is well made and edited. There are photos in colour and black and white, so I don't advise handing the book to anyone too sensitive, but it's a fantastic record of times and places gone past. Naturalists, historians and explorers will be interested.
I bought a copy at the talk in the normal way. I was not asked to review. This is an unbiased review....more
Bicycling around America to see as many bird species as possible during a Big Year without petroleum power, was just one of the challenges Dorian faceBicycling around America to see as many bird species as possible during a Big Year without petroleum power, was just one of the challenges Dorian faced. He was overcoming himself, his addictive, rush-fuelled personality which had led him to spend insane amounts of money and time high or blotto. Obviously a really bright man, Dorian had worked through college and science degrees, but I found it really odd that he gave two years to experiments before realising there was a reason none of them worked as expected. Probably if he was ever sober he'd have corrected course much earlier.
Abandoning science and his DJ-ing for a cleaner pedal powered way of life may have saved his life. I'm wondering why nobody ever told Dorian that the drugs he ingested were destroying the habitats of migrant and resident birds across the Americas. Forests and rainforests are cleared for illegal planting. The money supports exploitation and violent crime. He never saw drugs as affecting anyone but himself, and that's why his girlfriend left him.
Hoping to find 600 bird species, a sense of purpose and a relationship, Dorian nearly gave up early on, but the fact that he was blogging and had many birding followers and commenters pushed him to continue. We get the blow by blow of so many species, the irruptives and natives, the lone wonders and large flocks. New friends put him up and motels sometimes risked his health. The mountain peaks and mudflats, the sagebrush and reserves, are all detailed for anyone wishing to follow in Dorian's tracks. Interspersed with the 2014 road trip are memories of his self-destructive past, an ideal way to break up the account.
Recommended for birders. I would like to see colleges and science institutions taking more responsibility for the welfare of students and those in their staff. Two colleges declined to accept Dorian and that should have been a warning.
I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
Interesting and fun book, more for the beginner bird enthusiast and bird artist. Plenty of drawings and suggestions as to what to look for when out biInteresting and fun book, more for the beginner bird enthusiast and bird artist. Plenty of drawings and suggestions as to what to look for when out birdwatching, whether what kind of birds are seen in flocks, or what the silhouette of a raptor overhead looks like. I am sure this would be a great gift and would suit teens to adults. I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
I'm giving this one five stars on the provisio that the final book has photos or drawings of these magnificent birds. If not, it's four and a half froI'm giving this one five stars on the provisio that the final book has photos or drawings of these magnificent birds. If not, it's four and a half from disappointment.
We get a good account of convergent evolution to fill similar ecological niches, and the services that scavenging birds provide alongside their place in the food chain. From roadkill to sky burials, the vultures work hard to keep the world clean as they feed their offspring. The author explains that prehistoric humans probably followed vultures to handy food sources.
Each species is described with notes as to its range and nest predators, in Asia for instance, the Pallas cat and raven. Whether the offspring disperse or stay near the parents. As a bird lover I find the notes clear and easy enough to understand. We also get notes on how each bird got its name, so there is plenty to interest a reader even if we haven't a hope of travelling to the normal range. At the end is a glossary of terms like irruptive migrants and keystone species.
This will be an indispensable handbook for the spotter or ecologist in the field, and will also aid those drawing up plans for national parks, rewilding, or protected areas for wildlife. Vultures are suffering from many causes such as mechanised agriculture, shooting, collisions with power lines, and predating on dead animals dosed with wormer medicine or poisons. They are sometimes killed because their circling gives notice of illegally poached animals. We should appreciate the birds for themselves but also for the vital role they play in the environment.
Notes begin on P 186. Glossary P 189 - 205. References are listed by chapter at the back, P 207 - 236. Index P 237 - 244. No illustrations in my ARC edition. I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. I read and reviewed in my own time. This is an unbiased review....more
This is an excellent book about migrating birds, some of which move from one small region to a similar region in the opposite hemisphere each year, otThis is an excellent book about migrating birds, some of which move from one small region to a similar region in the opposite hemisphere each year, others spending years at sea. We follow the author as he joins birders, scientists and bird advocates globally, whether catching and ringing birds, counting them, or reporting the criminals who trap or shoot weary migrants.
Shooting is only one threat. Others include overuse of pesticide killing falcons which eat the insects - ironic since the more birds die the more pests there are to eat crops. Land reclamation from seafront removes safe feeding and resting grounds, replacing them with factories and highways for many miles in China. Birds need safe spots to break their journeys, especially during stormy weather. If they can't rest and feed, they arrive at breeding grounds underweight and late. Climate warming is also throwing birds out of step with the hatching of insects which feed chicks.
The radar tracking and tiny flight recorders and transmitters now carried by birds, using cellphone masts, or downloadable data, are providing eye-opening records of avian journeys.
I recommend this book to birders, ecologists, students and journalists. Also to anyone who has land upon which birds feed or nest or rest. Similar books would include the older On The Wing about tracking peregrines, Nature Beyond Solitude by John Siebert Farnsworth about bird science studies, The Narrow Edge about the red knot, and Curlew Moon about curlews in Ireland and UK.
I borrowed this book from the RDS Library. This is an unbiased review.
I had a great time reading this book, with plenty of fun facts and lively illustrations for the budding bird lover. Kids are shown how to make a gardeI had a great time reading this book, with plenty of fun facts and lively illustrations for the budding bird lover. Kids are shown how to make a garden feeder with a plastic bottle, string and a stick. Then they learn to identify the species which visit, and understand how they move and what they are saying. If you've heard the comment 'birdwatching is my videogame' you'll understand that kids may spend too much time looking at screens and could just as easily be absorbed in watching nature. Enjoy! I read this e-ARC from Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review....more
This is an excellent, lively and colourful guide to chickens of the world. We learn what their different feathers and bone and body parts are called; This is an excellent, lively and colourful guide to chickens of the world. We learn what their different feathers and bone and body parts are called; where they originated and how they grow. We see many breeds and colours, a suitable henhouse and outdoor run. No photos as this book is entirely composed of artwork with accompanying or in-graphic text.
I suggest the book is good for anyone from ten or twelve upwards, also for adults thinking of embarking on backyard chicken keeping.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This top-flight book is beautifully illustrated with coloured art and takes a refreshing look at American birds. Each species is compared to a human-fThis top-flight book is beautifully illustrated with coloured art and takes a refreshing look at American birds. Each species is compared to a human-familiar couple or trope, and we see how it works for them to enable the raising of healthy chicks.
The cowbird behaves like the cuckoo over here, but differs in other ways and its behaviour is explained. The bird used to follow herds of buffalo for the insects they stirred up, and can't stay with a nest for several weeks. So the female leaves her egg in another bird's nest, where it can be raised. Despite picking on smaller birds for this purpose, the cowbird egg will hatch more quickly and the fast-growing youngster, while not attacking its new siblings, will demand plenty of their food. When fledged, it will go and find a flock of cowbirds, despite perhaps never having seen one.
Other birds mate for life, or for the season, or for just this clutch, and some don't pretend to be faithful. They are more faithful to the territory, because that provides food and shelter.
From the scrub jay to the blue-footed booby, the red knot to the bald eagle, these are beautifully depicted and charmingly described. We also learn terms like allopreening - preening the mate's feathers, and reasons why the mockingbird mimics; perhaps to say it has encountered all these objects/ beasts and survived, so it is wise. Wonderful.
I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
The cover is too simplistic for this covey of personal tales about wild birds. While many writers share their memories of moments, of rare sightings aThe cover is too simplistic for this covey of personal tales about wild birds. While many writers share their memories of moments, of rare sightings and of their own journey to birds (via whale-watching for instance) two longer accounts remain firmly in my mind a few weeks later.
One is a history of the Bermuda petrel or cahow, a good-sized fishing bird which nested in cliff burrows and flew at night, shrieking. Until, of course, human explorers found a source of food, and that was that. The cahow almost went the way of the dodo and would probably have, if not for one young man who early decided to make it his life's work to find cahows, bring them back from the brink, and protect their population. He's out there now, rigging up nest cams in the burrows he's made, watching cahows fledge. Not on Bermuda, which is devoid of all original wild land, but on a rocky islet.
The other is an account of a man who wanted to drive around Mexico looking for a woodpecker in old growth forest. But every year it got more dangerous, and when he managed to get trekking, he discovered that the drug cartels are burning down the forests. If you want to have wildlife, folks - a source of excellent tourist income - you have to protect it; from drug cartels, timber merchants and other exploiters.
The other accounts are shorter and all are pleasant to read, if less exciting. I'm delighted that so many writers got to feature and I hope many readers will be inspired to feed the birds and protect wild spaces. I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This is a collection of experiences from people who are running rewilding or conservation projects around Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. There This is a collection of experiences from people who are running rewilding or conservation projects around Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. There are plenty I hadn't heard of, plenty I had heard of and plenty which weren't included or were just namechecked. So, it's great that lots of people are getting on with this work. Not so great is the reason it needs to be done. We read of natural environments destroyed, hedges, headlands and meadows destroyed for monocrops in vast ploughed fields. Building or industry destroying open space or clean natural space. Species are being lost and as many times as we read of a species making a comeback due to one of the rewilding projects, we see another has not been recorded in years, or is endangered by rising sea, or has no way to connect with others in order to widen the gene pool.
I particularly like the story of a rare butterfly, Purple Emperor, which was recorded around oak forests, unusually. When the habitat around the oaks was varied to include other options, by moving in pigs which opened up terrain for sallow (hybrid willows) suddenly there were many more butterflies reproducing in the fringe of woodland shrubs which common sense says they would prefer. Previously, the butterflies just hadn't had the option. This 'Pigs Breed Purple Emperors' was my favourite piece.
Bogland, marine life, suburban gardens, Scottish mountainsides, Welsh beaches, organic farms, homeless people, juvenile offender programmes, all here. The striking colour photos are almost all taken by the editor and include birds of prey, hedgehogs, butterflies, beetles and quite a lot of landscapes. Some of them don't seem populated by creatures, and I guess that is the point. At one time the blanket bog would have been covered in curlews with a few birds of prey overhead to thrill observers.
While sobering to read, this varied collection is also hopeful and demonstrates how many people and groups - almost no government bodies - are currently working on biodiversity.
I read the paperback version, which is a large size book - I was disappointed to see it was printed in China. RDS Library....more
These field notes are especially good for bird-watchers but any naturalist or ecologist will be fascinated. If you just enjoy spending time outdoors, These field notes are especially good for bird-watchers but any naturalist or ecologist will be fascinated. If you just enjoy spending time outdoors, you need to read the book too. The author is a teaching professor who spent some months driving to field stations in America to observe nature and observe the observers, delivering a few lectures to the students and learning just as much from them.
On an island ecology base, the author walked around noting the plants which were invasive, the effects of removing one raptor and replacing it with another species which took differing prey, wondered where the butterflies were and counted the foxes he saw.
At Hawk Hill, passed over by migrant as well as resident raptors, the author put in day after day, session after session of focused teamwork, identifying hundreds of raptors in a morning.
Up a forested mountain, the author climbed and hiked, accompanied by younger students who blithely toted heavy equipment for observation posts and roped themselves down cliffs.
On a grassy hill the author counted woodpeckers storing acorns in individually made holes in a tree known as a granary tree - see it on YouTube.
The author, rubbing his sore knees and trudging through snow to retrieve his car before the snow ploughs arrive, fending off sunburn, wishing he'd brought his camera, and making his own meals, laughs at himself and makes friends with everyone he meets. He tells us that it may be time to hand over the torch to the students. Where all the older naturalists he meets are men, I noticed the students seem to be equally male and female. And their work is seriously impressive. The writing flows smoothly and we feel the humour and love for nature rippling off the pages.
Read it, love it. I read an e-ARC from Net Galley and Fresh Fiction. This is an unbiased review. ...more
Konik ponies, ospreys, Scottish wildcats, avocets, basking seals, and more. The stunning photos in this book are alone worth having, but couple them wKonik ponies, ospreys, Scottish wildcats, avocets, basking seals, and more. The stunning photos in this book are alone worth having, but couple them with an excellent guide to the activity of seeing nature and you're well provided with entertainment as well as information. The author gives a star rating for family friendly (yes if kids can muck about, no if you are not that likely to see the whale) and budget friendly, and ends by recounting his own experience on that trip. Be it snorkelling with sharks, fossicking for fossils, birdwatching or damselfly or daffodil spotting, there is something almost anyone can do. And they are all in Britain. Go for it, support wildlife tourism and wildlife sanctuaries. Another bird is the urban peregrine, in case anyone thinks these are all rural experiences. Bring a camera.
Great book, stories well told. Index P232 - 234. I downloaded an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
I enjoyed this general look at bird life and crafts for kids. The pictures did not all show up in my e-ARC but I am sure they are great in paper. We mI enjoyed this general look at bird life and crafts for kids. The pictures did not all show up in my e-ARC but I am sure they are great in paper. We meet lots of different birds, learn fascinating facts about everything from eagles to puffins, and get ideas for crafts and games, like an owl mask and making a nest. We're shown how to track birds in the snow and figure what they eat by looking at their beaks.
This would be great for a school nature class, Guides and Scouts or a family fun book. Ages six to ten will get most use but parents will probably learn something new as well (the harpy eagle eats monkeys!) Go for it.
American spelling and some American birds named. I downloaded an ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This is a delightful book which vividly portrays the lives of various creatures that make nests, dens or other homes. Birds start us off with weaverbiThis is a delightful book which vividly portrays the lives of various creatures that make nests, dens or other homes. Birds start us off with weaverbirds, bowerbirds, swifts, then on to less attractive creatures like ants, termites, spiders, before meeting mammals and reptiles. I enjoyed every double-page spread drawing, which carries a few lines of writing and excellent detail. The writer has really thought about how to shrink information and still convey it well, while added details include the place where the animal lives, or its food, or its predators.
At the back we find a map of the world and each animal featured gets a little fact file so readers can place it on the map and get used to geography. This is a really colourful and attractive book which is excellent for young readers and anyone keen on fascinating nature.
I downloaded a copy from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review....more
This was an informative, colourful and fun way to learn about birds and nature study. I recommend books like this for young readers. I read the 1970s This was an informative, colourful and fun way to learn about birds and nature study. I recommend books like this for young readers. I read the 1970s edition from Big Chief I-Spy. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This is a cheap and cheerful viewpoint on chicken keeping. The author tells us at the outset that we are welcome to spend thousands on coops and equipThis is a cheap and cheerful viewpoint on chicken keeping. The author tells us at the outset that we are welcome to spend thousands on coops and equipment, if we'd prefer, but she finds that repurposing, mending and using old reliables like enamel pans does the job.
Depending on how much free ranging your birds do, you may want to give them the seed and seaweed mix with added insects recommended. I don't consider everything in the book a hack - a feed recipe isn't a workaround in itself. But I admire the application of ingenuity and re-use we are shown. The colour photos are lovely and might encourage some people to start keeping hens.
I'm pleased the author has shared her experience and I am sure most interested readers will pick up several bright ideas. I downloaded this book from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This book seems suited for young adults and adults, but not younger children. Bill Oddie sadly just confines his locations to Britain with a blank picThis book seems suited for young adults and adults, but not younger children. Bill Oddie sadly just confines his locations to Britain with a blank picture of Ireland sitting beside it. He takes us through monthly nature watching, starting in our own garden and moving on to specific locations such as woodlands, ponds, RSPB bird sanctuaries and farm fields.
One interesting tip is to count the number of woody species in a field hedge and that is how many centuries the hedge is likely to have been present. He says hedges were often planted after the Enclosure Act and the older hedges will be remnants of woodland.
While Oddie loves swallows, he doesn't explain where swallows built nests before people built solid houses. Trees, cliffs? He should also mention that during winter the birds of prey move southwards for food and can be easily seen perching in bare trees. So you may see none in Scotland during January but seven in one day in Cornwall. And that the robin was called 'ruddock' or red bird because at the time Britain didn't have a word for orange... its breast is more orange than red.
Anyone interested in taking up more regular nature study will learn a lot from this guide as to what to do, wear and bring. While some great photos are included, this isn't a substitute for a field guide. This is an unbiased review. ...more
This book makes me doubly sad because it is set in Ireland, England and Wales. The author Mary Colwell explains that every site which used to host hunThis book makes me doubly sad because it is set in Ireland, England and Wales. The author Mary Colwell explains that every site which used to host hundreds or even thousands of nesting pairs of curlews now has few or none, and few eggs make it to fledging chicks.
Intensified farming, draining of bogs, silage frequent cutting and proliferation of predators like foxes and hooded crows are making it impossible for many species of ground nesting birds to cope. Where there are many prey birds they can rise in a crowd and mob a predator but that doesn't work if there's only one pair. Saddest of all is the description of three grassy nests being mowed down by a silage cutter.
However, on her walk the author meets many caring, interested and even fanatical people working to save curlews at their own or a charity's expense. Poets past and present are quoted, folklore, old diaries.
A few river or lake islands have been set aside with electric fences to stop determined foxes and badgers swimming over, trees felled to stop hooded crows perching to hunt, gamekeepers shooting predators during breeding season. Heather moors for grouse shooting in England are part of the picture. The clash of protecting the hen harrier, which I pointed out to naturalists a decade or so ago, is also being felt. Wind turbines and reforestation are not helping. Ireland has always given higher grants for mixed tree plantings than for conifer and highest for deciduous tree planting, not mentioned.
I did note a couple of mistypes - in Ireland SAC means Special Area of Conservation - and updatings even since this book was published, such as Bord na Mona bringing forward the closure of peat bogs to cutting almost immediately. Not mentioned is that during the hard rule of Catholicism in Ireland, people were not allowed eat meat or poultry on a Friday but some of them called wading birds the same as fish, allegedly, so curlews could have been on their Friday diet. (Most inland farmers ate salted cod.)
I have seen a flock of eight to a dozen curlews revisit north Dublin each year, coming over from England for the winter. They walk across school playing fields eating the worms, sometimes accompanied by Greenlandic geese eating the grass. This year one of their favourite spots on the Malahide Road was being dug up for some development. If these birds don't manage to reproduce themselves, as the author tells us, when they are gone, they are gone. She doesn't even mention the shrinking pool of genetic diversity which would make a captive breeding programme difficult.
Notes and index P311 - 328. I counted 38 names which I could be sure were female. I borrowed this book from the Royal Dublin Society Library. This is an unbiased review....more
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