glad you enjoyed the re-read you must try Birders By mark cocker bits of that had me in stitches,
also recommend,
A Bird in the Bush Stephen Moss
Beguiled by birds Ian wallace
An eye for a bird Eric Hoskings
The Big Bird race bill oddie/tomlinson

After PaulH mentioned this book in the girlie tick thread i decided to dig it out and read it again. It sems not much has changed in the birding world since it was written. Apart from quality scopes and digital photography. Still a good and funny read. This extract on sea watching had me in stitches..... "Diver!" "Where??" "Flying west." "Which is west?" "Right." "So it's flying left to right?" "Yes." "How far out?" "I daren't take my telescope off it." "Try to pin point it." "Can you see the boat?" "There's hundreds of boats!" "A red boat." "Yes. A big red boat?" "No. A little red boat." "A little red boat, with a green sail?" "Yes." "I've got that." "Well it's gone passed that." "How far past?" "Have you still got the boat?" "The little red one?" "With a green sail?" "Yes." "OK, come past that... keep going right and you'll see a kittiwake." "On the water ,or flying?" "On the water." "There's fifty kittiwakes on the water!" "OK, second kittiwake from the left." "That's a Common Gull." "No; next to the Common Gull." "OK. I've got it. A Kittiwake, next to a Common Gull." "Right, now, go eleven o'clock from that, and you'll see a buoy." "I can't see a buoy." "Eleven o'clock from the kittiwake. A small boy- swimming." "That's not a boy. It's a girl!" "Oh yes. And she's not swimming. She's drowning!" "Never mind that, have you got her?" "Yes." "Right then. Count one... two, three...er...ten,eleven....twelve...twenty-five,twenty six,twenty-seven...er,er....thirty three, thirty four,thirty-five waves to the right, and there's a bit of drift wood, with a Great Northern Diver flying over it..... Now!" "Er.... I've got the boat!" Cheers Dean.