OLD BIRD BOOKS

Judith Smith · Status: Offline

RE: OLD BIRD BOOKS

Steve Suttill · Status: Offline

Had a root around the Local Studies Library in Ashton (under Lyne, that is) on Saturday (after early morning Dipper watching). They have a pretty decent collection (reference only) of local bird books, including Irvine Whittaker's "Birds of a Lancashire Cotton Town" 1935. The cotton town in question being Heywood.

Steve

Rachael Hill · Status: Offline

Ian Campbell wrote:

Brand New Bird Books:
Just received today, my new copy of the just published;
The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside. First impression it looks excellent and would recommend to others.
Cheers Ian

We got our copy today as a prezzie from in-laws. They run an antiquarian bookshop in Clitheroe & reckon not only is this a top book & long overdue but also a good investment as print is limited. My problem will be that it WILL be used & abused- they're copy will still look mint in 30 years time!
Rae

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

Obtain a nice copy of Birds in Rochdale 1900-1977 by Peter Hill
and copy of Birds of Saddleworth Hodson jackson and Jones,
still trying to find birds of Oldham area 1910 Stubbs !
Keep birding

Ian Campbell · Status: Offline

Good news is impossible to avoid for long,but apologies anyway.
Cheers Ian

Gary Marland · Status: Offline

Ian Campbell wrote:

Also in case anyone missed it City just took 6 points off Utd, sorry, just got carried away

Thanks for that Ian,

I was planning on watching it on Match of the Day and had avoided the news so far! Looks like I'll have to avoid these forums as well.

Cheers

Gary

Ian Campbell · Status: Offline

Paul, I only get called Mr Campbell at work !.
I got mine from Subbuteo Natural History Books
www.birdlifebooks.com . Price £30
Cheers Ian
Also in case anyone missed it City just took 6 points off Utd

, sorry, just got carried away

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

Mr Campbell,where did you get your copy, ordered mine via warden at seaforth one of the Authors dont you know, and mines not ready yet

keep birding

Ian Campbell · Status: Offline

Brand New Bird Books:
Just received today, my new copy of the just published;
The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside. First impression it looks excellent and would recommend to others.
Cheers Ian

Judith Smith · Status: Offline

Try Manchester central library.
I know Heywood Library has Ian Whittaker's Birds of the Heywood district (1932) and probably Birds of a Lancashire Cotton Town but it's closed for renovations for 6 months, I'm told. (I used to work there in my long-distant youth!)
David Ballance will be ringing me shortly. He wrote the definitive bibliography "Birds in Counties" which I have, and he has obviously seen a copy of Stubbs. I will ask him if he remembers where he saw it. (We are writing an article together for BB on definitive county boundaries )

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

My plan to gather all the books about Greater Manchester birds is going well, one book foils me at the moment the 1905 FS Stubbs birds of the Oldham district, has anyone got a copy?
and no judith Oldham library does not have one.

Judith Smith · Status: Offline

The BTO is doing a national atlas and is willing to make all their data available to any counties wishing to do a local atlas, on an exchange-of-data scheme. Far too good an opportunity to miss! The 2km squares (tetrads) SJ79 K and L which cover Shell are taken, but if you have a look at www.bto.org/birdatlas/ you can see which tetrads in the county are taken. Or I have a big map on my wall which I keep updated. Steve Suttill is the person to ask though - suttill.parkinson@virgin.net He is the national organiser for the Manchester region. But you can also send in Roving Reports which are just casual records, if you don't want a square. These could involve birds which you pick up as part of the RSPCA work.
Work for the Manchester atlas will start in the 2008 breeding season, but should not involve people in much extra work. Basically we will be trying to get the highest category of breeding for every species, even common species, in each tetrad, whcih is Confirmed as opposed to Probable or Possible, over a period of 4 years.
At least I got the Cetti's on my tetrad...

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

To be honest not cetain if we are refering to the BTO atlas or something else but will cover whatever patch i can have sent e-mails to lot of BTO people but have yet to have a responce

Judith Smith · Status: Offline

"It would be great to have a new breeding birds of Greater Manchester"
Paul - you must know we are doing one starting in spring 2008!! There's been enough publicity about it - flyers etc. I thought you had the 2km covering Shell?

Mike Chorley · Status: Offline

Following on from Paulh's Nov 20th post The Big Year by Mark Obmascik gives a view of year-listing from the other side of the Atlantic, with the postscript that, post 9/11 year-listing there will never be quite as spectacular or easy. An account of a three-way attempt on the biggest ever year list for the whole of continental USA & Canada and the effect it has on those involved it is "twitching " on the grand scale

-- Edited by Scouser at 20:22, 2007-11-30

-- Edited by Scouser at 20:23, 2007-11-30

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

A truely excellent reponse and i will get to work on finding some of these books got the hedlley bell with supplement and what about the country diary of a cheshire man A.W.boyd a number of entries in that refer to manchester sighting.
thanks for the bury rochdale list and yes have looked inthe back of holland spence and sutton
it would be great to have a new breeding birds of greater manchester,

Judith Smith · Status: Offline

If I must...
but have a look on p.121 of the 1984 Breeding Birds in Greater Manchester(Holland et al) for a list.
Briefly:
Oakes' Birds of Lancashire (1953) is very useful and was updated by Ken Spencer's The status and distribution of birds in Lancashire (1973). Remember that until 1974 what is now GM was partly in Lancs and partly in Cheshire, so Hedley Bell's Birds of Cheshire (1962) + a later supplement contains records too. For some reason this isn't in the Holland bibliography.
F.S. Mitchell's The birds of Lancashire (1885, 2nd ed 1892) contains records we can only dream about today. I don't have a copy of this but the MOS library have one. I took extensive notes from it before I returned the library to Margaret McCormick.
J. David Wilson's Birds and birding at Pennington Flash (1985) 100 pages, is long out of print.

Books I don't have:
Stubbs, F. Birds of the Oldham district (1905)
Whittaker, I. Birds of a Lancashire cotton town (Heywood) (1935) - there is a copy, or used to be when I worked there in the 1960s(!) in Heywood library.
Horan, M.B. Birds and mammals of Bury (1940)
Davenport, R. Birds of Bury and district (1872)
Williamson, F. and Lord, W. Birds of the Rochdale district. (1913)
Peter Hill also wrote a Birds of Rochdale which he updated not long ago in a pamphlet form.

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

Mr steve.white at seaforth will be getting me a copy saving on p&p looking forward to getting it,
but it still leaves me not knowing how many bird books there are about GM BIRDS,
come on judith thought you would have a good answer on this one.

Judith Smith · Status: Offline

Just corrected the final proofs of my bit (GMC) tonight!!!

Ian Campbell · Status: Offline

Re Bird books of GM Birds,
Although not quite fittng your question Ive just ordered a copy of The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside, Price £30 to be published Feb 2008 from www.wildlifebooks.com.
Saw ref. to it on the eastlancsornithology web site, found on links from this site.

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

have been trying to obtain copy of Moult and ageing of Euorpean passerines by Lukas jenni raffael winkler, but no joy lost out on a couple of copies on e-bay recently, so if you have one on your shelves let me know.

Also how many bird books have been written about GM BIRDS I,ve got a copy of birds by land sea and air re birding in Stretford in 1901,
then the 1983 Breeding birds in Greater Manchester.
and Birds Of Pennington flash are there anymore??

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

interesting twist,

harrisons seabirds and bakers warblers, got them both think i know what you mean, tim parmenters/clive byers guide to warblers was a little disappointing as was a new book collins birds of the paleartic:passerines was expecting a mega book,

but going back to good books helm never let us down with shorebirds or pipits & wagtails.
keep reading and birding

Craig Higson · Status: Offline

Bit of a twist/thread hijack - what are your worst /most dissapointing bird books?

The wife said they were having a book fair at her work and that there was a bird book for sale (£3 I think it was). I cant resist bargains so told her to get it. It was most definitely aimed at beginners and boy is it bad. I think the crowning moment was finding (if i remember rightly) a corn bunting photo labelled as a meadow pipit. You gets what you pay for.

I must admit I was a bit dissapointed with the Harrison Seabirds book. The illustrations just didnt do it for me, especially when you compare them with some more recent stuff. Similarly the Baker book on Warblers.

Simon Warford · Status: Offline

currently reading Birders Tale of a Tribe by Mark Cocker

what ya lending me next Paul?

Paul Heaton · Status: Offline

You can tell its winter, looking back at old thread found this one

I have a passion for bird books and have to have them all. Best book depends, all id guide are worth having and has collins taken over from lars jonsssons, how mouth watering is rare birds by lewington alstrom colston.
birders a tale of the tribe mark cocker is a must to understand birders.
for year listers, arrivals and rivals a birding oddity adrain riley is a must, so is going for the biggy by stuart gibson.
birding on borrowed time phoebe snetsinger puts life into perspective
keep birding

Dean Macdonald · Status: Offline

I've just dug this one out "Collins field notebook of british birds" by Roger Lovegrove and Philip Snow published in 1985.
I got this as a christmas present from my parents. Not only is it a field guide you get a plastic wallet built into the back cover which contains a note pad with printed observations, time and location sections and a BTO checklist.
I've just enjoyed reading the notes i kept in this book. Some great birds Slavonian Grebe and Hen Harrier at loch Ruthven, Osprey at Loch Garten in 1990 and Snow Buntings at the top of Ben Nevis

This was the first holiday with my girlfriend(now wife). I hadn't realised how bird influenced this had been

Also got notes of a flock of Waxwing in Horwich in 89.
The field guide itself is ok but by todays standard a bit dated. It's one of my favourites purely for the memories...
nice thread this

Ian McKerchar · Status: Offline

I had the Heinzel, Fitter and Parslow book too, but was overjoyed when I received the Shell guide for Christmas (early/mid 80's?) complete with superb artwork by Ian Willis, inlcuding a mouth-watering section at the back reserved just for rarities, oh how I dreamed of finding some of those birds, trouble is I'm still only dreaming of it over 20 years on

Can't remember what ever happened to that book, other than the fact that it was very tatty, with the spine all broken and coming away from 'over-use'!

Tom McKinney · Status: Offline

The first decent book I had was Heinzel, Fitter, Parslow. My dad bought it for me and I remember the first page it fell open at was the Eiders. I'll never forget looking at that King Eider - phwooaarr! And then all sorts of other mad stuff like Blue-cheeked Bee-eater - nice; Ruppell's Warbler - very sexy; Woodchat Shrike - I want some of that; and Spanish Sparrow... err... hmm...

But the book that blew my mind (slight exaggeration, well, huge exaggeration actually) was the Harris, Tucker, Vinicombe Bird Identification. I'd never seen birds illustrated quite so perfectly as that. I bought it with my holiday money when we were in Scotland at Loch an Eilean on June 28th 1992 (it's written in my notebook for then - yes, I am very lame). Shortly after buying it I saw my first ever Crested Tit, and back at the car I decided to look it up in my fantastic new book. Imagine how gutted I was to see that Crested Tit wasn't in it. I really wasn't the brightest of children.

-- Edited by Tom McKinney at 09:00, 2007-05-05

Craig Higson · Status: Offline

Mark,

have sent you a PM

-- Edited by Craig H at 22:18, 2007-05-04

MARK · Status: Offline

My favourite modern book must be The Birds Of The Western Palearctic Vol 3 (waders and gulls). This is a bit pricey so I only bought the one volume. I have the concise edition and this is my most read book. One book I have called Waders by fisher has a kind of identification troubleshooter where you are asked questions and depending on your answer you are directed to another question and you continue like this until you are given the answer. I will dig it out and may try the Id over this forum and see if we can get to the true identification of your specified bird. may get a few laughs. Also is the Mr Higgson the same one that used to be a member of the Manley AS and was a warden at Pennington flash.

Dave Thacker · Status: Offline

I wonder how many kids interested in birds had the Observer Book of Birds as their first proper bird book . I know I was one of them in the early 70`s.Does anyone remember how exotic the Hoopoe looked in the book and at the time it was the one bird that I really wanted to see.A couple of years later in 1975 I visited Sardinia and saw between 35-40 Hoopoes a day for the two weeks that I was there.
The old Hamlyn Bird guides were excellent as they covered more species.But I did prefer the Collins handbooks as they had better pictures and text .
I still always carry the Collins bird guide with me when I`m birdwatching and I would recomend it to anyone taking up birdwatching.

Craig Higson · Status: Offline

Hmm, bit torn on this one.

The Observers book was my first real bird book which I got in 1979 and undoubtedley encouraged me after my interest had been sparked by my Grandad. But, the Peterson Field guide I aquired in the early eighties really turned me on to the many other species that could be seen in the UK and I guess turned me from a person who liked birds into a Birder. Since then I think the BTO Migration Atlas has got to be one of the best on my shelves. Just seeing the movements some of 'our' species make is mind blowing and really makes you think.

But then the illustrations in Lars Jonsson's Birds of Europe are so good, and .....Oh I dont know I'm confused now

This just inspired me to get my Observers book out, just as a reminder. Strange/remarkable how things have changed. Marsh Harrier down as the rarest of the three, Gadwall listed as being a scarce winter visitor and Meadow Pipit also called a Titlark

-- Edited by Craig H at 13:14, 2007-05-04

Ian McKerchar · Status: Offline

Frontiers of Bird Identification, A British Birds guide to some difficult species, Edited by J.T.R. Sharrock (1980).

I remember wanting the above book desperately as a then very young teenager (just!) and obtained my copy from, if I remember rightly, Geoff Lightfoot secondhand around the early 80's (along with the very old BTO ringing guides to warblers). The book was (and still is as it resides in my bookcase) reprinted identification articles from British Birds magasines from 1960-1977, but to me it was a groundbreaking book, the first of it's kind to solely tackle the difficult identifications of the day and covered some species I had hardly even heard of then! It came in very useful during holidays to Greece in the early and mid 80's as it covered the hippolais warblers quite well and cleared up one or two headaches for me at the time, but it was learning so much new information that I could get out and try for myself (atleast the terns, owls, geese and gulls anyway) which encapsulated me and forged my passion for serious bird study and identification that still live on today. By todays standards it may well contain information which is frankly wrong and mis-leading in places but to me, even now when I look at it or flick through the pages, I still remember vividly those feelings of excitement at the possibilities that book brought to an information hungry young birder

MARK · Status: Offline

The other day I was looking through my collection of bird books and found the first bird book I owned, yes it was the Observers book of Birds. The plates are not up to todays standard but they hold that somthing special, may be as a young lad they burned the feeling of wonder and mystery of the wild into me. Todays bird books are good but they dont have the same reading ability as old books. This has started a nice collection of old bird books, like The Popular Handbook of British Birds by P A D Hollom. Plates rather dated but the text is very informotive. The Oxford Book of Birds by Cambell and watson (1964) good plates and text. My oldest book is the British Birds by F B Kirkman BA (circa 1928). This book must be the forerunner of the Observers book as its almost the same layout and style. The old books have something to offer the moden birder and thats a sense of history and fine writing. Whats your best bird books.