Category: Archive

From the Bat Conservation Trust website:

The Bat Conservation Trust encourages people working with bats, or those who might come into contact with bats or their roosts during their daily lives, to follow good practice.

We have worked with organisations and individuals across many sectors to develop a range of guidance to help you conduct your business or perform your work with consideration for bats.

Bat Surveys: Good Practice Guidelines, 2nd Ed.

Following feedback from experts in the field and authored by professionals, the Bat Conservation Trust has updated and revised the “Bat Surveys: Good Practice Guidelines“. In line with the latest evidence and best practice the second edition features new chapters and content, with revised advice and guidance. This is the essential reference and guide for anyone involved in professional bat work.

BCT Members receive a 20% discount: please quote your membership number when ordering (in the ‘comments’ field when ordering online), and the discount will be applied when we process your order. Please disregard the full amount quoted in your shopping basket and automated order confirmation. If you are not a BCT member, click on the following link to join online now and claim your discount. 

Join the Bat Conservation Trust today

1. Artificial accommodation designed for bats

The Habibat is a large bat box made of insulating concrete with an internal roost space, which can be incorporated into the fabric of a building as it is built or renovated. Its single chamber is internally divided by inverted V wedges to increase surfaces for bats to roost against and to allow them to move around.

2. Habibat boxes can be faced to match the building

Two stock colours: Staffordshire Smooth Red, and Staffordshire Smooth Blue brick, are complemented by thousands of bespoke colours of facing brick, stone, granite, masonry, slate, terracotta, tile and timber finishes.

3. Habibat is a unique partnership with the Bat Conservation Trust

The Bat Conservation Trust will be collating information on the use and installation and of Habibat boxes. In addition, the Trust has contributed to the design of the box, and a number of Habibat variants will be tried and tested to continue the development of the product.

4. Habibat is a versatile bat box system

We can supply quotes for joining multiple Habibat boxes or other bespoke requirements.

5. Habibat is made to standard brick dimensions

Habibat is simple to incorporate into walls as it has the same footprint as a standard UK brick (215mm wide x 103mm deep) and can be matched in height with six courses of bricks.

Save 20% on any book* in the “Animal” series from Reaktion Books

*Does not include the forthcoming titles, Chicken, Wolf, Trout and Sparrow

We think these are the perfect gift for the wildlife enthusiast – there are over 40 books in the series so far, covering mammals, birds, insects and fish… not to mention the odd crustacean and mollusc! Each book in the series takes a different animal and examines its role in history around the world. The importance of mythology, religion and science are described as is the history of food, the trade in animals and their products, pets, exhibition, film and photography, and their roles in the artistic and literary imagination.

 

 

 

 

 

“Part cultural history, part folklore, part history of science and reference books, these works gracefully traverse time, place and disciplinary approaches to explore a single animal’s place in human history. Replete with images and written in an accessible style, they are sure to appeal to a range of audiences.” – British Journal for the History of Science

 Offer ends 31/12/11

Phillipps’ Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan

Reviewer: Mike Nelson from the USA

One-word summary: “Complete”

“The second edition has been updated with some new plates including Spiderhunters, Hornbills, Blue Flycatchers and others. Also included in some of the plates are food plants which are helpful. Information has been updated at the front and new maps and birding sites have been added at the back of the book. New taxonomic information about the endemics and other families has also been updated with new information about the new species recently discovered, Spectacled Flowerpecker, which has several nice illustrations in the book.

Packed with great information, great plates and fabulous insight into the birds and birding in Borneo this is the only guide you’ll need and it’s small enough to carry in the field.”

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and a selection of reviews appears here on the Hoopoe

New Naturalist 118: Marches by Andrew Allott

Reviewer: S. W. Mott from the United Kingdom

“Outstanding”

“In the early 1980s, I lived and worked in Gloucester and undertook numerous outings to the Welsh Marches to walk and watch wildlife. So Andrew Allott’s book “Marches” has been eagerly awaited. It is a superb, masterly addition to the New Naturalists series.

Here we have a comprehensive account of the region, which is meticulously researched and thoughtfully detailed. The text includes examples to illustrate the wider context and the themes of the chapters. Mr Allott makes very good use of local sources and resources for much of these, such as the charming reference to the work done by a local primary school (p.75) and other local people, communities and wildlife groups. This is absolutely the right approach as it embeds the book in the region it describes.

The book is well structured; the first chapter invites us to take a “tour” of the region’s main, distinctive topographical areas which serve as a scaffold for the following chapters, whose themes take in the unique and chararcteristic features of the Border landscape arising within the topographical areas. Mr Allott writes in an interesting and flowing style. It is well structured. His attention to detail is woven seamlessly into the overview, the carefully chosen examples serve as fascinating insights into the natural history of the region. The chapters cover the expected themes but include up-to-date analysis and review of nature conservation, farming, land-use changes and local development and management, and outline lessons learned and issues for the future. I found myself thinking that the lessons learned in the Marches region could well be applied elsewhere too!

My only niggles are in the editing of the book. Trying to fit some of the figures on to one page renders some of the detail too small to read (making it almost meaningless), or makes the use of colour-coding difficult to differentiate. There are inconsistencies too: why, for example, provide Figs 16 or 104 with a colour key, yet not Figs 81 and 82? For the latter, the reader has to wade through text which explains the colour. On p41 we have an ambiguous paragraph which, on first reading, makes it seem that a new set of semi-natural squatters have returned to the Clee Hills. I suspect that the word “vegetation” has been omitted after the word “semi-natural”! Perhaps trying to publish three New Naturalist titles a year is having a negative effect on the editing.

These small niggles do not detract very much from this magnificent account of the varied, rich and very distinctive natural history of the Marches. To try to shoe-horn this into any descriptive framework is a challenge and one in which Mr Allott has succeeded – and succeeded triumphantly.”

What do you think of the New Naturalist series? What are your favourite volumes? Feel free to share your feedback by leaving a comment – or to create your own review, click the following link:

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and a selection of reviews appears here on the Hoopoe

Introducing the Triple Chamber Bat Box

 

NHBS’s new Triple Chamber Bat Box is available for the first time this autumn. The new bat box has three large chambers providing its inhabitants with a huge living area (compared with most other wooden bat boxes). Consequently, they are particularly well-suited to large colonies, including maternity colonies. Most crevice-dwelling bat species are likely to be attracted including Pipistrelles, Brown long-eared bats, and Daubentons. Species which may sometimes use these boxes include other Myotis species and Noctules.

The boxes are very deep, providing the bats with a stable draught-free environment and plenty of space for individuals to cluster together or disperse, and for the sexes to mingle or separate. Triple chamber boxes have proved to be a success in the U.S. where it is thought that the extra space provided gives bats the room to interact more normally. The boxes open at the top and are 60 cm high with a small aperture at the base of the box for bats to enter and exit. They are narrow (14 cm) and can easily be hung on both trees and buildings. The Triple Chamber Bat Box is constructed from European Redwood harvested from a sustainably managed forest.

Browse our current sale – some really good books are on offer at greatly reduced prices, but stocks are limited!

Doug Mackenzie Dodds, from the UK, reviews the Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Martin Townsend and Paul Waring, illustrated by Richard Lewington

“Best, most user-friendly moth ID guide on the market:

This book might not catch your eye on the shelf – small, paperback and easily hidden between larger, more attractively-designed moth ID books, but if you are into your moths, I’d thoroughly recommend it.

It’s perfect for the bookshelf but comes into its own in the field. It’s small, light, covered in a waterproof layer, the moths are well-ordered in the book, lifesize and in the two years I’ve owned it it’s not let me down once.

Its very comprehensive – ie. if you trap a moth (or find one!) – you will find it in this book – and so much easier than other, larger, showier, less waterproof, less well-ordered books.

I thoroughly recommend this book if you own a moth trap or even if you don’t.”

Visit this reviewer’s website

Read our blog post about Robinson moth traps

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and here on the Hoopoe

A Complete Guide to the Birds of Malta

Maurice Skeggs, NHBS customer from the UK, reviews this “superb” book.

“I bought this book after reading some rather flattering reviews and thought, well, if everybody’s praising it, there must be something about it! And what a pleasant surprise, this book exceeded my very high expectations. First of all, it is so painstakingly well researched yet written in such a brilliant and flawless manner. It must have taken ages to gather all that information. It covers everything related to birds like no book I’ve seen has ever done and really raises the bar. Secondly, it shows how deep the relationship between birds and man is, even in an island which is renowned to be hostile to birds, where things are now hopefully changing for the better.

The book comes from the pen of the author of Fatal Flight: The Maltese Obsession with Killing Birds, which in 1992 had exposed the horrific situation of hunting in Malta. This book now shows a chronicle of change, of shifting attitudes, acknowledging what has been achieved and listing what still needs to be done. It also shows the strong British and Victorian influences on Malta, a former colony which saw a lot of development under British rule but which neglected the protection of birds that was taking place back at home here in Britain. So we Brits have a part of the blame too!

The book shows how birds captured man’s thoughts and imagination, how birds pervaded metaphors, led to coining of expressions and proverbs. It shows brilliant photos of birds in everything from Maltese crockery to crochet, from antique embroidery of sacred vestments to illuminated manuscripts and birds in coats-of-arms of Maltese surnames. Brilliant photos of prehistoric bird models as well as the Medieval bas reliefs of falconry and hunting with cross bows are really unique. The book has what I believe is the first real history of falconry of the Maltese Islands, which goes way beyond the annual falcon that used to be given to Charles V as a token for giving Malta to the Knights of St John. This book documents it all, and in a very pleasant way.

The ornithological section, which makes up the second half of the book, is equally brilliant, with many original records and brilliant photos. The text that goes with each species gives old Maltese names that date back to the Middle Ages. Simply brilliant to see how they changed… or remained the same. This section too is infused with a lot of folklore about birds in Malta. The photos of decorated bird calls as well as those dealing with turtle dove trapping, are really beautiful and recount volumes on their own. I can go on and on about this invaluable tome, for with over 900 images and close to 500 pages, this is a veritable tome, an encyclopaedia about birds and man, primarily to do with Malta but saturated with parallels that each and every reader can find in his neighbourhood… So it’s about birds and us as much as it’s about the birds of Malta.”

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review.

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and here on the Hoopoe

Save £10.01

Birds of Vanuatu has been out of print for many years, but we have been able to source a very limited amount of stock – order today to avoid missing out on this unique offer.