Category: Book Collections

We are very excited about Richard Lewington’s new Guide to Garden Wildlife – it includes the vast majority of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and other invertebrates that you are likely to encounter in the garden or on your local wildlife patch. The introduction covers the functional role of different animal types in our gardens – soil dwellers, herbivores, pollinators, predators and parasitoids along with advice on attracting wildlife to your garden. Each animal group is introduced with general biology, life-cycle and basic ecology

The illustrations are first class – Richard Lewington’s work sets the standard in natural history illustration. In addition, his brother Ian has provided the excellent bird illustrations for this book. Guide to Garden Wildlife comes with our very strongest recommendation.

We are pleased to announce that the British Trust for Ornithology has appointed NHBS as trade distributor of BTO Publications.

Bestsellers include:
The BTO Nestbox Guide
Identification Guide to European Passerines
Identification Guide to European Non-Passerines
Statistics for Ornithologists

Browse the full list

The British Trust for Ornithology has existed since 1933 as an independent, scientific research trust, investigating the populations, movements and ecology of wild birds in the British Isles. Their speciality is the design and implementation of volunteer wild bird surveys through a partnership between a large number of volunteers and a small scientific staff.

Click here to find out more about becoming a BTO member

We have two stages for checking books into stock at NHBS. Firstly all incoming books (several hundred per day) are unpacked, checked for damage and entered into stock. We then carry out ‘Book Checks’ – items which haven’t been into stock before are passed to the Catalogue Manager so that she can check that title, author and other bibliographic details are correct. This is also a great chance for us to see what’s new, what’s better than expected or, in some cases, not quite what had been described. It’s the life-blood of what we do – ensuring accurate information and physically checking the books we recommend to you. Walking through the office yesterday I spotted this pile of Book Checks working their way through the system:

• Lost Land of the Dodo
• Stable Isotopes as Indicators of Ecological Change
• The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia
• The New Taxonomy
• Micropropagation in Orchids

Freshwater Fishes of Costa Rica is the only decent book we can find on the non-marine fish of Costa Rica. It’s not new (it’s a 2002 reprint, this 2nd Ed published in 1998) but it is now in stock – I mention this because we have been waiting for it to come into stock for a year! This is a long wait… but well worth it. In Portuguese and English, Bussing has provided a high level of taxonomic, physiological and ecological information, there are good maps and diagrams, as well as some reasonable colour and black & white images. You may also be interested in the Check List of Fishes of South and Central America.

Do you need to use research methods to understand and assess forests?

Forest Ecology and Conservation: A Handbook of Techniques, the latest title in the Techniques in Ecology & Conservation Series will help you do just that. Includes comprehensive coverage of: the framework for constructing a study to achieve accuracy, relevance and value; assessing forest extent and cover using GIS & mapping; measuring forest structure and composition by various sampling methodologies such as species diversity, floristic diversity, and stand structure; understanding and modelling forest dynamics such as disturbance, light and population dynamics; reproductive ecology and genetic variation including seed ecology and relevant markers for molecular studies and; progress towards effective forest conservation.

The approach that this series takes is one of pure practicality – this is the manual you need to plan and carry out your forest conservation fieldwork.

Copies in stock now at NHBS Environment Bookstore

This isn’t a new book, in fact, it isn’t even a book – Whose Tadpole: The Waterproof Field Guide to Central European Amphibians is a selection of laminated cards that enable the reader to identify 20 species of European amphibians from both adults, larvae and all intermediate life stages – but it is the first time I’ve seen a copy. There are numerous colour photos for each species including key diagnostic features and larvae at different sizes. Keys to both adults and larvae are clearly constructed and a table lists species common names in 11 European languages. The format is pocket-sized and a useful ruler on the edge of every page aids identification.

The species information includes distribution data, general behavioural notes and an excellent description of calls e.g. The Yellow Bellied Toad Bombina variegata: “bright, musical ‘poop…poop…poop’, separated by less than 1sec”.

Highly Recommended! Order now from NHBS Environment Bookstore

A colleague and I watched bats feeding from the 23rd floor of a Barcelona hotel last week. Lit up blue by the neon roof advertising lights they were a magical sight in the centre of the city. Bats are typically considered roosting in caves or old buildings – Bats in Forests: Conservation and Management highlights in-depth the less well known but hugely important interaction between bats and forested areas at a time of alarming decline in the populations of many species.

You may also be interested in Bat Ecology – the classic reference work on bats; the new research on bat migrations in Bat Migrations in Europe; for ecologists and land managers The Bat Workers Manual, Habitat Management for Bats, and The Bat Builder’s Handbook.

Back in January, Nigel, when blogging the excellent Trace Fossils: Concepts, Problems, Prospects mentioned the then forthcoming publication of Trace Fossil Analysis by Crafoord Prize winner and perhaps the world’s most acknowledged expert in the field of trace fossils, Professor Adolf Seilacher. This is now published and in stock at NHBS.

The preface clearly outlines the key aim of this book, as distinct from that of any other on this subject: ‘to confer not knowledge, but skill’. Using this motto the author has designed the book in a way which fosters interpretative skills – using his own exceptionally detailed drawings (see below) as the key resource, which have been arranged in such a way that they make a story and wait for the addition of the reader’s own colourful scribblings.

This book is highly recommended for students, professors, researchers and those non-professionals interested in palaeontology, and especially ichnology.

Some sample plates:

From the depths of the densest forest, of the world’s fourth largest island arises one of the most spectacular limestone landscapes I have ever seen. ‘Like a lost city strecthed out to infinity’ as the author and one of the photographers, David Wolozan so elegantly puts it.

The ‘beauty and mystery’ of Madagascar’s Bemaraha National Park, aptly named the “stone forest” is truly captured by Tsingy – Stone Forest, Madagascar. From the deceiving “Tsingy” topography (from the Malagasy word “mitsingitsigina” or “to walk on tip toe”), where you’ll discover some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth, to the world of forest canyons, caves, karren and mangrove that lies beneath, to the interesting animals that inhabitat these environments, this book details it all with its series of breathtaking photographs and excellent commentary. ‘This book will lead you to their discovery…’

Suitable for all those interested generally in landscapes and landscape photography, to those who would simply like to see why this World Heritage site is fast becoming the most popular natural site in Madagascar, short of visiting it themselves. See the authors’ website (in French) for more details @ www.editionsaltus.com