Hoopoe – A blog by nhbs

The Linnean Society have launched a new digital archive of Linnean butterflies to mark National Insect Week. Linnaeus named 300 butterfly species of which over 240 still bear their Linnaean species names today. This includes the American Monarch Danaus plexippus (L.) famous for it’s annual mass migrations. The Monarch, pictured here, is also the subject of a fascinating new book – Nomads of the Wind, chronicling this migration and other wonders of the butterfly world.

The BBC Wildlife Team broke new ground last night with incredible footage of a Rickett’s Big Footed Bat (Myotis ricketti) hunting fish. Ma et al uncovered the first evidence that this bat was a piscivore in 2003 (Journal of Zoology (2003), 261: 245-248) from analysis of droppings and behavioural observation. This footage is part of the BBC Wild China series which started last night. Both the book from this series, which is out now, and the DVD (to pre-order) are available from NHBS.

The first episode, Heart of the Dragon, focuses on the southern region with it’s iconic terraced paddy fields and the Karst peaks of the Li River. They filmed the ancient technique of Cormorant fishing – which I have seen in action on the Li River – it’s a fascinating collaboration and illustrative of the close working relationship maintained between people and animals in rural Chinese areas. The BBC haven’t shied away from highlighting the staggering conservation challenges facing China and the extent to which a wide range of highly endangered species are exploited.

The BBC have summaries of all six episodes as well as lots of behind the scenes detail on the BBC Wild China pages.

If you would like to start observing bats in the wild and listening in on their calls view our range of bat detectors and books about bats.

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.