Hoopoe – A blog by nhbs

One of the greatest things about birding is that you can do it absolutely anywhere. Be it Kenya or Kent, East Asia or East Anglia, it’s still essentially the same game. However, there’s very little which can match the thrill of going away to a foreign country where you can be surrounded by entirely novel and fascinating species.

This is, of course, unless you’re a birdwatcher’s spouse and, in all truth, you’d rather be looking for a cocktail than a cockatiel. So, on browsing through the excellent field guide, Birds of the Dominican Republic & Haiti, it occurred to me that maybe the island of Hispaniola is one of those special places which has it all.

With a diverse range of habitats including wetforests, savannahs and grasslands, mountainous pine forests, lakes, lagoons and a varied coastlines, all contained on an island small enough to really explore in one trip, Hispaniola is as good a place as anywhere on earth to go birding – the illustrations and accounts in this guide alone are testament to that. And for all those pro-cocktail individuals amongst you, I hear you can get a very good Mojito in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo. And with bright green Hispaniolan Parakeets overhead, I’d be surprised if you hear any complaints from the birding fraternity.

Things aren’t looking good. Whilst we’re well aware of the environmental problems facing us, it’s often easy to feel that issues like climate change, deforestation and reduced fish stocks are so large and complex that individuals can’t really have any meaningful influence. But consider this: there are presently 10 million species living on our planet and approximately 10 thousand of these are lost annually. With the evolution of new species negligible, this means that at current rates planet earth will be entirely barren within the next thousand years. It’s clearly time for a change.

Change, and the immediacy of its implementation is the topic of Gaining Ground, a new title which reviews the state of global biodiversity and takes a pragmatic look at the future of conservation efforts. No punches are pulled and the issues are treated with the depth and consideration that a topic of such largesse commands. Whilst acknowledging that the planet is staring down the metaphorical barrel of a gun, the authors still maintain an air of hope, but emphasise the necessities and specifics of action if this hope is to last. Gaining Ground certainly deserves to find its way onto the bookshelves of conservation workers, for whom it was primarily written. But it also carries an accessible message for all those who aren’t simply content to sit back and watch as the planet goes to waste.

Mention the Galapagos Islands to people and you’re guaranteed a response of acknowledgement. The fame of this Pacific archipelago is so great, especially amongst naturalists, that it has become the world’s primary ecotourism destination. However, mention Socotra – the Indian Ocean’s equivalent of the Galapagos – to the same individuals, and chances are they’ll return you with a blank stare. This inbalance in celebrity is understandable when you consider that whilst one island chain was the catalyst for Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ and thereafter our entire understanding of evolutionary science, the other is historically renowned as little more than a producer of frankincense and cinnabar and only saw it’s first tarmac airstrip open in 1999.

Such a disparity is also reflected in the respective quantities of literature written about these two archipelagos. However, with the recent publication of Socotra, conservationists, ecologists and evolutionary biologists now have at their fingertips a definitive natural history of these remote Yemeni islands. Detailing the hundreds of endemic species which have evolved in isolation for 6 million years, the marine life, conservation initiatives and human culture in a highly-readable format, this book should help raise awareness of Socotra’s importance to global biodiversity conservation. For anybody lucky enough to visit Socotra, this book is all you need. Except maybe a camera.

Known to the indigenous human populations as Nanuq, you are the world’s largest terrestrial carnivore, a formidable predator on land and at sea who has successfully adapted to life in the most inhospitable of environments. And yet, people just think you’re ‘cute’.

If only this oversight was the most of the Polar Bear’s worries.

Unfortunately, these beautiful creatures are currently facing much greater problems; As global warming reduces pack ice in the southern reaches of the bears’ range and thus greatly restricts their hunting ground, chemical pollutants and offshore drilling are simultaneously contaminating their food sources. Current forecasts suggest such factors may cause the species’ extinction within the next century. This primarily photographic volume, The World of the Polar Bear, offers a timeless glimpse at one of the world’s most beloved creatures. Both entertaining and informative, it should serve to raise awareness of the need to protect their habitat, whilst also bringing more than the occasional smile to the reader’s face.

A concise overview of the world’s 107 spider families is an impressive undertaking and this fine book by two devoted arachnologists does justice to such a project. This is certainly timely as it’s being over a century since the last overview and this will be a must-have title for anyone with a passion for spiders.

Each family is beautifully illustrated with a splendid black and white representation of the whole spider, accompanied by small details of distinguishing features. There are also 32 pages of colour plates at the back of the book depicting the spiders in their natural habitat. With such comprehensive visual reference all back up with text highlighting habits and characteristics this is an indispensable reference work.

I’m not too sure what to make of Antarctic Fishes. On the one hand, you’ve got a guide to the fish of the Southern Ocean which, whilst clearly well researched and entertainingly informative, depicts species which would be of interest primarily to Patagonian fishermen, hardy Antarctic ecologists and the occasional geographically-challenged scuba diver. On the other hand, however, is an enthralling book held together not by words but by the unique art of leading Japanese gyotaku exponent, Boshu Nagese.

The full-page gyotaku illustrations within Antarctic Fishes have been painstakingly created by moulding a moistened sheet of paper over the top of the subject and applying colour using a fine cotton bud. The resulting effect is (as pointed out by one individual in the NHBS Office) not unlike a high fidelity fish rubbing, in that the texture of the actual fish is present in the final image. It sounds weird, I know, but personally I’ve never seen anything like it before and it’s undeniably fantastic. Containing nearly 150 illustrations, this title will make a wonderful addition to the bookshelf or coffee table of anybody with even a passing fascination in marine creatures. In every sense of the word, this book is a unique portrait of some of the world’s least-observed marine species.

In this new and beautifully illustrated guide to finding butterflies D.E. Newland takes us to some of his favourite butterfly hotspots.

Sent off with our appropriate OS map number and grid reference, guided by photographs and detailed descriptions in how to find the exact path or plant to watch, you feel it almost impossible to miss the tricksy butterfly you are seeking.

Each area’s natural environment is briefly described to help us understand the nature of our butterfly’s habitat and we are also guided in how to protect against our own actions being any cause of damage.

A truly delightful guide, perfect for sunny days and/or British holidays.

This first standardised English-language nomenclature of all living birds is the result of a decade of hard work from Frank Gill, Minturn Wright and their co-researchers to produce and justify a list of over 10,000 names.

As someone who can’t remember scientific names, likes to spot a bird or two when travelling but is aware that names can change frequently in guidebooks this is an amazing and happy feat, one I see being equally well received by any global birder, government official and let’s not exclude the many employees of all those publishing housing and bookshops.

‘Birds of the World’ is endorsed by the pre-eminent International Ornithological Conference. It lists names in taxonomic order, along side species names, and brief descriptions of the bird’s geographical location and breeding range. And for those of you more technologically minded, an accompanying CD contains the full text in Excel format to enable you to search, sort, edit and export to your hearts content.

Since its conception in 1945, the New Naturalist series has provided some of the great highlights of natural history publishing and we are very pleased to announce that this great old oak is still just as strong as ever. Next week sees the release of the 100th title in the series, Woodlands by evergreen ecologist Oliver Rackham, and it looks as though this landmark title is going to be amongst the most popular to date.

At NHBS, we are currently offering a 22% discount on hardback copies or a 28% discount on the paperback. And, with only a limited number of hardback copies available, Woodlands looks set to become an instant collectable classic, not to mention an entertaining and informative read. It’s also going to give the dispatch team here a rigorous work-out next week as we process advance orders. No wonder they’ve been looking so pale.

Next year should see 3 more titles added to the New Naturalist series: Galloway and the Borders, Garden Natural History and The Isles of Sciliy. More information on these titles will be available closer to their publication dates, so watch this space.

Such was the pre-publication buzz surrounding this, the second edition of Deodato Souza’s ornithological guide, that, like many of our readers, I’ve been itching to see whether the book could justify all the fuss. To my frustration however, I have found copies of All the Birds of Brazil to be nearly as elusive as some of the rare species it documents. Only now, following a week of efforts, have I finally been able to locate a stray copy in the NHBS warehouse and sit down to flick through its pages…

And (…drum roll, please…) I’m happy to announce that it’s immediately clear to see why this book has been quite so successful: There’s no nonsense, no filler, just birds, birds and more birds. All the descriptions are as they should be, logically organised and complemented by distribution maps and detailed colour illustrations.

As the only English-language field guide dedicated to Brazilian birds, this book was always going to do well. Whilst this updated All the Birds of Brazil isn’t by any means the final word on Brazilian fieldguides, it is however the best currently available. We’re very intersted to hear the opinions of anyone who has given it the litmus test and used it in the field.

We also recommend the excellent Birds of Brazil/Aves do Brasil and the new Collins Field Guide to the Birds of South America: Non-Passerines