Hoopoe – A blog by nhbs

We are pleased to announce the impending publication of The Status of Birds in Britain and Ireland. This important new bird conservation title gives a detailed assessment of the status and distribution of every species on the British and Irish lists for the first time since 1971. This book will be available in late December 2009 – Preorder your copy today and save £7!

Also new at NHBS is the latest Important Bird Areas directory featuring Mainland China. This book is now in stock at NHBS – Get your copy today

Browse other recent Bird Conservation titles

Brazil’s bird diversity is one of the richest in the world. The recently published Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil is the first comprehensive field guide to this splendid and elusive avifauna, with more than 1800 up-to-date accounts treat the Yellow-nosed Albatross to the Sombre Hummingbird, the Ash-throated Gnat-eater to the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Nighthawks and Jacamars to Motmots, Puffbirds, and Peppershrikes. They are all here – every species and many subspecies found in each region of Brazil – with special attention given to the 218 Brazilian endemics.

View internal images from this book

This book is currently on special offer; get your copy today – and save £3! (this special offer must end 31/12/2009)

Night vision scopes work by collecting available light, normally from the moon and stars, and amplifying this to generate a meaningful image. The main component of any scope is the Image Intensifier, a vacuum tube that differs in design depending on the generation of scope (more info on generations later!). The image intensifier collects particles of light (photons) and focuses them onto a photocathode. The photocathode absorbs these photons and converts them to electrons, which are subsequently amplified and projected onto a green phosphor screen at the rear of the tube. To do this the photocathode needs a power supply, normally from commercially available batteries.

When the electrons hit the phosphor screen, the screen emits visible green light that the user can see. Therefore, you do not look through a night vision scope, but rather look at an amplified electronic image on a phosphor screen. As the phosphor screen emits light in exactly the same pattern and intensity as the light collected by the objective lens, the screen image corresponds to the actual scene in front of the scope. The phosphor screen is coloured green because the human eye can differentiate more shades of green than any other phosphor colour.

There is a bewildering array of night vision scopes available for amateur, commercial and military purposes. NHBS has selected a range of scopes and accessories that match the needs of amateur and commercial users so we hope there is no chance you are going to get shot at whilst using them! All our scopes have been tried and tested by wildlife and land management professionals and so provide versatile and durable solutions to seeing at night. However, even amongst our range there are subtle differences that make some scopes more suitable than others for certain uses. Below is a list of criteria to consider when making your choice. If you are still unsure, then please contact us as we would be happy to provide further advice.

For more on this blog, see the NHBS Quick Guide: Night Vision Scopes

This new book features the history of the highly distinctive cover designs of the legendary British natural history series – now 112 volumes and counting!

Early New Naturalist cover designs were created by Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, with more recent covers by Robert Gillmor. Browse Art of the New Naturalists and learn more about the creation of the cover designs for this series – from concept to creation.

Art of the New Naturalists is currently on special offer – get your copy today and save 25%

See sample pages from this book

Save 22% on the latest New Naturalist volumes – Dartmoor (Volume 111, now available from NHBS) and Nature Publishing in Britain (Volume 112, due to be published in November 2009).

View some of the winning images from this year’s competition

The companion book Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Portfolio Nineteen will be published this month. Get your copy today – and save £4!

Complete your collection – Volumes 18, 13, 11, 9, 8, 6 and 2 are currently on special offer!

Browse Wildlife Photographer of the Year Special Offers

The glories of the world’s flora and fauna are captured in this autumn’s new art and photography titles, including Picturing Plants, Art of the New Naturalists, and Living Landscapes.

Capturing the Moment is the latest title in the Wildlife Art Series from Langford Press, featuring the work of Raymond Sheppard – a superb wildlife artist and draughtsman.

View internal images from this book

Don’t miss Perry’s Arcana – a rare gem of botanical illustration, first published as a lavishly illustrated magazine series in 1810-1811 and now revived for your browsing pleasure.

View internal images from this book

Browse this autumn’s New Art & Photography Titles

The long-awaited second edition of the classic Raptors: A Field Guide to Survey and Monitoring has now arrived at NHBS.  

At a time when many raptors in Britain and Ireland are recovering from low population in the mid to late 20th Century (or earlier), there is a growing demand for high quality information on numbers, distribution, and population trends of these birds. This publication, written by experienced professionals, is aimed at people who watch, survey or monitor raptors. It provides detailed descriptions of survey methods for all species of raptor (Accipitriformes, Falconiformes, and Strigiformes), which regularly occur in the United Kingdom.

Written and edited by members of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Group, this book draws on the knowledge and experience of over 300 raptor specialists. This book includes a CD-ROM containing raptor calls, sets out to promote best practice for the survey and monitoring of raptors. It is hoped that it will provide a starting point for anyone wanting to begin a raptor study, and indeed to encourage a new generation of raptor ecologists.

Get your copy of Raptors: A Field Guide to Survey and Monitoring today!

Browse other recent Raptors & Owls titles

Mammals of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East is the hot new bestseller at NHBS this month.

Covering over 400 species, this work presents all of the terrestrial mammal species of the Western Palearctic, serving as an excellent guide to the great wealth of fauna in this region. Species accounts are concise and authoritative, giving information on size, distribution, habitat, behaviour, reproduction and feeding. Each account is supported by distribution maps and superb illustrations. The book features over 100 plates, comprising of over 600 colour species artworks. Variation between the sexes is illustrated and anatomical diagrams are provided to assist identification. See sample pages and illustrations from this book

Get your copy today – and save 15%!

New Edition – Fully Revised and Updated
In 1996 The Ultimate Site Guide to Scarcer British Birds became an instant classic – for the first time in one publication, birders discovered how and where to see over 100 rarer and difficult-to-find species. These are the birds that make birding such an exciting and rewarding activity: there’s nothing like the thrill of tracking and observing elusive species such as Hawfinch, Spotted Crake and Great Grey Shrike.

For this new expanded edition, the species accounts have been further enhanced with more than 60 new vignettes from illustrator Ray Scally. For each of the 142 species covered this book tells you all you need to know, including where and when to look – up to six pages per species, detailing up to 50 sites, often including maps and grid references. Get your copy of the new edition today!

Other new birding titles this month include Birding from the Hip and History of Ornithology – for more, browse New Birding Titles at NHBS – September 2009

Our pre-publication special offer for Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows must end 30 September 2009; order your copy today and save £35!

If Thomas Henry Huxley was famously ‘Darwin’s bulldog’, then Richard Dawkins is probably best described as ‘Darwin’s pit bull’. – Richard Fortey, The Guardian

Save 20% on the newest book by Richard Dawkins – now available at NHBS.

150 years ago the momentous findings in Charles Darwin’s masterpiece On the Origin of Species shook the scientific and religious world to its core. Perhaps more astonishing, the Creation-Evolution debate sparked by his seminal work of 1859 continues unabated in the 21st century. Now, Richard Dawkins, world renowned evolutionary biologist and famous atheist, takes on the Creationists with a brilliant and uncompromising look at the incontrovertible evidence for Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Get your copy of The Greatest Show on Earth today – and save 20%!

Browse more Richard Dawkins DVDs and books