There are two basic patterns of thought when it comes to field guides of bird species. The first is to obtain one that covers a large number of species, including any possible rarities, so that any bird seen while afield is within the scope of potential reference. The other is to select one that is […]
Of all the time I misspent during my misspent youth, having now reached the age of greater wisdom (or at least grayer hair), I now count much of it wasted if it was not spent looking at gulls. Like many naturalists who include birds in their studies, I am absolutely rubbish at identifying gulls. Unlike […]
At the Society for the Protection of Birds’ sixth annual general meeting in 1896, Miss Julia Andrews, a fifty-eight year old spinster and local secretary for the Society’s branch in Teddington, rose to ask a very uncomfortable question to all the good and the great – as well as the more middling sort such as […]
As one who has travelled widely around the world, I have in the course of my journeys discovered many places that I found beautiful, fascinating, relaxing, or pure and simply enjoyable; however of all the corners of the globe into which my adventures have taken me, none has lodged itself in my heart the way […]