Come September, Alvaro Jaramillo and Brian E. Small’s Field Guide to Birds of California will become the newest addition to the American Birding Association’s state field guide series from Scott & Nix.
With my preparations getting in to full swing for my upcoming journey to England and the Birdfair, it was fortuitous indeed that a copy of Mark Avery and Keith Betton’s “Behind the Binoculars: Interviews with Acclaimed Birdwatchers” arrived from Pelagic Publishing.
There was a time when I would have begun any essay or notice pertaining to Bill Oddie with a reference to the title of the much-beloved comedy in which he famously appeared. However after reading the forward of his new book I have come to realize jut how unjust to all the work he has done since that time such persistent references have by now become.
Of all the projects I’ve seen the American Birding Association enter into over the years, their recent partnering with Scott & Nix Publishing to create a new series of state-level field guides to birds is by far, in my humble opinion at least, the most beneficial to the bird watching community.