Review: How to Be a Better Birder
by Derek Lovitch
Princeton University Press
208 pages, 53 color illustrations, 10 maps
Look inside on Amazon.com
It's
easy to judge a book by its title. This one is "How to Be a Better
Birder." Not how to "Become," but how to "Be." Me, I'm always
"becoming," but I must admit that I have not yet arrived. I'd be too
embarrassed to tell you my worst stories, but here are a couple that are
not near as bad as those.
Before
leading a Saturday morning bird walk at Rio Grande Nature Center in
Albuquerque, I scouted out the area adjacent to the starting point. In a
Cottonwood conveniently situated near the entrance trail I found a
Greater Roadrunner moving about high in the branches, probably searching
for a meal of hummingbird eggs or Mourning Dove nestlings. About 15
minutes later, as I led my charges along the path, I casually looked up
at a brown blob moving between the green leaves and began to expound on
the interesting behavior of the roadrunner. Well, one of the young
participants pointed out that I was looking at a squirrel!
The
first chapter of Lovitch's book is subtitled "The 'Whole Bird and More'
Approach." Ho hum-- Oh yes, I've heard this so many times, but what's
that about "More?" Maybe my approach requires fine tuning.
While
walking a trail in the wetlands near my new home in south Florida, I
spotted a bird soaring quite high in the sky. Easy call. Flying Bird →
Hawk → Buteo → red tail → ? Duh, stop here, take its picture and move on
to the next bird.
If
I had applied some of the "More" that is packed into this compact
handbook I would have noted that, in addition to its somewhat smaller
size, this hawk presented a more graceful silhouette, and shorter
pointed wings with comma-shaped light areas just inside their black
tips. It wheeled in tighter circles, lacked dark patagial marks and had
no belly band. The red in its tail was caused by diffusion of sunlight
from above, not the red pigment of a Red-tailed Hawk. It was the first
light morph Short-tailed Hawk I had ever seen, and I did not identify it
until I looked at my photos on the computer screen back home.
I
found the first chapter so interesting that I just had to try out some
of Lovitch's advice. Especially interested in the sparrow clan, the
author provides two facing pages that illustrate the profiles of each
genus. Everybody knows that Song Sparrows (Melospiza) are shaped
differently than Chipping Sparrows (Spizella) and Swamp Sparrows
(Passerculus). Yet we are encouraged to go beyond "general shape and
size" and analyze the subtleties of size and shape of head, bill, tail,
chest and belly. Don't be fooled by some markings, such as chest spots.
Lovitch provides an interesting artistic interpretation of plumage
details:
"A
Song Sparrow is an oil painting... Lincoln's... is akin to a
pen-and-ink drawing, while the washed-out, blurry streaking and more
subtle contrasts of the Swamp Sparrow are like a watercolor."
I set out into the field and found my Oil Painting...
...a Pen-and-ink Drawing...
...and a Washed-out Watercolor.
Lovitch
cautions us not to rely on the infamous breast-spot to identify a bird
as a Song Sparrow. All three of the above sport one, as does this Vesper
Sparrow...
...and of course, the Savannah Sparrow.
I
have misidentified all of the above sparrows in the past, and probably
will continue to do so, but perhaps with less frequency. It was time to
move on to the next chapter, "Birding by Habitat."
Sure,
we all know not to look for Sage Sparrows in a swamp, but Lovitch goes
beyond the basics and challenges us to learn more about vegetation
types and micro-habitats. Know the plants and you will know which birds
are looking for food and shelter there. My aging brain simply does not
retain all the names of the various grasses, shrubs and trees (and this
is also true for butterflies, dragonflies and other insects, not to mention the last ten people who were introduced to me at a party), but it is
nice renewing my acquaintance with the same ones over and over again!
The
book addresses the importance of geography in the movement of migrating
birds and predicting where they may concentrate in various seasons and
weather conditions. Lovitch explains the importance of weather-related
"overshoots." On a macro scale, migrants may end up far out of their
normal range because of such factors as faulty navigation, hurricanes or
weather systems. Locally, overshoots occur most often over water, when
migrating land birds must reverse course to seek the safety of the
shoreline.
I
found the chapter on "Birding by Night" to be captivating, as I read it
when spring migration was at a peak. This is not only about listening
to chirps in the night and watching the moon. It contains detailed
instructions for constructing your own personal radar display to capture
and interpret images from the previous night.
"Birding
With a Purpose" emphasizes the importance of contributing to the
greater fund of birding knowledge, whether through individual
record-keeping and reporting on e-Bird and RBAs, participating in
organized counts, census and banding activities, or even seeking
volunteer opportunities or employment in scientific research endeavors.
As is the case in earlier chapters, the book provides a wealth of
pertinent references.
After
a discussion of vagrants, Lovitch presents "A New Jersey Case Study,"
which details the successes and failures of his birding trip to Cape
May. He applies some of the concepts set out in his book, particularly
relating to the ability to predict where the birds might show up under
sometimes challenging weather conditions.
Finally,
he extolls the benefits and joys of patch birding, or more properly,
"Patch Listing," strengthening my resolve to be more of a lister. It is
so easy to neglect the value of properly recording the arrival, ebb and
flow of species in a familiar spot. I resolve to improve in this aspect
of my "Becoming" a better birder, even though I may never "Be" one.
Ken Schneider
ROSYFINCH RAMBLINGS.
Disclaimer: Princeton University Press supplied me with a review copy of this book.
Excellent review Ken, really enjoyed your accompanying photos too. You articulate parts of this holistic approach to birding very well. It can be time consuming and it makes for an even steeper learning curve, but of course it's worth it in the greater enjoyment and satisfaction one later finds in birding, in all of the extra details one learns to appreciate.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to do this review. Cheers
Ken, I really enjoyed reading your review on the book, "How to Be a Better Birder". The book sounds quite interesting ... I might have to pick up a copy. The terrific photographs featured in this post illustrated the points you were trying to make quite nicely. Very well done!
ReplyDeleteOnce I saw that Song Sparrow Picture I knew it was Ken Schneider who wrote the review. I have been admiring your pics for years on the Kane County Audubon Sightings page.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why I remember and love the picture of that Song Sparrow. Most likely it was because I had recently purchased a camera and wanted match the quality of that shot. I even went back and found the post.
Great shots and great review Ken.
Once I saw that Song Sparrow Picture I knew it was Ken Schneider who wrote the review. I have been admiring your pics for years on the Kane County Audubon Sightings page.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why I remember and love the picture of that Song Sparrow. Most likely it was because I had recently purchased a camera and wanted match the quality of that shot. I even went back and found the post.
Great shots and great review Ken.
Thank you all, for your encouraging comments. I especially like photographing sparrows, not only because of the challenge, but also to appreciate their subtle beauty.
ReplyDelete