A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion by Simon Barnes
Stop the crows! This is a fun and fascinating audiobook. With chapters lasting around five minutes - it dovetails perfectly with a cup of tea.
Simon introduces fifty of Britain’s most obvious birds, starting with the robin. And it gets interesting right away.
Don’t be offended by the title. A bad birdwatcher, according to author Simon Barnes, is someone who loves birds but doesn’t log them in a field book, doesn’t have binoculars, and can’t necessarily identify what they’re seeing. Yet their heart soars.
I’m certainly a bad birdwatcher. I know my coot from a moorhen, but not a fieldfare from a mistle thrush.
In this audiobook, Simon introduces fifty of Britain’s most obvious birds, starting with the robin. And it gets interesting right away: robins are ruthless! Ten per cent of robin fights end in death - though that doesn’t account for their bloodstained chests.
The book is organised by location: garden, birdfeeder, sky, city, freshwater, woodland, countryside, seaside, and RSPB sites. Each chapter begins with bullet points: species name, what to look and listen for; when and where to look. Birdsongs are recorded for each. Barnes then highlights a few points of interest about the bird. Blackbirds catch worms by listening, song thrushes eat snails, swifts sleep on the wing, sparrowhawk chicks mew like kittens in a tree, and my favourite: starlings make chicken impersonations.
Birds that make the top fifty include the wren, blue tit, nuthatch, tawny owl, pheasant, magpie, lapwing, osprey, and bittern.
It’s not all chirps and wagtails though. Once abundant, even the house sparrow is now on the red list of conservation concern. “Conservation,” Barnes says, “will only work if humans want the wildlife and the wild places.”
“The biggest crisis to hit the planet since that 65 million year old meteor is the rise of human kind.” ‘- Claire C.
However, the key message in A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion is that with a little bit of knowledge your world can suddenly be full of birds. “Learn to listen and there will be so many more birds in your life.” And if you put a bit of fruit beneath your bird table, you might entice a song thrush.
Very enjoyable.
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The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
