Like any site with an element of social networking involved or that seeks to build participation in a forum – Collins Birds satisfying both of these categories – in addition to the inherent draw of the wealth of information to be found in the site, there will be a prize draw every month for the just released second edition of the famous Collins Bird Guide, and to celebrate the launch of the site, Collins will also be giving away the only copy to be signed by all three authors. To be entered in this special draw, all that seems to be required is to register on Collins Birds and report at least ten bird sightings by the end of March 2010.

It should also be noted that although Collins Birds is the production of Harper Collins UK, another great name in bird watching is also a sponsor of the new site: Swarovski Optik. While there isn’t anything specifically stated about what their role will be regarding the site in the future, it is fair to assume that with two such long established and accomplished members of the bird watching community behind Collins Birds, the possibilities for both the depth and breadth of its development are seemingly inexhaustible.

In truth, the recollection of the life of a person of so many great accomplishments as Peterson is by no means an easy task. Known throughout the world and elevated to eponymous stature by naturalists both professional as well as amateur, through the application of his keen mind and gifted artistic hand to the very structure of the field guide itself he revolutionized the way in which not only birds but virtually all the flora and fauna could be identified in the field. Since the original publication of A Field Guide to the Birds in 1934, through regional division and in subsequent editions, the work has to this day never been out of print. It was the model for dozens of other titles, all following the Peterson Method. When a budding naturalist, be they bird watcher, rock hound, or butterfly collector, acquires a first field guide, the odds are it will carry the Peterson name.

For most, such an accomplishment in and of itself would more than serve to stand as a monument to a life’s work. As Rosenthal clearly depicts in Birdwatcher, Peterson was not content “only” to be the originator of the modern field guide and by it the person responsible for leading untold millions into the study of the natural world. He was also a dedicated conservationist, a pioneer in the modern environmental movement, a masterful photographer, an inspired teacher, and a tireless evangelist for the personal experience of nature by all.

Yet it was Peterson’s involvement in the tragic story of chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides, known far more widely by the name of one specific form, Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane – DDT – that must never be forgotten, and in Birdwatcher is not, when the name of Peterson is mentioned. From his original, “innocent” assignment by the U.S. Army as a monitor in early experiments with the chemical through his testimony before the Ribicoff Senate subcommittee on pesticides just days after the untimely death of Rachel Carson, and onward to the eventual prohibition of the chemicals in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, Peterson was there. He was one of the few, like Carson, who suspected early on that something detrimental was happening from the indiscriminate use of these chemicals, and who worked tirelessly to establish the scientific evidence to bring about their prohibition.

Thus through Birdwatcher, the reader comes to understand that not only did Peterson provide the world with the books by which to understand nature, he was also integral in the continuing struggle to ensure that successive generations would be able to live in a world where there was still nature left to understand. As we are just past the 100th anniversary of the birth of the “Great Man,” it is indeed fitting that his life’s work be remembered in its many-faceted brilliance; Birdwatcher plays its part well in paying to his legacy the respect it deserves.

Title: Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson

Author: Elizabeth J. Rosenthal

Format: hardcover: 437 pages

Publisher: Lyons Press

Publication Date: May, 2008 (a trade paperback edition is expected to be published in March, 2010)

ISBN10: 1-59921-294-3

ISBN: 978-1-59921-294-4

This review was written for and first appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest. In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce it was provided gratis to the reviewer by the editorial staff of that magazine.

What does it say about us that we watch birds? Rosen delves deep into that question. Centering much of the investigation and discussion around E.O. Wilson’s theory of biophilia, the idea that humans evolved as creatures deeply enmeshed with the intricacies of nature, and that we still have this affinity with nature ingrained in our genotype, Rosen extrapolates from his own experience. Living in the center of one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas, New York City, he discovered bird watching for himself in Central Park. However his bird watching activities have since drawn him far afield, from the swamps of Arkansas in search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker to the wadis of Israel in search of the birds of the Old World.

This in itself is the central idea of The Life of the Skies: that the remnants of what once was a lively and vibrant natural world draw us, through the technology we have created and by the power it gives us, back into nature. From this we experience our deeply ingrained but too often forgotten connection to it. Humans have watched birds for centuries, even millennia, but it is only through modern developments in optics, radio telemetry, and transportation that we are able to learn anything more about them than the most rudimentary aspects of their lives. Yet these same developments have been made possible through the exploitation and too often destruction of species and habitats. For example, in order to save the world from Hitler’s Fascism and preserve the freedom of people to engage in such activities as the study of nature, the last known tract of land on which the Ivory-billed Woodpecker lived was logged to produce materials supporting the war effort. Such is the irony of our modern relationship to the natural world and the appeal of such reconnecting activities as bird watching.

Throughout the The Life of the Skies, Rosen draws liberally upon the lives and discoveries of some of the great naturalists of history, from Audubon and Darwin to Alfred Russell Wallace and Gilbert White. He also includes much from the lives and works of many of the great poets and philosophers who made nature a central part of their works, especially Dickinson, Thoreau, and Frost. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey through the often ironic and contradictory relationship of humans to the natural world, represented most prominently by birds. Truly, this is a book that will be oft quoted and long remembered in the literature of natural history.

Title: The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature

Author: Jonathan Rosen

Format: trade paperback, 336 pages

Publisher: Picador (Macmillan)

Publication Date: December, 2008

ISBN10: 0-312-42819-7

ISBN: 978-0-312-42819-8

This review was written for the original hardcover edition of the book (as published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN-13: 978-0374186302) and first appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest. In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce it was provided gratis to the reviewer by the editorial staff of that magazine.

Written by National Geographic Traveler’s senior editor Scott S. Stuckey and with considerable contributions from fifteen of that publication’s finest photographers, the National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Travel Photography begins with something all too many books on photographic subjects for a widely diverse audience neglect – a brief but effective overview of the important concepts and skills needed to understand and employ the techniques that will be presented later in the book. Such a beginning may seem redundant to some; however to the beginner still working to master many of the elementary concept of good photographic practice such an overview is both helpful as well as instructive, and to the more experienced photographer, who may have worked him or herself into a personal technique rut, it is a reminder not to neglect a different way of capturing an image that might be outside of an established comfort zone. To this reviewer, it spoke clearly of the author’s commitment to the idea that the book’s primary purpose was as a vehicle for instruction; that he genuinely wanted to help all who read it to improve their respective photography skills.

As might be expected from an institution that has become world famous for its ability to convey unforgettable stories using both words and pictures, immediately following the overview of the “core concepts,” Mr. Stuckey and his collaborators address the importance of narrative in any collection of photographs. This perhaps may be the single most overlooked idea among amateur photographers who think most commonly in terms of the individual subject in each individual photograph but fail to connect the subject to its background (and vice versa) or to develop a connection between a group of photographs. While the emphasis is placed squarely on, and the examples given drawn from, travel photography, its applicability of the information presented to most every aspect of nature or landscape photography is astonishing.

Following these two topics, the book advances into more specific areas, beginning with the importance of, quest for, and discovery of authentic photographic subjects, to how to photograph in the challenging lighting conditions of cities (the parallels of which to natural environments, especially canyons and forests, are easily drawn and wholly appropriate), rural and countryside photographic subjects, and concluding the section with a chapter exclusively dedicated to nature-oriented subjects. Each of these chapters is not only a didactic presentation, but is also liberally interwoven with the advice and experiences of the fifteen photographers whose expertise Mr. Stuckey drew upon for the creation of the book.

Ultimately concluding in a similar vein to that in which it began, with advice on (this time) more advanced technical and work-flow topics such as image management and a two page series of notes titled “Useful Information” (and indeed it is), the National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Travel Photography well proves itself to be far more than well worth the time spent reading it. The information and advice it contains is so well presented and immediately applicable to most everyone who uses a camera out-of-doors or on “on the road” that it should be considered as a “must read” for all concerned. Furthermore, the inspiration it is capable of providing goes well beyond the objective sum of the techniques its author presents in its pages. The encouragement to see every photograph as a puzzle to be solved, to view everyday scenes in their potential to be organized into a image that conveys not only momentary visual pleasure but an entire story, is a significant element of the mind of a great photographer. For this more than perhaps all else, the reader of this book will profoundly thank Mr. Stuckey, National Geographic, and all who contributed to it with each improvement they notice in their own future photographic work.

Title: National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Travel Photography (National Geographic Photography Field Guides)

Author: Scott S. Stuckey

Publisher: National Geographic

Format: paperback; 160 pages

ISBN-10: 1426205163

ISBN-13: 978-1426205163

In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.

The iPad will apparently use an e-reader application named iBooks. Visually, from what has been seen online at least, this is a very aesthetically appealing application. However will it, like so many other e-readers, only offer a limited number of titles for purchase? Best-sellers and other traditionally popular titles (the Bible, Shakespeare’s plays, etc.) will certainly be produced for this application, but what about, for example, scientific works? As it stands, few natural history titles are available for e-readers. Is this simply a question of scale that will resolve itself if the iPad breathes new life into the e-reader idea and publication in electronic format becomes the norm?

Regarding that last point, should scientific works, as well as more general natural history titles primarily be produced in an electronic format? Given how such works are collected and used – as a reference for what was known about a given subject at a specific point in time – would electronic publication, especially if it becomes the dominant (or even exclusive) format, be a good thing?

Books have traditionally been nearly timeless. So long they are kept dry, away from fire and silverfish, all that is required for their use is an ability to read the language in which they are written. Electronic books require an interface; one that may become obsolete and its replacement not necessarily be backward compatible. Thus a library of electronic books may be essentially held hostage to a new development not occurring – a state of being antithetical to computer technology.

What will the implications be to libraries – especially public ones? A person can get a free library card, check out a book, take it home and read it, then return it back to the library from which they borrowed it. Will this be possible with an iPad? Perhaps a new type of library akin to the NetFlix paradigm might be created, but NetFlix is a for-profit enterprise. Public libraries are a governmentally funded public good that are free to all regardless of their ability to pay. If the more affluent in society are able to afford an iPad and subscribe to a fee-based or membership-based electronic library, not only will society have stepped back two hundred years in terms of the public accessibility to information, the libraries themselves may fall into disrepair as those who can afford to pay the costs required to access a world of electronic books cease to patronize their traditional repositories.

And so long as the questions have taken a sociological turn, as the prices presently published for the iPad product group offer a basic Wi-Fi 16GB model for $499.00 (U.S.) and a top-of-the-line Wi-Fi 3G 64GB model for $829.00, will the iPad simply further the have / have not technology divide? A 160GB Wi-Fi non-Apple netbook can be purchased for $299.00 (or even less), so the iPad is not a viable replacement for the laptop / netbook format, and as the 3G models will also require a monthly service plan with a mobile telephone service provider (at least $60.00 per month), while admittedly a nice addition to the technology kit of those who can afford it, what will motivate a wider population to acquire one? Should they?

These are only a few of the questions which need to be asked about the new iPad and the implications it may have, if successful, upon society. As earlier stated, the iPod completely changed the paradigm of how recorded music is produced, sold, and experienced. It is by no means out of the question that a similar effect might be seen upon the textually based media (indeed, newspaper publishers are already dreaming of the iPad’s potential as a savior for their industry).

These are only the beginnings to much more complex and informed questions, being asked now as, despite other e-reader devices having been in the market for years, none seemed to have the potential for a complete paradigm shift that, thanks to Apple’s brand strength, advertising savvy, and history of innovations that produced profound societal effects, the iPad holds the potential to achieve. In other words, what until now didn’t seem relevant, suddenly seems imperative to contemplate. Thoughts and further questions left as comments to this article are most heartily encouraged.

The species of hedgehog familiar to most of us (especially in the U.K.) is the European Hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus, one of seventeen species of small insectivorous mammals grouped into the subfamily Erinaceinae. Often mistakenly thought to be rodents, they are actually more closely related to voles and shrews. Yet unlike these less beloved creatures, hedgehogs have captivated humans with their small size, curious natures, clever behavior, and “wind-up toy” manner of walking; truly, they may indeed be, as Mr. Warwick proposes in the book’s subtitle, nature’s most charming mammal. Hence their dilemma.

The European Hedgehog, as its name suggests, is a creature of hedgerows (as well as transitional field edge habitats). However due to some previous rather short-sighted land management practices in Britain, hedges are now becoming a thing of the past. With this change to the landscape, hedgehogs are struggling to adapt not only to the new and different terrain but with the other modifications to their world that such changes have brought, particularly dogs, badgers, and roads. Chronicling his studies into hedgehog populations in the English countryside, including the viability of returning injured or “fall orphan” hedgehogs (those born too late in the season to hibernate and thus collected and cared for through the winter by humans) back to the wild, Mr. Warwick depicts the challenges posed to these animals by a society that purports to love hedgehogs yet at the same time pursues changes to their habitat (mostly out of ignorance of their natural history) that may one day push them to extinction.

However Mr. Warwick does not only address the dilemma of the European Hedgehog alone. He also investigates and depicts the thriving hedgehog pet fad in the United States. Focused primarily on another species, the so-called African Pygmy Hedgehog (actually either the Four-toed Hedgehog, Atelerix albiventris or a hybrid of that species with the North African Hedgehog, Atelerix algirus), the market for these animals as pets saw a recent period of exponential growth in the U.S. Into this community Mr. Warwick ventured to discover what motivates people to keep these animals as pets as well as how some are working to clean-up the inevitable problems that occur when a large number of people suddenly decide to try to keep wild animals as in captivity. Fortunately, at the time of Mr. Warwick’s book being written, no significant problems with these African species being released or escaping into the wilds of either the U.S. or Britain have yet been recorded – however the emphasis must be placed squarely on the word “yet.”

As Mr. Warwick so eloquently explains, research into the life and habits of an animal that poses no commercial threat to human activities or cannot effectively be considered as a commercial resource (other than in the marginal pet market of the U.S.) is lowest on the priority list for funding by most institutions. Hence the hedgehog, beloved (thanks to Beatrix Potter’s Mrs. Tiggywinkle) by millions since childhood, is most at risk of being ignored into a precarious existence in its native habitat and objectified as a fad-driven commodity in a land far from its home. It is indeed hoped that this well-written and highly enlightening book will help many more people to come to a far better understanding of the hedgehog’s dilemma and the role we play in it.

Title: The Hedgehog’s Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World’s Most Charming Mammal

Author: Hugh Warwick

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (UK), Bloomsbury USA (USA)

Format: hardcover, 304 pages

ISBN-10: 1596914777

ISBN-13: 978-1596914773

In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was purchased by the reviewer.

Beginning with Alexander von Humboldt, the last of the great polymath naturalists and the direct intellectual predecessor not only to Charles Darwin, but Alfred Russell Wallace, Henry Walter Bates, and countless others as well, Dr. Carroll, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin, chronicles the lives, quests, and accomplishments of some of the past two century’s most notable contributors to the many fields that comprise the study of evolutionary development – and what a series of chronicles they are. From the aforementioned triumvirate of Victorian naturalists, who assembled the initial evidence to prove the case that life did not begin in the manner that was then widely believed nor were its forms static in testimony to all things being created perfect, to Linus Pauling, a man not commonly thought of as a researcher into evolution yet whose discoveries at the molecular level of life helped to establish the idea of using a “molecular clock” to redraw and then recalculate the time frame between the branchings on the hominid evolutionary tree.

However while not diminishing Darwin and the other publicly well-known “heavyweights” whose adventures and discoveries are retold in Remarkable Creatures, it is Professor Carroll’s recounting of the lives and works of those who are not so well known outside their respective fields, or who at least may not be as familiar to the wider reading public, that really makes the book a gem for all with an interest in natural history. Charles Walcott for example, whose discovery of the Burgess Shale and subsequent contribution to the unraveling of the mystery of the Cambrian Explosion, is one such individual so profiled. Confidant to U.S. presidents and head of both the U.S. Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution (not at the same time of course, he was mortal after all), “Snowshoe Charlie’s” contributions not only to science, but American political and geographic history as well, merit at least a thick book to be written about them all to themselves.

As an author, Professor Carroll’s skill lies not only in his encyclopedic knowledge of his subjects but also in his ability to communicate his knowledge to the reader in a way that is erudite yet personal. He doesn’t shrink from presenting some of the more complex aspects of his subjects’ scientific investigations yet at the same time he never loses sight of the fact that the people about whom he is writing were just that – people. Because of this, the reader is allowed, even encouraged, to develop a deeper connection with them and their work than might be commonly assumed in a work on such subjects; and it is through this connection that the truly remarkable aspect of both the discoverers and their discoveries is most effectively communicated.

Remarkable Creatures was honored as one of the 2009 finalists in non-fiction for the National Book Award.

Title: Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species

Author: Sean B. Carroll

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Format: hardcover, 352 pages

ISBN-13/EAN: 9780151014859

In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.

All 462 species of mammal found in North America north of the U.S. – Mexico border are fully illustrated, textually explained, and their ranges located and clearly depicted on easy-to-read maps. To make the guide as easy to use in the field as possible, each species included is completely profiled with other closely related species in a facing page spread; maps and textual explanations running down the left hand page and illustrations running down the right. When it comes to field guide organization, nothing could be more simple or more effective in providing quick access to information in the field that this very lay-out, and the authors and editorial staff of Princeton are to be heartily commended for employing it.

Of course, a field guide cannot solely be judged on how well its pages are arranged; many other matters must also be considered. Among the most important of these is the completeness, utility, and accessibility of the information provided in the text. Here Kays and Wilson have truly excelled. They have clearly defined to what level of detail Mammals of North America has been written to provide, then they have created and rigorously adhered to a highly effective format for the presentation of their information. A straight-forward structure (clearly explained in template form within the book’s introduction) has been established for each species account that organizes information in a manner so that the most important points are always foremost in the text and that four key elements – the single most important identifying feature of the animal, physical traits, behavior, and habitat – are always presented.

Naturally, the quality of illustrations must also be a point of assessment when discussing the value of any field guide, and in this area of assessment, Mammals of North America also distinguishes itself. One hundred twelve color plates, all specifically drawn for this guide, depict each animal in a natural position that would be thought most helpful in aiding its identification. In addition to this, further illustrations of such key identifying features as the skulls, jaws, teeth, and genital bones are also inserted into the plates as necessary. Furthermore, helpful plates depicting such valuable field images as the downward looking dorsal view of bow-riding whales and dolphins have been included, as have depictions of that ever-useful tool of mammal field identification – scat.

As the authors clearly note in the book’s introduction, this guide is meant for field use, thus detailed discussions of behavior, ecology, and conservation have intentionally been omitted to conserve both its size and weight (a decision for which all who carry multiple guidebooks into the field will profoundly thank them). This is entirely understandable as lengthy tracts on such topics are of little use to the identification of a mammal in the field. However even if Mammals of North America is used purely for “armchair naturalism” (a common and highly enjoyable use of field guides, to be sure) it will certainly pique the interest of the reader and encourage further exploration.

Titles: Mammals of North America (Second Edition)

Series: Princeton Field Guides

Authors: Roland W. Kays and Don E. Wilson

Publisher: Princeton University Press (site) (blog)

Format: Paper and Cloth; 248 pp., 112 color illus., 102 line illus., 460 maps

ISBN13: 978-0-691-14092-6 (Paper)

ISBN13: 978-0-691-14278-4 (Cloth)

In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.