New Titles

 

 

 

1) Tveit, Bjørn Olav. A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Norway: Where, When and How to Find Scandinavia’s Most Sought-after Birds. 2024. Pelagic Publishing. Flexibound: 460 pages. Price: $50.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: A Birdwatcher's Guide to Norway helps you find all the birds of Norway and Svalbard, and guides you in detail to more than 350 of the best birdwatching sites in this beautiful and wild but still highly developed and civilised country.

     The book explains in detail: where and when to go, what species to expect and hope for! The best tactics to approach each site, how to use tower hides and observation shelters and other animals you may encounter.

     Norway offers some of the most sought-after species in Europe, including King Eider, Steller’s Eider, Gyrfalcon, displaying Capercaillie, Jack Snipe, Ruff and other Arctic shorebirds in full breeding plumage, singing Little Bunting and Arctic Warbler, and many more. The country can be referred to as 'an easily accessible part of Siberia'.

     Packed with 265 photos, 95 maps and comprehensive information about each site, A Birdwatcher's Guide to Norway an essential travel guide essential for anyone planning a trip to watch birds in Norway or Svalbard.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone birding Norway! 

 

2) Callahan, David. Where to Watch Birds in Southeast England: Essex, London and Kent. 2024. Helm. Paperback: 335 pages. Price: $40.00 U.S. 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: From the deep forests of Kent to the low-lying mudflats, beaches and saltmarshes of the Greater Thames Estuary, this ecologically rich area of England attracts vast numbers of wildfowl and waders. The region boasts many internationally and nationally important reserves including Rainham Marshes and Cliffe Pools, while Dungeness in Kent is one of Britain's best known birding hotspots for vagrant species such as Penduline Tit and Kentish Plover. London itself contains numerous birdwatching sites including Barnes and Woodberry Wetlands, along with some of the best spots in Britain for scarcities such as Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Black Redstart. From Marsh Harrier and Firecrest to Curlew and Lapwing, there is plenty for birdwatchers to enjoy while exploring the parks, wetlands, woodlands and coast of southeast England.

     Written by life-long birdwatcher David Callahan, this is the definitive guide to the birding highlights of the region. It contains a comprehensive review of all the major sites and many lesser-known ones, with maps, notes on access, and information on target species and when to visit. Where to Watch Birds in Southeast England is indispensable for any birder exploring the region, or anyone in London wanting to head out to the countryside and enjoy a slice of our rich avian heritage.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone birding Southeast England!

3) Feltner, Linda Miller. Drawing Nature: The Creative Process of an Artist, Illustrator, and Naturalist. 2024. Princeton University Press. Hardbound: 264 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S. 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Drawing Nature presents the creative process of an acclaimed nature artist, guiding readers from field sketches to finished art and demonstrating how science and the close observation of nature can be integrated into the artist’s work to create dynamic, meaningful images. With chapters that flow from drawing basics to more advanced methods and concepts, this beautifully illustrated book is like a look inside the artist’s sketchbooks to discover their secrets.

Linda Miller Feltner demonstrates how observation and recording are sparks to creativity. Her journey from loose sketches and drawings to a completed work begins with observing a natural process, object, or interaction between organisms. Her curiosity generates scientific inquiry that, when researched, helps her to answer a question or make broad, often surprising connections. Blending examples of her stunning artwork with invaluable insights into time-honored art techniques, Feltner illustrates how sketching, developing an image, and scientific accuracy are essential to her art and encourages each of us to cultivate our own powers of observation and discover anew the world around us.

Drawing Nature enables us to look at nature through an artist’s eyes, draw inspiration from a place or a moment, and give expression to its beauty.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone that appreciates nature art! 

 

4) Taylor, Michael. Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion. 2024. Liveright. Hardbound: 475 pages. Price: $32.99 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: When the twelve-year-old daughter of a British carpenter pulled some strange-looking bones from the country’s southern shoreline in 1811, few people dared to question that the Bible told the accurate history of the world. But Mary Anning had in fact discovered the “first” ichthyosaur, and over the next seventy-five years―as the science of paleontology developed, as Charles Darwin posited radical new theories of evolutionary biology, and as scholars began to identify the internal inconsistencies of the Scriptures―everything changed. Beginning with the archbishop who dated the creation of the world to 6 p.m. on October 22, 4004 BC, and told through the lives of the nineteenth-century men and women who found and argued about these seemingly impossible, history-rewriting fossils, Impossible Monsters reveals the central role of dinosaurs and their discovery in toppling traditional religious authority, and in changing perceptions about the Bible, history, and mankind’s place in the world.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of science!