New Title

                                                 
1) Potts, G.R.. Partridges. 2012. Collins. Paperback: 465 pages. Price: GBP 30 (about $47.56 U.S.).

SUMMARY: Globally, there are at least 45 species of game bird that have the word partridge in their name, but in this book G. R. Potts devotes himself to the Grey, Red-legged and Chukar Partridges, with particular emphasis on the Grey Partridge due to its well-known decline in Britain.
     In this groundbreaking addition to the New Naturalist series, Potts explores how mankind and partridges have evolved together, both ultimately dependent on grasslands rather than forests. For thousands of years, both ate grass seeds and this continued until cereals largely replaced them. Hundreds of species of plant and insect that partridges and other birds eat thrived on farms for thousands of years until the dawn of the pesticides era. Since then the long decline in partridge abundance has been a barometer for biodiversity over vast swathes of the Northern Hemisphere.
     Highlighting the positive example of the Norfolk Estate in the Sussex Study area, Potts investigates how both Grey and Red-legged Partridge numbers have been increased, flourishing in a highly productive and profitable system of farming and an oasis in what has often looked and sounded like a desert. In a small corner of England farmland wildlife is able to thrive much as it did before pesticides were introduced.
     This is a complex and fascinating story, with a heady mix of hunting, farming, predation, parasites, disease and climate change. The way these factors have interacted tells us a lot about how lesser known species have fared and how they can be conserved for the future. Potts stresses the importance of these conservation efforts, as farmers respond to the needs of an extra three billion people worldwide, not just for food but for bio-fuels. Additionally, the pressures on farmland wildlife will further intensify in the coming years.
RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in these species and for those that collect New Naturalist titles.

New Titles

                                                 
1) Hudson, W.H.. Adventures Among Birds. 1913 (reprinted 2012). Collins. Hardbound: 253 pages. Price: GPB 20 (about $31.76 U.S.).

SUMMARY: The Collins Nature Library is a new series of classic British nature writing – reissues of long-lost seminal works. The titles have been chosen by one of Britain’s best known and highly-acclaimed nature writers, Robert Macfarlane, who has also written new introductions that put these classics into a modern context.
     Adventures Among Birds is almost a manifesto for the life of birds. Hudson's experience of different forms of birdlife is prodigious, and he weaves a thousand small anecdotes together into a rallying call against indifference to the beauty of birds.
     From childhood memories of his first caged bird and his growing passion for them, slowly growing throughout his adolescence in Argentina, to the beauty of the diversity of birdlife in England, Hudson's delight at this particular aspect of nature is palpable.
     It is in his protests against the hunting of birds for sport that his love for birds is most clearly shown. Their behaviour towards one another convinces Hudson of their friendship, and his powers of observation paint a picture of interaction and emotion between birds that is almost human.
     Adventures Among Birds is a collection of detailed little pictures of the feathered world and why it matters. Told with an unrelenting passion for its subject, Hudson's book is sure to draw you in with its countless beautiful descriptions in miniature.
RECOMMENDATION: Here's your chance to own this classic on British ornithology.

                                                 
2) Montgomery, David R.. The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood. 2012. W.W. Norton. Hardbound: 302 pages. Price: $26.95 U.S. SUMMARY: How the mystery of the Bible's greatest story shaped geology: a MacArthur Fellow presents a surprising perspective on Noah's Flood.
     In Tibet, geologist David R. Montgomery heard a local story about a great flood that bore a striking similarity to Noah’s Flood. Intrigued, Montgomery began investigating the world’s flood stories and—drawing from historic works by theologians, natural philosophers, and scientists—discovered the counterintuitive role Noah’s Flood played in the development of both geology and creationism. Steno, the grandfather of geology, even invoked the Flood in laying geology’s founding principles based on his observations of northern Italian landscapes. Centuries later, the founders of modern creationism based their irrational view of a global flood on a perceptive critique of geology. With an explorer’s eye and a refreshing approach to both faith and science, Montgomery takes readers on a journey across landscapes and cultures. In the process we discover the illusive nature of truth, whether viewed through the lens of science or religion, and how it changed through history and continues changing, even today.
RECOMMENDATION: An interesting take on flood geology and its relevance to Human society.

                                                 
3) Parry, James. The Mating Lives of Birds. 2012. The MIT Press/ New Holland Publishers (UK). Hardbound: 160 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S./ GBP: 19.99. SUMMARY: Birdsong may seem to us to be the purest expression of joy, but in fact when a male bird bursts into melodious song, he is warning off other males and advertising his availability to females. He may also engage in spectacular displays of plumage, dance-like movements, or even acrobatics (tree-based or aerial)--all as part of courtship. The female, meanwhile, assesses his vocalization, plumage, and territory before accepting him as a mate. The Mating Lives of Birds offers an engaging and lavishly illustrated account of this most captivating phenomenon in the natural world: bird courtship and display. It explains how birds’ reproduction strategies have evolved, and describes bird monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, promiscuity, and communal living arrangements. It shows us dancing cranes, somersaulting hummingbirds, drumming ducks, and the outrageously extravagant plumage of birds of paradise. It describes group territorial displays, jousting males, and phalarope role reversal (with the female sporting brighter plumage)--not to mention elaborate nest decoration and the presentation of food offerings.
     The book’s fascinating account of the mating behavior of bird species from around the world is illustrated by 140 vividly detailed color images. Birdwatchers will find The Mating Lives of Birds to be an essential addition to their libraries.
RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction on the subject.

New Title

                                                  
1) Benton, Ted. Grasshoppers & Crickets. 2012. Collins. Paperback: 532 pages. Price: GBP 30.00 (about $47.16 U.S.).

SUMMARY: Ted Benton offers a comprehensive account of the appearance, variations, behaviour, habitat, life-cycles and distribution of all the native British species of bush-crickets, crickets, groundhoppers and grasshoppers. Many details from direct field observation are included, which are published here for the first time.
     With up-to-date information on newly arrived and recently established species, as well as long-established non-native species – such as the house cricket and greenhouse camel cricket – Benton pays special attention to a key area of evolutionary thought that has stimulated an international research focus on grasshoppers and crickets. Recent approaches to mating and reproduction emphasise differences and even conflicts of interest between males and females. The sexually selected adaptations and counter-adaptations to such conflicts of reproductive interest are used to explain the astonishing diversity of reproductive behaviour exhibited by grasshoppers and crickets: male territorial behaviour, coercive mating, complex songs, elaborate courtship performances, the donation of edible ‘nuptial gifts’, the reversal of sex-roles, mate-guarding, keeping of ‘harems’ and, in a few species, parental care of the offspring. These chapters provide an introduction to the theoretical issues and an overview of many case studies drawn from research on orthopterans from across the world (but including British species where relevant).
     A unique DVD features many aspects of the behaviour of nearly all British species, including song, conflict, courtship behaviour, sex-role reversal and egg laying.
     The book is lavishly illustrated with colour photographs and line drawings, covering all the British species (including immature stages in most cases), key habitats and many aspects of behaviour.
RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in British grasshoppers or crickets or for those that collect the New Naturalist series!

The Weekly Birdbooker Report

                                     Photo copyright: Joe Fuhrman 

My WEEKLY Birdbooker Report can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/aug/19/10

New Title

                                                 
1) Thorington, Richard W. et al.. Squirrels of the World. 2012. Johns Hopkins University Press. Hardbound: 459 pages. Price: $75.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: Squirrels of the World, written by scientists with more than 100 years of collective experience studying these popular mammals, is the first comprehensive examination of all 285 species of squirrels worldwide. The authors reveal virtually every detail of the family Sciuridae, which includes ground squirrels, tree squirrels, flying squirrels, prairie dogs, and chipmunks. Each species—from the familiar gray squirrel of American backyards to the exotic and endangered woolly flying squirrel of Pakistan—is described in a detailed account that includes distinguishing characteristics, ecology, natural history, conservation status, and current threats to its existence.
     Squirrels of the World includes
• stunning color photographs that document rare and unusual squirrels as well as common varieties
• evolution, morphology, ecology, and conservation status
• colorful range maps marking species distribution
• images of the skull of each genus of squirrel
• extensive references

RECOMMENDATION: Also includes Marmots. If you have an interest in these rodents, you'll want this book!

Featured Title

                                                 
1) Mikkola, Heimo. Owls of the World: A Photographic Guide. 2012. Firefly/Helm. Hardbound: 512 pages. Price: $49.95 U.S./ GBP: 34.99.

SUMMARY: Owls of the World is the ultimate resource dedicated to the identification of these charismatic birds of prey. Dozens of the world's finest photographers have contributed 750 spectacular photographs covering all of the world's 249 species of owls.

The photos are accompanied by detailed text describing:

*Identification notes
*Habitat
*Population status
*Voice
*Food
*Distribution
*Accurate range maps
*Similar species.

Owls are shown as adults from a perspective that clearly shows markings which assist in identification. Photographs of similar-looking species are included where identification is particularly difficult.
     For photographers, birders, naturalists, researchers and any fan of these birds, Owls of the World is the definitive work on species identification. It is also a comprehensive encyclopedia for reference and leisure reading. No bookshelf should be without it.
RECOMMENDATION: The taxonomy in this book basically follows Owls of the World (2nd edition) by Konig et al. (2008). That book is prone to splitting up species (e.g. the Barn Owl, Tyto alba) into separate species. This taxonomy is at odds with other published sources. Also, some of the range maps of North American species need to be reworked. But birders will find the collection of photographs, especially of the rarer species, very useful!

New Title

                                                 
1) Logan, William Bryant. Air: The Restless Shaper of the World. 2012. W.W. Norton. Hardbound: 398 pages. Price: $26.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: The author of Dirt and Oak brings to life this quickest, most sustaining, most communicative element of the earth.
     Air sustains the living. Every creature breathes to live, exchanging and changing the atmosphere. Water and dust spin and rise, make clouds and fall again, fertilizing the dirt. Twenty thousand fungal spores and half a million bacteria travel in a square foot of summer air. The chemical sense of aphids, the ultraviolet sight of swifts, a newborn’s awareness of its mother’s breast—all take place in the medium of air.
     Ignorance of the air is costly. The artist Eva Hesse died of inhaling her fiberglass medium. Thousands were sickened after 9/11 by supposedly “safe” air. The African Sahel suffers drought in part because we fill the air with industrial dusts. With the passionate narrative style and wide-ranging erudition that have made William Bryant Logan’s work a touchstone for nature lovers and environmentalists, Air is—like the contents of a bag of seaborne dust that Darwin collected aboard the Beagle—a treasure trove of discovery.
RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed the authors' other books, you should enjoy this one.