The Weekly Birdbooker Report

                     Photo copyright: Joe Fuhrman

My WEEKLY Birdbooker Report can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/oct/28/1

New Title

1) Doyle, Arthur Conan. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure. 2012. The University of Chicago Press. Hardbound: 368 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: In 1880 a young medical student named Arthur Conan Doyle embarked upon the “first real outstanding adventure” of his life, taking a berth as ship’s surgeon on an Arctic whaler, the Hope. The voyage took him to unknown regions, showered him with dramatic and unexpected experiences, and plunged him into dangerous work on the ice floes of the Arctic seas. He tested himself, overcame the hardships, and, as he wrote later, “came of age at 80 degrees north latitude.”
     Conan Doyle’s time in the Arctic provided powerful fuel for his growing ambitions as a writer. With a ghost story set in the Arctic wastes that he wrote shortly after his return, he established himself as a promising young writer. A subsequent magazine article laying out possible routes to the North Pole won him the respect of Arctic explorers. And he would call upon his shipboard experiences many times in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who was introduced in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet.
     Out of sight for more than a century was a diary that Conan Doyle kept while aboard the whaler. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure makes this account available for the first time in a beautiful facsimile edition that reproduces Conan Doyle’s notebook pages in his own elegant hand, accompanied by his copious illustrations. With humor and grace, Conan Doyle provides a vivid account of a long-vanished way of life at sea. His careful detailing of the experience of arctic whaling is equal parts fascinating and alarming, revealing the dark workings of the later days of the British whaling industry. In addition to the facsimile and annotated transcript of the diary, the volume contains photographs of the Hope, its captain, and a young Conan Doyle on deck with its officers; two nonfiction pieces by Doyle about his experiences; and two of his tales inspired by the journey.
     To the end of his life, Conan Doyle would look back on this experience with awe: “You stand on the very brink of the unknown,” he declared, “and every duck that you shoot bears pebbles in its gizzard which come from a land which the maps know not. It was a strange and fascinating chapter of my life.” Only now can the legion of Conan Doyle fans read and enjoy that chapter. This book was edited by Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower.
RECOMMENDATION: For fans of Arthur Conan Doyle and/or Arctic exploration.

New Title

1) Kunz, Werner. Do Species Exist? Principles of Taxonomic Classification. 2012. Wiley-Blackwell. Hardbound: 245 pages. Price: $99.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: A readily comprehensible guide for biologists, field taxonomists and interested laymen to one of the oldest problems in biology: the species problem. Written by a geneticist with extensive experience in field taxonomy, this practical book provides the sound scientific background to the problems arising with classifying organisms according to species. It covers the main current theories of specification and gives a number of examples that cannot be explained by any single theory alone.
RECOMMENDATION: For those with a technical or semi-technical interest in systematics.

New Title

1) Flannery, Tim. Among The Islands: Adventures in the Pacific. 2012. Atlantic Monthly Press. Hardbound: 246 pages. Price: $25.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: Tim Flannery is one of the world’s most influential scientists, praised for making “anthropology, geology, biology, and physics not only readable, but also understandable and interesting” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), and credited with discovering more species than Darwin. In Among the Islands, Flannery recounts a series of expeditions he made at the dawn of his career to the strange tropical islands of the South Pacific, a great arc stretching nearly four thousand miles, from the postcard perfection of Polynesia to some of the largest, highest, ancient, and most rugged places on earth.
     Flannery was traveling in search of rare and undiscovered mammal species, but he found much more: wild, weird places where local taboos, foul weather, dense jungle, and sheer remoteness made for difficult and dramatic explora­tion. Among the Islands is informative—Flannery makes rare mammals fascinating—but like his classic Throwim Way Leg, it is as much about adven­ture and discovery as it is about the specimens. This is an ideal read for anyone who has ever imagined voyaging to the ends of the earth to uncover and study the rare and the wonderful.
RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed the author's Throwim Way Leg, you'll enjoy this book!

The Weekly Birdbooker Report

                                Photo copyright: Joe Fuhrman

My WEEKLY Birdbooker Report can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/oct/21/1

New Title

1) Korpimaki, Erkki and Harri Hakkarainen. The Boreal Owl: Ecology, Behaviour and Conservation of a Forest-Dwelling Predator. 2012. Cambridge University Press. Hardbound: 359 pages. Price: $95.00 U.S./GBP 60.00.

SUMMARY: Widespread in North American forest regions including the Rocky Mountains, the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus) was once the most numerous predatory bird in Eurasian boreal forests. Synthesising the results of unique long-term studies of Boreal Owls (know as Tengmalm's Owl in Europe), this book explores hunting modes, habitats and foods, prey interactions, mating and parental care, reproduction, dispersal, survival and mortality, population regulation and conservation in boreal forests.
     Providing a detailed introduction to the species, the authors study the complex interactions of Boreal Owls with their prey species. They examine the inter-sexual tug-of-war over parental care, and the behavioural and demographic adaptations to environmental conditions that predictably and markedly fluctuate both seasonally and multi-annually. They also question whether Boreal Owls are able to time their reproductive effort to maximise lifetime reproductive success. Discussing the effect of modern forestry practices on owl populations, the book also examines how Boreal Owls could be managed to sustain viable populations.
RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with a technical interest in the species.

New Title

1) Kaufman, Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman. Kaufman Field Guide to Nature of New England. 2012. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Flexibound: 416 pages. Price: $20.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: Whether you’re walking in the woods or along the beach, camping, hiking, canoeing, or just enjoying your own backyard, this book will help identify all your nature discoveries. With authoritative and broad coverage, using nontechnical and lively language and more than 2,000 color photographs, this guide is an essential reference for nature lovers living in or visiting New England.
RECOMMENDATION: Naturalists in the region will find this book very useful!