Birds

A Fieldworker’s Guide to the Golden Eagle
by Dave Walker

The Golden Eagle is generally thought to be a well-known and well-documented species. However, much of the available literature is not necessarily in a form that can readily be used in the field. In fact, although much existing information about Golden Eagles has little supporting evidence it is ... more...

A Saga of Sea Eagles
by John A. Love

This is a much-needed update on a pioneering reintroduction project and its much-celebrated success. It also provides essential background and a logical and objective summary of its justification and significance in global conservation terms. It is very much a personal account, although fundamentall... more...

A Vulture Landscape
Twelve Months in Extremadura
by Ian  Parsons

A Vulture Landscape is more than just a book about vultures, in the same way that these majestic flyers are more than just birds. Vultures are a crucial part of many of the world’s ecosystems, and without these specialist environmental cleansers the ecosystems wouldn’t work properly. A c... more...

An Eye for Birds
by Bruce Kendrick

As a ten-year-old, the author contracted TB and was sent to an isolated sanatorium, deep in the Cheshire countryside. There he was bedridden for six months. On fine days, nurses would push the young patients, in their beds, out onto a large veranda and it was there that his love of birdwatching deve... more...

Back from the Brink
by Malcolm Smith

Back from the Brink is an antidote to a world that seems full of stories of wildlife doom and gloom. Amongst all the loss of habitat and the animals and plants that are in spiralling decline, it’s easy to forget that there are a huge number of positive stories too; animals threatened with exti... more...

Birding in an Age of Extinctions
by Martin Painter

This is a book about what it’s like being a birder in an age of natural decline. It is part autobiographical – tales of spell-binding birding encounters that left indelible memories – and it is part reflective. The travellers’ tales of birding adventures are about places and ... more...

Call of the Eagle
by Dave Walker

This is an account of one man's 30-year involvement with England's rarest bird, the golden eagle. Initially employed by the RSPB as a senior species protection warden at a secret location in Cumbria, the author describes the intricacies of establishing a protection regime by wardens that wou... more...

Common and Spotted Sandpipers
by Phil Holland

This wonderful book describes the fascinating lives of the two most ubiquitous shorebirds in the world. Between them the Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) make use of a large part of the world’s terrestrial habitat and they exhibit many of the exci... more...

Days with the Golden Eagle
by Seton Gordon

Writer and photographer, Seton Gordon, wrote 27 books over a period of several decades and most of these focused on the landscape and wildlife of the Highlands. Of all these books, one of the most acclaimed was Days with the Golden Eagle. Seton Gordon was among the first to observe in some detail - ... more...

Donald Watson Bird Artist and Writer
by Roger Crofts

Donald Watson was a seminal figure in the wildlife art and ornithological world from the late 1950s onwards. Since his death in 2005, his work has lived on through active public demand for his outstanding paintings of birds and the continued reading of his books.  Until now, there has been no b... more...

Flight of the Wild Geese
by Graham Uney

The sight of strings of wild Barnacle geese flying overhead, with a noisy chorus of honking, will be a familiar sight to many. However, following their migration, little is known about the lives of these sociable geese. Flight of the Wild Geese tells the story of the winter wildlife of the Solway Fi... more...

Growing Barn Owls in my Garden
by Paul Hackney

The barn owl is a ‘flagship’ species, at the top of the food chain, and its presence or absence is a good indicator of the health of the countryside. This is the enjoyable and informative story of the author’s success in restoring this beautiful bird to areas of the country where i... more...

Inn Search of Birds
Pubs, People and Places
by John Lawton

Most birders keep lists of the species birds they have seen, but do any keep a list of pub birds, that is birds on pub signs and in pub names? This book is about these pub birds, their natural histories, folk-histories and those of the pubs that bear their names, some of the people involved in the s... more...

Kestrels for Company
by Gordon Riddle

An appealing book that rightfully raises the profile of the kestrel. It provides an extensive picture of this delightful falcon, including its lifestyle and the factors that affect its breeding success and survival. This is based upon almost 40 years’ monitoring of the kestrel in south-west Sc... more...

Life with Birds
A Story of Mutual Exploitation
by Malcolm Smith

Life with Birds uncovers the fascinating story of our interdependence with birds. The author weaves an amazing web of inter-relationships, from the Parsi funeral in Mumbai where birds of prey eat the dead; to collecting eider down from nests in Iceland and standing on the once body-strewn battlefiel... more...

Of the Trees and the Birds
by Ian  Parsons

Trees and birds go together, and they have done for millions of years, evolving long before we did. Over their long and shared history, they have formed numerous relationships, some of which are basic and obvious to us, like a bird using a tree to perch in whilst searching for food. Others are more ... more...

Shorebirds in Action
An Introduction to Waders and their Behaviour
by Richard Chandler

Shorebirds, or waders, are a large group of small to medium-sized birds that occur worldwide, in a wide range of predominantly coastal or wetland habitats. Some species are largely sedentary whilst others are amongst the world’s most migratory bird species, travelling thousands of kilometres i... more...

The Birds are our Friends
by Yessengali Raushanov

For many, birds represent freedom and spirituality since they are created to be free. Although this may be true for people as well, we are of course not able to be as truly free as our winged friends. Looking out of his office window and seeing the birds flying, emphasizing his confinement indoor... more...

The Corncrake
An Ecology of an Enigma
by Frank Rennie

Changes in farmland management throughout the twentieth century, including agricultural intensification and increasing mechanisation, have resulted in the loss of habitat for many species. The Corncrake is one such species that has faced multiple challenges to its survival. Although it was once a co... more...

The Hen Harrier
In the Shadow of Slemish
by Don Scott

The hen harrier is one of the iconic species of the bird world and its history is a mix of controversy, persecution, and recent patchy recovery. This book, a dedicated study of the bird in N. Ireland for over two decades, provides a detailed account of the life, habits and prospects for the bird. Th... more...

The Life of Buzzards
by Dr. Peter Dare

This is a much-needed and authoritative account of Common Buzzards gained from extensive studies by the author over 60 years and also from enthusiasts in this country and across northern Europe. The accounts describe the life history and ecology of Buzzards mainly inhabiting the British uplands w... more...

The Ring Ouzel
A View from the North York Moors
by Vic Fairbrother, Ken Hutchinson

Using vivid extracts from field notebooks and profusely illustrated with photographs as well as paintings and sketches by wildlife artist Jonathan Pomroy, the reader is transported to the beautiful North York Moors National Park. We can share in the excitement as the first Ring Ouzels of the year re... more...

Wild Galloway
From the hilltops to the Solway, a portrait of a glen
by Ian Carter

Ian Carter has always loved wildness and living in places where wildlife takes centre stage. His new home is tucked away between the high, heather-clad hills of Bengairn and the shining, silver Solway with its merse, mudflats and spectacular cliffs. Guarding the bay is whale-backed Hestan Island wit... more...