Tuesday, October 7, 2008

A new book written just for me (or at least it seems like it)

Have you ever encountered something that you feel exists almost especially for you?
My friend Pica from the Feathers of Hope and Bird by Bird blogs recently alerted me to the publication of a new book that seems like it was written with me in mind:
"The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America's Most Iconic Birds." This new book, published by Mountaineers Book contains the writing and photography of Paul Bannick, and includes a CD with audio recordings by Martyn Stewart. (If Martyn's name sounds familiar it might be because he also supplied the audio CD that accompanied the book "Arctic Wings" published a few years ago.)
I have to admit that I have not had a chance to read much of Paul's text yet because I find it hard to pull my eyes away from the absolutely stunning photography, but from the little I have read, I'm going to really enjoy it. Paul has obviously spent a great deal of time in the field photographing and taking field notes about the members of both these families, and really seems to have pulled together a fascinating book. I like to think that I know quite a bit about woodpeckers (and not a little about owls), but there are always interesting bits of information about behavior that can be gleaned from another's experience, that one has not read about or encountered oneself. Rather than just listing species in taxonomic order, I like the way that the book is broken out into different habitats (Northeastern Forests, Arctic Tundra, etc) and then discussing the members of each family that inhabits it.
This book will appeal to any birder, and really anybody simply interested in nature and how it's inhabitants affect, and are affected by it. But if you are a fanatic about either or both families (like myself) this is definitely a book that you will want to add to your library.