Where are the grebes?

A review of Lars Jonsson´s "Birds of Sea and Coast" 

This is the second volume of Lars Jonsson's somewhat unwieldy, five-volume series of field guides to European birds. The unwieldiness has been compensated for by lavish illustrations, made by the author himself. For those who actually want to *use* Jonsson's oeuvre in the field, I rather recommend the one-volume jumbo version, "Birds of Europe".

This second volume of the original series covers sea birds and coastal birds of Northern and Central Europe plus the British Isles. Thus, we are talking the Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. Shorebirds, ducks, geese and gulls are prominently featured. However, it's not always clear why some species have been included, but others excluded. Why are the divers included, but not the grebes, for instance?

This little book has been superseded by the previously mentioned one-in-all volume, but it could still be of some interest as a sheer work of art, or perhaps as a gift to a shorebird nerd. I therefore give it four stars.

Birds in winter plumage

"Fåglar i naturen" is a classical, Swedish field guide to European birds in five volumes, written by Lars Jonsson. More sensationally, the very same Jonsson also illustrated the entire series - and his bird paintings are superb! The entire series was quickly translated into English, and later a one-volume version of the work was published, called "Birds of Europe" in English. This is the second volume of the original Swedish series, covering the birds of the Atlantic and Baltic Sea coasts.

Otherwise, I really can't say much about "Fåglar i naturen: Hav och kust" than I've already said when reviewing the English-language edition. Since this book is in the Swedish language, I suppose it's mostly of interest to collectors of rare books, Jonsson aficionados or people who really luve shorebirds in winter plumage...

More loony than loon

"Loon Magic" is an audio cassette promising "an adventure in nature and music". In reality, the music is extremely boring muzak. It's interspersed here and there with the spooky calls of the loon (diver), a bizarre bird distantly related to grebes. The voice of this primordial creature from the black lagoons does *not* go down well with elevator music, trust me! This cassette made me feel nervous in a weird kind of way, so I feel I have to listen to some chart pop to calm down...

Only one star for this loony production.

An odd job

This is the revised edition of "Seabirds - an identification guide" by Peter Harrison. The author, who actually looks like an old fashioned sea captain, and his wife Carol spent seven years on the world's oceans to gather information for this field guide to end all field guides. Gee, don't these guys have day jobs? Maybe they do, after a fashion: Harrison worked as a deckhand aboard trawlers and crayfishing boats to more easily study and sketch seabirds. I wonder what his crew mates made of that!

As you might have guessed, "Seabirds" is illustrated by deckhand Harrison himself. Personally, I'm a bird book-watcher rather than a birdwatcher, so I tend to buy bird books for aesthetic reasons. I admit that Harrisonian aesthetics weren't really to my liking, but then, I'm a Jonsson aficionado. The selection of species is also somewhat arbitrary: very few shorebirds, but a whole lot of pelicans, cormorants, loons and grebes. Even grebes that don't live anywhere near the sea have been included. The exceedingly rare Atitlan Grebe can be found only in one lake in Guatemala (if you're lucky). That's a seabird? As for ducks, a representative selection has been included, but only in an appendix with illustrations in black-and-white. Do crayfishers have a secret conflict with eiders?

Otherwise, "Seabirds" looks like most field guides are supposed to look like. There's an extensive colour plate section, and in the main text section we get information on distribution, juveniles, various plumages, similar species and some special tips concerning identification. A problem is that the maps are tucked away in a third section at the back of the book. The colour plates don't indicate distribution. I was somewhat surprised to learn that both the Northern and the Southern Giant Petrels are confined to the South Atlantic, and that the "southern" species have a more northern range! Any explanation? Or just one of those "odd jobs"?

Still, I don't doubt that this is the field guide if your favourite haunts include South Georgia, Kerguelen, Antarctica or...Lake Atitlan. Four stars!

A handbook of exciting birds

"Handbook of the Birds of the World" (HBW) is a 13-volume encyclopedia whose ultimate aim is to describe and illustrate *all* living species of birds. Three more volumes are projected. The series began in 1992, and the last volume won't be published until 2011.

This is the first volume, and it covers many exciting bird groups, including pelicans, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, penguins, flamingos, albatrosses, and the non-flying birds, such as the ostrich and the emu. It also covers a more boring bird group, namely the ducks! Each section begins with a general introduction, followed by species presentations. These include color plates and range maps. Unfortunately, the color plates are quite bad. The birds often look caricatured, even ugly, and some of the plates are poorly printed. Thankfully, the book also contain hundreds of photos, all in color, and these are much better. Despite its high price (265 dollars), the book is well-worth buying if you are seriously interested in these particular bird groups.

As already mentioned, this is just the first volume in a 13-volume series. Naturally, a work that takes almost 20 years to publish, will tend to change over time. I noticed this when I leafed through the other HBW volumes at my local university library. The first volume looks like a regular encyclopedia. Anyone with a general interest in birds can read it. The later volumes are superbly illustrated, with much better color plates, but the text feels heavy and technical. These later HBW volumes also suffer from total information over-load. Essentially, the HBW has been transformed from a regular encyclopedia to a scientific reference work for ornithologists.

Be that as it may, I give this first volume of the HBW four stars, for the text and the photos. Had the color plates been better, I would have given it five stars. The entire series also deserve five stars, despite becoming progressively more difficult to digest for ordinary mortals, since it's extremely well-produced.