Field Guide to Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises

• Field Guide to Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises by Mark Cawardine (Bloomsbury, London, 2022).
• 288 pages, 500+ illustrations.
• ISBN 9781472969972. Hbk, £16.99.
• Bookshop from £15.99

Despite the popularity of wildlife programmes on TV, most presenters are generalists. Nothing wrong with that, but among the faces familiar from our screens is Mark Carwardine, who happens to be a highly skilled field observer and guide. To confirm this, no more evidence is needed than this new field guide.

All 93 cetacean species, along with all their subspecies and distinct local populations, are described and illustrated. The deep challenges of some whale identifications are addressed early on; to grasp the problems involved in birding terms, imagine trying to age and identify gulls while they are partially submerged. Concise but revealing pointers on what to look for in a brief sighting introduce the cetacean topography. The most likely species for each ocean (north and south) are grouped together in plates in a great process-of-elimination guide.

At-a-glance comparative illustrations of typical bow-riding species' uppersides, along with tail flukes, blows and beaked whale jaws, are handy and this pragmatic help continues in the taxonomically ordered species accounts, with neat thumbnail summaries. Each form is given a detailed account of its behaviour and biology, none of which gets in the way of identification criteria.

Want to know where your right whale, grey whale or Orca originated? You can find out: individual populations are described and illustrated in detail. This is not always possible, with several species known only from a few strandings or rare sightings at sea. Even so, all available information is given for the likes of Hector's, Ginkgo-toothed and Deraniyagala's Beaked Whales, if you're lucky enough to see them. Add to this range maps, illustrations of diving, blowing and leaping, and annotated profile, topside and underside illustrations (key points highlighted by 'Peterson'-style arrows), and you have a state-of-the-art, innovative field guide that should enable you to identify any cetacean with satisfactory views.

Though essentially an update and upgrade to both the author's previous eponymous 1995 field guide, and an update and condensation of his Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises of the World, this new guide will prove absolutely essential – a rigorous and reliable assistant on any seawatch, wildlife cruise or pelagic anywhere.