Birds New to Britain 1980-2004
This is the sequel to Birds New to Britain and Ireland, edited by Tim Sharrock and Peter Grant, which covered the period 1946-80. Like its predecessor it has at its core the write-ups of firsts for Britain published in British Birds or, where these are not available, Birding World. The accounts are the stuff that dreams are made of and most are indeed a riveting read. As a consequence, the editors were on safe ground, but I did have a few grumbles. At times the editing was a little harsh; for example, the original account of the Portland Savannah Sparrow is cut short, thereby omitting discussion of the bird’s racial identity. The amazing fact that it was of the race princeps – or ‘Ipswich Sparrow’, whose entire breeding population is confined to Sable Island, 90 miles east of Nova Scotia – can be ascertained only by referring back to Adrian Pitches’s summary of 1982.
Quite commendably, the editors included the four firsts from 2004, but they otherwise stuck rigidly to the pronouncements of the Rarities Committee, thus ensuring that the book constitutes the ‘official’ record. The downside of this is a number of obvious omissions. Few readers will be surprised at the lack of Palearctic wildfowl, but neither are there Brown Flycatcher, Mugimaki Flycatcher, Ross’s Goose or Booted Eagle. Even more bizarrely, there are no accounts of Magnificent Frigatebird and the real firsts of White-throated Robin and Mourning Dove, all because, in its infinite wisdom, the Rarities Committee now excludes the Isle of Man from its British list, so the book feels strangely incomplete. I was reminded of an old Marty Feldman/John Cleese sketch, in which Feldman asked an exasperated bookshop owner (Cleese) for the expurgated version of The Observers’ Book of Birds: “The one without the Gannet.”
Scientific bird recording and twitching are uneasy bedfellows, but what shines through in this book are the human experiences. As well as the individual species accounts, each year has a summary of the main rarity occurrences and these are followed by personal recollections of each particular year from a variety of well-known birders. Inevitably, these vary in style and content, but what characterises them all is a genuine passion for birds coupled with an obsessive streak as thick as your arm. This touches on the uncharted subject of the psychology of birding. Why are increasing numbers of people, disillusioned with the artificiality of the modern world, choosing instead as their raison d’être something as fundamental as the vagaries of bird migration?
In the end, I enjoyed this book, although reading it was a bit like seeing your life flash before you, from the Weymouth Pied-billed Grebe and Ivory Gull ‘mega-day’ of 26 January 1980 to the sad sight of the St Mary’s Cream-coloured Courser being blown head over heels by the relentless gales of October 2004. They should have included a free CD of Sandy Denny singing Who Knows Where the Time Goes.
Tech spec
- Birds New to Britain 1980-2004 edited by Adrian Pitches and Tim Cleeves (T & A D Poyser, London, 2005).
- 344 pages, many colour photographs and line drawings.
- ISBN 978 0713670226. Hbk, £35.
