The Crossley ID Guide to Britain & Ireland
It has been two and a half years since the first Crossley ID Guide ('Eastern Birds') came out to 'Marmite' reviews: some loved the fresh approach, while others were distinctly lukewarm towards the apparently chaotic photomontages that formed the core of the guide. Thumbing through this latest release from the Crossley stable — the ID Guide to Britain & Ireland — the aforementioned controversial photomontages no longer seem, well, so controversial. Opinion will unquestionably remain divided over whether or not Crossley's approach, collating several different images of the same species and adding them artificially to a scenic (though appropriate) background, is helpful when learning about identification. Crossley's argument is that this is how you most frequently see birds in the field, sometimes distant, occasionally close, sometimes in numbers and mostly against a complicated background of other features. Replication of this is, he says, the best way to learn the key identification pointers of species.
Aimed fairly and squarely at beginner and intermediate birders, the photographed visuals make up the lion's share of the book. They take up up four-fifths of the majority of the species pages, with Dominic Couzens' concise text slotted in below to provide a brief introduction to each species and a summary of the key identification features. There are lots of neat touches: the inclusion of both the BTO five-letter shorthand codes and two-letter quick codes for most species will certainly do no harm. The inclusion of some recognisable birding sites in the backgrounds also add a certain familiarity to the pages.
A sample from The Crossley ID Guide to Britain & Ireland, showing Bar-tailed Godwits 'in habitat'.
It's also interesting to see how Crossley's format has developed since the launch of the first book. I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of other species in the background of the photo-montages increasing the 'realism' of the constructed scenes: Purple Sandpipers in the Turnstone roost, Lesser Black-backed Gulls in a mixed gull flock, a Blackbird in with Ring Ouzels and so on. In my opinion, providing the opportunity to compare potential confusion species in the same 'field of view' in the guide or pick out the odd one in a flock can only be a useful tool.
Though Crossley's choice of backgrounds add a certain flavour to the guide and I recognise that it is subjective, I personally don't like all of his choices. I would have definitely gone for fewer cows and more Garden Warblers, a coastal backdrop for Stonechats (where I think they are probably encountered most by birders), and perhaps a distant, tightly packed Common Scoter flock. Oh, and most certainly a supermarket car park for Waxwings!
A sample species page: Kittiwake.
The Crossley Guides have been successful in the US, helped by the provision of additional material and interactivity via the Crossley Books website. This hosts vast quantities of videos and additional material, but also reflects Crossley's insatiable appetite for promoting his guides both on- and offline. Whether Crossley's brand of high-octane publicity for the guide is effective here in Britain remains to be seen, though once again he and his team have proved they are prepared to innovate: their high-profile 'blog tour' around some of our more prominent bloggers, featuring individual elements of the guide, is just finishing, having achieved a sizeable buzz on social media. In addition, both he and Dominic Couzens will be engaging in a live online discussion about the guide in a 'shindig' event on November 21st — details can be found here.
This distinctively branded guide will no doubt find its way into many Christmas stockings and is a worthwhile purchase if you are just starting out with British birds. Retailing at £16.95, the title is available from the Birdwatch Bookshop at the reduced price of £15.95 (£14.95 for magazine subscribers):
