As I sit at home writing this review, the Spurn Migration Festival is in full flow. BTO’s Andy Clements is there and news has just emerged that he has just found a Kentish Plover! This coastal species of continental Europe has ended up at Spurn but was presumably on its way to southern Europe or Africa for the winter. A quick glance in The Birds of Spurn and I am soon able put the species into context: it is the 17th record for Spurn and the 3rd recorded in autumn; this is just one of the 388 bird species covered. Spurn is a well-known migration hotspot with its peninsula acting as a funnel for birds moving south along the east coast of Britain and often one of the first rest-stops for birds migrating over from the continent. This book covers everything of an ornithological nature about the Spurn recording area, including Easington: all species recorded up to and including 2014 along with ringing information, a history of the ornithology of Spurn, site introduction with maps and information on the activities of the Observatory – from bird ringing to monitoring migration - a mammoth undertaking by author, Andy Roadhouse, and a fantastic 700 page resource! Depending on what information is relevant for each species; the species accounts cover details such as Earliest and Latest date ranges, maximum counts, ‘bird-days’ and ringing details. One other really nice touch, and probably a personal favourite of the book, are the rarity finders’ accounts - painting a picture of the moment a rare bird is found and the events that surrounded it – something to inspire any birder! Chris Gaughans design work has somehow allowed such a large volume of information to be shared and displayed in an easy to read format. The book has a real air of quality about it and the stunning images, artwork and design make for a really beautiful book. This book is specifically about the Spurn area and no doubt already on the bookshelves of the Spurn regulars, but is a must have for anyone interested in bird migration, Bird Observatories, long-term bird monitoring or simply planning a visit to this very special place.

This book, like others by Tim Birkhead, is a journey through the history of a particular field of scientific exploration: in this case, the biology of eggs. Engagingly written and extensively researched, this book sets before us scenes from Yorkshire seabird colonies, Zambian tobacco farms and Soviet gulags, bringing to life the scientific process. This book attempts to follow two paths. Firstly, it describes, and as far as possible explains, the main aspects of egg biology, from their formation, shape, colour, development, and the functions of the different parts. This information often serves to give context to our day-to-day observations; I was fascinated to learn that a clutch of Blue Tit eggs contain more calcium than the mother’s whole skeleton, which explains why she needs to forage for additional sources of calcium, such as mortar, grit and snail shells, while laying. The explanations of the timing of fertilisation, and of how tiny birds such as Goldcrests maintain the temperature of their eggs, are sure to be of interest to observers of bird behaviour, and the section on how eggs are defended against bacterial infection made me think again about the eggs in my kitchen! Secondly, this is a story of the love of birds and eggs, particularly the author’s fascination with the breeding biology of Guillemots, a strand which runs through the book from beginning to end. The opening chapter describes the efforts of nineteenth century egg collectors to get their hands on the hugely diverse Guillemot eggs. I loved their descriptions of the different patterns – pepper pot, scrawl, green petal, black cap, shorthand – though I was disappointed not to find photographs of the beautiful patterns so well described in the text. On occasion these two themes do not quite fit together, but mostly they dovetail beautifully. I particularly liked learning how the author’s research informed the chapters on egg colouration and recognition, including the results of painting a variety of odd geometrical shapes to match the colour and pattern of a particular Guillemot egg, and offering them to the parent bird. This tour of scientific history does not shy away from the limits of knowledge, or attempt to tie up loose ends, instead emphasising where we have more to learn. I enjoyed the stories of wrong turns, such as the rather startling conclusion by Erasmus Darwin that some eggs are bright blue for camouflage against the sky when viewed through the ‘wickerwork’ of nest, which clearly shows that he had never seen the nest of a Song Thrush or Dunnock. The focus of this book is the process of discovery, ranging from tales of the author investigating the mechanisms of egg patterning by scrawling on an egg with a number of pencils tied together, to the value of long-term monitoring of breeding ecology. It is sure to be of interest to anyone with an appreciation of bird behaviour and biology, or the history of ornithology.

As with the previous title this book would be useful as a guide to learning woodland bird songs and calls, and covers an extensive range of species but, once again, it contains many species never found in Britain and Ireland (and not all of them are identified as such in the book). This could confuse more novice birdwatchers, who could well be attracted to the approach of this book. In that case, with the inclusion of such species as White-backed Woodpecker, Hazel Hen and Rustic Bunting, perhaps this could be a fantastic resource for more experienced woodland birders to brush up on their European bird songs and calls. The fact that certain key European woodland species are missing suggests otherwise, such as Short-toed Treecreeper which is, ironically, most easily separated from the very similar Treecreeper by song!

At first glance, an elegant little book to help you get the hang of wetland bird sounds – a small book, with helpful descriptions and an accompanying CD. However, (and I feel this is a big consideration) this book is meant to help people unfamiliar with wetland birds learn the calls – these are likely to be less experienced birders, so why include the extensive range of European species that will be rare, or even absent, in the UK and Ireland? This will prove extremely confusing. Learning the difference between Reed and Sedge Warbler is difficult enough, without muddying the water (excuse the pun!) with species such as Moustached, Savi’s, Marsh and Great Reed Warblers?

The birds of the Middle East hold a particular attraction to many UK birders, with familiar species cheek-by-jowl with others that occur only as vagrants to our shores. One of the easiest countries to get to is the UAE, with holiday destinations in Abu Dhabi and, particularly, Dubai making the Emirates relatively cheap and easy destinations. The definitive guide to the ‘Birds of the Middle East’ is, of course, the book by the same title by Porter and Aspinall, but this covers a vast area and includes many species not encountered in the UAE. This new Helm guide is based on that larger volume, with illustrations from the original but with the text re-written to reflect the status in UAE. It is the first and only complete field guide specific to the UAE and is an essential book for anyone travelling to this fantastic country.