Bonkers Birding

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is well-written and comes as close as any book I have read to explaining why people go birding or twitching. The book also resists the temptation of just listing foreign holidays and the birds seen which can become a little boring to the reader. Instead it documents how John’s birdwatching started, the revelation of the first trip to Minsmere (I can still remember mine 50 years ago), birding in different parts of the UK and world as John’s life changed and his relatively late obsession with foreign birding.

His early life in northern England, especially the influence of his father and brother, and degree in Aberdeen laid the foundations. After university, he worked for the Royal Hong Kong Police Force which introduced him to foreign birding but he didn’t seem to get the travel bug until later. On his return from Hong Kong he describes his annual pilgrimages to the Scillies in the late 90s and early 2000s and his pelagic trips on the flat-bottomed Scillonian, which although he didn’t seem to enjoy did present him with some excellent birding experiences. 2004 turned out to be a pivotal year, as his partner became pregnant, his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he visited Cuba and was seized by the foreign birding bug. This was reinforced by subsequent visits to Spain and the Canaries. Finally, he details hitting the magic 400 UK species mark.

This book scores because it tries to explain how the different phases of John’s life have influenced and developed his birdwatching. He also tries to describe what drives him on with birdwatching and how he tries to explain his hobby to non-birdwatchers. Some of his foreign birdwatching trips have been undertaken with his brother but some have involved his non-birdwatching wife. With regard to the latter it is good news that so many holidaying venues in the world are also great birdwatching areas! This does however create temporary desertions of family duties. Some of his foreign trips have resulted in calamities such as getting his hire car stuck in sand on Fuerteventura and ending up dehydrated, so there is a lot of humour in the book, which makes it very readable.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to any keen birdwatcher.

Book reviewed by Nick Carter