The Finnish Bird Ringing Atlas Volume 1

From the arrival of the first Swallow in spring to impressive flocks of waders and waterfowl that come each year to the estuaries of Europe, bird movements have long fascinated us. Marking individual birds is the only way to fully understand these movements (and much else besides). The first birds were ringed, scientifically, in 1899 in Denmark, with the first atlas of such movements across Europe published as long ago as 1931. In the face of this one may legitimately ask ‘do we need more ringing?’ This beautifully produced volume summarising movements of birds ringed or recovered in Finland provides a convincing demonstration of the value of ringing in this regard.

This is the first of two volumes, presenting not only the results of ringing of non-passerine birds, but also a history of ringing, both in Finland and throughout Europe. This history, presented attractively in both Finnish and English, is well worth reading as the lead author (Pertti Saurola) was (and still is) one of the key advocates of cooperation of ringing across Europe. Most people will, however, read the book, for the species accounts. Each species account presents maps of birds ringed and recovered, the latter using a neat set of symbols to differentiate recoveries in different seasons, together with some helpful charts and graphs indicating, for instance, recovery circumstance and timing of migration; all legends are given in both Finnish and English. Finally there are some summary tables indicating numbers ringed and recovered and the oldest and longest recoveries. The texts are in Finnish (obviously!), but each concludes with a comprehensive English summary which refers to the figures directly meaning that one is hardly hampered, by not knowing Finnish.

The authors are to be congratulated on the design of the book, which is a model of clarity in presenting a huge amount of information in a relatively limited space. I could pick out some of the many stories that this book reveals, but much better for you to explore this fascinating book for yourself, but be warned, you may, like me, find yourself immersed for far longer than you intended to be…

Book reviewed by Rob Robinson