Rostherne Mere: Birds of Mere and Margin: One Hundred and Thirty Years of Observations

This book is a nice local avifauna of the famous Rostherne Mere National Nature Reserve in north Cheshire. But if the word ‘avifauna’ makes readers think of their standard format – a dry catalogue of species, with interrogation of old records to see if they meet modern identification criteria – they will be in for a surprise; in my opinion, a pleasant one. The authors have adopted a charming style, enlivened by copious anecdotes and plenty of photographs and illustrations (by Ray Scally), making an eminently readable volume. One surprise is their loose adherence to taxonomic order, with some birds dealt with in groups according to habitat, the allotted amount of space varying greatly according to the amount of study that each has had. For instance, the chapter ‘a miscellany at the margins’ covers 19 species from Marsh Harrier and Osprey to Kingfisher and Starling. Of course this means an element of referring to the index to find out where a species occurs, but probably no more than needed in all bird-books to keep up with the frequent changes to the systematic list.

The records cover 130 years, from 1886 to 2016, the site having inevitably had varying intensity of study during that time. Rostherne is fortunate that for the first half of the 1900s it benefited from the attention of two local ornithologists who had risen to national prominence through their writings (T.A. Coward and A.W. Boyd), and records from their network of correspondents. In the last half-century or so, events such as appointment of Nature Conservancy wardens, construction of an observatory building, donation of a monster telescope and a programme of ringing all encouraged observations so that birds have been recorded on most days.

This book is a welcome overview of the birds of Rostherne Mere and will, I believe, be enjoyed by anyone, whether or not they have ever been there. Those interested in more than just the birds will learn much from the companion volume Rostherne Mere – Aspects of a Wetland Nature Reserve.

Book reviewed by David Norman