Bird-watching 2002 Wall Calendar
September 7, 2008
Raptors in Your Pocket: A Guide to Great Plains Birds of Prey (Bur Oak Guide)
September 7, 2008
This newest addition to Iowa’s successful series of laminated guides is a welcome aid to identifying the many challenging raptors of the Great Plains, from northern Minnesota to northern Texas. Illustrator Dana Gardner has created fourteen panels showing twenty-six species perched and in flight with complete plumage variations—dark phases, light phases, and juvenile and adult male and female forms. The text also includes length and wingspan, common and scientific names, and status such as common resident or winter visitor. Raptors are notoriously hard to identify, and Gardner has worked hard to make this guide useful for beginning birders as well as those more experienced in the field. Keep Raptors in Your Pocket in your car or backpack—or pocket!—during spring and fall migration and summer nesting season for help in identifying such relatively common species as the light and dark forms of the red-tailed hawk, the male and female merlin and American kestrel, and the juvenile, intermediate, and adult forms of the Swainson’s hawk as well as such uncommon visitors as white-tailed, swallow-tailed, and Mississippi kites.
Customer Review: A quick and useful display reference to identify when sighting these impressive birds of prey
Raptors In Your Pocket: A Guide To Great Plains Birds Of Prey by Dana Gardner is an informative, color illustrated, “user friendly”, highly portable reference for rightfully identifying the raptors of the great state of Iowa. Providing fourteen plastic coated waterproof panels showing twenty-six species both perched and in flight, and throughout various dark, light, and juvenile phases, as well as male/female differentiation, Raptors In Your Pocket offers the perfect guide for ease in identifying the great aviary raptors of the Great Plains area. Raptors In Your Pocket is very highly recommended for all bird-watchers/observers and naturalists searching for a quick and useful display reference to identify when sighting these impressive birds of prey.
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Listening Device for Bird Watching
September 7, 2008
Orbitor Electronic Listening Device can capture distant sounds (and voices) that would otherwise not be heard with the help of our sophisticated Orbitor Electronic Listening Device. Imagine standing in the end zone of a football field and being able to hear what someone is saying at the other end! Bird watchers and nature lovers will be thrilled at the sound quality of this ingenious listening device. Hear bird calls and animal sounds clearly, and let your ears open up to the real music of the field or forest. Eavesdrop on what your boss is saying in the parking lot–or find out what’s really going on with your kids and their friends. Get a tip at the racetrack, hear what the police are telling someone at a takedown, listen to what two suspicious-looking men are planning down at the corner. To enhance your use of the Orbiter Electronic Listening Device, we’ve added a playback system that records up to 12 seconds on the digital chip–so you not only hear from afar, you have an electronic record of it. The viewfinder has a 10x prism optical system to view your subject even closer, so if you’re checking out a person, you’re able to read their lips as well. A pair of comfortable, padded full-size headphones is included. You can also hook it up to an external audio recorder to record audio as long as you need! Ear phones Records up to 12 seconds on digital chip play back 10x prism optical monocular Parabolic sound collecting switch Frequency Controller Record Button Playback button Headphones Instruction manual included Buy from here…
Bird Watching: The Beginner’s Guide to Identifying Garden Birds
September 7, 2008
Common Birds of Coastal Georgia: Identification and Photographs of 103 Species of Birds Frequently Found in Backyards, Marshes or Beaches
September 7, 2008
Thoroughly illustrated guide of 103 species of birds found in Georgia and the South. Buy from here…
Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders: From Simple, Natural Designs to Spectacular, Customized Houses and Feeders
September 5, 2008
Local songbird populations are rapidly declining, and food, shelter and safe nesting areas are urgently needed. This remarkable book is packed with great ideas plus all the woodworking drawings and howto information needed for hobbyists and birders who want to build attractive birdhouses, feeders and nesting boxes that will attract birds.
Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders features a wide range of designs suitable for all skill levels and space limitations, from a very easy box feeder for a small balcony to the challenge of a magnificent bird mansion for a large garden. The 25 projects appeal to a variety of tastes, ranging from a traditional Victorian townhouse, to a tonguein-cheek Wild West saloon, to a medieval tournament tent.
Each project includes:
- Detailed designs with acolor photo of the finished item
- Easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step illustrations
- Enlarged and technical diagrams in color
- List of recommended materials
- Advice on choosing a location for best results.
Customer Review: Build Your Birdhouses and Feeders.
No place in this book gives hole sizes for the birds you want to attract. Birds are very fussy about the size of the hole and also the size of the nesting cavity. I would consider this the worst book I have ever read on building bird house and feeders. I am glad I looked at it before I gave it to a friend. Not one practical bird feeder for wet and inclement weather. Beautiful bird houses, but no birds!
Customer Review: Beautiful Book, Great Plans
Perkins begins the book with some backround bird and woodworking information that will be useful for the beginner. He then gets into plans for 19 houses and 7 feeders.
Each project includes color photos of the completed house or feeder – these are not just the figments of a writer’s imagination. There are detailed, measured, exploded color drawings of each house. His designs include several different methods of access for cleaning out the houses after each nesting period. I particularly like the “slide” designs – no tools or dropped screws to worry about.
Some of these houses are so pretty, I don’t know if I would want to put them out in the yard. I suppose with a little imagination, you could scale his designs to meet the needs of a variety of species. He has a breif, one page chart showing entrance sizes for some birds. He also show “slot” as well as round entrance options on some of his designs. I still keep referring back to Scott D. Campbell’s “The Complete Book of Birdhouse Construction for Woodworkers” as a more complete technical reference. (See that review on Amazon.)
Overall, this is a very good book on birdhouses, very inspirational for the imaginative bird “landlord.” This book is profusely illustrated with color photos and drawings; it could be a “coffee table” book if you don’t get it filled with sawdust! Buy from here…
Guide to Birds of North America v3.9 – Windows
September 5, 2008
Version 3.9 was released on July 31, 2007. Thayer Birding Software and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have joined forces to create the ultimate CD for birders. The Thayer’s Guide to Birds of North America v3.9 features all 925 birds seen in the U.S. or Canada (excluding Hawaii). This incredible Windows-based CD-ROM includes 2,788 color photos and songs for 708 species. 90 video clips are also included. This CD can help you identify unfamiliar birds. Simply select the color, size, habitat, location or sound of your bird and the program will show you everything that matches your description! Also included are 700 quizzes arranged into “Birding Hot Spots”, “Christmas Bird Counts”, Favorite Birds” and more. Set the level at Easy or crank it all the way up to Difficult. Select Multiple Choice, Fill-in-the-blank, Flash Card or “Pick One” quizzes. This CD also includes a listing and recordkeeping program to help you remember the birds you have seen. With version 3.9, you can also share Custom Lists with your friends, download songs and photos to an iPod for your own personal use and add your own comments and photos for each bird. New colorful icons make it very easy to use the CD. System Requirements: Windows 2000, XP or Vista; Pentium 4 processor or equivalent; 512 MB RAM; CD-ROM drive; 1 Gig on hard drive; plus hardware and software required to support multimedia applications. Some features of this CD-ROM require an Internet connection.
Customer Review: Thayer Guide to Birds of North America v.3.9
I was able to try the software at a friend’s house a few years ago and enjoyed the Petey the Parrot feature that pronounced Latin nomenclature. User friendly. There are good searching and cross-referencing features. The library of species is more extensive than any book I’ve seen. I like that there is geographic distribution data, population information and song files. It is so much easier to listen to a song file than read “two wee” in a field guide and get the same effect of information. This software helps with research presentations. The quizzes are great too. I like that the photos available for each species carry mulitple view whenever possible. I think in the absence of photos, drawings could have been included to cover the gap, especially since females are usually the gap and comprise 50% of the species population, so this is important information. So far that is the only short-coming I have noticed. Buy from here…
All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures
September 5, 2008
Roger Tory Peterson’s unique perspective on birding comes to life in this collection of columns. Highly personal narratives, these were not teching tools for bird identification; rather, he recounts his adventures during a lifetime of birding and traveling the world to observe and record nature. From the incident when his boat capsized in freezing water off the coast of Maine while the octogenarian was filming a documentary, to his own experiences searching for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Peterson’s sense of adventure and curiosity cannot be extinguished. All of these essays appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest during the 1980s and 1990s. The accomplished illustrator was nearly as passionate about photography as he was about painting, and the essays are illustrated with some of Roger’s own photographs reproduced in black and white.
Customer Review: A set of vivid vignettes perfect for that avid birder.
All Things Reconsidered: My Birding Adventures is an excellent pick for any who have long known of and used Roger Tory Peterson’s birding guides, which have become leading industry references in the fine art of bird identification. A decade after his death comes a personal collection which blends color photos and line drawings with a passionate survey of the bird world, selected by the editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest which ran his column ‘All Things Reconsidered’ during the last twelve years of his life. His adventures traveling the world are captured in a set of vivid vignettes perfect for that avid birder.
Customer Review: A Very Good Book
This was purchased as a gift, but before I wrapped it I read four of the essays. Enjoyed them very much and learnd some things. It has some excellent illustrations, too. I’m going to buy a copy for myself. Sorry I haven’t read more for this review. Buy from here…
An Exhilaration of Wings: The Literature of Birdwatching
September 5, 2008
Birdwatching as we know it emerged sometime in the late eighteenth century, and a lively literature about birds and bird behavior positively erupted in the decades that followed. In An Exhilaration of Wings, Jen Hill has for the first time gathered together the most vital and engaging of these writings, which, while historically specific, are timeless in their evocation of what the passion for birds is all about.
As Hill remarks in her introduction, birdwatching is “an experience of the ears and intellect as much as it is of the eye,” all of which comes across clearly in the instructive, revealing, and beautifully written excerpts she has culled for this book. Over seventy-five writers, famous and unknown–from John Muir, John James Audubon, and William Wordsworth to the largely forgotten ornithologists Florence Merriam and Olive Thorne Miller and the English country poet John Clare–share their infectious observations about bird song, migration, nests, raptors, sea birds, hummingbirds, and much more. The entries are by turns practical, lyrical, humorous, literary, scientific–on occasion even mystical–as they illuminate the magical and occasionally unexpected ways in which birding connects us both to the history of the natural world and to that of human experience. This charming compendium is certain to delight birdwatchers and natural history lovers alike.
Customer Review: A “must read” for birdwatchers, fanciers, and ecologists.
This survey of the literature surrounding birdwatching gathers together some of the most intriguing writings under one cover, exploring the literary side of the observations of Muir, Audubon, and others. These take the form of paragraphs of information which explore sightings and bird ecology.
Customer Review: The Heart and Soul of Bird Watching
This book offers a wonderful look at the historical roots of bird watching. How refreshing to read truly emotional responses to the experience of learning about birds through observation. The wonderful blend of writings underscores the universality and agelessness of the sport.
This book is perfect for short reads — great to pick up for a moment, either to refresh oneself or to share with a friend. It is a perfect gift for any bird lover — I have purchased 6 copies to date! Buy from here…
Warblers of North America v3.9
September 5, 2008
Version 3.9 was released on July 31, 2007. Warblers of North America v3.9 contains 57 species. This Windows CD-ROM includes color photos, songs for all species from the world-famous Cornell Lab of Ornithology, range maps, abundance maps, ID tips and more. The CD-ROM includes an ID Wizard to help you identify the birds, even if you do not know the bird’s name. Just enter colors, size, habitat and location. The ID Wizard will show you photos of all the birds that match your description. Petey the Parrot will pronounce each bird’s common and scientific name for you. Also included are quizzes. The CD-ROM lets you compare two birds side-by-side and shows you the similar species. With version 3.9, you can: Share Custom Lists with your friends Download songs and photos to an iPod for your own personal use Add your own comments and photos for each bird Identify birds by sound in the ID Wizard Use the new “Pick One” quiz — see four bird photos and pick the right one. And most important of all, The Birder’s Handbook is now included (a $20 value) System Requirements: Windows 2000, XP or Vista; Pentium 4 processor or equivalent; 512 MB RAM; CD-ROM drive; 1 Gig on hard drive; plus hardware and software required to support multimedia applications. Some features of this CD-ROM require an Internet connection. Buy from here…
