Field guides

[Sue Lashko <>]

Hi everyone

 

After all of those excellent responses, may I suggest to all new ACT birders that they purchase McComas Taylor's Field Guide to the Birds of the ACT which they can carry with them - it illustrates the vast majority of birds that you are likely to see in and around the ACT.  Also buy a field guide to cover all of Australia - I have the same favourites as Anthony.  Then when you see a new bird, note down its features, behaviour, etc, and try to identify it yourself using the ACT guide first with the Australia guide as support.  There is great satisfaction in doing this and it is the way most of we "middle-aged" folk learnt our birds.  This has become a bit of a lost art with so many people photographing birds rather than studying them closely with binoculars.  If you are still unsure of your ID, ask the chatline for help, but please, as Roger Williams did with his tricky robin at Kama, tell us what you think it is (and why).  Speaking with my teacher's voice, this is the way to learn.

 

Cheers

Sue

 

 

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 1:23 AM, Erika Roper <> wrote:

Hello all,

I recently acquired a new field guide (Parrots of the World, by Forshaw) and I began wondering about how others use field guides. Is it common for birders to annotate their field guides (i.e. add additional common names to species entries), and to note in the guide when and where they have seen a species? I was also wondering how many of you "study" before taking a trip to a new place, in order to memorise species that you may encounter.

I love field guides, and if I had the money I'm sure I would be buying new ones all the time. I suppose next on my list should be a current version of an Australian field guide, as my current copy (given to me by my grandma) is as old as I am (Simpson and Day, published in 1986)! Which reminds me, is it actually worth investing in an up-to-date copy? Any recommendations for which guide to get (author-wise)?

Thanks!

Erika