I've written about Bruce Campbell's "of-its-time" (1952) but interesting book " Bird-Watching for Beginners" several times ... and here's another chunk from it which you might find " interesting." "I must also mention here the identification of nests and eggs. This is always surer if you can identify the bird owning them. Many British nests can be recognized by themselves, in fact with more certainty than many eggs. If you showed me an egg of each of the hundred commonest British breeding birds, I should hope to identify more than sixty of them correctly, but if you showed me their nests, I think I should get seventy right, even away from their sites; in position, I should take a bet on eighty with some confidence. But eighty is not one hundred and that is why it is usually safer to see the bird. There are a few exceptions ; it is easier to tell the nests of Chiffchaff and Willow-Warbler apart than the birds themselves and the same is true of Reed-Warblers and Marsh-Warblers, Willow-tits and Marsh-Tits, Whitethoat and Lesser Whitethroat, and, for that matter, Missel-Thrush and Song-Thrush .. not that the birds in this case are really very similar, but their nests and eggs are much more different. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well ... that whole " searching for nests and eggs" obsession has, I hope, faded into the background these days. That's why I had a bit of a "go" at Springwatch's relentless " nestfest" simply because it was convenient for them to have a reliable gravy-train of " ooh aren't they lovely" eggs-and-chicks clips and the occasional " oh-dear" moments of drama when some predator came along and ate them all. 881-the-springwatch-nestfest.html Here's the other bits I've written about the book ... well, the ones I can find ... 3-one-of-my-first-bird-books.html 119-how-to-encourage-young-birdwatchers-or-not.html 212-behind-the-scenes-at-the-museum.html .... so, it must be time for some irrelevant but lovely music ....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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