Hi
I am involved with a local (west of Melbourne) landcare group and they are currently doing some re-vegetation work. The plants for this are being grown at a local prison and the group is making a presentation about the project to the prisoners in the near future. They want to talk about the importance of the project to the local bird life and to present the prisoners with a couple of bird books for their library.
The normal guides (e.g. Pizzey) are probably not very appropriate for the intended audience, so I have been asked to find out if there is a guide to Victorian birds that may be more suitable – anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Dave ===============================
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Thanks Carl (and others)
You make some valid points – and in any case there seems to be little alternative to a true guide. I will discuss further with the coordinator who had earlier rejected the “big” guides I had shown her.
Dave
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Hi Dave,
I have found that it is better to overestimate the interest and intelligence of your audience/clients/friends, rather than to underestimate it. True, some people will go glassy-eyed if you them with P&K Or S&D. However, the interested ones probably won’t – it might even arouse their interest to the point that they start birding! Some kids delight in seeing a bird and then being shown it in a book such as P&K.
If you want to find some middle ground, give them a recognised bird field guide and add a typed list of the birds likely to be found in their area of interest (or even acquaint them with Eremaea on-line).
Finally, there is nothing more frustrating than finding a bird that isn’t in the book. I made this mistake with my first el cheapo New Zealand Bird Guide.
Best of luck,
Carl Weber
Then why not just get one of the current field guides and mark those they’re likely to see? One that shows raptors in flight would probably be good, as raptors are likely to be the sort of bird they see a lot.
Beruldsen’s “Field Guide to the Identification of Australian Birds of Prey” might be good too, as it’s fairly simple but concentrates entirely on identification. Again, you could mark those they’re likely to see.
Peter Shute
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I’ve produced a number of bird books, that were popular with Top End residents including my semi-traditional Aboriginal relatives. Apart from lots of illustrations and relatively simple language I use humour, anecdotes and occasionally sex.
The only criticism came from a couple of local birders who told me they weren’t ‘true birders’ books’. Glad to see that such attitudes have not raised their ugly head in this discussion. Go for it, Peter. Denise Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow 1/7 Songlark Street, Bakewell, NT 0832 043 8650 835
PhD candidate, SCU Vice-chair, Wildlife Tourism Australia Nominated for the Condé Nast international ecotourism award, 2004 by the renowned American website, Earthfoot. Wildlife Adviser, BBC¹s Deadly 60¹
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Thanks all for suggestions so far and I will check them out. I guess the feeling is that we want something that does not have TOO many birds that they can’t see from the prison grounds – else they might decide on an unauthorised birding trip? But seriously if you are a beginner best to have a book with only fairly local birds in it so that you do not spend ages looking through and getting confused by species that are not present
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Why wouldn’t a current field guide be suitable? Too complicated? Or is the problem that there are birds from other states in it?
Is “Birds of Port Phillip bay” out of print?
Peter Shute | National IT Officer | National Union of Workers W: (03) 9287 1850 | M: 0422 211 635 | F: (03) 9287 1818 | E: pshute@nuw.org.au | Web: http://www.nuw.org.au
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The little series by the Gould League of 7 volumes is great for that. Volume 1 is “Urban Areas”. Except that it is now very dated and bird populations of some species has changed. Volume 1 shows as 1969 (unless it has been reissued). The Rainbow Lorikeet is only mentioned as “Accidental”, the rarest category. Volume 7 “Farmlands” shows as 1983.
Philip