Review: Taylor’s “Birding Australia’s Islands”

Dear Birders,

Thought you might be interested in this short review of Sue Taylor’s
book “Birding Australian Islands”, from a fellow birder.

Review: I finally got this book in the mail in Ottawa, Canada.
Previously having birded Australia for 2 years while my wife and I were
living there, I was intrigued by what could be had on these often exotic
islands. We never visited any of the islands before.

This book is a captivating read of 22 of Australia’s islands (19 I
believe were visited by the author, the others too inaccessible for
various reasons). I feel like the author did a great job giving a taste
of what it might be like to bird in these remote locations. As we all
know, islands often bring about both unusual seabirds and highly
specialised cousins of our more familiar landbirds, so its not
surprising that I’ve actually seen very few of these species before. For
example, Macquarie has penguins and Lord Howe has its woodhen.

One recurring theme I really enjoyed but was also saddened by in
“Birding Australia’s Islands” is that islands are very fragile and we
ought to treat them with care to preserve the fascinating wildlife that
occurs on them.

After reading this book, I realized two things: by visiting some of
these islands, we would have a much higher Australian count than we do
now (295), and that more attention should be drawn to these places in
terms of conservation efforts. Highly recommended.

Sincerely.
Jason