I'm a regular at the Warwick Arts Centre so when I knew Alex Horne a comedian I'd seen had wrote a book about birding it was duly purchased. Within a week of its delivery I'd read the book from cover to cover and it certainly made me aware of a number of new things including the keeping of records. I now use the the BTO's Birdtrack every week to record sightings.
Alex Horne's dad had always been a 'birder' constantly on the look-out for his next bird sighting. Alex wasn't so sure. But, determined to get to know his father better, Alex challenged him to a competitive Big Year: from January 1st to December 31st 2006, they would each attempt to see as many species of bird as possible, governed by the basic rules of birdwatching, plus a couple of their own: the birds had to be wild, free and alive; they had to actually see the birds; and they could travel anywhere in the world to do it. The one who saw the most birds over the course of 365 days would be declared the winner. Along the way, Alex would try to finally understand why his dad did what he did, and perhaps even 'get into' birdwatching himself. I would really recommend it. I then passed it on to my own Dad and he totally enjoyed it and perhaps nows understands the interest a bit more.
I'm a big reader and will go through 2/3 books per month. I've just started to read David Cabots & Ian Nisbets New Naturalist book on Terns. Terns are one of my favourite species and these guys have spend their whole lives studying them. I'm already hooked and I'm only a few chapters in. I was fascinated to read how important Britain and Ireland is to Terns and was surprised that 15% of the worlds Sandwich Tern pairs breed around our shores.
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