“Watching Waterbirds with Kate Humble”

I have just read this beginners introduction to the kinds of wild birds you are likely to encounter at a WWT site. Aimed at the newcomer to waterbirds, it splits the birds into logical groups (if not exactly taxonomically correct) and in “Kate’s Top Tips” it appears to aim at provide the reader with various aides-mémoire to help in distinguishing the various species you are likely to encounter. This sounds like a great idea – even for a non-beginner – except that it has to be said that these aides may have been what originally helped Kate Humble remember the differences between species but I, for one, didn’t find them memorable at all and I can’t imagine that anyone else would either.

Of the White-fronted Goose she writes  “with those black stripes across the belly, I think it looks like they’ve sat on a griddle” doesn’t really do it for me and I think that there is a conscious attempt to make this book appeal to children as well as adults with mixed results. However it isn’t without its merits and there are some useful photographs in it – especially in the double page spreads which show several species together.

“Watching Waterbirds with Kate Humble” by Kate Humble & Martin McGill,Paperback : 256 pages, Publisher: A & C Black Publishers Ltd (20 April 2011) ISBN-10: 140813022X, ISBN-13: 978-1408130223