Product Review - Hampshire Bird Report 2006
March 6, 2008
Wow ! What a production. From the dazzling Osprey front cover through the array of colour photographs and artwork inside, this bumper 254-page special 50th Edition is truly sumptuous. The editorial team (Alan Cox, John Clark, Jason Crook, Richard Ford, Paul Norris and Pauline Cox) are to be congratulated on this mamoth production, quite easily one of the best county bird reports ever published.
Following an obituary to Norman William Orr (the Stone Curlew saviour in the 1960’s), who sadly died in 2006, pages 13-176 review all 253 species of bird recorded in the county during 2006, including the first DUSKY WARBLER (362nd species recorded since 1949), only 3rd-ever SURF SCOTER, two CATTLE EGRETS, two WOODCHAT SHRIKES and AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. The review is very well written, very neatly produced and extremely well presented, with easy-to-read histograms and charts highlighting the wildfowl counts and wader counts.
I particularly liked the matching blue, red and black text colours and was most impressed by the choice of photographs (all in full colour throughout) (Peter Raby’s image of the Pennington juvenile SemiP is outstanding, as well as Richard Ford’s Long-eared Owl). Each individual species text was accurate and informative and quite detailed when discussing a county scarcity. Equally pleasing was the excellent selection of artwork provided by the two local artists - David Thelwell and Dan Powell.
Towards the back of the report, Duncan Bell provided the 2006 Ringing summary (pages 185-197), followed by a comprehensive account by John Eyre on the status of Woodlark in Hampshire (198-203), an excellent analysis by Russell Wynn of the status of seabirds (204-212), a prelude to the 2007-2011 Bird Atlas (213-220) and an article by John Cloyne on the Birds of the Itchen Valley (221-231). Particularly interesting was an article on Grey Partridges (247 pairs recorded in 2006), whilst the winter gull survey results and full documentation of the Hayling Island Dusky Warbler finish the book.
Fifty years of the Hampshire Bird Report is an achievement to be proud of and Alan Cox has illustrated on pages 245-251 the leaps and bounds the Hampshire Ornithological Group has come along.
This 2006 report can be purchased (priced £12 including p & p) from Margaret Boswell, Sales Officer, 5 Clarence Road, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7AL.
Lee G R Evans
British Birding Association
UK400 Club, Rare Birds Magazine, Ornithological Consultant and Conservationist
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