Book Worm or Shall I say Bird

With the weather getting cooler and the days getting shorter, I have found myself sitting around at home more which has been a bit of a shock to my system lately considering I would spend much of my free time outdoors, looking at birds, running, walking woods, etc. but much of that can't be done anymore after work so I have had to come up with other things to do including finally catching up on many of the old vintage bird and nature books I have bought over the past few months.

I have a fascination with the past and history and that includes older books. Before birding I would collect those old 1930's to early 50's movie and music magazines with a special interest during World War II which in my opinion some of the best movies and music were made during that time era. I still have all of these packed neatly in boxes and collecting dust I'm afraid, but I have quickly found something to replace them and they all have feathers (what else is new!)

Life Nature Library: The Birds by Roger Tory Peterson: Copyright 1968

I have several types of vintage bird books with the majority of them being a combination of both pictures and information because I find the pictures help a lot with bird identification as it gets imprinted into memory without even trying. Love the picture of the Least Bittern above which according to the book is "beak high and striped front displayed a Least Bittern tries to merge into its reedy background". Is this a cool looking bird or what!!

Life Nature Library: The Birds

I also love looking at the old books because many of the birds we know today were referred to something different back then like this American Kestrel above who was more commonly referred to the the Sparrow Hawk in the past.

Life Nature Books: The Birds

And had to post the picture above for all of you at the Forbush Bird Club Meeting last week when DCR came in to talk about tagging and banding gulls. Can you imagine them having to attempt this. Look at the deep concentration in the woman to the left! According to Life, "this Herring Gull is squirted with a scarlet spray in a project to ascertain the habits and range of gulls from six colonies along the New England coast". The Herring Gull doesn't look at all happy with the color choice and I wonder what the other gulls thought when they saw it for the first time!
And I don't just collect adult books either, but kids books too. I find that many of the second hand book shops will have books like the one above that sits on the shelf for ages collecting dust, so I scoop them up eagerly and get them off their hands.

National Geographic: Baby Birds and How they Grow: by Jane R. McCauley: Copyright: 1983-Hooded Warbler

And then I also lean toward very detailed books with very little pictures but filled with tons of graphs and charts because I really like graphs and charts. The book above has a copyright of 1969 and was part of a study to analyze raptor predation. The study was conducted in Township, Michigan.
Chart showing the winter food selection by Rough-legged Hawks.
And then of course, there are those book you buy for light reading like this 535 page book called the Ducks, Geese & Swans of North America by Frank C. Bellrose, copyright 1953. This book is filled with fabulous charts and graphs like the one above of the Mallard which shows migration patterns in various regions of the United States.
And a comparison with the American Black Duck which I thought was very interesting to cross compare
And then there are times when I just leaf through the books and look at the birds, trying to figure out what I want on my list next year (similar to how most women catalog shop, but I do it with birds instead ;0) ). The gorgeous photo of the American Avocet above, comes from the book The National Audubon Society Collection Series: North American Birds by Barbara Baur with a copyright of 1984. Wish a selling price of $3.00 who was I to resist!!!
The book I am currently engrossed in and can't put down is Waterbirds of the Northeast by Winston Williams, Copyright 1989. Check out the name above for the Green Heron. I had never heard of a Green Heron referred to as the Green-backed Heron so I did some googling and found this at the Cornell All About Birds site: "The Green Heron is part of a complex of small herons that sometimes are considered one species. When lumped, they are called Green-backed Heron. When split, they are the Green Heron, the widespread Striated Heron, and the Galapagos Heron."
This book also has some of the best photographs of birds I have seen in a while. Check out the photo of the Belted Kingfisher above. Is he a handsome devil or what!! Love the fact that the fish is almost as big as him!
And a view of a Great Egret I had never thought of before. This is how one looks to a fish!
And one of my number one target birds for 2009, the Cattle Egret. Seriously I could look at this bird all day.
And now I know why all of the shorebirds departed swiftly when the Great Black-backed Gull was walking toward the shore in Plymouth. A shocking photo indeed. Poor little tern, but that's nature for you!
And decided to leave you all with a blast from the past, the good old Oldsquaw, now referred to as the Long-tailed Duck to be politically correct. So funny to see the original names in some of the books.

Anyhoo, as you can see birding has been kind of dull the past couple of days, but not to worry. I have 4 days off starting Thursday and I am certain I will get out there here and there even if it means an umbrella. After all, the gulls are always out rain or shine. ;-)

Take care all and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones!