The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching [Paperback]

Todd Newberry (Author), Gene Holtan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2005

If you wash dishes with binoculars around your neck, own more spotting scopes than shoes, and read the Bird Chat listerv before and after your first cup of coffee, then you can only be one thing: an ardent birder. Biology professor and lifelong devotee of our fine feathered friends Todd Newberry has written 50 short essays that range from meditations on bird-watchers' daily events to philosophies of why they do what they so ardently love to do. THE ARDENT BIRDER is the first book in the vast field of popular birding literature to focus on the birder, not just the bird. A thoughtful gift for the bird-watcher who has everything, THE ARDENT BIRDER includes 75 delightful drawings and includes suggestions for how intermediate-level birders can hone and share their skills in the field.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A collection of 50 short essays on the common experiences of avid, intermediate-level bird watchers.

Includes 75 charming line drawings that cleverly complement the text.

Sections include Leading Better Club Trips; Gear; and Our Day, Our Year.

About the Author

TODD NEWBERRY’s writing has appeared in Omnivore, The Antioch Review, The North American Review, and Three Penny Review. He joined the University of California, Santa Cruz, at its heady beginning, and as an emeritus professor still teaches there —at last, about birds. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

The artist GENE HOLTAN has devoted a long life to the visual arts, painting and drawing in media ranging from paper to canvas to pottery to children ’s books. After many years in Santa Cruz, he now lives in Oakland, California, with what appear to be the same birds.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580087159
• ISBN-13: 978-1580087155
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #674,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant book for the intermediate birder, November 28, 2005

By 

A. E. Wright "Reader, writer, birder" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching (Paperback)

The hard core will find little new in this book, but intermediate birders looking to improve their skills will enjoy and profit from the short essays. The author's style is easy and pleasant, reminding me a bit of Milton White's low-key (if not low-affect!) "Listen, the Red-eyed Vireo," a work Newberry cites several times. The final section, on leading successful bird trips, is likely to be the most practically useful (perhaps even to more advanced birders), but the sections on field craft can also be read with profit by the ambitious and the befuddled. The central section's "philosophical interlude" is no less well written, but not as incisive as, say, Levine's "Lifebirds" or Alan Powers's fine "Birdtalk."
I was particularly pleased to see the American Birding Association and its publications praised and recommended.
A good book for birders on the cusp of advancement!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Future Classic, May 29, 2007

By 

H "Genebirder" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching (Paperback)

This book will be a future classic for birders. I read this book twice within a few days. I never do this! I started birding a few months ago and reached number 99 yesterday. Todd's book has been a great help for me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, inspiring, lyrical, September 4, 2010

By 

Patricia Tryon (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching (Paperback)

This is a book I read and re-read. It's best that I take it on when I am alone, because otherwise I am continually pausing to interrupt whomever is nearby to read aloud a beautiful and informative sentence (or paragraph or more) on the art and craft of birdwatching. Or, perhaps worse, I push the book itself under my companion's nose so that he can chuckle or guffaw at one of Gene Holtan's apt illustrations.

"The Ardent Birder" is NOT a field guide. Please let me repeat: this book is NOT a field guide. If you are looking for a book that will help you identify particular birds, this isn't it.

But if you would like to learn about the habits, proclivities, and thinking -- philosophical and concrete -- of a lifelong birder, I do not think you will find a better book than this. Todd Newberry writes from a position of deep knowledge (a professor emeritus of biology) and broad perspective. He references Ernst Gombrich as easily as he ticks through a number of books about birdsong.

Newberry delves exuberantly into the topic of birdwatching gear: binoculars and scopes, of course, as well as the less often discussed but no less important topic of monopods. He touches on camouflage. I had never considered that the laundry detergent brighteners can turn even muted outfits into the equivalent of "red alerts" for some birds.

About "trip of a lifetime" birdwatching, where birders embark on expensive expeditions to distant places in the hope of spotting exotic birds, he offers a number of thoughts. Simple as it might seem, in fact such pilgrimages are fraught with opportunities to "trip" up. Here are observations about frames of mind and about the nuts and bolts of succeeding as much as possible on such journeys.

Because we live near one of the least populous areas of the US mainland, it is too easy to cross inadvertently onto private lands. Sometimes markings are clear; sometimes they are really not, a situation complicated by maps with mistakes about back country roads. Newberry takes on the topic of trespassing. Without quite offering a script for going to property owners to ask permission to bird, he suggests courtesies birders might want to observe to make their presence at least tolerated and perhaps welcome.

I fall firmly into the category of "beginner" at birding and count myself very lucky to have come across a book so early on that deals specific tips and also the métier that lead to satisfying birding. And yet I would have no qualms whatsoever about gifting the book to longtime birders, who I suspect would find themselves nodding in agreement or occasionally snorting at a point of view elegantly expressed, but to which they would take exception. I will be giving copies of the book to friends who are mystified or even derisive about my new interest. Here's the brief, humorously and beautifully illustrated, too.

That bit about my being a beginner? His notes about spotting a bird a beginner like me deems unusual would have saved me a bit of embarrassment a few weeks ago. I'll say no more ;)

Our shelves are already running over with guides to birds and to locations. What we lacked was a guide to birding itself. This captivating and even enchanting book fills that need.