Customer Reviews

Birder's Guide to Northern California

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Don't waste your time or money on this book. The information was to generalized and did not include specifics. I have never experienced a book with such vague and poor directions to birding sites. Too bad that there is not an ABA guide to birding Northern California.

I'm afraid I'll have to agree with what's been said about this book. I took a trip earlier this month to Northern California and my friend and I found this book only mildly useful. It does provide general information, however for anything more than that, another book is needed. Seasonal variation is ignored in some site descriptions and detailed directions to sites that require them are absent. There are no bar-charts to tell when a species is common, rare or even present, only a very general checklist in the back. Northern California is a large area to cover with a birding guide, so I can see why this book may be thin on detail. I think a much better bet would be to try John Kemper's "Birding Northern California". We saw this at the Pt. Reyes visitor's center near the end of our trip and certainly regretted not having it the whole time. Until an ABA/Lane guide comes out for this region, I think Kemper's is the best there is. Good birding!

This book needs work. It is not going to be a lot of help in planning a birding trip. It is too generalized.

I found this book very frustrating. I often drive up Southern California using the excellent ABA guide and as soon as I hit Northen California it is like navigating in a fog. The directions are terrible and frequently I end up with a detailed map trying to work out where the site I am aiming for is located. Each chapter covers far too much ground to be possible to follow easily.
The 2nd major fault is there is no bar charts and checklist showing seasonal variation of numbers, frequency of occurance etc. It makes it very difficult to figure out what one is supposed to be looking for and when.