Customer Reviews

Birding Northern California

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With the passion of a life-long birder and the precision of a former professor of engineering, John Kemper has written an exceptional, new site guide for northern California. Detailed information is given for 81 major locations from the Oregon border through Monterey, King, and Tulare counties plus the Kern River Valley in Kern County; Mono County and the White Mountains are included on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada

The book focuses on species of interest by listing "specialty birds" and "other key birds" at the beginning of each location description. Specialty birds include uncommon to abundant birds found primarily in the western United States, endangered or threatened species, and rare birds if the site is among the best for the bird. The text describes when, where, and how to the find the birds at each site, and this information was personally verified by John during two years of fieldwork preparing the book. Range maps and bar charts at the back of the book are cross-referenced to the best sites for each species and the time of year when each species occurs in different regions of the state. Readers will appreciate the easily readable, detailed maps and the clearly written site descriptions. Novices, long-time California birders, and birders from out of state planning their first or 100th trip to the state, will find the information needed to find the birds of interest to them and to plan successful birding trips.

This book was better than what I had expected. I am getting ready to order several more for birding friends. I was not under the impression that is was an identification guide when I first bought the book and it isn't. But, it does tell me what to study before I travel to the very descriptive destinations.

I cannot wait for the weekend to try birding in another area close to home.

Thank-you John Kemper for a thorough guide book.

There are several characteristics that makes this birding guide great. One is the maps, including a northern CA map showing all 81 numbered birding sites, more detailed regional maps showing major roads and the numbered sites and maps for each individual locale showing local roads, bodies of water, trails and other landmarks. One chapter is devoted to the speciality birds. The information for each speciality bird includes a northern CA distribution map for both summer and winter and a compilation of key sites. Finally, site information includes NCA&G grids, hazards and nearest food, gas, lodging and camping options.

This book was right on the mark with its predictions. I was in the area in December while visiting family so my birding (ok, I like to call them 'Naturalist studies') had to be very targeted to get the most out of my time in the field. I went to 6 of the sites in the guide and found 90% of what I was looking for in-season. For example I went to Yosemite and on the way stopped at the San Luis Refuge Complex, focusing only on the Merced National Wildlife refuge as I had a car full of family who wanted to get to the mountains as fast as possible. There was a 5 mile drive around the refuge. Because I selected this area I found 5 of the 6 resident specilaity birds, 4/4 speciality winter birds, etc. The only interesting bird I saw not on the list was a Great Horned Owl. The maps were accurate even to difficult to find locations easy to get to. Some of the pointers worked too-like looking for Tricolored Black birds around feed lots.

No, its not an American Birding Association guide. But those guides are VERY expensive. This guide hit the mark and is an excellent reference if you really want to explore the area for it's potential.

And, no, its not a bird ID guide. Thank goodness I have enough of those refernces. This is exactly what I needed.

Thank you, Mr. Kemper, for your outstanding and affordable work.

- Compliments to a Norcal birding field guide
Found it very handy
Areas to improve
- Verbose format could be improved and turned more concise (tables, possibly more thumbnails and less free text) with possibly better indexing of birds vs spots to find them.

I've used the guide to help plan three birding trips so far and found it to be an asset in preparing for the trip (e.g., understanding the location, what species to expect, and best time to go). Upon arrival at the site, I found myself using a field guide like NGS's Field Guide to Birds of North America almost exclusively to help sight and identify the birds.

Birding Northern California is not suitable as a true field guide since it lacks detailed graphics or photos of the close to 600 species that can be found here. While using the book, I also found the book to be "too wordy" to use as a reference. For instance, to find the best location in Northern California to view a Ross's Goose in December, you would need to browse a good chunk of the book before finding a spot (and it might not be the best location). Later I discovered handy reference information in the very back of the text (e.g., Chapter 7 provides a breakdown of "specialty birds" throughout the area with their respective ranges mapped for winter and summer). FYI - the Ross's Goose is included in Chapter 7 with the key sites. The last chapter of the book provides a complete listing, including specialty and more common birds, with a geographic region and month of the year to look for the bird.

Given the room for improvement in the book's organization, I would encourage the publisher/author to produce a 2nd edition. The ideal improvement would be to include a CDROM that structures the information by bird species (hey, a photo would be nice), the locations where the bird can be found with a relative ranking, the time of year (again with some form of ranking). Including a CD would also allow the reader to search over the information by species or location.

I ordered this for use in my daughter's 6th grade science class in Oakland. Unfortunately, it contains no photographs of the birds--only text descriptions of viewing locations. So it's not useful as an identification guide. The general description should clearly state this. JM