Product Description

Since 1972 Mark Cocker has been a member of a community of obsessional people who sacrifice most of their spare time, a good deal of money, sometimes their chances of a family, even occasionally their lives, to watch birds. Birders is the story of this community, of its characters, its rules, its equipment and its adventures - many of which are hilariously funny. Birders is also a work of love - the story of what birds can do to the human heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108378 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Birders--Tales of a Tribe author and environmentalist Mark Crocker looks back at a lifetime's obsession with "birding"; the strange places that his fascination for ornithology has taken him, and the even stranger network of friends, acquaintances and enemies who share his passion, and make up Britain's birding "tribe". This is not a guide to birdwatching, although novices will find plenty of tantalising information, and inspiration, in Crocker's ramble through nearly 30 years of feathered fanaticism. Instead it is an attempt by a man who is part of it, to understand the "tribe"--the disparate band of fellow devotees who will slog the length and breadth of Britain for the chance to spot a rarity. Crocker is interested in recording the customs, the folklore, the language and most importantly the rules of what amounts to a secret society.

Rule No.1 is no "stringing", or claiming to have spotted birds that you haven't. Birders tells its own dark and labyrinthine tale of an alleged cheat who was eventually hounded out of the hobby--suffice to say, there's a level of duplicity and intrigue surrounding this business of birdwatching that will bewilder outsiders.

Hadn't he said he'd taken the photos from the car? Could it be that such a bird would allow this movement around it? [the photo] almost looked as if it were part of a professional shoot with a... the words lingered in the air, then finally slipped out--with a MODEL!

If you've never driven through the night on the off chance of spotting a Blyth's Reed Warbler, you may struggle to suppress the urge to decry birders as a bunch of weird obsessives--whose status within the group is based on familiarity with the minutiae of an inconsequential hobby--but it's worth the effort. This is an intriguing, entertaining read, with a surprisingly poignant conclusion, that succeeds in its aim to record evidence of a largely hidden world. --Alex Hankin

Review
'At last! An up-to-date examination of what makes birders tick. And about time too! Wonderfully written' Bill Oddie; 'With a mixture of well-chosen anecdotes and self-deprecating humour, Cocker succeeds in making even the most hardened cynic appreciate his passion. Birders is a stylish work in a long tradition of fine writing on the subject' Guardian

Bill Oddie
‘At last! An up to date examination of what makes birders tick. And about time too! Wonderfully written’

Customer Reviews

Birders - fun and factual
A book which converted me from apathy to enthusiasm, written in a deceptively relaxed style, it brought smiles, even tears, but best of all a delight in birds which has given me a great deal of pleasure. I have re-read it several times and still enjoy it.

ISBN 0099289547 Birders : Mark Cocker

A twitchers' fables for armchair moments
This book will sell thousands of copies because apart from dear Bill nobody has actually written much about birding and bird watchers in book form. Much of the material revolves around Cockers' friends and aquantances as well as his own experiences and travels. The writing is beautiful however and captures the books point with its style - that birding is a spiritual and a deeply personal activity. Yes there are friends, clubs, trips, equipment but in the end it comes down to moments composed of "you, the bird and the light".

More of the same please from more of us - thank you Mr Cocker.

Wonderful read
Mark Cocker is a birder. He's not a birdwatcher (fans of Simon Barnes, please note) or a dude or a robin-stroker, he's a birder. If you don't understand this, then get the book. It is about those who would climb the walls of Castle Dracula with bleeding hands before dawn to get in a good position for a Wallcreeper when the sun comes up. It is authoritative, honest, fascinating and very moving. As an energetic, but not particularly adventurous birder, it made me feel empathic with those of the tribe who would twitch anywhere or crawl up the arse-end of nowhere to get a Satyr Tragopan. Buy it, read it and lend it out. It preaches and converts. I have no ulterior motive in this advocacy; the author is not a friend of mine, but I wish he was. I'd really like to go birding with him and his mates; not sure I'm up to it though.