Product Description

Seawatching can present identification difficulties to even the most experienced birdwatcher, and demands a specialised set of skills and strategies to deal with the challenges of bad weather and poor visibility. The rewards can be great; many species of seabird live exclusively at sea outside their breeding seasons, while many others undertake regular coastal migrations. At established 'watchpoints' around European coastlines, patient observation may reveal spectacular numbers of passing seabirds, while today the growing popularity of whale-watching and 'pelagic' boat excursions makes it possible to get closer to many offshore species. This unique field guide is indispensable to all birdwatchers who seawatch, whether from land or at sea, and will greatly enhance their experience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73078 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Review
'Brilliant! I have been waiting half my birding life for this book - and here it is, as good as I could hope to expect.' fatbirder.com 'This book is an excellent help... a must for anyone wanting to get to grips with identifying birds at sea.' BTO News (July/August 2007) 'The book acts as a primer for beginners and a tester for the experienced... a real bargain - don't go seawatching without it.' Bird Watching (September 2007) 'Ultimately it is this distilled expert knowledge and the great experience of the very enthusiastic authors which provides the real value of the book and makes it a truly excellent resource.' Scottish Bird News (December 2007)

About the Author
The authors are all experienced and widely travelled birders with a particular interest in seabirds.

Customer Reviews

Sea-watching enters a new era.
This book is set to become the dedicated sea-watchers bible. Flight photography is very difficult, especially for seabirds and yet this volume contains over 650 generally superb shots, each carefully annotated to pick out the key identification features. Just about every seabird that has ever occurred in European waters has been included including all the American vagrants. (making this book equally valuable to birders on the East coast of the USA.) The authors are experts in their field and they have included a wealth of new information.

The gulls have come in for special treatment with detailed accounts being given for most of the accepted sub-species. Baffled birders can now try to get to grips with "Smithsonianus", "Heuglini", "Cachinnans" etc.

Not just a book for the bookshelf, but one that I expect to see being used in the field as birders try to nail some elusive lifer from a South western headland!

Sea-watching doesn't enter a new era with this book
The title, Seabird identification of european seabirds, is not what it should be in this kind of book. There is no doubt that authors are experts in the field, but if you want to identify difficult seabirds (gulls and skuas), don't buy this book. Collin's Birds guide by Svensson, Mullarney... is the best and this book offers more clear details. When I got this book I was expecting the real book to identify seabirds in Europe. The pictures in the Seabird identification book are very old, the quality is ridiculous for this new century we are. You can find thousands of superb photos of seabirds in the web, but any of them are used in this book. Instead of that, the authors have used photos from 80'and 90's, and the impression quality is very poor, sometimes the pictures looks like watercolor. I give 2 stars because information is good, but the price you are paying for the book is not worthy. In field guides, pictures are really important, something that authors missed here.