Product Description

This bird-finding guide is a reference to the best birding sites of Scotland. Each site is described in terms of the nature of the habitat, the species likely to be observed, the recommended timings for visits to get the best from the site, and a calendar showing which species are found in the various seasons. The site accounts also mention other interesting wildlife that may be encountered - for example, Scotland is home to some of Britain's most enigmatic mammal species.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105831 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is another book in the excellent range of Where to Watch Birds guides.

Scotland is a vast and varied landscape, ranging from mountains and moorland in the highlands to lowland vales, rolling hills and many miles of coastline including rocky indentations, steep sided sea lochs and cliffs, wide estuaries and firths and many off- shore islands. These all give rise to a huge range of habitats for the many differing bird species and birdwatchers can expect to find some of the best and least crowded opportunities for observation in the UK, possibly being rewarded with rare sightings. Indeed, more than 450 species have been recorded and approximately 175 regularly breed.

There are many birdwatching sites in Scotland and consequently all cannot be included in this guide. The author claims to have difficulty in making choices, but he made his decisions according to whether inclusion would cause problems which would be detrimental to birdlife; whether there were problems relating to site access, possibly exacerbated by increased numbers of visitors, and whether there was accessibility to the site with adequate vantage points. The sites were then graded according to bird interest, importance and suitability and decisions made as to whether they were main or additional asites. A reasonable distribution of sites was then made and included to offer a balanced number of entries.

"How to use this book" is an excellent feature in the guide which should be studied. This section describes how the sites are split into regions, such as Borders, Grampians and Highlands, and how each site is dealt with, explaining habitat, species, access, timing and calendar.

The book, originally published in 1989, has been updated twice and now contains more than 120 sites accompanied by maps and line drawings. It concludes with an up-to-date list of Scottish birds, local birds Recorders and reports, useful addresses, code of conduct for birdwatchers and other useful features. This guide certainly "has become indispensable for anyone birdwatching in Scotland." --Susan Naylor

Review
'definitive guide to watching birds' Scots magazine 'a wonderfully informed guide for all interested in birdlife.' scotsman.com (September 2009)

About the Author
Mike Madders is a field ornithologist who has lived and worked in Scotland for many years. He is the co-author of the previous three editions of this book.

Customer Reviews

Not as good as it sounds
We took this book on a bird watching holiday to various parts of Scotland. The information given about some sites was sometimes out of date or we could not find the site. Many of the "Additional sites" were not known either to local people or to staff in the Visitors' information Centers. It is advertised as 4th edition 2002 but revision did not seem to have been very thorough. The other problem is that there is no overall index to places. The arrangement into Regions is fine but difficult to use if you don't know Scotland very well. The details on each site is good and includes Habitat, Access and names of species seen there at various time of the year. It did sometimes turn out to be rather over optimistic and we often travelled many miles only to find a few gulls and crows. Better than nothing but rather disappointing and if only we had had access to the internet!