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Bald Coot and Screaming Loon: A Handbook for the Curious Bird Lover
Bald Coot & Screaming Loon contains over 1000 entries of remarkable information about birds, birdlife and birdwatching. Chapters include: The Last of the Dinosaurs: How birds evolved and adapted; The Cloaca Monologues: Courtship & Breeding; A Cracking Start: Raising a family; Sing A Song of Sixpence: Why birds sing and call; Why don't birds wee? Birds and their bodies; A Complex Relationship: Birds & man; The Majesty of Flight: How and why birds fly; Pole to pole without a map: The mystery of migration; Bird Brain: Instinct or intelligence?; Weird Birds & Strange Behaviour: A curate's egg of a chapter; and The Battle for Survival: How birds are faring in a damaged world. Woven into this wealth of knowledge are famous quotations, anecdotes, traditional sayings, lines of verse, practical advice for attracting and spotting birds, and words of rural wisdom. The spirit and focus of the Almanac is British but the book also travels as far and distant as the world's birds themselves. It is truly an essential handbook for every bird lover.
- GenresBirdsScienceNonfiction
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2009
4 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 14, 2018
The book was pretty hard to read. Too many pop-ups, couldn't get a flow for the book. But the read just brought awareness of the unnecessary, careless pain caused upon nature and in particular majestic wildlife by the one and only, savage mankind. Its so sad how many birds are killed. (DON'T CLEAN YOUR WINDOWS, MILLIONS OF BIRDS DIE FROM CLEAN WINDOWS!!!!). Apart from all that sadness, there were some beautiful poems, and really interesting facts. The Albatross perhaps has to be my favorite species of birds. Reading about its migratory abilities simply left me in awe. I GUESS WE ARE ALL ENVIOUS OF BIRDS (or maybe just me). To be honest, i notice birds a lot more than usual and perhaps understand them more on some level. Please take time to enjoy the wildlife that still exists before we exterminate them for good.
But look how long it took me to read this book, literally a month hahaha. I definitely won't reach 60 books at this rate :(.
But look how long it took me to read this book, literally a month hahaha. I definitely won't reach 60 books at this rate :(.
July 9, 2012
Ah, text boxes. Beloved wee gimmick of non-fic publishers. How I hate thees. Thons. Them.
If the author had settled down and written without recourse to so. MANY INTERESTING SIDE FACTS. Including
1. Hey, bullet points!
2. Are you distracted yet?
3. Did you notice how hip and easy this thing is to read?
4. Fun facts!
5. Lists!
Sorry. I'm being petty. I want to read the stuff in this book, that's why I picked it up. Text boxes scattered all over the pages make it a disjointed, irritating experience.
If you like a sort of toilet-book that you can pick up and peck at, I suppose this is grand. The contents are often fascinating. All sorts of things (bird sex, birds as dinosaurs) that I want to know. The text is clear and sometimes funny, when the author's allowed space to actually write. I'd just really prefer a book that was laid out like a normal old book, with text gathered nicely onto pages, sequentially and logically, and actually *written* instead of listed and corralled inside panels and boxes and freewheelin all-over pages.
Beautiful cover, too.
If the author had settled down and written without recourse to so. MANY INTERESTING SIDE FACTS. Including
1. Hey, bullet points!
2. Are you distracted yet?
3. Did you notice how hip and easy this thing is to read?
4. Fun facts!
5. Lists!
Sorry. I'm being petty. I want to read the stuff in this book, that's why I picked it up. Text boxes scattered all over the pages make it a disjointed, irritating experience.
If you like a sort of toilet-book that you can pick up and peck at, I suppose this is grand. The contents are often fascinating. All sorts of things (bird sex, birds as dinosaurs) that I want to know. The text is clear and sometimes funny, when the author's allowed space to actually write. I'd just really prefer a book that was laid out like a normal old book, with text gathered nicely onto pages, sequentially and logically, and actually *written* instead of listed and corralled inside panels and boxes and freewheelin all-over pages.
Beautiful cover, too.
August 16, 2010
Good book overall, for birders and nonbirders alike. Great general and technical information presented in a read-able and understand-able manner. With humor. :) I liked the author's writing style. However, the blue print color was very distracting for me.
I also enjoyed the "tidbits" sprinkled throughout the book: quotes about birds, poems about birds, and "important facts" about birds (endangered species, how quickly certain species are declining, most frequently seen, etc.).
I also enjoyed the "tidbits" sprinkled throughout the book: quotes about birds, poems about birds, and "important facts" about birds (endangered species, how quickly certain species are declining, most frequently seen, etc.).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2010
I loved this book! Mr. Edworthy writes in a charmingly, funny way. His random bird facts did, indeed, provide some enlightening and amusing dinner conservation for my friends. The last bit about bird endangerment and extinction was particularly heart-breaking.
August 3, 2011
Crows are the most intelligent bird .... vultures use their urine to clean themselves after they have a road-kill feast. Yeah, it's all in the book ...!
February 22, 2013
This was an excellent little book that gives wonderful & insightful facts about birds.
April 27, 2014
A wonderful book full of interesting facts and information. Would happily read it again, you can learn a lot from this book. Well done, author!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews