HI All:
I thought tweeters would be interested in this!
Sincerely

Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen
Bainbridge Is., WA, USA
ipaulsen at linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us
"Rallidae all the way"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 17:00:20 -0700
From: Todd Newberry <taxa at BIOLOGY.UCSC.EDU>
To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [BIRDCHAT] Sibley Guide

At 11:44 AM 10/5/00 -0400, Tom & Margot wrote:

<snip, snip>... In the long run if the book is used to expand identifying
skills, it can help wean the birder from always needing a guide at the
fingertips. And that may be the best use of The Sibley Guide to Birds of all.

****

Amen! My sense is that NGS-3 -- or, let's hope, soon enough a radically
improved NGS-4 -- is still the book that goes in the jacket. But in the
field it could stay there much more than it does, reassuringly pocketed
(pat it, but leave it), when the birds themselves are right there before us
to consult about the puzzles they present. Asking the bird, not the book,
means (re)framing our questions so the bird can answer them -- and so we
can detect its wordless answers. It is a skill that comes with practice. It
is a matter of acting on what we have known all along: the animal is always
right.


Todd Newberry
Santa Cruz CA
taxa at biology.ucsc.edu