Tweeters,

"Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book" is a classic of birding
literature. I have the original hardcover 1980 edition, which I
ordered, sight unseen, from the ABA Sales catalog because of the
intriguing description. To this day, I still frequently open the book
to chuckle over Oddie's whimsical but accurate depictions of birding
and birders.

The book describes in humorous terms the excesses to which twitching
(bird-listing, in American terms) had degenerated in Britain by 1980--
even greater than the excesses seen on our shores. To quote a line on
the dust jacket-- "The misery, the scandal, and the heartbreak of
"birding" is all in Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book".

The book has become something of a cult classic, and some of the slang
terms used by British twitchers (e.g. dipping out, stringer, cosmic
m.f.) have been adopted by Oddie's disciples in Canada, if not in the
U.S.

"Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book" should be read by, if not owned
by, every birder. I'm glad to hear that it is still in print, and I
urge anyone who enjoys birding humor to buy a copy.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Patterson <celata at pacifier.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: Bill Oddie's little black book


> Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book was reissued in 1996 (though
> the cover is now white) and available at Amazon (which means,
> for all you purest out there, you can have your local bird book
> supplier order it).
>
> Dennis Paulson wrote:
>
> > >_____________________________________________________________
> > >
> > >"Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book", author Bill Oddie, a
Methuen
> > >Paperback, first published in Great Britain in 1980.
> > >
> > >Almost certainly out of print, but you might strike lucky in a
second-hand
> > >bookshop.
> >
> > --
> > Dennis Paulson, Director phone
253-879-3798
> > Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
> > University of Puget Sound e-mail
dpaulson at ups.edu
> > 1500 N. Warner, #1088
> > Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
> > http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html
>
> --
> Mike Patterson
> Astoria, OR
> celata at pacifier.com
>