Subject: [Tweeters] new publication: Birds of Washington
Date: Apr 25 15:01:01 2005
From: Hal Opperman - hal at catharus.net


Now published:

Birds of Washington: Status and Distribution, edited by Terence R. Wahl,
Bill Tweit, and Steven G. Mlodinow (Corvallis: Oregon State University
Press, 2005). List price $65.

A comprehensive treatise of the quality of this one is a fifty-year event.
Indeed, its only two predecessors date from 1953 (Jewett et al.) and 1909
(Dawson and Bowles).

Not an identification guide nor is it a picture book, although fine drawings
by Shawneen Finnegan and G. Scott Mills are scattered throughout, and Dick
McNeely's photo of a Red Crossbill graces the jacket. Tightly edited,
information-packed species accounts are authored by a team of nearly 50
Washington ornithologists. Each account features subspecies (when relevant),
habitat, and occurrence, along with a paragraph of remarks, a list of
noteworthy records, and a distribution map (by Kelly Cassidy). The accounts
are written by nearly 50 Washington ornithologists. The book also includes
informative essays on bird habitats of Washington (by Chris Chappell), avian
conservation (by Joe Buchanan), and other topics, and an exhaustive
bibliography. This is a book you will be consulting and learning from for
years to come.

The Seattle Audubon Society Nature Shop received an order on Saturday. No
doubt the book will soon be available at other retails outlets as well, if
it is not already.

Hal Opperman
Medina, WA
hal at catharus.net