This is an interesting written interview with Richard Crossley, author of the new ID guide

http://cs.birdwatchingdaily.com/BRDCS/blogs/field_of_view/archive/2011/03/02/an-interview-with-richard-crossley-author-of-the-new-id-guide.aspx

Appeared on the site on March 2nd but I'm not sure when it was made free to all.

Richard Crossley's birding philosophy is also laid out in detail in the Introduction to the Crossley ID Guide which anyone can download as a PDF. It's worth reading even if you never intend to buy his book just compare and contrast with your own birding philosophy (you do have one?).

The Crossley ID Guide Introduction: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9384.pdf

Crossley is a Brit (but lives in the USA) and comes from a background with a particular post-WW2 British birding style e.g. leave your field guide at home and take extensive field notes to fully describe the birds for later ID. That requires good observation skills. Of course he was part of it in the 1970s and 1980s but the "hard core" would laugh at you if they saw you consulting a field guide in the field.

You can get more context about this era in the informative and humorous book "Birders: Tales of a Tribe" by Mark Cocker.
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Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
http://kevinpurcell.posterous.com
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