Archive for Reviews

Review of Watching Waders

By April 23, 2011 3 comments

Here at 10,000 Birds we have already reviewed Watching Sparrows, Watching Warblers, and Watching Warblers West.  Somehow, we never got around to reviewing Watching Waders, another in the series of excellent films by Michael Male and Judy Fieth.  Watching Waders is chock full of great footage, as one learns to expect after having seen other films [...]

Crossbill Guide to Extremadura: A Review

By March 29, 2011 4 comments

The second edition of the Crossbill Guide to Extremadura has just been released and – to my delight – a copy arrived in the post for me the other day. In preparing for our birding trip to Extremadura this February (as part of the EL50 Swarovision launch), I had bought a copy of the first [...]

Review of Watching Sparrows

By March 27, 2011 2 comments

I never would have thought that a film that focused entirely on North American sparrows could be so delightful.  But the new second edition of Watching Sparrows* by Michael Male and Judy Fieth, who have a whole series of bird films already produced or in production, not only kept me staring at the screen but drew [...]

Favorite Plate in The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds

By March 27, 2011 2 comments

How many birding reference guides pack the visual punch of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds? Not many, that’s for sure! That’s why we wanted to find out some of your favorite plates in Crossley’s new opus as part of our Fun, Fun, Fun Crossley ID Guide Giveaway. Are any of these plates your favorite? The photos [...]

Review: National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America

By March 25, 2011 3 comments

My birding adventures this week, while Western, were far from Interior (three words for you: Black-bellied Whistling Duck). Fortunately for you, though, when I got home I found a review copy of National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Birds of North America by Jonathan Alderfer and Paul Hess ready and waiting to be dissected for [...]

Review: Wildlife Conservation Society Birds of Brazil – The Pantanal & Cerrado of Central Brazil

By March 1, 2011 1 comment

“Our dream is to inspire a nation of potential birders who will delight in the beauty of Brazil’s abundant birdlife and become interested in helping to protect Brazil’s vibrant ecosystems and natural heritage.  It is our hope that this volume will provide the first sparks.” – John Gwynne and Martha Argel What does a field [...]

Review of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds

By February 18, 2011 22 comments

The Crossley ID Guide from Princeton University Press has long been anticipated and has certainly been the subject of many discussions among birders across North America.  Now that it is in the hands of reviewers across the country we can see that it is unlike any other field guide we have ever seen.  It is [...]

Me, Spain and the EL50 Swarovision

By February 15, 2011 12 comments

“The most outstanding binoculars I have ever seen” and “unexpectedly comfortable and stable”.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this recently. Which is a good thing. It helps me sleep and puts my little heart at ease. The last couple of weeks have been nuts. The EL50 Swarovisions went in to [...]

Review of Gulf Crossing

By February 12, 2011 2 comments

The idea that tiny songbirds that weigh far less than the change found in the average pocket manage to migrate 600 miles across the Gulf of Mexico was long considered fanciful.  It was assumed that a few, at most, might make such flights, but most birds were thought to be circum-gulf migrants rather than trans-gulf [...]

Review: A Spicing of Birds

By January 21, 2011 3 comments

No one who has read this blog for any length of time will be surprised that I was very excited to hear that a collection of Emily Dickinson’s bird-related poems was being released and a copy was on its way to me to review.*  After all, I have already discussed on this blog what is [...]

Review: Swarovski 10X42 EL Swarovision Binocular

By September 29, 2010 1 comment

Why would Swarovski Optik decide to completely revamp their classic EL line of binoculars?  Birders all over the world can be forgiven for asking this question, as the original ELs are renowned for being a quality piece of glass.  The reason, of course, is that the engineers and mad scientists squirreled away in Swarovski Optik’s [...]

Review: The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America

By September 17, 2010 6 comments

With a release date of 25 October 2010, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America will likely be showing up on the wish lists of many a North American birder this holiday season.  Entirely illustrated by photographs, the main selling point of the new field guide is the sheer number of species [...]

Sibley’s Backyard Birds Poster

By June 19, 2010 3 comments

Are you a birder with relatives who constantly call to ask you what the weird bird at their bird feeders is?  Do you have a child in your family who you think is on the cusp of becoming interested in birds?  Is there a blank spot on your wall that is just begging for something [...]

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica

By May 23, 2010 3 comments

An era of phenomenal photographic field guides is dawning, its golden rays finally extending all the way to the blue-water beaches of the Caribbean islands. Only last year, I declared Birds of the West Indies by Herbert Raffaele to be the finest field guide to the entire region.  Visitors to Jamaica would still do well to purchase that excellent reference [...]

Review of Ghost Bird

By April 17, 2010 11 comments

Lucky bird blogger that I am, I was invited to attend a screening of Ghost Bird , a documentary film about the search for (and controversy surrounding) the alleged rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker , which will be playing at 7 PM nightly from 28th April to 4th May at the Anthology Film Archives in New York [...]

The Sony Walkman NWZ-A815

By February 15, 2010 No comments yet

The review formerly hosted on this site has been deleted.  For your convenience, we have gathered five other reviews of the Sony Walkman NWZ-A815.  Sorry for any inconvenience and here’s hoping you find the information for which you are looking. Trusted Reviews IT Reviews Digital Versus Computer Active Stuff TV Again, sorry for any inconvenience!

Digiscoping Tips

By December 30, 2009 No comments yet

Dale Forbes, with whom I was lucky enough to travel to Kazakhstan this past May (that’s him in the sunset picture in the linked post), now works directly for Swarovski Optik.  As part of his job duties he has a series of videos up on YouTube in which he gives digiscoping tips (I know, I [...]

B is for Bufflehead

By December 22, 2009 4 comments

Though you’d never know it from the way most teens turn their noses up at anything related to nature, kids love birds. Young children in particular love birds, though in an undifferentiated way that bears little resemblance to the obsession evinced by more mature birders. My budding naturalists Mason and Ivy love, to my alternating [...]

Review of Galapagos: Islands Born of Fire

By December 16, 2009 2 comments

Like many people the world over I’ve wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands ever since I knew they existed.  Whether this desire is because of the influence of the islands on Darwin and his theory of evolution, the numerous documentaries about them, the fact that Kurt Vonnegut based a novel there, their distance from everything [...]

Crow Planet

By December 12, 2009 No comments yet

Rarely can an author crack my list of favorites with just a single work but somehow, Lyanda Lynn Haupt did. More than 3 years ago, I reviewed her fabulous narrative of Charles Darwin’s explorations of the Americas, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent. I’ve thought often of that book since then, savoring the memory of [...]