We’re very fortunate here at 10,000 Birds that we fairly regularly receive books to review - or are mailed asking us whether we’d like to receive books to review anyway. Given 48 hour days and the sort of self-financing bloggers lifestyle that I (I’m not sure about Mike or Corey) often cast jealous glances at, then the answer would always be ‘yes’. Of course we’d like more books to read, assess, and review. However, in the interests of writing a review that actually makes sense and isn’t entirely based on reviews written by someone else, we do have to turn these generous offers down sometimes. We simply just don’t always have the time (or the knowledge) to comment unfortunately.

Two books that were almost turned down for the reasons above were offered to us in an email just a few weeks ago. Anne Murray, who is based in Delta Bay, BC, mailed saying that she was “the author of a couple of books on birds, nature and natural history for the Boundary Bay, Fraser River estuary area in British Columbia Canada and over the border in Washington State. ‘A Nature Guide to Boundary Bay’, which covers the whole transboundary watershed, was published in 2006 and is on second printing. Boundary Bay and the Fraser River Estuary are the top-rated Important Bird Area in Canada out of about 600 globally and nationally significant sites. ‘Tracing Our Past ~ A Heritage Guide to Boundary Bay’, looks at the immense changes in ecology, environment and landscape this area has undergone; it was published in 2008.”

Anne also gave us the address of her website, Nature Guides BC. Chock with enthusiastic reviews, both books looked beautifully designed and promised beautiful photography courtesy of local photographer David Blevins (who took thousands of photos in between completing a Ph.D. in forest ecology at the University of British Columbia!). Whilst I live some eight thousand miles from Boundary Bay and know virtually nothing about the Fraser River estuary except that Vancouver International Airport was built on part of it I know a good book when I see one online - and I mailed back on behalf of us 10,000 Birds bloggers and said I’d be delighted to take a look…

And I’m very glad that I did, or I would have missed two absolute gems!

Beautifully-written these two books have very much been designed to be bought and used together. Together they cover the biodiversity, geography, and history of Boundary Bay - and it’s hard to imagine how these allied subjects could have been more thoughtfully, lucidly, or lovingly covered. They are both absolutely packed with information, and are obviously the work of a passionate and skilled naturalist and author. Should I ever get around to covering Great Chalfield (where I live in Wiltshire, UK) I’d be proud beyond any reasonable measure to produce something even half as thorough, detailed, and professional.

As much attention appears to have gone into the look of the books as well. The style and layout of the pages (most of which are two column, divided by a central vertical rule) is carried across both volumes; the font is clear and very legible; and both books carry additional information in neatly shaded boxes. One touch I’m really in favour of is that the species names in the Nature Guide are highlighted in bold - which is something all authors should do IMHO.

As if the design and text content wasn’t enough, these two books have another major plus to recommend them: the photographs. The Heritage Guide contains a generous scatter of archival, sepia-toned photos that are both evocative and informative, but it’s perhaps the work of photographer David Blevins that catches the attention the most. There are some truly beautiful photos on show here and all complement the text extremely well. While a couple are perhaps a little too small to be useful in terms of identification, the vast majority are absolutely fine (most are eighth- or quarter-page size so small but clear and sharp) and some of the scenic shots in particular are absolutely gorgeous: it’s sobering for us would-be published photographers that David took them WHILE working on his doctorate!

These two books are as I said absolute gems. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was expecting - they’re self-published, I know almost nothing about the area so had no idea whether there was enough of interest to fill two books - but I can say unhesitatingly that they’re far, far better than I thought they would be. Anyone who lives anywhere near Boundary Bay (and that must be several million people) ought to be extremely grateful to Anne Murray and David Blevins for devoting so much time and energy documenting the area, and would, I’m sure, benefit from owning them.

I would guess that many readers of this review who, like me, don’t live anywhere near Boundary Bay might be asking whether they need these books as well. If you’ve any interest in American history then the Heritage Guide should be on your shopping list. The Nature Guide is a little harder to recommend to someone living in - say - Florida: not because it’s not an excellent book (it is) but its content is specific to the Washington/BC area. If you like owning beautiful, informative nature books and have the money spare (and at just 24.95$CAN/20.95$US I would guess many people will have) then I can’t see you being disappointed if you decide to get it.

So, it should be obvious by this point that I really like - and admire, actually - these two books. As a final point, I was quite serious about wanting to document Great Chalfield’s natural history one day - and if I do I would absolutely want it to be as good as this. Whether I could reach the standards reached here I don’t know, but they’ve certainly given me something to aim for…

For more information please go to http://www.natureguidesbc.com/