A week ago we posted about the latest 10,000 Birds Conservation Club give-away, a copy of Russell Slack’s superb “Rare Birds Where and When: Volume 1 sandgrouse to New World orioles” (RBWW) which Russell had kindly (and totally unprompted) donated to our cause. At the time I promised to write a review once “my blocked sinuses stop trying to squeeze my eyes out of their sockets”. Well, hurrah for Penicillin. I’m still coughing up some interesting - er, material, but at least my head doesn’t hurt so much now…

So what is RBWW about and what exactly is it? The best answer is given in the book’s full title which is actually (deep breath) “Rare Birds Where and When: An analysis of Status and Distribution in Britain and Ireland”. It is almost 500 pages of densely-packed text, scattered line-drawings, and histograms covering every species currently treated as a ‘rarity’ by the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC). It is above all else a quite remarkably well-researched book, which has been receiving plaudits and highly-positive reviews since it was first published last year.

If you’re remotely interested in the rare birds of Britain and Ireland, enjoy the kind of prose that talks breathlessly of ‘eagerly sought-after Sibes’ (Red-flanked Bluetail, page 162), and get a kick out of reading some ecstatic first-hand reports of ‘firsts’ republished from Birding World and British Birds (and I do, I really do) then you will either already have a well-thumbed copy of this book or you’re going to want one (I do, I really do).

Add to this mix some typically erudite and thought-provoking ‘historical perspectives’ by Ian Wallace (who is probably the most literate ornithologist Britain has ever produced), chapters on vagrancy mechanisms, behind-the-scenes looks at both the BOURC and the BBRC by chaps who really do have behind-the-scenes access, and pages of References that look like the content-list of an entire library (Russell deserves awards just for reading so much source material!) it’s no wonder that reviewers have been unanimous in their praise.

Yes, British birders do have other ‘rarity round-up’ books (most notably the now out-of-date ‘Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland’ (Dymond, Fraser and Gantlett, 1989) and the ‘Photographic Handbook to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe’ (Mitchell and Young, 1999)) but this superb and near definitive (can anything that relies so heavily on history ever be truly definitive?) guide is without doubt now THE essential book for birders wanting to learn more about the rare birds that visit these superbly-placed islands and it has been praised to the skies and back again.

Examples? Well, on Russell’s own website (http://www.rarebirdbooks.co.uk/) there are quotes from such luminaries of the UK birding scene as Martin Garner (”While comparisons may be made with previous works on rare bird records in Britain and Ireland, none of these has tackled the analysis of statistics, the trends and patterns anything like as comprehensively”), Keith Betton (”…if you want an authoritative text that evaluates the trends behind the detail, then this book goes well beyond the ground covered by its predecessors”), and Anthony McGeehan (”From all perspectives - greenhorn to guru - it supplies answers fit to quash personal failings of the type: Everything You Wanted To Know About Rarities But Were Afraid To Ask”). RBWW also won The Sunday Express’ ‘Best Reference Bird Book 2009′ and the BTO/BB’s Best Bird Book of the Year 2009 – 6th Place (which in a vintage year for bird books is not the faint praise it might at first sound).

I could have happily spent the entire week going through this book page by page, rarity by rarity, wallowing in happy memories of old twitches I went on in the eighties and nineties, and rueing more recent birds I didn’t go and see. Of course, I didn’t though. The copy I have is not mine, it’s the prize in a give-away and - just in case you’re a potential owner wondering how marked this particular volume now is - I promise that I have been extremely careful and you won’t even know it’s been opened (unless of course you’re reading this review…).

Putting this book down (carefully) was difficult I admit, because this is not just a reference book you want to use to check facts, it’s also a very readable history of birding that just begs to be read from cover-to-cover. I’m obviously just going to have to go buy one for myself…

Seriously, I really do like this book, and I personally can’t wait until the publication of Volume Two - I’ll bet Russell can’t wait either: writing books so thoroughly-researched must really eat into your time!

By the way, if you’ve not entered the give-away competition for this excellent book yet, why not?

Many of our existing Club Members are North American and perhaps aren’t all that interested in a book focussing on British birds, but if you are interested and if you join the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club now you’ve got a ridiculously good chance of having ‘Rare Birds Where and When: Volume 1′ in your hands by the end of January!

• What do you need to do? Join the Conservation Club of course, then just answer the following question by 24:00 GMT 21st JANUARY 2010.

Please send your answer to charlie10000birds - AT - gmail.com using the email address with which you joined the Conservation Club (I’ll be checking) - and if you could use ‘CClub: rarebirds’ in the subject line that would be a great help.

The winner will be notified by email no later than THREE days after the closing date.