The Ardent Birder: On the Craft of Birdwatching

This book will be a future classic for birders. I read this book twice within a few days. I never do this! I started birding a few months ago and reached number 99 yesterday. Todd's book has been a great help for me.

The hard core will find little new in this book, but intermediate birders looking to improve their skills will enjoy and profit from the short essays. The author's style is easy and pleasant, reminding me a bit of Milton White's low-key (if not low-affect!) "Listen, the Red-eyed Vireo," a work Newberry cites several times. The final section, on leading successful bird trips, is likely to be the most practically useful (perhaps even to more advanced birders), but the sections on field craft can also be read with profit by the ambitious and the befuddled. The central section's "philosophical interlude" is no less well written, but not as incisive as, say, Levine's "Lifebirds" or Alan Powers's fine "Birdtalk." I was particularly pleased to see the American Birding Association and its publications praised and recommended. A good book for birders on the cusp of advancement!