| A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Norway – Where, When and How to find Scandinavia’s Most Sought-After Birds Featuring Varanger, Svalbard, Lofoten, Oslo, Bergen & More | Bjørn Olav Tveit | Pelagic Publishing | 2024 | Edition 2 | Flexibound | 460 pages, 265 colour photos, 95 colour maps | ISBN: 9781784275082 | £40.00 |
The Publisher’s View:
A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Norway helps you find all the birds of Norway and Svalbard, and guides you in detail to more than 350 of the best birdwatching sites in this beautiful and wild but still highly developed and civilised country.
The book explains in detail: where and when to go, what species to expect and hope for! The best tactics to approach each site, how to use tower hides and observation shelters and other animals you may encounter.
Norway offers some of the most sought-after species in Europe, including King Eider, Steller’s Eider, Gyrfalcon, displaying Capercaillie, Jack Snipe, Ruff and other Arctic shorebirds in full breeding plumage, singing Little Bunting and Arctic Warbler, and many more. The country can be referred to as ‘an easily accessible part of Siberia’.
Packed with 265 photos, 95 maps and comprehensive information about each site, A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Norway an essential travel guide essential for anyone planning a trip to watch birds in Norway or Svalbard.
A lot has changed since the first edition came out 15 years ago. This is most evident in regards to the infrastructure: roads keep improving and changing course, ferries have in some places been replaced by bridges or tunnels, and new tower hides are built. Maps and text have been updated accordingly. There have been quite a few changes in bird life as well, such as that Barred Warbler no longer breeds regularly along the Skagerrak coast, and the number of pairs of most cliff-breeding seabirds are greatly reduced to a point where e.g. Leach’s Storm-Petrel is no longer to be expected on boat trips in Lofoten. On the positive side, the population of Rustic Bunting seem to be recovering, Red-flanked Bluetail is on the move into Norway, and Great Grey Owl now breeds regularly near Oslo. Furthermore, the book has been expanded to a slightly larger format, allowing for easier-to-read maps and even more stunning images taken by some of the best photographers in the country. The soft, flexible binding is more robust than that of the first edition.
The Author: Bjørn Olav Tveit (b.1970) from Oslo, Norway has been an avid birdwatcher since childhood. He has trawled the country and explored all the best birding sites. He was a long-standing member of the Norwegian Rarity Committee for Birds (NSKF) and is the nature conservation contact for a local chapter of BirdLife Norway. At times he guides nature enthusiasts who want to experience Norway’s rich birdlife. When he is not outdoors birdwatching or indoors writing books, he makes music and works in the Norwegian Ministry of Culture.
Fatbirder View:
I know next to nothing about Norway… apart from learning at school all about fjords! I’ve never been… the closest was seeing across the border from a high plateau in Sweden surrounded by the songs of Bluethroats and watching a majestic Long-tailed Skua – sadly, it never even ventured far enough away for me to start a Norway list.
Somehow, I missed the first edition, or my knowledge would have been so much greater. This is not just a sumptuous guide to birds and birding places, but it both deliberately and incidentally, teaches the reader a lot about the country too.
The author notes how things have moved on, not least in the increased infrastructure making travel to some hot spots much easier. The splendid maps make it much easier too!
This is a truly comprehensive guide as the sub title tells you in advance, each site section gives a description, access, special birds and when and where to see them and much more. Anyone contemplating a visit would be daft not to have this well in advance to lay plans and in the backpack to refer to.
Fatbirder