The Birdman Abroad by Stuart Winter | Softcover | 2011 | New Holland Publishers | ISBN 9781847736925
What the publisher says:
Stuart Winter’s “Tales of a Tabloid Twitcher” earned many plaudits in 2010, as the birder journalist who brought the subjects of birdwatching and conservation to millions of red-top readers over a period of more than a decade shared some of his most captivating ‘scoops’.
This second installment of tales follows a similar format and covers stories from around the world. Each of the 20 or so chapters covers a range of tales and issues at a rapid pace, and is accompanied by a series of amusing line drawings. Once again there are stories of sin and scandal mixed with serious messages about bird conservation and the environment.
The Fatbirder View
Pure brilliance! This is by far and away the best collection of birding essays I’ve ever read. While I thoroughly enjoyed Stu’s other recent work it was more journalistic with shorter pieces and more intense sentences needed to convey a subject quickly whereas the Birdman Abroad takes its time to tell a tale and is all the more entertaining for that.
Looking at the chapter headings I turned first to his tale of his first birding trip to the US and it was so similar to my own experiences that my mouth fell open, then I read his wonderful account of a trip to Panama and the delightful Canopy Tower and productive Pipeline Road. It is a perfect anecdote in as much as it paints a picture with purple prose so that you are thoroughly immersed in the beauty of the scene. Then he twitches his mortarboard and teaches you a great deal you didn’t know about antbirds before springing upon you the desperately funny dénouement which I won’t spoil here, read it and weep!
There is no higher praise I can give than to say it is written just how I would have done it on my best days, downhill with the wind behind me. This deserves to be a best seller… if you are a birder or a birder’s friend, and have even the thinnest of senses of humour go buy this book!
Fatbirder