BOOK REVIEW: WHY DO BIRDS SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR?

Mission to see 200 species in a year - Lev Parikian's new book

IT is not often that a bird book can be likened to a thriller, but Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? qualifies as  a really fast-paced page-turner.

Author Lev Parikian is a returnee to birdwatching after an absence of almost 40 years, and, for him, the sighting of each new bird (starting with blue tit) does indeed come as a ‘thrill’ as he seeks to notch up 200 species within the UK in a single calendar year, 2016.

And the briskness of his narrative takes on a gripping tone of urgency as he reaches the start of November still 22 birds short of his target.

As a schoolboy, Parikian had a brief, fairly intense enthusiasm for watching birds such that he persuaded his mother to take him to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere to watch avocets.

But his interest waned, not to be revived until middle age when he rediscovered on a bookshelf in the Oxfordshire home of his childhood, the copy of The Reader’s Digest Book of British Birds, the title which had first prompted his interest as an 11-year-old.

He found himself fascinated anew not just by the illustrations (“my gateway drug to an intoxicating world”) but also by the strangely evocative names of such species as wryneck, phalarope, scaup and skua.

There are other books about similar bird-ticking quests, but what makes this one so refreshing is the combination of the author’s relentless good humour, his witty writing style and his modesty.

There is never any showing off. He doesn’t pretend to be worthy, authoritative or (heaven forbid) pious.

Parikian is not particularly skilled either at detecting birds or identifying them. He makes mistakes - for instance, inadvertently recording linnets as twite - but he is honest about his shortcomings and all too ready not only to admit them but also to mock them.

In fact, some of the funniest parts of the book are his exasperation as some unidentified warbler or chat disappears deep into the undergrowth never to be seen again.

Although the author’s 200-tick quest starts on the patch in South-east London where he now lives, he quickly realises that, if his target - which started as a New Year Resolution - is unlikely to be fulfilled unless he spread his wings and ventures to well established birding hotspots such as reservoirs and wildlife reserves such as those managed by the RSPB at Dungeness, Cliffe Pools, Titchwell and Rainham Marshes.

Later in the year, the Isle of Wight and the Dorset Coast beckon as (in August) do Loch Garten, the Isle of Skye and the Bass Rock

On his travels, Parikian meets numerous other birders of varying abilities and temperaments. Some are knowledgeable, genial and helpful while others are, alas, morose to the point of joylessness even when encountering rarities.

He is disquieted that some experts have been birding so long as seemingly to have forsaken any capacity to marvel at the beauty of the commonplace - for instance, the colourful sheen on the plumage of a rook or the spectacular courtship flight of lapwing.

This intriguing book also contains moments of speculation, some of it almost hidden between the lines.

What would be the reaction of a 1950s birdwatcher if he returned today? Is there something “namby-pamby” about birding at dedidated reserves? Is it not a little sad to watch waders and wildfowl in an airless hide when the sun is shining outside? Has Mao Tse Tung’s purge of grain-eating birds in 1960s China been reflected in what intensive farming has been doing over the past 60 years, to their counterpart species in the West?

All questions which are seldom considered, let alone asked, in the birding world of today.

Does Parikian achieve his target of seeing 200 species in 2016? Does he exceed or does he fall short? And what happens at the start of 2017?

To give the answers would be to risk spoiling the end of his ‘thriller’.

Published by Unbound and with Alan Harris’ charmingly lifelike study of a goldcrest on the front cover, this is one of the best nature books of the year - a great read alike for birders, prospective birders and those who simply enjoy a lively tale, sprinkled with plenty of wry, mischievous and occasionally mildly salacious humour.

Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? is available via Amazon and wherever books are sold.