Ticking species off a list is "birding equivalent of eating fast food" says American author

                                    

THE latest author to have a pop at twitching is American animal behaviour expert Joan E. Strassman whose latest book has the natty title, Slow Birding.

She writes: "All too often, birding is something done racing around in automobiles, stopping for moments to pick up a species here and there, then driving on. 

"I  call it 'motor birding', the birding equivalent of eating fast food."

She continues: "What if, instead, we stayed close to home and watched the birds that intersect our lives? 

"What if we learned more about our birds, building our knowledge more slowly through daily observation? 

"It may take some pratice to get  more out of local birds. It may be hard at first to learn to watch birds instead of ticking them off a list. 

"This book will help." 

Ms Strassman doubtless has a point - but what a pity she makes it so self-righteously.

It is surely not a question of either/or. Most, if not all, twitchers are also dedicated students of the birdlife on their own patch. But they also like to enrich their birding experience by travelling beyond their patch to see new species. What is wrong with that?

Subtitled The Art and Science of Enjoying The Birds in Your Own Backyard, the author's focus naturally falls on American species including:  

* Blue jay

* American robin (dubbed the 'earthworm whisperer')

* House wren

* Dark-eyed juneo

* Northern flicker

* Cooper's hawk

* Cedar waxwing

* Northern cardinal

* Northern mockingbird

* Yellow-rumped warbler

* White-throated sparrow

* American coot

* Snow goose

However, there are also chapters on two birds more familiar to birders on this side of the Atlantic - European starling and house sparrow.

Slow Birding, published by TarcherPerigee books,  is available in hardback, at £24, via Amazon UK.