American birder-author: 'Staying at Knepp felt like being dropped into an episode of Downtown Abbey.'

                                    

Lively and optimistic - the American birder's new book 

SHORTLY after publication of his book on the increasingly difficulties now  faced by many migratory birds, a pal of author American Scott Weidensaul threw down the gauntlet by putting it to him: "Why don't you write something about what's going right for birds?"

The former newspaper reporter responded to the challenge, and the result, published earlier this week, is his informative and highly entertaining The Return of The Oystercatcher.

For British, if not American readers, the title is unfortunate given that this species has always been relatively common on our shorelines. Since it never went away, it couldn't really return.

Another caveat is that the author regularly strays away from his brief, frequently making observations from which the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn is that the long-term prospects for many of the globe's bird species has never been bleaker.

However, Weidensaul, of New Hampshire, is excellent in squeezing out positives from the gloom - namely in his accounts of the restoration, against the odds, of certain species all over the world.

He describes the efforts of dedicated conservationists to save them  in such a cheery, amusing  and conversational way that it is hard not to put the book down without feeling happy and optimistic.

For one of the chapters, the spotlight falls on his trip to the delta of the Danube River - focus of various rewilding initiatives.

But his location is the on Romanian border with Ukraine where peril beckons - not just from Russian explosives but also from the prospect of  imminent meltdown of  the degraded Saporihzhia nuclear power plant.

In advance of his expedition and aware of the concerns of his wife, Amy, Weidensaul  writes: "I made a quick online purchase - a couple weeks' supply of potassium iodide tablets which block the thyroid gland from taking up radioactive iodine in the air, water or food.

"No need to mention this to Amy, though; she was worried enough already."

For British readers, the book's chapter on the  rewilding activities at the Knepp estate in West Sussex is likely to be particular absorbing - not so much because of its account of the already well-documented breeding successes achieved with species as White Stork, Nightingale and Turtle Dove but because of the amusing way the visit is described.

Writes the American: "Staying at Knepp felt like being dropped into a Downtown Abbey episode, though with out the below stairs staff bustling all around, answering summoning bells and dressing the gentry for dinner."

He then goes on to describe his hosts, Charlie and Issy Tree, in the same way he might write about the plumage of birds.

"Charlie is a bluff man of 63 with an easy laugh, his hair a thicket of brown curls. Issy, a few years younger  is slender, her brown hair worn short and sensible."

Staying in descriptive mode, a few paragraphs later, his view of two Coots in combat is concluded thus: "While the Coots were raising hell, two Great Crested Grebes glided by  in elegant calm, paying no mind except to flare their rust cheek patches as if in polite disapproval."

This detailed and vibrant way of  writing characterises the text and somehow imbues it with integrity and honesty.

Subtitled Saving Birds to Save The Planet, The Return of The Oystercatcher is published at £20 in hardback by Picador. 

* See also previous blog.