Birding Babylon: A Soldier's Journal from Iraq by Jonathan Trouern-Trend. First published 2006.
Subtitled A Soldier's Journal from Iraq, Birding Babylon began life as a natural history and birding blog by a deployed National Guardsman in Iraq. The book is formatted as journal, from the faux handmade paper cover to the short, dated entries of no more than two pages for each date. At just under 80 pages this is a quick read. A year of birding and observing wildlife in various spots in Iraq is covered, beginning in February 2004.
While the observations are interesting and the surroundings are at times riveting, I found the writing a bit dry and would hope for a bit more fluid text when the online journal was turned into a book. Trouern-Trend's blog, birdingbabylon.blogspot.com, is still active, and it seems he has recently returned to the Middle East once again. I will be following the blog to see what other interesting Mideast specialties are found in his day to day routine. Meanwhile I give Birding Babylon 3 Goldfinches out of 5.
Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D. Blechman. First published 2006. As reviewed and pictured: hardcover, 239 pages. Rock Pigeons are thought to be native to Asia, though they are among the most widely distributed bird species on the planet...
Birds of India by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, and Tim Inskipp. Published March 7, 2012. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 528 pages. In early 2006, Arthur and I visited Rajasthan in India for a much-too-short 20 days. We were interested in visiting both cultural sights and natural wonders,...
Nightjars, Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird, and Owlet-nightjars of the World by Nigel Cleere. First published 2010. I'm still pretty new at this birding thing, so I'm still enjoying learning about the history of the hobby and of ornithology. The more I read, the more I come to understand everything I...
Earlier this year, I got my hands on a copy of Birds of Europe: Second Edition (Princeton Field Guides). This review is part two of two; the first part is here. Back in April, when I first looked at The Birds of Europe, I had high...
