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.
Wisdom, The Midway Albatross: Surviving the Japanese Tsunami and other Disasters for over 60 Years by Darcy Pattinson and Kitty Harvill (art). Published 2012. As reviewed and pictured: softcover, 32 pages. It's rather uncommon for an individual wild bird to be so well known that it becomes a...
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...
Good Birders Don't Wear White: 50 Tips From North America's Top Birders edited by Pete Dunne. First published 2007. I was reminded to write this short review from a recent Facebook meme, whereby one takes a certain line from a certain page from the nearest book and posts...
The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. First published 1994. I'll admit I hadn't heard of The Beak of the Finch when I picked it up at the Unclaimed Baggage shop in Alabama. Arthur had pointed it out to me; he knew I was looking for bird-related...
