As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found Garry Bagnell's part-autobiography a really amusing and compelling read. His obsession with seeing new birds (which many of us share) is matched by his meticulous accounting of how much each 'tick' has cost, while the revelation that he also collected plane registrations and Pokemon Go characters should not, perhaps, surprise us!
I have all the usual bird identification guides, of course, but the books I enjoy reading most are those that share with us details of the author's birding exploits. Some record details of a specific quest: seeing 300 species in a year, achieving a 500 UK life list or, like Phoebe Snetsinger, the incredible goal of seeing virtually all of the world's birds! If you haven't read Birding on Borrowed Time it's a fascinating - and ultimately pognant - document.
All of those below are books I have read many times each: I find them entertaining and compelling. Do I have a favourite? Not really, but I have to admit that Richard Milington's Twitcher's Diary was the main factor in my ambition to achieve a list of over 400 species.
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