Stay In More.....................................................................Book Review

HOBBIES & OTHER FALCONS ...NEAR MY HOUSE (Brian L Kington)

26-02-2008

Resisting any puerile temptation to go "phwooar...look at the tits on that" our in-house birdwatcher Pete Millington puts away his binoculars and admires a lesser spotted book about ornithology.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving up the M6 and was passing one of those stretches of green land that the motorway passes through in the boundary area where the Black Country meets South Staffordshire when I spotted a small bird of prey hovering over the adjacent meadow.

"Hey look Joe!" I exclaimed with great excitement to my only passenger, my 8 year son Joseph, "there's a kestrel"

To which, some thirty seconds or so later and pointing to a large flapping sea gull on the other side of the motorway, he innocently replied "...and there's another one over there dad".

Maybe I'd be reading too much into it to suggest that it's a sign of the times when youngsters can name every soccer player in every top club in Europe but don't know the difference between a kestrel and a seagull.

It's not that children don't have the same capacity for knowledge, it's just that we adults are perhaps not encouraging them to seek knowledge in the natural world around them so they gain it through television, computers and Playstations instead.

It therefore seems both coincidental and also most apt for me to have recently been asked to review a lovely and detailed book by a local field naturalist from the West Midlands who has devoted some 44 years plus of his life to the study of birds in our area. The author is Brian Kington from Coleshill in Warwickshire and the book is Hobbies and Other Falcons... Near My House.

Brian Kington has been an R.S.P.B. member for 44 years and was a nature reserve warden for 23 years. He is also a long-standing member of the West Midland Bird Club and has previously authored two books on the birds of his local area.

"I am not a twitcher" says Brian "but have found some decent birds, such as 3 Leach's Petrels at Shustoke, with county firsts for West Midlands (Avocet) and Warwickshire (Bufflehead)".

If Hobbies and other Falcons had been published on the internet rather than in print, it might accurately be described as being a blog. The book lays out what are clearly the really good bits of Brian's falcon log over a period of some 35 years from 1972 up to 2007 but is far more than a bird watcher's diary. Spanning 184 pages with plentiful colour photographs, Brian's book is packed with information, much of it gained from first hand observation but complemented by his extensive research, about the behaviour of these truly impressive birds of prey.

The rare but delightful Hobby, the powerful, tree-nesting Merlin and the world's fastest bird, the wide-traversing Peregrine, all three of these "rarer falcons" receive in-depth attention in Brian's comprehensive local study of almost four decades. But he can not be accused of avian-elitism in his field studies and countless other species get their moment to perform in the binocular sights.

Many other raptors feature regularly in Brian's log including Buzzards, Sparrow Hawks, Hen and Marsh Harriers, Barn and Long-eared Owls ...even my beloved Kestrel which Brian describes as being "widespread and easily located" (putting my 'motorway-twitcher' aspirations into place). Besides which there are dozens of other species of bird, mammal and insect described, especially those unfortunate to end their short lives in the talons of one of the real stars of this great book.

Hobbies And Other Falcons...Near My House is unlikely to be the starter book for my 8 year old son or anyone else who wants to start off by being able to spot the difference between a kestrel and a seagull. But for real bird and other wildlife lovers, this is a fascinating read made all the more engaging because, though it focuses on such inspiring and uncommon looking creatures, it is not the result of the author's long and lonely journies to the far-flung and rocky corners of the British Isles but, as is suggested by the title, has largely transpired in areas no more than a few miles from the country's industrial heartland of Birmingham and the West Midlands.

The book costs £9.99 from Optics of Corley or Gascoignes Funeral Parlour, Coleshill High Street or from the author (£9.99 plus £1 postage - cheque payable to Brian L Kington) at 22 Burman Drive, Coleshill, B46 3NB.

Copies of Brian's previous publications are also available on 01675 462373.

Profits from Hobbies and other Falcons near my home will be donated to the R.S.P.B. Only 1000 copies of the book will be sold so don't hover at the side of the M6 for too long!