Electronic verses Paper

Electronic references as close as one’s I-phone have people questioning paper libraries. They take up so much room after all. I’m from a before internet generation, so, the idea of having my big collection switched to Kindle format sounds interesting, but what if the reader gets broken? The idea of all that information disappearing due to some hardware or software malfunction makes me shiver in terror. I could lose my library all in a house fire, but which happens more often? Also, how many storage mediums have there been in the last twenty years? Do I really want to have to convert every time one becomes obsolete?

Louis Lamour mentioned his library in his autobiography, a massive collection mine doesn’t begin to resemble. He considers it a kind of depository of knowledge for safe keeping. He said that if ever the electronic world fell apart and was in need, he had books on every conceivable subject from woodsman survival to basic engineering.

I am writing this article with a computer, an electronic medium. Many of my articles use facts gleaned from websites and print books sitting open on my desk. I may not keep a Kindle, but I do use the world-wide-web. There is a shift coming, yet people still buy paper books. The shift is tracking toward a blend.

Where It Began

The first book I ever bought about birding was the Golden Guide Birds, A Guide to Familiar American Birds, one bird per page. This was part of a series of pocket-sized books that were created by Western Publishing and published under their "Golden Press" line of children's books. I bought it in middle school from a visiting Bookmobile. (Is there anyone reading this old enough to remember those?)

I used that book from the age of 11 until 45. Another early purchase to learn birds was a coffee table book, Birds of Texas by John Tveten, a well-known local Houstonian who wrote a popular column in the Houston Chronicle and has many other books on wildlife and naturalist subjects. These 2 books were my only bird books for over thirty years.

Moving up

When I started putting some time into birding in the field, I needed a better book for identification, which put me on the road to the world of birding guides. These books can be a life’s work for some authors, a culminating work after many years of bird watching. My first purchase was the National Wildlife Association’s Field Guide to Birds of North America. The book had great photographic illustrations and could be brought with me in a carry-all during excursions. Granted, this book is like carrying a brick. I stationed it in the car.

I later added Keith Arnold and Gregory Kennedy’s Birds of Texas. I loved the way they designed it. It had colored tabs to make finding sections easier and best of all, a reference guide in the front with small pictures to make hunting quicker. I used the reference section to record my first sighting dates and locations. The color illustrations give emphasis to field marks.

Illustrations verses Photography

Being a photographer, I bought the National Wildlife Federation's guide because I thought seeing photographs would be of more use than illustrations. I discovered pretty quick I was wrong. A thousand pictures of birds in the field might gain only one or two good shots that show field marks to good advantage. And, unfortunately, those fantastic shots are often too good. They look like zoo portraits as opposed to trail photography.

A certain birder of renown, Kenn Kauffman, built a bird guide for beginners back in 2000 trying to blend the two. He used field photographs with a bit of retouching to make field marks more apparent. Some birding and photography purists came down on him hard for doctoring pictures despite the enhancements being disclosed and intended as illustrative.

After hearing about this tempest in a teapot, and looking at many guides, I have to say that I still like photos better than color drawings. However, photography only gives a momentary impression, not the all-in-all of a subject. An illustrative drawing, on the other hand, is by design a detailed study.

When The First Books aren’t Enough

In time, I started looking at those bigger books, especially when my Birds of Texas book was found out of date. Bird ranges do change over time, so newer editions are needed.

I visited the bookstore again, comparing one book to the other and then got chummy with the Amazon’s book site. Finally, I settled on Sibley’s Guide to Birds and The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior for their more in-depth information.

Around then, I lost my grandmother and was shown her bird book, a Golden Field Guide Birds of North America which had species groups illustrated together on a single page for easy comparison, like my first guide, also published by Western Publishing. These books were more in depth, meant or High-School/College age birders. This particular book was mentioned by Scott Weidensaul as his preferred field guide back in the day. Its small, carried in your pocket with a sturdy cover. In her honor, I found a second edition copy to purchase.

Bird Books with Different Purposes

Bird guides are not all there is to birding books. In the gift shop at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), I ran across a book called Birding Texas by Ronald Wauer and Mark Elwonger. That led to the discovery of the Texas Ornithological Society’s (TOS) Handbook of Texas Birds. Neither book is a bird guide. They are go-to books for finding birds, before I discovered Bird’s Eye and E-bird. Birding Texas breaks up the state into 10 areas listing State Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, Nature Centers as well as out of the way places the authors discovered that offered good birding. The TOS book included occurrence dates and range maps by county. This was one of my sources when searching for Sandhill Cranes. The TOS book is updated as needed, so may become an irregular purchase.

Here’s the Rub

The trouble with buying bird books, as with all types of collecting, is that it gets addictive. While reading Of a Feather by Scott Weidensaul, a brief overview of the history of American birding, I found out about Roger Tory Peterson’s Birds of Texas and Adjacent States, commissioned by the Department of Texas Fish and Wildlife. It was an older book, written three years before I was born, but was an invaluable groundbreaking publication. Diving into that book introduced me to Bird Life of Texas by Harry C. Oberholser. Roger Tory Peterson said Dr. Oberholser was the authority on Texas birds. The project sounded like it would be his life’s work, a more technical listing that would include subspecies covering 800 or more birds. It had not been completed when Peterson mentioned it, but in a search, I discovered it was published in 1974. To my good luck, I found this two-volume set on Ebay, like new.

The Future of the Bookcase(s)

What’s next? Well, regional books of course. Most of these are written by local birders, who have a more intimate knowledge of the landscape, local bird behavior, and habitat preferences. Texas has eight recognized birding regions. Each one contains its own specialties. As I continue to travel the state gathering up knowledge and personal sightings, having books for specific regions have been a big help. I have books for Northeast Texas, the Hill Country and the upper gulf coast so far. They are prized additions to my collection next to backyard birding guides, and birder's handbooks.

And at this point, living in a different state and planning for a Big Year, I have bought Kingbird Highway, the travels of 18-year-old Kenn Kaufman, doing the most extraordinary thing in the world, thumbing his way across the country to do his big year, on a thousand dollars in 1973. I’m presently reading his recommendation of The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik about three men who attacked a big year quest in 1998. There was a movie adaptation made using the same name.

To Readers from Other States,

I am talking a lot about Texas books, because it is where I lived for over 20 years. Other states have their own sets of bird guides and locator books along with histories and other related birding subjects. In a quick search, I found nine books for the State of Virginia, fourteen books for California, and seven for Montana. If I were planning a state-by-state study, I might get a few for each. As it is, I have picked up 6 books for California, where I presently live, and am having a great time using them.

My bird books take up 3 shelves now. Some of my birding friends say, “That’s cute,” and show me their libraries, moving into Louie Lamour territory. They have books for other countries where they have visited over their life’s journey. Something to think about.

Happy Birding