Digital sale!

Greetings,

Announcing a MAJOR sale on ebooks!

From January, ALL of our Poyser monographs will be slashed in price to £19.99! For one month only.

The perfect post-Christmas present!

More news soon ...

Jim

The Snowy Owl

Just a head's up - I received advance copies of our latest Poyser monograph this morning, The Snowy Owl by Richard Sale and Eugene Potapov. Very nice.

Will be on sale in January - the perfect post-Christmas treat.

Jim

Titles coming soon

Just a quick note some of the new titles I've signed up recently for the Poyser list.

Fowling, Feasting and Feathers: A History of the Exploitation of Wild Birds by Michael Shrubb
The way wild birds have been exploited over the centuries forms the focus of this book. It looks at the use of birds as food, for feathers and skins, for eggs, as cage birds, as specimens and for hunting. Never before has a book brought the considerable amount of information on these topics in the academic literature together under one cover.

Introductory chapters on what was taken, when, why and its impact are followed by a number of sections looking in detail at important bird groups. Along with discussions of broader themes of exploitation, the book is packed with amazing facts. For example, we learn

• why Grey Herons were so important in medieval falconry
• why the Black Death was good news for bustards
• when tame plover stew was all the rage
• why Napoleon is to blame for the scarcity of Quail in Britain today

The book concludes with discussions of the cage bird and plumage trades, both now consigned to the annals of history, in Britain at any rate. As well as summarising and condensing the material into a readable and entertaining account, Shrubb goes back to original sources such as 14thcentury feast and market records (written in medieval Latin and therefore virtually inaccessible to other researchers, until now). This has allowed him to shed new and surprising light on the biogeography of a number of British birds.

I'm delighted to announce that this landmark title will be published in August 2013.


The Barnacle Goose by Jeff Black,  Jouke Prop and Kjell Larsson

This book represents a culmination of more than 25 years of Barnacle Goose research, and is the story of one of Europe’s most celebrated long-term behavioral studies, detailing the lives of these social and sociable birds.

Chapters include sections on pair formation and bonding, family and population dynamics, brood parasitism, food and feeding, size and shape in different populations, life cycle, survivorship, dispersal, migration, and conservation, with particular regard to climate change. It is a rigorous and thorough examination of the lives of these birds, in fine Poyser tradition.

Coming in Autumn 2014

The Chough by Eric Bignal and Davy McCracken

Around the coasts and in the uplands of western Britain, one of our most majestic birds, the Chough, soars high above the cliffs on stiff black wings. These birds are often seen in small flocks, in which the birds constantly caw to each other. They are a magnificent sight, jet black with vivid red beaks and legs, and readily display their mastery of flight with displays of diving and swooping.

Known to ornithologists as the Red-billed Chough to distinguish it from its yellow-billed alpine cousin, this small crow occurs patchily across Europe into Western Asia, with isolated populations occurring as far south as Ethiopia. Part of the reason for its restricted distribution is its rather specific habitat requirements - rocky areas with close-cropped turf. These birds are declining in Britain, although a few pairs have recently recolonised the species’ former stronghold of Cornwall.

This Poyser monograph by Eric Bignal and Davy McCracken provides an up-to-date account of Chough biology. Summarising an extensive and diverse international literature, sections include an introduction to the species and its current status, breeding biology, feeding ecology, population dynamics, dispersal, conservation and habitat management, with particular emphasis placed on ecological studies stemming from the authors’ 30 years of research on the population on the Scottish island of Islay.

Coming in Autumn 2014

The Eagle Owl by Vincenzo Penteriani

The Eagle Owl is a large and impressive beast. One of the largest owls in the world, it is a fierce predator of large birds and mammals up to the size of foxes and small deer; in places where it shares habitat with humans, domestic pets can even be on the menu. As an undisputed top predator, its ecology is fascinating, while recent introductions to (among other places) the Lake District have had important conservation implications.

This Poyser monograph by Vincenzo Penteriani looks at distribution, foraging ecology, migration, breeding behaviour and population dynamics of this spectacular bird, with emphasis placed on recently established colonies such as in England and in the Coto Doñana in Spain. While primarily focused on the Eurasian form, Indian and North African eagle owls are also considered. 

Publishing in Spring 2015

Birds New to Science by David Brewer

Amazing as it might sound, ornithologists are still discovering, on average, five or so species of birds each year that are completely new to science. What’s more, these aren’t all just obscure brown birds on tiny islands – witness the bizarre Bare-faced Bulbul from Laos (2009) or gaudy Begun Liochicla from north-west India (2005). 

This book documents all of these remarkable discoveries made since 1960, from Barau’s Petrel onwards, covering around 250 species. It fills an important gap in the ornithological literature. Written in an engaging style, this book provides a rich reference to an era of adventure in ornithology. Each species account discusses the story of the discovery, with photographs of the birds where available, along with a discussion of what is known about the species’ biology, habitat, distribution, with a strong conservation edge – most of the species in the book are either vulnerable or endangered.

Publishing in Autumn 2015

Hope you are looking forward to these as much as I am!
Jim

A raft of new titles

A lot going on at Planet Poyser at the moment. For a start, we've three new titles out. All three are on sale now, in all good bookshops.

We've also got two titles currently undergoing the book production process. The Snowy Owl by Richard Sale was submitted last week, while Extinct Birds by Julian Hume – a genuinely canonical work – is currently being laid out. The Poyser list is in rude health!

CRAZY GIVEAWAY BONANZA

Would anyone like a book?

I've got copies of the following titles looking for a good home. Some are pristine, some arent, some are Helm or Poyser, some are US editions of our books, all are collectable either way.

Wrens, dippers and thrashers
The Hen Harrier
Lapland a natural history
Seabirds a natural history
Crows and Jays
Parrots
Penguins (Poyser version)
Pipits and Wagtails
Starlings and mynas
Shrikes and bush-shrikes
Shorebirds
Tits, nuthatches and treecreepers (US and UK versions)
Sylvia warblers

If you'd like one drop me a line (jim dot martin at bloomsbury.com) with your address. Will need to be before 6pm Wednesday (Aug 3rd) this week though!

JIM

This week, a guest post from author and photographer Clive Finlayson, on an incredible encounter around a carcass in the Pyrenees …


It’s cold, actually it’s freezing – hard to believe that I am in the Iberian Peninsula and not somewhere in the Arctic. The temperature has plummeted to -11^oC here at 1,600 metres in the Pyrenees. It’s January. Having to keep motionless in the dark really doesn’t help much, nor do the layers of thermal underwear, tights, pairs of socks … the sky outside is intense blue. That should, at least, ensure good conditions for photography. But will our target birds arrive today?

It’s now 10am and my wife and I have been in the hide for four hours. The sun is up but the temperature stays below freezing. Some silhouettes flit past. They are large. We focus the cameras on the deer carcass laid out barely 15 metres away, and we wait … out of nowhere a Griffon Vulture appears, as though by magic, but he’s been soaring cautiously above the bait – we just couldn’t see him with our limited view. A blink of the eye and there are now twenty vultures on the ground. They look around nervously, unsure. We avoid the temptation of clicking away. This would be the wrong moment. If they get spooked now, that will be it for today. Ten minutes later and a hundred or so Griffons approach the carcass. The first one goes for the intestines and starts to open up a gash. Others come in quickly. They start to scream and chatter at each other. The frenzy has started. Now we can start to shoot!

Griffons do their thing.

Twenty minutes and hundreds of photos later the deer is a skeleton but our work has only just begun. Hanging around the edge of the frenzy, eight Black Vultures now come forward. They may be larger but they cannot compete with so many Griffons. But there is plenty for them to eat now; tough tendons, sinews and hide all get torn to shreds by their powerful beaks. Even now we haven’t got what we came for and we know we may not get it at all. Previous visits have ended in disappointment – they didn’t come down or they kept some distance. Today is different. We can see their distinctive shadows on the ground – large with a wedge-shaped tail …

Black Vultures - the Face of Death.

Then, as unexpectedly as the first Griffon, our first Lammergeier is down – a first-year bird. This one stays on the edge of the commotion. It looks around nervously but then starts to walk towards the hide. A second bird puts it up as it lands. These birds seem to have the habit of landing close to each other in threatening fashion, often displacing each other. And the young ones seem more aggressive than the adults. Then the “wow” moment as the first adult lands. Its hard to believe how spectacular this bird is when it is just a few metres away.

The Lammergeier.

Anvils? Who needs anvils. The Lammergeiers find their ideal bones, manipulate them with dexterity and swallow them whole! That’s just one lesson from watching birds close in. It’s only when the optimal bones are exhausted that the larger ones are carried away, held in one foot or with the beak.
The scene I have described would have been a familiar one to our prehistoric ancestors. In fact, most of the Palearctic species around today predate the last two million years of glaciation and many are much older. Lammergeiers shared their Palaearctic range with the Neanderthals – the fit is almost too exact – and they must have come into close competition for bone marrow. No doubt the Neanderthals watched the vultures, who led them to sources of food.

An Egyptian Vulture joins the fun.

I’m now back at home in Gibraltar, going through the palaeontological collections that I have been excavating here for twenty years. I bring out a set of bones from a Neanderthal occupation level. In my hand is a metatarsus of a Lammergeier and the box also contains Griffon, Egyptian and another large vulture (probably Black). The bones are 40,000 years old. I reflect on the history of the avifauna of the Palearctic. How did climate shape the fates of the birds? Can we combine the fossils with the living birds to give us a better understanding of the history and biogeography of Palaearctic birds? In Avian Survivors I hope to answer these questions and more …

Clive is the author of Avian Survivors: The History and Biogeography of Palearctic Birds – on sale in August!