The Birds of Suffolk

by Steve Piotrowski (pub. Christopher Helm)

Few birders will not have been to Suffolk. The world-famous RSPB reserve at Minsmere deservedly pulls in the crowds from near and far. The county is also a popular draw for rarity hunters, and a number of quality rarities over the years ensures that the county is rarely out of the news.

However, there is more to the county than Minsmere and rarities, as this new book by Steve Piotrowski points out! A largely rural county, Suffolk possesses nationally important wetlands and heathlands and a long varied coastline, plus its position on the east coast ensures that it often plays host to many passing birds. All of this points to a rich source of data about this important county for the author to enlighten the reader with and the author does not let us down.

So, what about the book itself? It runs to 360 pages and, as would be expected of a book published by Christopher Helm, is nicely presented. The striking dust jacket by Brian Small made me want to pick up the book and read. Introductory sections are taken up by accounts of: different habitats in the county; climate and its effects on the county's avifauna; sections on ringing and migration; conservation and preservation; and surveys, projects and enquiries. These all nicely set the scene for the species accounts which we finally delve into on page 57.

Almost 290 pages are dedicated to systematic list. In keeping with previously published county avifaunas, the accounts here follow the normal route: species status; habitats; discussion of occurrences; occurrence graphs detailing patterns and distribution maps, complimented by occasional line drawings. To my eyes, the layout of the book looked 'cramped', with many of the graphs looking as though they had been 'deposited' somewhere in the text. My main criticism of the graphs is that the monthly occurrence charts were not broken down into weekly intervals. Records were grouped by month, or occasionally by half-month. Presenting graphs in this way masks subtle occurrence patterns and for a county such as Suffolk, which does not have a large number of records for scarce migrants (e.g. 100 Barred Warblers, 100 Yellow-browed Warblers), it would not have been too onerous a task to have presented the graphs as weekly histograms.

As would be expected from any county avifauna there is always plenty of detail and this book is packed full of facts. However, I was disappointed by the brevity of many of the species accounts for the 'commoner' species, with most being catered for by just a few paragraphs. I suppose that trying to fit species accounts into a relatively small number of pages dictates brevity! The final 20 pages of the species accounts are dedicated to Category D species, introduced species and escapes, but I was left thinking that this space would have been better used by expanding some of the earlier species accounts. A gazetteer and bibliography conclude the book.

These criticisms aside I liked the book. The Birds of Suffolk is a good read, and will be a fascinating reference book for all birders who live in the county or know the county well. It will also be a useful reference for the many thousands of birders who visit one or more of the county's famous sites. A price of £40 for 290 pages of species accounts might deter all but the interested though. Birders' pockets are being constantly stretched by a plethora of quality bird books from which to choose. That said, if you have £40 of book tokens left over from your annual allocation and you know the county well then you will not be disappointed.