Waders

I have spent countless hundreds, probably thousands, of hours peering at mud. The tide comes in, the tide goes out, the mud is covered, the mud is revealed. Muddy fringes of dykes, muddy banks of lakes, mud edges of flood plains, anywhere there is mud. Some might call it sand, no, it is mud, and in that mud are millions upon millions of invertebrate life, and feeding on that larder of life, are waders…

Waders are a very popular group of birds for both dedicated birdwatchers and the merely interested. However, with their extremely variable plumage, waders are also one of the most challenging of birds when trying to separate quite similar species, or being confronted by a myriad of dull grey birds, all in winter plumage.

Three very different books from my bookshelf have helped me make sense of this rewarding and fascinating group of birds. Colston and Burton’s Waders has long been a favourite of mine. One of the few field guides to a specialist group of birds that has occasionally accompanied me into the field. The plates are superb. It is almost a shame that I choose to only show an example of these here as the species detail is also good- broken into Identification, Voice, Habitat, Distribution, Movements, Feeding, Social and breeding behaviour, Nest, eggs and young. The text is succinct and a surprising amount of detail is included in just 234 pages.

Detail from A Field Guide to the Waders of Britain and Europe. Phillip Burton is a skilled illustrator

I have spoken before on the faults of photographic guides to birds, but used alongside a good field guide with well drawn plates, they can be very useful. North Atlantic Shorebirds includes a good selection of photographs usually showing at least- juvenile, adult summer and adult winter plumage. I think the species text is of less practical use but buried in the book are some species comparison details that are hard to find elsewhere. But if it is going to be found elsewhere, it is the next volume.

My final selection- Guide to the identification and ageing of Holartic Waders is not intended for easy bedtime reading. This is something practical, containing detail that has been ascertained from skins in museums and measurements , drawings and photographs of birds in the hand. If you are involved in trapping or ringing, this is indispensable. But help in sexing Avocets via the drawings of the respective curves to their bills can be useful to any birdwatcher sitting in a hide, such gems are throughout this authoritative volume.

A useful guide to separating seven small Calidris species is included in the BTO guide to Holarctic Waders

Books in featured image:

A Field Guide to the Waders of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East. Peter Colston, Phillip Burton. Hodder & Stoughton, 1988. ISBN 0 340 39936 8

Guide to North Atlantic Shorebirds. Richard J. Chandler. Facts on File Inc. 1989. ISBN 0 333 45880 X

Guide to the identification and ageing of Holartic Waders, B.T.O. Guide 17. A.J. Prater, J.H. Marchant, J. Vuorinen. British Trust for Ornithology, 1977

AIDGAP guides

The AIDGAP guides, or Aid to Identification in Difficult Groups of Animals and Plants, are produced by the Field Studies Council specifically for use by non-specialists. They are often the only accessible key available for some taxa.

 I do not own many of the available titles, those I possess are shown above. Sadly, I did have a couple more but again, lent to ‘friends’ they have not returned. The keys in these publications have been thoroughly tested by sixth-form students and above, as a consequence they are invariably quite easy to use. If you have only the slightest interest in one of the many little groups that these publications cover, then treat yourself to a copy as they are quite inexpensive.

Be aware, these guides seldom go down to species level, being more aimed at the higher level, taxa etc. If you are a specialist or want to go further down the identification path, then one of the volumes- Synopses of British Fauna, may suit you better.

A page from the AIDGAP guide to major groups of British Terrestrial Invertebrates

Books in featured image:

A key to the major groups of Freshwater Invertebrates, 181, P.S. Croft. Field Studies Council. Reprinted from Field Studies, Vol. 6 No. 3, 1986. ISBN 1 85153 181 6

A key to the Families of British Beetles, 166, D.M. Unwin. Field Studies Council. Reprinted from Field Studies Vol. 6 No. 1 1984. ISBN 1 85153 166 X

A key to the major groups of British Terrestrial Invertebrates, 187, S.M. Tilling. Field Studies Council. Reprinted from Field Studies Vol. 6 No. 4 1987. ISBN 1 85153 187 5

A key to the Woodlice of Britain and Ireland, 204, Stephen Hopkin. Reprinted from Field Studies Vol. 7 No. 4 1991, ISBN 1 85153 204 8

Keys to the families of British Spiders, 197, L.M. Jones-Walters. Reprinted from Field Studies Vol. 7 No. 2 1989, ISBN 1 85153 197 1

A key to the Families of British Diptera, 143, D.M. Unwin. Reprinted from Field Studies Vol. 5 No. 3 1981, third reprint 1992.

Bees, Ants and Wasps, a key to genera of the British Aculeates, 7, Pat Willmer. Field Studies Council, 1993, first published 1985. ISBN 1 85153 807 1

A key to the major groups of British marine invertebrates, John Crothers. Reprinted from Field Studies Vol. 9 No. 1 1997. ISBN 1 85153 200 5

Specialist groups

Some plants can be pretty difficult to pin down their identification and a specialist book can prove useful. For many groups there are few choices and the ones shown here are the standard works. All except the volume on ferns are paperback so eminently portable, not that anyone would take them into the field unless looking specifically at these groups of plants.

Charles Edward Hubbard specialised in the study of grasses and became Deputy Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. His Grasses volume has been the standard reference work for decades. Drawings on a page facing the descriptive species text are always handy

Sample pages from the Collins guide to Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns

Again, all except the ferns volume have keys that lead to informative species pages, but they can be difficult to work with if not familiar with both their intricacies and botanical terms. Grasses and British Sedges are especially good specialised and detailed guides, they may only contain line drawings, but these are accurate and work well.

If only a single volume is to be chosen, then the Collins guide is the one to have if you can’t afford the rather pricey but better Francis Rose guide. The drawings in the Collins guide are coloured (beware the accuracy of these) so it is a more attractive volume, but its vegetative key is pretty good too.

Sedges, by Jermy and Tutin. BSBI have produced a number of specialist guides to ‘difficult’ groups. All are good

Probably the best photographic guide to the aforementioned ‘difficult’ groups is that by Roger Phillips. This large format book works brilliantly when combined with the other specialist guides mentioned

Books in featured image:

Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe, Richard Fitter, Alistair Fitter, illustrated by Ann Farrer. Collins, 1984. ISBN 0 00 219136 9

British Sedges, A.C. Jermy, T.G. Tutin. Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI), 1977 reprint, first published 1968.

British Ferns, Ron Freethy. The Crowood Press, 1987. ISBN 0 946284 33 4

Grasses, C.E. Hubbard, revised by J.C.E. Hubbard. Penguin, third edition 1984, first published 1954. 3579 10 864