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| Pete Dunne on Bird Watching: The How-to, Where-to, and When-to of Birding | 
| Author: Pete Dunne
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
Buy Used: $0.10
You Save: $11.90 (99%)
New (30) from $0.67
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 110955
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0395906865
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.07234
UPC: 046442906869
EAN: 9780395906866
ASIN: 0395906865
Publication Date: March 21, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 | | NEXT » |
backyard birding October 18, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was very helpful for me in finding out the right types of seed to put out for the birds in my area.
 Birding for Beginners February 12, 2005
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Veteran birder Pete Dunne has written a book that is an excellent introduction to the popular hobby. As one who's been doing it for a little less than a year, I found his book very helpful.
The various chapters cover useful topics, including: how to select your binoculars (and what those numbers on them mean); what to wear - and not to wear - while looking for birds; how to set up a feeder and make your own back yard more attractive to birds; protecting birds from threats ranging from cats to glass; finding a good field guide; organizations and events; the basics of identifying birds; plus some interesting stories from the field, care of Dunne and other experienced bird watchers. There's a lot of helpful information, that will make a nascent birder feel less clueless.
A few things that might have made it better: there's little info on ornithology itself - Dunne frequently mentions various types of birds as examples, but you may have no idea what he's talking about. When discussing the all-important field marks, for example, there are some (black and white) photos, but more of them (and perhaps illustrations) might have made his points more clear. For instance, showing the difference between the different tail shapes would have been useful. Also, while he mentions many species and family, there's not even a basic rundown of the different types of birds - so if you don't know a sparrow from a warbler, some of his text seems meaningless.
Note also that this is not a field guide (nor does it claim to be) so you'll need something else to help you identify the birds you see.
Combined with a couple of other books like a good field guide (the Peterson guides seem to be the gold standard) and a basic text on ornithology (David Sibley's books get high marks from many) and Dunne's book on birding techniques, and you should be ready to go.
An informative book December 14, 2004
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
This publication, authored by birder Pete Dunne, was published in 2003. It contains 334 pages. There are eight chapters; within these chapters are different sections. Appendixes, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index are also included. Throughout the chapters, certain words are boldfaced--they are defined in the glossary. Numerous black-and-white photos are contained; they display things such as birders in the field, kinds of birdfeeders, and types of birds. I find the section on binoculars to be indispensable and illuminating. The table that deals with seed preferences of common backyard birds is helpful. The information provided on types of birdfeeders is useful. I like the section that discusses landscaping for birds: the regional plant lists--for North America--are informative. The section on water being used as a bird attractant is worthy, along with the section that deals with nest boxes. Other interesting topics are field guides, birding apparel, basic bird identification, birding by ear, keeping records, bird censusing, and spotting scopes and tripods. In addition, I appreciate the glossary and the bibliography. This book is not only designed for the beginning birder but also for those that are more experienced. It is set up to follow the progressive gradients that birders pass through as their interest increases and more information is needed. Actually, I rate this book 3.5 stars. Pete Dunne on Bird Watching is instructive and recommendable.
 Great for beginners September 9, 2003
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I have both this book and "Sibley's Birding Basics." I think that Dunne's book is better for the beginner. It is written in a MUCH more engaging style, is not nearly as technical (e.g. in details of bird taxonomy), and has a lot more practical advice.
Dunne's Birding World: Don't Buy a Zoom bino! August 2, 2003
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This prolific writer on birding delivers again, taking many of his tried and true observations on birding and compiling them into an easy and interesting format. I would recommend this strongly to any birder but certainly beginning birders will profit the most from its insights. Especially good for anyone considering an optics purchase.
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