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| Birding Oregon: 44 Prime Birding Areas with More Than 200 Specific Sites (Falcon Guide) | 
| Author: John Rakestraw
Publisher: Falcon
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $3.43
You Save: $12.52 (78%)
New (26) from $3.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 317925
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0762739134
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.07234795
EAN: 9780762739134
ASIN: 0762739134
Publication Date: January 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New book, ships out in 24 hours, 100% satisfaction guaranteed
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| Customer Reviews:
A New Birding Guide for Oregon February 24, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Falcon Guides have, through the years, become one of the most reliable nature-oriented publishers in the US. Over the past ten years or so, dozens of volumes dealing with everything from hiking, to nature watching, to birding and beyond have been published, usually to much acclaim. Like any publishing firm, of course, some of Falcon's volumes are far superior to others. Birding Texas, for example, one of the oldest guides to birding the Lone Star State, is still one of the best on the market. The far more recent Birding North Carolina, on the other hand, while interesting, is "thin" and lacking in dozens of ways. John Rakestraw's Birding Oregon, the latest in Falcon's multi-volume series, falls somewhere in the middle between these two examples.
Oregon is, quite obviously, a huge state with an unbelievable diversity of geography, from 10,000 feet-plus mountains to high desert regions, from hundreds of miles of Pacific Ocean coastline to forests which seemingly never end. For birding enthusiasts, it probably is unreasonable to expect that any one volume would be able to provide a thorough guide to the state's complexity. Certainly, this particular book does not fulfill that need. That having been said, however, Rakestraw (and Falcon) have done birders and nature-lovers, whether residents of Oregon or simply tourists passing through, an important service. In Birding Oregon, the author has focused on what he calls "44 Prime Birding Areas with More Than 200 Specific Sites" where one might realistically find a wide diversity of birds within the state. Oregon has long needed such a modern guide like this--the most recent before Rakestraw's study came out in 1990--and, for now anyway, it will be the definitive volume which birders will consult.
It is easy to praise this volume but it is also important to note that most of the discussions of possible sites for seeing birds in the state are very skimpy, at best, and that the directions for reaching most of them leave a great deal to be desired. Though there are nineteen pages of GPS-compatible maps in the back of the volume as well as a seasonal abundance chart to the 505 birds which have, at one time or another, appeared within the state's boundaries, in many ways, this book is far more a travel guide than a birding one. Far too often Rakestraw barely discusses the variety of bird life that can be found at the sites that he has highlighted. We can only hope that sometime in the not-too-distant future another far more detailed guide book will come on the market. Until it does, however, Birding Oregon is a "must" for glove compartments and backpacks as bird lovers head out to see the beauty that is Oregon.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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