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This new book and podcast will help you learn to identify common birds by listening to British "Eighty percent of bird watching is offline" I have often told my college students, while crushing through the swamps and slipped through the bushes at the looking for birds. But sometimes my students asked me how I became so skilled at identifying birds, mostly blind, just listen to them?

have a fascination and passion for the birds certainly helps, but like any other skill, birding by ear takes practice - a

well

practice. One could say a lot of work, except for listening to the birds is a treat not

feel

like work at all. But birdlisteners have developed a series of tricks used to help store and quickly retrieve the identity of the birds they hear. A number of books and audio CDs have been published in recent years that describe these tips in order to demystify this unique blend of science and art. Those of you who want to learn this particular skill or desire to share their joy on hearing the song of birds will be pleased that a new book and podcast simply published:

bird watching with eyes closed: An Introduction to Birdsong

by Simon Barnes [2011, Short Books Ltd (London): Amazon UK, Amazon U.S. ]. The purpose of this book and podcast is to help people get used to identify common British birds hear their songs. "Learning the birds is not only a way to become a better birder," writes the author. "This is tuning: a way to listen to the soundtrack of the earth."

Thanks to the efforts of the RSPB, this book is accompanied by a measure of the soundtrack of the earth as a 27-minute podcast filled with songs and calls of common birds 66 British. This podcast consists of opening remarks by Mr. Barnes followed by audio clips of bird songs and calls. The singing of birds is presented in the same order they appear in the book, beginning with Robin "thick, sweet song," and ends with the sublime melody of the nightingale.

In the podcast, he learned that large breasts, with a typical "pump leaking song

Professor Professor Professor

" that yellowhammers say "

bread! bread! bread! Cheeeese .... but often forget the cheese, "" you know that summer is on the road, when the sky explodes in screams "swifts, and often something fun dabchicks, give" a long trill of laughter "- can swifts are being entertained by "blow [ing] the raspberries air many?" Some birds are very useful, as the blue tit (" am. A blue tit "), while the crows announce their arrival by repeating his name" Jack! Jack

Barnes brilliantly captures the essence of different sounds for each species with evocative descriptions such as "mild soporific hum" of the dove, almost extinct in Britain, his observation is that the song lark "paid and laid upside down from heaven" which seagulls "make a call to go wild with their wilderness of the deep ocean," and that cause the plovers' the sound of a desolate landscape. " Could go on but I'll let you listen to the podcast for yourself:

This podcast compares favorably with those of my audio library consists of (almost?) All English language tape file birdsong, CD and MP3 posted. The quality is comparable to the classic
Birds

series of North American birds. This program is free and can be downloaded to your iPod or burn to CD. But if you think this podcast is all you want, to illuminate his time in the gym or on the road, think again: the book is a gem. Publicist for the publisher told me to limit my analysis to the podcast, and it was unclear whether he was to receive my copy of the review book in the time to read. As the book is 36 hours before (and after I spilled coffee everywhere!). But I read some passages that make me think of a more appropriate title for this book

bird watching with eyes closed and heart open
. An example of why I say this:

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