Tag: Birding

More guides, handbooks & lists: 1959-2013

~ Pseudogryps

Birders rely on guides, handbooks, and lists to locate birds and then keep track of the birds they have observed. So these documents provide a record of a bird species’ existence.

In this post, I note a dozen lesser-known guides, handbooks, and lists that include the California condor. Among these are 2 journal articles, 10 books, and 2 different editions of the same author’s work. One of the books is organized around locales rather than species.

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The Los Angeles Audubon Society’s fund

~ Pseudogryps

Since 1934, the Los Angeles Audubon Society has been publishing a regular newsletter titled Western Tanager. In reviewing backissues for mentions of the California condor, I was struck by the number of mentions to the group’s fund for the condor.

In this post, I report some of what I learned about the organization’s fund-raising for the California condor from issues of Western Tanager dated 1939-1969.

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Regional field guides & checklists: 1964-2009

~ Pseudogryps

Thomas R. Dunlap’s excellent In the Field, among the Feathered: a History of Birders and Their Guides (Oxford University Press, 2011) describes how bird guides gradually improved over time. One important innovation was the development of place- or region-specific guides and checklists.

In this post, I note 7 such guides and checklists with an eye on the California condor.

Continue reading “Regional field guides & checklists: 1964-2009” →