I'm busy learning to identify birds by their song having been given a pair of CDs and accompanying book* by a friend**. (Or should that be a book and a pair of accompanying CDs? Nope, the CDs are definately the primary partner in this relationship).
There is something vagely comical about listening to a CD offering assorted twitterings interspersed with voiceovers which try to both set the scene and tell you what bird you are currently listening to. I can't help sniggering at times. But for all its comic potential it does seem to work as an educational tool.
The recordings are bunched into groups that last somewhere around ten minutes each, and are oranised by habitat area. The first part of the book follows the same order as that of the CD tracks, and offers short texts on each bird, which often help provide way to remember how to recognise the song as well as describing the bird's habits more generally.
This section of the book is followed by longer (but still nicely bite-sized) texts on each bird covered, this time organised by species rather than habitat. It references to the places on each of the two CDs you'll find their songs - many of the birds crop up more than once. An A to Z index also helps with locating sound files.
Starting with the the two habitat groups labelled 'urban summer' and 'gardens, parks and villages late spring' I seem to have got a few new birdsongs under my belt after just a couple of days. The real test will be taking a walk in the woods rather than listening in my own home and then wandering all the way into my own garden to test my learning, but at the moment, early days though it is, things are looking quite positive.
* Collins Field Guide: Bird songs and calls of Britain and Northern Europe, Geoff Sample, ISBN: 0-00-220037-6
** Thanks, Jackie!
There is something vagely comical about listening to a CD offering assorted twitterings interspersed with voiceovers which try to both set the scene and tell you what bird you are currently listening to. I can't help sniggering at times. But for all its comic potential it does seem to work as an educational tool.
The recordings are bunched into groups that last somewhere around ten minutes each, and are oranised by habitat area. The first part of the book follows the same order as that of the CD tracks, and offers short texts on each bird, which often help provide way to remember how to recognise the song as well as describing the bird's habits more generally.
This section of the book is followed by longer (but still nicely bite-sized) texts on each bird covered, this time organised by species rather than habitat. It references to the places on each of the two CDs you'll find their songs - many of the birds crop up more than once. An A to Z index also helps with locating sound files.
Starting with the the two habitat groups labelled 'urban summer' and 'gardens, parks and villages late spring' I seem to have got a few new birdsongs under my belt after just a couple of days. The real test will be taking a walk in the woods rather than listening in my own home and then wandering all the way into my own garden to test my learning, but at the moment, early days though it is, things are looking quite positive.
* Collins Field Guide: Bird songs and calls of Britain and Northern Europe, Geoff Sample, ISBN: 0-00-220037-6
** Thanks, Jackie!