A Sparrowhawk's Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring

Now, in this beautiful follow-up to Our Garden Birds and Our Songbirds, street artist Matt Sewell captures Britain’s unique woodland life with his charming and distinctive illustrations. Featuring an array of enchanting scenes, from bramble-picking Blue Tits and a flight of Finches to a parliament of young Tawny Owls, Matt’s quirky, pop-art watercolours and whimsical descriptions express the individual characters of our woodland birds as never before. A delightful gift, this book will appeal to bird-watching enthusiasts, children, adults and art and design fans alike.

Since its first appearance in July 2009, Matt's 'Bird of the Week' feature for the Caught by the River website has quickly become a cult hit. His pop-art watercolours are distinctive and enchanting, as are his innovative descriptions, which see great tits 'bossing the other birds around', the 'playful yet shy buoyancy' of bullfinches and the 'improbable' nature of the waxwing ('like a computer-generated samurai finch').

With 52 birds, one for each week of the year, this delightful gift book will appeal to bird watching enthusiasts, children and adults, and art and illustration fans alike.

A unique spotter's guide for the first-time birdwatcher.

It is not always easy for the amateur birdwatcher to correctly identify a bird from the glimpse that is seen as it flies past, but you do notice and remember the bird’s colour. And that is where this book comes in.

Featuring an innovative, non-linear structure, the newly-designed layout of this ebook makes it easy and efficient to identify birds when in the field. Identifying Birds by Colour will help you to identify over 300 species of bird, simply by the colours that appear in its plumage. Species are grouped into plates according to their common colours. Each species entry also has:

• Notes and cross-references to detailed field information that will further help you to make an accurate identification

• A handy guide to show you the likelihood of spotting each species

• Size comparison to familiar species

• Information on when you are most likely to see each species and the habitat in which it occurs

Written and beautifully illustrated by world-renowned bird artist, Norman Arlott, this is a unique spotter's guide for the first-time birdwatcher.

Sections include:

- How to find including the best time of day, how to search the habitat and behavioural signs
- Watching tips including ways to get close to the bird without disturbing it and how to attract it to your garden.
- Super sites includes a short list of some of the best places to see the species.

The story of the short life and tragic death of Bowland Beth – an English Hen Harrier – which dramatically highlights the major issues in UK conservation.

‘The sun was blood red as it broke the horizon and lit the communal roost where the female hen harrier had spent the night. She watched the other harriers as they left to go foraging for food out on the moor. She didn’t join them, for she had felt a quickening in her body, an urge to move to Mallowdale Pike, a rocky crag from where she had fledged nine months ago. After preening, she lifted off from the roost and soared up over the fell.’

David Cobham enters Beth’s world to show what being a hen harrier today is like. He immerses himself not only in the day-to-day regimen of her life, the hours of hunting, bathing, keeping her plumage in order and roosting, but also the fear of living in an environment run to provide packs of driven grouse for a few wealthy sportsmen to shoot.

The hen harrier is seen as a totemic species in the battle between the conservationists and ruralists, and as one of the key players in this emotive debate, David Cobham is uniquely placed to reflect on Beth’s story. In this powerful narrative, he provides us with a profound tale which helps to illuminate the larger implications of the species’ decline, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts to reverse this.

Despite the association of peregrines with the wild, outer reaches of the British Isles, The Peregrine is set on the flat marshes of the Essex coast, where J A Baker spent a long winter looking and writing about the visitors from the uplands – peregrines that spend the winter hunting the huge flocks of pigeons and waders that share the desolate landscape with them.

Including original diaries from which The Peregrine was written and its companion volume The Hill of Summer, this is a beautiful compendium of lyrical nature writing at its absolute best. Such luminaries as Richard Mabey, Robert Macfarlane, Ted Hughes and Andrew Motion have cited this as one of the most important books in 20th Century nature writing, and the bestselling author Mark Cocker has provided an introduction on the importance of Baker, his writings and the diaries – creating the essential volume of Baker's writings.

Papers, maps, and letters have recently come to light which in turn provide a little more background into J A Baker’s history. Contemporaries – particularly from his time at school in Chelmsford – have provided insights, remembering a school friend who clearly made an impact on his generation.

Among fragments of letters to Baker was one from a reader who praised a piece that Baker had written in RSPB Birds magazine in 1971. Apart from a paper on peregrines which Baker wrote for the Essex Bird Report, this article – entitled On the Essex Coast – appears to be his only other published piece of writing, and, with the agreement of the RSPB, it has been included in this updated new paperback edition of Baker’s astounding work.