Birding in Atlantic Canada, Vol. 3: Acadia

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This completes Burrows’s three-volume work, Birding in Atlantic
Canada, which is a first-rate resource, both for locating specific
species and for building a healthy life list in the region.

Burrows uses an unusual definition of Acadia: by it, he means all of
Prince Edward Island, the coast of New Brunswick (both Bay of Fundy and
Northumberland Strait coastlines), and the Gaspé Peninsula. He divides
this region into 22 areas and, as in the preceding two volumes, deals
with the birding possibilities of each in a readable but no-nonsense
way.

For each area there is a map; travel directions; brief notes on
geography, ecology, and special features; and, in glorious detail, notes
on the species. Burrows relates what has been spotted in the area, what
is common, and what is a rarity or fluke, and provides tips for
increasing one’s success rate, the best times to visit for specific
species, detours worth taking, and dangers to avoid (e.g., high tides,
crumbling cliffs)—anything that would be useful to the serious birder.

The text is clear, clean, and fast-paced. Species follows species
without pause, and the convention of printing species’ name in
boldface type accentuates this, luring the reader deeper and deeper into
the world of green herons, whimbrel, sedge wrens, and other such
irresistible feathered prizes.

Life listers crave and cherish this sort of material and as birding is
now North America’s fastest-growing hobby, the work is certain to be
in increasing demand.