The Birder's Journal

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.

The text of The Birder’s Journal consists of brief essays, most
revealing little more than that some people like to observe birds. One
longer piece is dedicated to bird feeders, and is fairly informative on
this topic.

The essays are followed by a book full of fill-in-the-blanks pages
intended to help the birder record observations. The most distinctive of
these is called “quick sketch outlines for new bird sightings.” The
concept is that the birder, when spotting a bird for which
identification is unknown, will want to sketch but lack the time and/or
talent to do so. To solve this problem the book provides many copies of
the basic body shape of four bird types (shorebird, waterfowl, bird of
prey, and songbird). To these bodies the birder can add beaks, feet,
crests, or field marks. Why anyone would want to do this, and how would
aid in identification, remains unclear.

Following some 80 pages devoted to reproducing these same four
incomplete sketches, there’s a section of forms—some for noting the
details of field trips and others for recording sightings at the bird
feeder. There’s also a chart of recommended dimensions for bird
houses, a few references to birding/naturalist organizations (all but
one are American), and ruled pages for notes.

A blank book would be almost informative and more versatile.