books

Book Club – Other Reference Books

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Amphibians & Reptiles

  • Arnold, E. Nicholas & Denys W. Ovenden – A Field Guide to the Reptiles & Amphibians of Britain & Europe – second edition reprint with corrections – 2004 (1978 first edition) – William Collins – 288 pp. A pretty decent overview but it shows its age. The book by Speybroeck et al has just surpassed this in most aspects. The information is good, but I found it slightly difficult to use because all illustrations are in the middle and so you are flipping back and forth all the time. Have the hardcover version.
  • Speybroeck, Jeroen, Wouter Beukema, Bobby Bok, Jan Van Der Voort & Ilian Velikov – Field Guide to the Amphibians & Reptiles of Britain and Europe – 2016 – Bloomsbury – 432 pp. Another entry in the British Wildlife Field Guise series and another great one. A must buy.

Note

Although not a book, you can get a decent pamphlet for amphibians in Cantabria from Red Cambera in PDF format here. I was able to get a physical copy when I did some volunteer work with them, they might still have some so try and contact them if you are interested.

Birds

  • Svensson, Lars, Killian Mullarney & Dan Zetterström – Birds of Europe – second edition – 2009 (1999 first edition) – Princeton University Press – 447 pp. My copy is absolutely beat up, which should indicate just how good this book is, as I take it with me everywhere I go. This summer (2023) a third edition will be released, it will be a must-buy for me. Everything is goof about this book, I’ve seen books on European birds by others, but they all pale in comparison. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Note
Birding is probably the #1 hobby for those who enjoy nature observation … and while I love it and it was the gateway for me into the world of butterflies, dragonflies, and other insects, I feel hopelessly inadequate when it comes to IDing birds. Not in the first part because I’m terrible at bird calls. However, I continue to get enjoyment from it even though I have my deficiencies … but if I ever did nature tours etc. in Cantabria, this is the area I’d need help in. It is also the main reason why I do not write much about birds, too many other people know much, much more than I do so I do not feel like I’m adding to the conversation at all.

Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps, & Ants)

  • Falk, Steven & Richard Lewington – Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland – 2015 – Bloomsbury – 432 pp. Lewington illustrates this excellent introduction and overview of bees. The main issue is that here in Spain there are many more species, especially in the difficult families. However, a valuable learning tool that is even better when coupled with Mr Falk’s Flickr page. An excellent entry in the British Wildlife Field Guide series.

Note
Bees, and then especially bumblebees, are a passion. I love them, but … they are so difficult to ID without catching and collecting them so that you can take detailed pictures. That is not something I’m ready to get into now. My goal is to one day write a big article on the bumblebees of Cantabria. I live with the realisation that I’ll continue taking pictures of bees I spot in the wild but will probably not get further in IDing them than a family and a handful of possible species it might be. Still …
As far as ants and wasps are concerned … they are even more difficult.

Orthoptera (Crickets & Grasshoppers)

  • Bellmann, Heiko, Florin Rutschmann, Christian Roesti & Axel Hochkirch – Veldgids Sprinkhanen en Krekels van Europa – 2020 – KNNV Publishing – 432 pp. Another great publication by the KNNV … but in Dutch. There is a German version available too. It does not cover all Orthoptera in Europe in detail with mainly very specific species in southern Europe only briefly covered. However, several of the authors also volunteer their services IDing photos that users upload to Observation.org so with their input there you can get far. A must buy for those interested in these insects.

Other

  • Fitter, Richard, Alastair Firrer & Ann Farrer (illus.) – Collins Pocket Guide: Grasses, Sedges, Rushes & Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe – reprint 1992 (1984 first edition) – Collins – 256 pp. A really excellent introduction. I do not know much about grasses etc. but this has been a great source of information. The maps don’t show Cantabria, but many of the species discussed occur here as well.
  • Jahns, Hans Martin – Collins Guide to the Ferns, Mosses & Lichens of Britain and Northern and Central Europe – 1983 – Collins – 272 pp. Another topic I know nothing about, but the book has helped out greatly. Both this and the grass book have been excellent to figure out what some of the larval host plants are of butterflies and moths.

Comments

More will be added if I pick up other books … am still looking for one on European mammals and maybe some other interesting insect groups, like beetles.

Book Club – Other Reference Books

Book Club – Books on Dragonflies & Damselflies

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Another post in the same veis as the previous Book Club posts, which focussed on the books I use to help me ID species or general reference books I use. This time on Odonata … although each book states dragonflies, they all include damselflies too.

General

  • Askew, R.R. – The Dragonflies of Europe – revised edition – 2004 – Harley Books – 308 pp. – Although older than the Dijkstra books (and you can tell – it was first publised in 1987(?)) it is often used as a reference citing in scientific papers because it is a touch more in-depth in the information given. Richly illustrated (not as good as Lewington – see below – though) some of the detailed illustrations are excellent. Out of print.
  • Bos, Frank, Marcel Wasscher & Weia Reinboud – Veldgids Libellen – herzine editie, 10e druk – 2022 (1st edition 1997) – KNNV Publishing – 290 pp. – Really nice field guide. In Dutch with a focus on the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands. and Luxembourg) region it does cover some southern European species. A recent addition to by “library”. I still prefer Dijkstra for IDing because the illustrations are just so good. However, there’s a lot of excellent information (maps, bibliography etc.) in this book, which includes Red List data. A great addition for anyone who lives in the Benelux and those who can read Dutch.
  • Boudot, Jean-Pierre & Vincent J. Kalkman (eds.) – Atlas of the European dragonflies and damselflies – 2015 – KNNV Publishing – 382 pp. – A bit more of a scientific overview where there is a large list of scientists who describe specific individual species, including notes on conservation. Has a massive bibliography at the end to really help you dig deeper into specific countries/regions etc. if you’d like. Some photos (by Fons Peels) of each species, but not really meant to help you ID. While intersting and in-depth, I’d say more for the completionist. Out of print. Hardcover, in English.
  • Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B. & Richard Lewington – Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe – 2014 reprint (2006) – British Wildlife Publishing – 320 pp. – The modern reference work on Odonata … now available in a second edition (see below) … the copy I own of this book is all beat up and heavily used. Stunning, with Lewington illustrations of all species and some photos.
  • Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B., Asmus Schröter & Richard Lewington – Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain and Europe – second edition – 2020 – Bloomsbury – 336 pp. – An updated version of the above. I havn’t really checked what the updates are. A must buy for any dragonfly enthusiast, as it is absolutely amazing. In my opinion, hands down the best book available to help ID species.
  • …
  • Brochard, Christophe, Dick Groenendijk, Ewoud van der Ploeg & Tim Termaat – Fotogids van Larvenhuidjes van Libellen – tweede druk – 2016 (1st edition 2014) – KNNV Publishing – 320 pp. – Companion piece to the previous book. Another stunning photo book on the skins that dragonflies leave behind after they’ve emerged from their larval state. Again, does not cover all of southern Europe’s species, but essential for reference and ID if you want to get deep into Odonata. Hey their skins are quite easy to find, and you can take them with you without harming anything. I’d get this book (or something similar in a different language) over the previous one, if you need to choose between the two, because of that. Out of print. Hardcover.
  • Brochard, Christophe & Ewoud van der Ploeg – Fotogids Larven van Libellen – 2014 – KNNV Publishing – 242 pp. – In Dutch … but oh man … a bit specialist, but essential if you want to get a bit deeper into dragonflies. Stunning photos and amazing, in-depth information on dragonflies in their larval stage. Does not include all species in southern Europe. There are English (and French, German and 1 Spanish) books available on the subject, but if you can read Dutch this is excellent. Out of print. Hardcover.
  • …

Spain

  • …

Specific Regions in the Cantabrian Mountains (my area of interest)

  • Gainzarain, José Antonio – Atlas de las Libélulas de Álava – 2a edición – 2018 – Diputación Foral de Álava – 166 pp. – In Spanish. This on dragonflies in one of the provinces in País Vasco (the Basque country) by one of the Spanish experts on dragonflies. The ecology is slightly different to where I live, many more dry/hot areas in Álava. However, the book is very well written and given a great overview of what you can potentially find here. The great thing about regional books is that you get a better feeling of where on the scale of common to rare a species is. There’s also better information on the types of habitats that you might find the species in. Not really required if you are just visiting the region, as some of the general books (i.e. Dijkstra) do a good job already. So, more for the completionist.
  • …

Comments

The other books I’m keen on getting are one (or two) by Corbet …
Again, the out of print books can be costly to get a hold of these days.

So … it should be obvious that for Spain there is no book easily available that is not a translation of one of the above. Also, the above are all so good that I’ve not seen the benefit of picking up anything related to Spain in general. There are PDFs for specific regions (e.g. Pais Vasco, Extremadura, Andalucía) you can find on the internet. I do think these regional reports hold value due to the specific requirements habitats need to have for certain species and so a regional overview can really zoom in on suitable locations.

Again, I’ll try and keep this list evergreen …

Final Note

My list of non-reference works includes: Dragonflight and The Dragonfly Diaries … but they are not that great (spoiler if I get around to discussing them).

Book Club – Books on Dragonflies & Damselflies

Book Club – Books on Moths

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I’ve decided to move the Book Club posts to Fridays … they might not drop each week, as there is only so much I can read. This will allow me to highlight species and excursions etc. on Tuesdays each week, there is a lot more I want to cover there.

Just like the other Book Club entry where I discuss reference books on butterflies, this one is on moths (Lepidoptera). Now, I have nowhere near the same number of books on moths as I do on butterflies, but still I think it might be interesting none-the-less … so without further ado …

General

  • Sterling, Phil, Mark Parsons & Richard Lewington (illus.) – Field Guide to the Micro Moths of Great Britain and Ireland – 2012 (reprint 2015) – Bloomsbury – 416 pp. – Great companion piece to the above below, they go together really. Again, this will cover a lot of what you can find in Cantabria, but because these moths are so much more difficult/complex to ID, care does need to be taken when doing so. A must-buy for those interested in moths. Just excellent.
  • Waring, Paul, Martin Townsend & Richard Lewington (illus.) – Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland – 2nd edition – 2009 (reprint 2015) – Bloomsbury – 444 pp. – An excellent guide for macro moths (the “larger” species) and even in Cantabria it covers most of what you’ll find here (we have a similar climate to the UK). The more south you go and the higher the altitude (e.g., Picos de Europa) is where you’ll find the most gaps. Still, great to have and a must-buy if you want to start an interest in moths. Stunning book.
  • …

Spain

  • Redondo, Víctor, Javier Gastón & Juan Carlos Vicente – Las Mariposas de España Peninsular: Manual ilustrado de la especies diurnas y nocturnas – 3a edición – 2019 – Prames – 464 pp. – In Spanish and it includes butterflies, but it does not include micro moths. All pictures are of collection specimens with their wings spread, which makes it a bit weird because that is not how living specimens usually rest (wings open etc.), although some families do. Very basic distribution information. However, it does a decent job of covering most, if not all, the species present in peninsular Spain. This means that it has some of the warmer climate species that my other books do not mention. Okay I guess but only really needed if you are going south of the area I live (Cantabrian mountains).
  • Sesma, José Manuel, Juan Ramón Córdoba, Luis Carlos Herrero, Óscar Ventura & Diego Gil Tapetado – Guía de indentificación de las gitanillas (Zygaena) ibéricas – 2019 – Asociación Fotografía y Biodiversidad – 84 pp. – This thin book covers the distribution etc. of the 22 Burnet species found in Spain. Pretty informative with lots of photos, but still makes identification of some species difficult without dissection etc. Much of the distribution data is based on citizen science websites. I’d classify this book under nice-to-have for the completionist.
    However, it is also a bit (understatement) frustrating because the book is labelled as “Volume 1” on the cover … so you’d think there would be more publications on other families etc. by the publisher … but so far no. Also, the publisher’s website is not good, or up-to-date and the main source of observations (biodiversidadvirtual.org – the publisher runs this site) is massively frustrating to use … so were this the business world this would fail spectacularly … If I owned a citizen science website/company (or was a millionaire with a passion for nature), I’d buy up the site, and everything associated with it, and consolidate all the data into a decent repository (e.g., Observation.org), a merger as it were … not to detract from the amazing work done by the publisher/site (volunteers, experts, etc. etc.) but it basically ticks all the boxes of what you can do wrong … if you want the general public to care, and be interested in nature, it needs to be a lot, and I mean a lot, more accessible (modern phone app etc.) … in 2023 it has to be much better and it should be with all the innovative technology at hand (using AI to help with IDing species, detailed mapping of species in Spain (i.e., where spieces have been recorded and where they might be found if we take ecosystem requirements into consideration) etc. etc.) … rant over.
  • …

Specific Regions in the Cantabrian Mountains (my area of interest)

  • Sanz Román, Pablo & Juan Manuel Marcos Gómez – Mariposas y Ecosistemas Cántabros – 2004 – Cantabria Tradicional S.L. – 196 pp. – I’ve not had this book too long, but I’ve read parts of it many times. It is in Spanish, has photos and maps of some moth (and most butterfly) species in Cantabria. Long since out of print (the publisher went bankrupt years ago) and hard to get. The selection of moths is strange, some are day-flying but not all are covered in the book. Then there are some night-flying moths, but only a select few. There is also extensive information on larval host plants (LHP) for the species in the book, Yes, interesting species (some mistakes there), but all quite random. Not really useful for moths, a bit of an oddity. Only for completionists.
  • …

Comments

Now … the moth book publishing world is massive … you can get huge, expensive tomes in multiple volumes on one moth family of in Europe (Palearctic region). I do not have the space or money for these at present, but boy can you go down the rabbit hole in this area. I’ve also noticed that people interested in moths are a bit special/weird but in a good way. Once you start with this hobby it can get quite carried away, you need a special light trap etc. etc. With the above list I’ve only just grazed the surface.

For information on specific regions in Spain you’ll have to consult scientific publications. There are extensive lists of moths for Palencia and other regions in the north.

However, the best source to help ID your moth pictures is through Facebook groups. There is a specific one for Spanish moths (in english) that is great and really helpful … sorta (some people there can be a bit … scientific, lets say).

Book Club – Books on Moths

Book Club – Books on Butterflies

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So, for this, and the following Book Club posts, I think I’ll just concentrate on the books I use to help me ID species or general reference books I use. I won’t go into any scientific papers, or PDF documents, as that would make each post massive. The idea here is to get an idea of the books you might like to look into getting if you are interested. I’ll make sure to start from a general overview to a more Spain/regional specific base.
Also, this list will now be used as a reference when I post on butterflies, saves me having to list the books each time around.

Oh, and I’ve got books like Nabokov’s Blues, the ones by Dave Goulson, and many more but I’ll discuss those seperatly … this really is only reference books.

General

  • Haahtela, Tari, Kimmo Saarinen, Pekka Ojalainen & Hannu Aarnio – Butterflies of Britain and Europe: A photographic Guide – 2011 – A&C Black – 384 pp. – Pretty decent, more modern than the two listed here. I had this an the Tolman as my only books for ages. I liked the idea of having one illustrated and one photo book (this one also has living butterflies). This was an accidental buy, but it turned out to be worth it (it also was not expensive at all). There is a new edition out (2019 – Bloomsbury Wildlife – great publisher) and it has been translated in French and English. Unless Tolman comes with a new edition soon, this might be a better buy (it is less than 10 GBP on Amazon), as the photos really are good.
  • Lafranchis, Tristan – Butterflies of Europe – 2004 – Diatheo – 352 pp. – This book has an ID key in it that can be really helpful if you like to use those … based on photos of living buterflies … good companion to Tolman. There’s a French and Dutch version of this book. The Dutch version was published by the KNNV in 2009 and is expensive (currently one for sale for €75), as it is now out of print.
  • Tolman, Tom & Richard Lewington (illus.) – Collins Butterfly Guide – 2009 – William Collins Books – 384 pp. – Pretty much the reference book on everything to do with butterflies in Europe. A must have, stunning illustrations, maps, excellent info on each species … needs an update though (due to taxon changes etc.). I cannot think of a better book to own if you are interested in butterflies. You can also get it in Spanish and, probably, other languages.
  • …

Spain

  • Redondo, Víctor, Javier Gastón & Juan Carlos Vicente – Las Mariposas de España Peninsular: Manual ilustrado de la especies diurnas y nocturnas – 3rd edition – 2019 – Prames – 464 pp. – In Spanish and it includes moths (not micro moths). It is okay, not really worth it for the butterflies though. I got it for the moths. The pictures are of collection specimens so it looks really unnatural and the colours are not very vivid. No maps, very basic info on distribution. Basically a book for those who have already read a lot and just want to have something new for their butterfly library. Still in print and will probably remain so with a new edition coming out every once in a while.
  • There’s a better book on Spain, but I only have it as a PDF … written by E. García-Barros, and others, in 2004. It is good, though is only based around distribution, has no photos or illustrations, because it is based on scientific papers you can really pinpoint species in specific regions. You can probably find this on the internet. It has both Spanish and English text! I used it a lot in the early days.
  • …

Specific Regions in the Cantabrian Mountains (my area of interest)

  • Sánchez, Juan Manuel, Rafael Obregón & Tomás Sanz – Mariposas diurnas de Somiedo – Asturias: Pequeña guia para senderistas – 2018 – Ayuntamiento de Somiedo – 96 pp. Small, informative, handy, and in Spanish … so, great if you are going to visit this stunning national park (I haven’t yet but one of the authors was associated with Proyecto Lepides so I got this book). Maybe you can pick up a copy on a visit to the park, it cost me €5, so why not. There’s a new version (2022) out (without Tomás Sanz) that is double the page number. No idea what the difference is, but I’m sure it is pretty decent
  • Sanz Román, Pablo & Juan Manuel Marcos Gómez – Mariposas y Ecosistemas Cántabros – 2004 – Cantabria Tradicional S.L. – 196 pp. – I’ve not had this book too long, but I’ve read parts of it many times. It is in Spanish, has photos and maps of butterfly (and some moth) species in Cantabria. A good place to start to get an indication where you might find certain species of butterfly in this ecologically diverse province … but websites are better these days because they are more current. There is also a whole section on larval host plants (LHP). Mistakes do occur in this book, the names are really far behind regarding taxon (Lafranchis, from the same year, is way more up to date), so my copy is full of pencil corrections. It is like you’re reading a book from the 1980s. You can get by without this book when you visit Cantabria, for the completionist, as it shows its age and needs a refresh/update for sure. Long since out of print (the publisher went bankrupt years ago) and hard to get.
  • Verhulst, Georges, Joseph Verhulst & Hugo Mortera – Mariposas dirunas del Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa – 2005 – Organismo Autónomo Parqeus Naturales Ministerio de Medio Ambiente – 184 pp. – Book in Spanish written by two Belgian brothers and an expert on butterflies in Asturias (I have Mortera’s book on butterflies in Asturias in PDF format – also excellent and available on the internet). A bit old, but quite cool and quirky (has common names in 4 different languages), as it also includes some pictures of caterpillars and pupae. The photos are okay, both of living and collection specimens. There are some mistakes but those aren’t really an issue. You’ll need to buy this online, with the best/cheapest option being Oryx in Barcelona (how I got it). Take care because this book can be very expeinsive on other sites, and it probably isn’t worth that unless you are a completionist.
  • …

Comments

The region-specific books can be really hard to get a hold of. If you want to pick them up for a vacation to Spain it is best to do so well in advance. Most of them are out of print. For example, the Lafranchis I’ve seen with quite a high price-tag (e.g. there’s currently one for sale for €40 online – I got mine for €10 – but there’s one on Amazon for GBP 155!). If you want to get a good overview of butterflies in a specific region in Spain then the García-Barros PDF is an excellent place to start and get a checklist going. You’ll need something like Tolman for IDing the butterflies you see though (even though it desperatly needs a refresh).
Also, I have a lot of PDFs for other regions outside of the Cantabrian Mountain range, I’m sure you can find those PDFs on the internet.

Do take care when picking up any odd butterfly book. I once got one as a present that had a ton of mistakes and wasn’t really helpful in any way (terrible photos), so just gave it away again (should have had the foresight to keep it and give it a negative review here – cannot remember the author or title). Also, many of the multi-insect guides are not that great, just get one that is specific to butterflies. Tolman is not expensive.

I’m always looking for new books, and on my travels to regions in Spain I do keep an eye open for region-specific books. There are quite a few. This means that I’ll try and keep this list evergreen …

Final Note

My list of non-reference works includes: Nabokov’s Blues, The Butterfly Isles (already discussed), Fine Lines, In Pursuit of Butterflies, The Jungle Garden, Rainbow Dust, The Collector, A Buzz in the Meadow (also discussed), and some that I am probably forgetting.

Book Club – Books on Butterflies

Book Club – A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson

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Introduction
This is actually the second book I’ve read by Dave Goulson, however, it is the one I’ve finished most recently and hence will cover the other book (A Sting in the Tail) at a future date.

As for other books to come through the review, over the past couple of months I purchased some field guides and natural history books, and am currently reading John Fowles’ The Collector, which is maybe not directly a “nature” book but is pretty good and about a butterfly collector, sort of …

Comments
As I stated above, this is the second book I’ve read by Mr Goulson. It is also his second book and follows up nicely from the first with many links between the two.

In 2003, Mr Goulson purchased a farm in France that came with 13 hectares (130,000 m2) of land. Since then he’s been working on the buildings and slowly letting the land get back to a more natural state of flowery meadows … although he has created a little brook and pond to attract wildlife that needs water (e.g. dragonflies). The main thing is that he’s letting the land recuperate after being fertilised and treated with pesticides etc. throughout the time that it was “productive” land for the farmstead.

The book is divided into 3 sections. The first (and longest) consists of 9 chapters covering the animal (mainly insect) life to be found around the farm. This includes bees, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, newts etc. Birds aren’t really covered. The second section (3 chapters) is about plant life and the last section (also three chapters) is how the natural world is interlinked and what man’s effect has been on that natural world.

Each chapter starts on one topic, but often it meanders from there on, going from one related subject to the other. It is like listening to someone extremely knowledgeable on a multitude of topics and that person is excited to tell you something and then he or she just continues talking and you have the feeling they can go on for ever.
Mr Goulson has a pleasant manner of writing, which explains everything quite clearly and thus it becomes quite fun to read the book. So much so that at times I had to stop myself from reading, as there is an overload of information and it becomes impossible to remember all that is told. In other words, I’ll probably re-read chapters on specific topics in the future to remember what was said.

I enjoyed this book and it inspired me, but hey, I was probably going to enjoy the book anyway considering my interests … It was a fluid read, even though some subjects can be quite scientific, but it is never boring. The only thing is that I sometimes longed for more, but I think this is inherent with nature, in that it will take many more years before the farm gets to full potential and Mr Goulson discovers all the interesting things happening in the fields, as everything needs time to adapt, change and grow. For example, he’s doing an experiment over various plots (to do with growth of plants), but it a will take many seasons before the results are finally known and a bit more conclusive. I can easily see a “part two” in 10 years time to give us an update on how the farm’s changed.

The Edition
Title: A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm
Author: Dave Goulson
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2014
Edition: Hard cover, first US edition (2015), 1st printing, 265 pages
Additional Info: Includes index.

Further Reading
– Dave Goulson’s Twitter page.
– Mr Goulson’s page at the university where he works.

Book Club – A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson

Book Club – The Butterfly Isles by Patrick Barkham

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My primary hobby is reading, always has been and always will be. Any non-fiction is often associated with other interests and hence I’ve been reading books on various natural history topics recently to help build up a knowledge base that can aid me when I can go out into the field. The books I’ve been reading are not only the essential field guides that will help me identify what I see, but I’ve also been reading some that fall into the, currently hip, category of nature writing.

Introduction
In recent years there has been an explosion in books with nature seen from the personal perspective of the writer. Of course this type of book has been around at least since Henry Thoreau’s Walden, so is nothing new, but the sheer number since around 2003 has been astonishing. Usually the author goes on a journey of self discovery while at the same time offering the reader insights into the complex nature of the natural world. This can be done through a literal journey (think A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (1998)) to focusing on one animal (for example the award-winning H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (2014)).

The Butterfly Isles is Patrick Barkham’s first novel. He has since gone on to write Badgerlands (2013) and Coastlines (2015), all of which fit nicely into the category of nature writing. I should say, I’ve not read any of his other work, but am keen to read Badgerlands.

The Butterfly Isles covers Barkham’s attempt to see all 59 butterfly species in Great Britain during the spring and summer of 2009. The book is written in a reasonably chronological order. It focuses on various species as he spots them flying in their habitats and also covers Barkham’s own fascination with butterflies that he developed through his father’s keen interest in them.

Comments
My main reason for reading this book is that I wanted to get a feel for butterfly behaviour. I’ve only been looking for butterflies since this past April and I just record what I come across on my walks through the fields here, not really making much of an effort to find out where there might be some special areas to see rare species. I wanted to know how a butterfly aficionado goes about doing such things.

Well, Barkham had not really been active with regards to butterflies when he wrote the book. His knowledge was mostly based on his past forays with his father. Hence he calls in the help of Butterfly Conservation members across the UK (something I cannot quite do, nothing much in the vein of butterfly conservation here in Cantabria). Barkham should count himself lucky in that respect.

Anyway, some great things about the book is that for many species Barkham does cover quite a few interesting details, about how the name came about, how the species has managed to survive in the UK through the butterfly hunting ages etc. There’s also a map showing locations, an extensive appendix that includes directions to specific sites, web sites, a bibliography, a good index etc. I would say this is critical in this type of book so you can go back for specific information at later stages after your read the book and want to go spot some of the species covered.

Barkham’s manner of writing is also quite engaging. It is clear he is passionate and that pulls you through the book, though it probably does help that I’m interested in butterflies.

There are 3 little nitpicky negative points to the book:
– The stuff about the relationship with his girlfriend (Lisa) does not really add much at all, if anything. Sure butterfly watchers are geeks and it can become an obsession to go out searching for new species, but Barkham gives ample evidence of this without the need to drag us into his personal life … I actually started to get irritated at his (in my opinion) selfish girlfriend … obviously you don’t get the whole story and it cannot have been that bad as they get together, marry and have kids (this last is a deduction and not specifically in the book).
– At one point he’s writing away mentioning the Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) and I think … hold on a sec., he hasn’t given any type of intro etc. to that species and here he’s glossing over it like it is nothing and he’s seen millions. About 100 pages later he has a couple of paragraphs that go back in time and then you realise that he then describes seeing this butterfly for the first time in 2009 and thus checking it off his list. The rest of the book is in reasonable chronological order, why not here? The passage later does not fit in the story well at that point so why not leave it in previously? Dramatic effect?
– The Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) hardly gets two lines when Barkham first spots one and never gets a good introduction … they may be common in the UK but it is one of the species that I’m aching to see here! There are tantalising hints about what I might look for, how it flies, the habitat you can find one in etc. but I was hoping for more.

Anyway, apart from the 3 (personal nitpicky) points this book is pretty good and quite a fun read. As I said before, I’m keen to read Badgerlands now and his other books (Coasts and the upcoming Islands) would be a good read at some point in the future.
I can recommend The Butterfly Isles to anyone living in the UK (learn something about your countryside and what lives in it) or someone who may be interested in learning about the natural world around them, and not only about butterflies but how the views of that natural world have evolved over time.

The Edition
Title: The Butterfly Isles: A Summer in Search of Our Emperors and Admirals
Author: Patrick Barkham
Publisher: Granata Books
Year: 2010, paperback 2011
Edition: Paperback, first edition, 3rd printing, 372 pages
Additional Info: Line drawings by Helen Macdonald.

Further Reading
– Patrick Barkham is a journalist for The Guardian newspaper (UK) and is a regular contributor with pieces on natural history. An overview of his articles.
– Patrick Barkham’s Twitter page.
– Patrick Barkham’s page at Granata Books. Not the most up to date, as the Coasts book is out and he’s working on one called Islands.

Book Club – The Butterfly Isles by Patrick Barkham