The Pocket Guide to British Birds, R.S.R. Fitter and R.A. Richardson

Today’s another two-pager because it feels unfair to only share half of how to spot a swallow. Our bird knowledge is still limited, but we’ve heard that the swallows are returning, beginning to be spotted all across the country — a welcome sign of spring. One spotting was by the wonderful woman who kindly donated this book, The Pocket Guide to British Birds, to The Nature Library, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, who wrote beautiful words about her first swallows of the year, “The first one might have already come to you, found you right there where you were, alone or in company, on an OK day of this journey or on a day where you have howled until you ached … When the swallows come to you this year, I hope you feel safe. I hope you feel hope.”

A Pocket Guide to British Birds enables the reader to identify a bird without assuming prior knowledge of bird classification — a bird can be named by noticing obvious characteristics of colour, shape, flight and habit, concentrating on the essentials to provide an accurate and colourfully illustrated guide to bird-watching.

Richard Sidney Richmond Fitter (1913–2005) was a British naturalist and author of several guides for amateur naturalists. Richard Richardson was an ornithologist and self-taught artist who lived in Cley, Norfolk. He apparently had a photographic memory, and a love affair with Fair Isle, where he made annual trips and wrote an article in 1966 titled 'The Fair Isle Casts its Spell', illustrated with a birdwatcher being attacked by a bonxie.