The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors
is just now coming out. I was able to spend a little time with it a few weeks ago, though my official copy has not arrived yet. But Princeton (the publisher) is organizing a major blog hoopla over the publication of this new book, and I've signed on to participate. Starting yesterday a number of bird-related blogs are producing posts related to this book. My post comes out next Tuesday and it will consist of a quiz, a bird quiz. Anyone who gets the quiz right will be eligible for random selection, and whoever gets randomly selected will be hooked up with Princeton who will give you something nice.
I'll review the book officially next Tuesday, in the same post as the bird quiz. Meanwhile, you may want to look at these posts that have already come out. I'll up date this list as I get more information.
Haven't run across Nemesis bird site before. Now bookmarked. Had fun with the raptor quiz there. Had to look up three of them and even now, I'm not completely sure (but still fun to do).
I have several birding-related books on my Amazon wish list, awaiting my next "I feel spendy" day, including "Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors" by Jerry Liguori.
The title of this post includes the claim that the newest Crossley guide is the "Best Raptor Book Ever". Will your full review comment on the supremacy of this new book over "Hawks at a Distance"? Should I remove "Hawks at a Distance" from my wishlist, and replace it with "The Crossly ID Guide: Raptors"?
I forgot to mention that all of the birding-related books I want to buy were suggested by you. I have purchased and read one or two books suggested by you, and enjoyed them. So what I'm saying is I trust your advice regarding bird-book purchases.
TheBrummell....my initial knee-jerk reaction would be to say, "Get Hawks at a Distance anyway". The only other guide book I've seen that is similar is Hawks from Every Angle. I suspect (but don't know) that the Crossley Raptor Guide will be similar to their bird guide---that is, showing birds from a variety of angles and at a variety of sizes on one plate, but without a lot of the information found in the previously mentioned hawk books.
But I don't know (yes, I know I wasted everyone's time by commenting on something I don't know about, but I get excited about new bird books and like to speculate). I'll be looking forward to Greg's review (and I too have bought a number of books suggested by Greg and have enjoyed them as well).
I would get "Hawks at a Distance" for sure, it is the only book of its kind and done well. I have seen some Crossley plates on line and they are "pretty" but difficult to follow as far as learning from. JMO. It is always nice to have multiple books.