Birds of the Wave and Woodland

Birds of the Wave and Woodland is a lyrical celebration of Britain's feathered residents, written with the infectious enthusiasm of a Victorian naturalist who happens to be a superb prose stylist. Phil Robinson catalogs the nation's birds not as specimens but as companions through the seasons, arguing passionately for the "thorough Britons" among them the thrush, blackbird, skylark, and robin who stay through winter's hardships rather than fleeing to warmer shores. The book dispels lazy myths about migration, lingers over the thrush's early spring song cutting through lingering frost, and weaves poetry and personal observation into every page. Robinson writes with sharp opinions and deep feeling, refusing to treat natural history as dry science. This is a book for anyone who has ever stopped to listen to birdsong and wondered at the creatures making it a book that captures a vanished age when observation was a beloved pastime and the boundaries between science and poetry had not yet hardened.