Overview
The Birds of Bedfordshire by Tony Ploszajski is a 506 page hardback publication lavishly illustrated in full colour with 399 photographs, numerous graphs, distribution maps, tables and analyses. The cost is £50.00 if collected at Bird Club meetings from Maulden Village Hall or by arrangement by contacting Peter Nash by email.
If posted to an UK address the cost is £57.95 (cover price £50.00 plus £7.95 P&P).
About the book
Published by the Bedfordshire Natural History Society (ISBN 978-1-9162417-1-8), and financed by The Peter Smith Charitable Trust for Nature, the book summarises previous publications about the avifauna of Bedfordshire with summaries up to 1990 for each species, then a detailed review up until the end of 2022. Brief highlights of 2023 and 2024 are also included as appendicies.
Chapters include an Introduction, Habitats, Climate, Birdwatching in the county, Key birdwatching sites during the period, with a chapter covering every species seen in the county up until the end of 2022, some 307 species, illustrated with photographs of each species where a photograph has been possible to obtain with analysis of the species fortunes for most accounts where sufficient data exists. A final chapter follows detailing the patterns of change in the county over the 30 years from 1990 to 2022 with a series of appendicies covering the county list, earliest and latest dates of regular migrants, highest site counts, selected records for 2023 and 2024, escapes and hybrids, a site gazetteer and a useful reference guide, complemented with a simple index detailing where to locate each species and their photographs.
All sales proceeds (excluding processing fees for card transactions) will be split equally between The Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Strawberry Hill in Knotting Green and The Greensand Trust’s Clophill Lakes reserve. Both of these sites are very important in the Bedfordshire landscape and both face different challenges as they are both newly acquired reserves.
Book review by John Clark of British Birds
“It is a pleasure to review a new county avifauna, as they have become a very rare breed in recent years. Their scarcity reflects the enormous amount of work which goes into compiling one, and in this case the task has been achieved almost single-handedly by Tony Ploszajski in this impressive Birds of Bedfordshire. It is a worthy successor to the previous Bedfordshire avifauna, published in 1991, and the major steps in its gestation and eventual publication are laid out in the preface. This is followed by four succinct chapters describing ‘Habitats and habitat change’, ‘Climate and climate change’, ‘Birdwatching in Bedfordshire’ (a brief history of birdwatching in the county) and ‘Key birdwatching sites.”
“This is a superb publication of which the Bedfordshire Natural History Society, the author and all the contributors can be justifiably proud.”
Click the button below to read John Clark’s full review of the new book.
Book review by Josh Jones of BirdGuides
“Small in size it may be, but Bedfordshire is a county that makes the birding headlines with impressive frequency. Indeed, despite being some 70 km from the sea at its closest point, this landlocked county nonetheless punches above its weight ornithologically year after year, producing an array of rare, scarce and locally significant record.
What a fantastic piece of work this is! If you wanted to sell Bedfordshire to a sceptical birder potentially moving to the region, all you’d need to do is put a copy of his book in front of them. It’s presented beautifully, decorated with superb photos – many of which have not been published online – and absolutely packed with information.”
Click the button below to read Josh Jones’s full review of the new book.
These glowing reviews are a testament to the work that Tony and the team from Bird club and BNHS have invested in this publication. Of course we know that Bedfordshire is amazing and has dedicated and skilled birders but it’s great to see it in print, do try and make time to read the review.
To secure your copy of The Birds of Bedfordshire online and select delivery or collection visit:
The Bedfordshire Natural History Society is a registered charity (Nr 268659). Further details of the Society’s other publications are available on its website www.bnhs.org.uk
