Overview

This volume sets out for the first time the historical and current status of all the bird species found in Wales together with their present distribution. The rugged countryside of Wales has long been a destination for successive generations of naturalists, ornithologists, oologists and, latterly, birdwatchers. Since the pioneering days of Willoughby and Ray, Pennant and Edward Llwyd, a growing number of intrepid travellers have recorded the wildlife and other natural riches of the mountains and coastlines of Wales. Despite these beginnings and the more recent twentieth century vogue for birdwatching, no volume on the birds of Wales has been produced until now to serve the increasing need for scientifically valid information for conservation purposes. In the years that have passed since the first naturalists visited Wales, changes of unimaginable scale have taken place in the Welsh countryside which have had equally dramatic impacts on the native bird communities. A succession of bird species have either been eliminated deliberately by the hand of man - mainly birds of prey - or have been dispossessed by changes in land use, the spread of industrialisation, urbanisation and pollution, trends which continue today to the increasing detriment of even some of our most familiar countryside birds. Much fine habitat remains however, and new species have come in to colonise Wales and add to the magic of its countryside. The three authors, all staff of the RSPB in Wales, have between them an accumulated experience of some 80 years of first-hand knowledge of birds in the Principality. Their knowledge and love of the birds and Wales itself makes this authoritative volume a landmark both in Welsh and ornithological publishing.

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9781408137925

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Roger Lovegrove is a native of Devon but has lived in mid Wales for the past 30 years. Formerly a schoolmaster, he left teaching for a full-time career in wildlife conservation, joining the RSPB staff in 1971 as Wales Officer, a post he has held ever since. He has had a lifelong interest in British wildlife, especially birds, and has broadcast and written extensively on the subject. He has travelled widely, usually in connection with ornithological work. He has seven previous books to his name. Graham Williams was educated at King's School, Chester, and Merton College, Oxford. He was Senior Research Assistant then Senior Scientific Officer at the University of Liverpool Tidal Institute and Observatory from 1963 to 1973, working on the prediction of storm surges. He was Editor of the Cheshire Bird Report between 1964 and 1967. He joined the RSPB in 1973 as Assistant Regional Officer in the Wales Office and is now Senior Reserves Manager (Wales). He was also a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee 1975-1980 and Chairman of the Welsh Ornithological Society, 1993. Iolo Williams is a first-language Welshman, born in Builth Wells in 1962 and brought up in mid Wales. Following a degree in Ecology at London he began fieldwork with the RSPB in Wales in 1985, before being appointed to the post of Species Officer in 1989. He has travelled widely and broadcasts frequently in both Welsh and English. He is an active sportsman.

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