Yep, good ole Jenni and Winkler's "Moult and Ageing of European Passerines". Well now I do, or should I say as of Wednesday I do thanks to the very nice lady I bought it from sending it out very quickly. I won the recent auction of a copy on ebay bidding £100, the minimum reserve set for it. The closest other bid was £99.99. So I won by 1 pence. Ouch. To that individual I must apologize - it is the bargaining equivalent of a tennis shot that hits the top of the net and flops over at match point. If it is any consolation my maximum bid was much higher than £100. I also got up to put in my final bid at 7.30 am on a Saturday morning, my busisest day, so you see I really do deserve it.
Was it worth it ? Well at £100 it is £150 cheaper than the one currently on Amazon. For an out of print book it is a fair price I think and I am delighted to finally get one, especially in such good condition. It is going to be real handy too in terms of ringing - contrast in GC's with Robin's has always been a bone of contention with me, and I tend to use tail shape and, in Autumn to late Winter at least, the colour of the inner upper mandible. Iris colour useful too ala Dunnocks. This bookie has some nice wing examples of typical, and atypical specimes which put into pictures what Svensson puts into words. Invaluable for a ringer this book certainly is.
However, fear not if you don't have one or can't foresee owning one before the surely necessary reprint. THIS site may serve as decent stopgap meantime. It did for me.
2 comments:
Your gonna love this! About 7 years ago, a friend of mine who worked at waterstones alerted me to a sale of stock they were haing in aberdeen. I went along, and picked up 4 copies of the aforementioned book for £1 each!!!!! which I then distributed among my friends, being the kindly gent that I am! I feel like a right fuckin charlie now though!
You would be one rich mofo dude ! However, I hope your friends appreciated your undoubted generosity !
I hope you kept a copy for yourself ?
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