A BIRDER’S GUIDE TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA All serious North American birders eventually end up in Southern California. This is not due to Hollywood, Disneyland, or Malibu beaches. The vast, varied topography that is Southern California has recorded over 555 naturally occurring bird species, many of which are near endemics to its geography. Each of Southern California’s many habitats offers its own specialties, and this guide will help you to find them all. Sooner or later, dedicated birders must come to Southern California. The birding routes, with instructions and exact mileages between suggested stops, guide resident and visiting birders to hundreds of birding sites. New to this edition are chapters covering Kern River Valley, the rugged Clark Mountain wilderness, southeastern California’s Blythe region, Sespe Condor Sanctuary, coastal Ventura County, and birding hot spots in suburban San Fernando Valley.
As expected, another excellent birding finding guide in the ABA series I got a copy of this for planning a two-week birding trip to the San Diego area. We also made a side trip to the Anza Borrego Desert and the Salton Sea. I’ve used a similar guide for Washington state, and this book was what I was looking for, a bird finding guide, that is a book to tell me good birding spots and what I’ll find there. It is not a field guide, that is a book on how to ID birds in the field.This book was essential in planning a successful and enjoyable birding trip…
Standard S. Cal. Birding Guide This is an update of the old Lane Guide to birding in S. Cal. It is well laid out and the revisions of more than a decade ago are helpful. It would undoubtedly benefit from being updated again. This is one of the downsides of the Internet – there’s not a crying demand for updates to hardcopy birding guides. Much of this guide, however, seems to be still appropriate.
I found the book easy to use I found the book easy to use. It serves its purpose of finding birding locations and giving the directions. The location chapters along with the section on California specialty birds, and the frequency bar charts give the reader a good idea of where to find target birds. I do wish each location had been given a number and a simple map with those numbered areas had been provided in the front of the book . There is a map in the back with the location names, but with all the colors and route…