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Lead book review

Where did birds first learn to sing?

Fieldwork can move the most rigorous scientist to lyricism, as Mark Cocker discovers

23 May 2020

9:00 AM

23 May 2020

9:00 AM

Curious About Nature: A Passion for Fieldwork Edited by Tim Burt and Des Thompson

CUP, pp.350, 29.99

The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent and Think Jennifer Ackerman

Corsair, pp.416, 14.99

White Feathers: The Nesting Lives of Tree Swallows Bernd Heinrich

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pp.256, 20.99

The crisis inflicted by Covid-19 has been a source of anguish for everyone; yet we frequently hear how people are rediscovering solace in nature, especially in their gardens or in the surging renewal of life in the spring. According to Tim Burt and Des Thompson, the editors of a collection of essays about the importance of field research, this fulfilment reveals something much more profound than a distraction from lockdown.They

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