When I first moved to China it wasn’t long before I discovered Tom Beeke’s excellent BirdForum thread about his sightings in and around Dalian, located in China’s northeast Liaoning Province. Tom’s superb sightings, enthusiastically documented for all to see, were a big inspiration to me. As a teacher at the Maple Leaf School in Jinshitan, he developed groundbreaking environmental education classes for his students and, somehow, found the time to write a bird book.
“The Birds of Dalian” was first published in 2010 and the 2nd edition, in both English and Chinese, is now available, thanks to the support of Swarovski Optik and Zhu Lei for the Chinese translation. The book covers 326 species and includes Tom’s photos of the various plumages of each species.
Tom writes:
“The Birds of Dalian was put together for the purpose of introducing local wildlife. The goal of the project is to stir up conservation mindedness by showing the remarkable species that can be found in this area of Mainland China. When people are aware of how many species live in and/or move through an area, they can then be aided in making informed decisions about the future of that area. Why preserve this wetland? Because there are over 200 species of birds that rely on it in one calendar year. Why save this tidal mudflat? Because there are over 200 species of birds that rely on it in one calendar year. Why save this forested area? Because there are over 200 species of birds that rely on it in one calendar year. During my 12 years in China, I was surprised by how few people knew about the wonderful world of birds in their area. China is remarkably rich, as far as birds are concerned. Hopefully this book will help to prove this and help in some way to protect what is there.”
Hear hear, Tom. To read more about the book, and to purchase a copy for only 150 Chinese Yuan (under GBP 20), follow
this link. Thoroughly recommended!
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