Bird Reports For Sale

Well known local birder Steve Holliday an avid collector of Bird Books and County Bird Reports, has embarked on a venture to supply interesting and in some cases scare reports,the catalogue seems to cover all Counties of the UK, so if you are looking to fill that gap with an elusive report or have items that Steve may be interested in you can contact him via email       birdreports'at'hotmail.co.uk        for further details or a copy of the catalogue.

 INTRODUCTION My background stems from birdwatching as a teenager, whilst buying many books, journals, bird reports and so on, along the way; looking back after 30+ years, things haven’t changed much! In the 1980s I remember buying back copies of British Birds and old county bird reports from David Morgan and more recently from Doreen (David’s mum). Sadly, Doreen passed away in November 2012, having provided a wonderful service to many collectors over the years. Subsequently, an opportunity arose to purchase a large chunk of ‘Morgan’s’ stock in early 2013 and, with additional material from other sources, I now hope to continue the business of buying and selling county and local area bird reports and other similar material. I have decided not to trade in the national journals (e.g. British Birds, Birding World, Ibis) due to space restrictions. Apart from an inherent interest in local bird reports, I have other motivations for taking up the new ‘business’. I am seriously concerned that such reports are disappearing at an alarming rate. As many birdwatchers grow ‘old’ and inevitably meet their maker, it is becoming more common for lifelong book collections to get left to those who don’t appreciate them i.e. other family members or in even worse cases, there are no family members left to make any suitable arrangements! Recent horror stories and personal experiences include:  Jim’s widow who proudly announced some months following Jim’s death that she had ‘finally thrown out all Jim’s r-u-b-b-i-s-h!” – in this case Jim’s lifelong book collections went to the local school  Stocks of county bird reports, quite literally, going into a skip, following a house move by an ageing county archivist  A black bin bag of books & reports already tied up for depositing in the bin and only rescued (by me!) as a result of an occasional morning’s birding and conversation Whilst I might shudder at hearing further stories of a similar nature, I would welcome any new anecdotes on this topic. So, nothing would delight me more than to see interested collectors add to their collections, which will hopefully be saved for posterity by some means. Over recent years I have been collecting with this aim in mind and this new ‘role’ will hopefully provide me with the opportunity to add to that stock and appropriate archive at some point. In terms of pricing, I have tried to be as fair as possible. I believe that some reports are already quite scarce (i.e. demand outstripping supply, based on eBay prices) and prices will reflect this in some cases. I also have to take into account that some reports will sit on the shelf for several years, plus the cost of packaging etc. I hope I have got the balance right but I will keep this under review. In 2006, Doreen Morgan typically charged £3.00 for all bird reports however I have tried to introduce a more appropriate & up to date price based primarily on availability but hopefully much cheaper than some of the silly prices currently appearing on certain websites. I welcome contact from anyone wishing to dispose of any spare bird reports or to leave details of any particular wants.
Steve Holliday                          birdreports"at"hotmail.co.uk