A Guide to Birds of San Juan Island -- Monika Wieland

Lewis & Sharpe's book entitled "Birding in the San Juan Islands" (The Mountaineers Pub.) is the gold standard for regional birding guides. Their book includes the entire archipelago with detailed descriptions of the top birding areas for each island. The title under review includes only one island in the group. Only a few pages in it become obvious that Lewis & Sharpe spent years of field work and interviewed dozens of other ornithologists to ensure a thorough presentation. Their book is fully footnoted and has an excellent checklist with a bar graph of seasonal status for each species. The only problem is that their book was published in 1987 and most of the species are no longer as numerous three decades later. But this sad fact is true around the entire globe.