cover image Where the Birds Are: A Travel Guide to Over 1,000 Parks, Preserves, and Sanctuaries

Where the Birds Are: A Travel Guide to Over 1,000 Parks, Preserves, and Sanctuaries

Robert J. Dolezal, Reader's Digest. Reader's Digest Children's Publishing, $28.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-7621-0860-2

Profiling a series of birdwatching excursions within reach of 35 major cities and population centers, Dolezal presents a practical rundown of road trips for bird-loving city-dwellers and those who may be visiting. Following a cleverly-designed table of contents that presents each jumping-off point (San Francisco, the Winnepeg Area, Boston to Cape Cod, etc.) on a regional map, Dolezal focuses in on urban centers across the U.S. and southern Canada with a similarly user-friendly approach. Scenic photographs and well-prepared maps accompany each stop-though anyone unfamiliar with a given area will want a supplementary road atlas-and descriptions of each excursion are both informative and mercifully brief. Certain cities in particular (e.g., Seattle) can be extremely confusing for travelers, but Dolezal includes the websites and street addresses of visitors' bureaus, park offices and information sources. The traveling birder will find this book very helpful when seeking sites in unfamiliar areas, though the volume's large size may make it too unwieldy to bring with.