Fellow TN-BIRDers: Here are the results of the latest field guide survey, supplanting and making totally obsolete the survey that I did several years ago, which you have all forgotten about anyway. The question, as you may remember, was: What are your three favorite field guides to the birds (in preferential order)? I received responses from approximately 25 TN-BIRDers, all of whom were kind enough to rank their favorites and, at times, to add their comments (TN-BIRDers DO have their opinions, in case you haven't noticed). I gave three points to each first choice, two to each second choice, and one point for each third choice. Here are the results: 1. Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (41 points) 2. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America (35) 3. Peterson's Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America (27) 4. Sibley Guide to Birds (16) 5. Kaufman's Birds of North America (9) 6. Golden Guide to Field Identification of North American Birds (7) 7. American Bird Conservancy, All the Birds of North America (4) 8. Stokes Field Guide to the Birds, Eastern Region (3) The Sibley Guide to Birds was something of an add-on, since it is not, strictly speaking, a field guide, but several of you felt that you could not go into the field without it. I failed to include the Audubon Guide in my query, but only one of you mentioned it and then not very favorably. At any rate, I should have included it. My subsequent survey of "other books that you consider indispensable" was something of a bust, probably because you had said all that you wanted to in the first survey--but also because the choices were all over the map, literally, from the birds of Shady Valley to the bird of the Philippines, from guides to bird nests to guides to shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest. But Wallace Coffey of Bristol submitted a list of 25 works that he would not want to be without and Mary Zimmerman of Nashville sent a lovely essay on her use of field guides over the years. If there is interest in seeing either of them, I will ask for the authors' permissions to post them on the list. Thanks to all who participated in this unscientific but sincere survey. Ed Gleaves Nashville, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the count in which the birds you report were seen. The actual date of observation should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp _____________________________________________________________