Need gift ideas? Try gadgets or books

The holidays are just around the corner, so it's time for my annual list of holiday gift suggestions — two great gadgets and a short shelf of books.

If 2008 is the year you plan to learn bird songs, your timing couldn't be better. The iFlyer SongBird Scanning Wand ($99.95, www.identiflyer.com), made by the same company that makes the BirdSong Identiflier, consists of an optical scanner in a pen-sized wand and a small spiral bound booklet containing the images of 206 birds and 10 frogs. Next to each image is a bar code. Scan the bar code with the wand, and the voice of the illustrated species plays. It's slick, simple and it works.

The wand also comes with self-adhesive labels printed with each of the species' bar code. It takes just a few minutes to apply each label next to the corresponding bird in your favorite field guide, and that book becomes a powerful audio learning system. If you use several different field guides, extra labels are available.

Another option for learning bird songs is the birdJam (www.birdjam.com), an electronic encyclopedia of North American bird songs on an Apple iPod®. With just a little practice, you can access any North American bird in less than 15 seconds. It took me about 20 minutes to master the technique.

The playlists are from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs CDs, Eastern and Western Regions and are organized by habitat or family. With earbuds or a small hand-held speaker, it works as well in the field as in the office. The price of a fully loaded birdJam iPod is $299, but if you already have an iPod and the Stokes CDs, you only need to buy the birdJam software ($59 for eastern North America).

For those long winter nights, here are some great new books birders and nature lovers will enjoy.

“Good Birders Don't Wear White: 50 Tips from North America's Top Birders,” edited by Lisa White ($8.95, 2007, Houghton Mifflin) is a collection of short essays that will delight and inform beginning and expert birders alike. You'll read pieces by birding luminaries such as Kenn Kaufman, Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and yes, even me. A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to the Roger Tory Peterson Institute (www.rtpi.org).

“Where We Stand: A Surprising Look at the State of our Planet” by Seymour Garte ($24.95, 2007, Amacom) is a refreshing look at some of the progress we've made in protecting the environment. Garte is Professor of Environmental and Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and calls upon more than 30 years of experience to tell his story.

“Birder's Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk” by Jeffrey Wells ($35, 2007, Princeton University Press) examines the distribution, ecology, threats and conservation needs of 100 species from across the continent. Wells is senior Scientist at the Boreal Songbird Initiative (www.borealbirds.org). This book is more for serious conservationists than casual birders.

“No Way Home: the Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations” by David Wilcove ($24.95, 2007, Island Press)considers the mysteries and wonder of animal migrations around the word. The focus is how destructive environmental changes, from climate change to urban sprawl, endanger migratory species. This is a great book for anyone, especially students, with a developing conservation ethic.

“Ivorybill Hunters: the Search for the Proof in a Flooded Wilderness” by Geoffrey Hill ($24.95, 2007, Oxford University Press) is the latest book examining the status of the ivory-billed woodpecker. This time the location is the panhandle of Florida, where Hill and his students have made multiple observations in difficult-to-navigate river bottoms. Among the most fascinating parts of the story is how Hill dealt with the skepticism his findings unleashed.

“Pete Dunne’s Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds” ($29.95, 2006, Houghton Mifflin) is a long overdue effort that complements every birder's favorite field guide to birds. Each of 691 accounts offers detailed descriptions of the bird's status, distribution, habitat, migration, appearance, behavior, flight and voice. I get the feeling Dunne tells us everything he knows about each bird.

XSend questions and comments to Dr. Scott Shalaway, RD 5, Cameron, WV 26033 or via e-mail to sshalaway@aol.com.