New Birding Guide to the Greater Pasadena Area | Pasadena Audubon Society

[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

I’m a big fan of birding guide books. In lieu of a paid guide and a whole lot cheaper, they can get you to the right places to find birds, rather than driving aimlessly around crashing into things while looking around for birds instead of watching the road. Not all good birding spots can be easily found on the web, not all web sites give you succinct directions and descriptions, and not all areas have great web reception. A book in hand is worth two on the web. Or maybe four. Our neighbor chapter Pasadena Audubon Society (PAS) lives in a birdy area where the migrants pass through in aerial rivers, with valleys and rivers and parks and reservoirs and mountain forests and meadows. A book to birding this area would be very useful to residents and visitors alike, and voilà! now one exists.

According to one local birder: “I just bought a copy yesterday at the California Botanical Garden in Claremont and did not realize it was hot off the press. Quite a bit pricier ($35) at the garden than online ($20).”

If you’re a die-hard “if it’s not on the web it doesn’t exist” person, here’s a link to SMBAS’ on-line bird-finding guide for Los Angeles County with 81 sites spread over seven pages. It’s getting a bit out-of-date.

Here’s the PAS message:

Pasadena Audubon is pleased to announce the publication of their all-new Birding Guide to the Greater Pasadena Area. The Guide gives detailed descriptions of 30 of the region’s top birding hotspots, along with background on the area’s ecology, seasonal species distribution charts, birdability access ratings of the locations, profiles of the notable introduced species, and much more.

For more info about the book, as well as a list of stores in the Pasadena/Los Angeles area that stock the book, visit https://www.pasadenaaudubon.org/birding-guide .

The Guide is also available online from Buteo Books, at https://www.buteobooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=15274 .