A natural History of Lighthouses by John A Love

Published by Whittles Publishing

Hard back Price £30.00

296 pages

John is better known for his work on White tailed Eagles but it looks like in his spare time he had a ‘love’ for lighthouses and has seen an amazing amount of the UK’s coastal limits. In recent years he has been blessed by working on round the coast cruise lines so has ‘bumped’ into many on these trips. As a birder it is amazing how many even I have seen as they are definitely the place where birds land on our shores and we tend to go to find them. Not only do these sites have birds but many are turned into observatories and even bird reserves just naming a few like South Stack, Portland, Fair Isle, North Ronaldsay and Farne Isles all with impressive lighthouses. The start of the book is very much the history of these sites with wildlife added while the end of the book deals in detail with some of the better sites for birds especially in Scotland. The effect of these bright lights on migratory birds is covered in detail but fortunately modern lighthouses are keen to stop the birds impacting on the lights themselves and special measures are mentioned but not on how many have them. The book is certainly a good way to test how many you have seen with all pictures in full colour and even I hope to see more this next summer on my trips to the Western Isles along with their wildlife.