James McCallum

Birds in Norfolk - a national and international perspective

Birds in Norfolk is a celebration of Norfolk’s birdlife. It is written by Andy Brown and includes 115 watercolour paintings and numerous watercolour sketches by James McCallum. 

Norfolk is famed as the best county in Britain for year round birdwatching and has a long history of bird recording. Birds in Norfolk is more than a county avifauna - instead the importance of the area, past and present, is seen from both a national and international perspective. 

Some of the county’s most famous habitats, such as the North Norfolk Marshes, Breckland and Broadland are looked at in detail. There are chapters devoted to the county’s specialist species such as breeding waders, harriers, wintering waterfowl, waders and passerines. The list of bird species recorded in Norfolk is enviable and some of the rare visitors and spectacular ‘falls’ of common migrant birds also feature.

James McCallum’s watercolours compliment the text and are not simply commissioned illustrations but outdoor paintings and sketches completed on location in Norfolk. Concise picture captions have been written by the artist detailing date, location, weather and relevant behaviour. These add further authenticity to the pages and give the book an extra personal dimension.

The book is printed in full colour with decorative endpapers and is part of the Langford Press Wildlife Art Series. 

It is a large format hardback measuring 31x27x3cm and contains 278 pages. 

(As the book weighs over 2kg there is unfortunately an additional postage charge of £7.00)

Review quotes -

'What elevates the book into a glorious collection of both beautiful paintings and important information is the collaboration between a major artist and top scientist. The other strength of Birds in Norfolk is the quality of its distilled information. For me what makes the book so appealing is its collaborative production. Through using both the hard facts and beautiful imagery it expresses the very diverse ways in which nature impacts upon us. This book attempts to capture the completeness of nature’s effects and succeeds triumphantly.'

Mark Cocker - Eastern Daily Press

‘...Andy Brown, a professional ornithologist who knows Norfolk inside out, is ideally placed to write such a book, while James McCallum, justifiably a favourite artist of many, is perfect for illustrating it...McCallum’s paintings are memorable and many pages are simply brilliant, evoking Norfolk’s goose flocks, breeding terns and harriers, passage waders, wintering buntings, rare migrants and much more besides superbly well...’   

Rob Hume - Birdwatch Magazine

‘...the sheer quality and diversity of the county’s avifauna starts to become apparent. All these riches are fully documented in this book with each important habitat or group of species meriting a chapter. Given Andy Brown’s encyclopedic knowledge of the status and distribution of Britain’s birds the treatments are thorough and their subjects carefully placed in their national and international contexts. There are plenty of facts and figures, many contained in well-presented charts, tables and figures, while additional text boxes provide extra information, for example on survey methodologies, the occurrence of particular species or historical dimensions.....

The textual description of the county’s riches is, however, only half the story, for this book is as much an art book as an avifauna. Its visual content is contributed by James McCallum and we are treated here to a tour de force of his trademark economy of line and subtlety of wash. The large format gives plenty of room for the paintings and many are reproduced at full-page size. There are of course plenty of Brent and Pinkfooted Geese ‘birdscapes’, but also more intimate renderings of breeding terns and waders and migrant passerines. Among the latter, I particularly enjoyed the flock of Ring Ouzels and the Richard’s Pipits, but all the paintings carry the hallmark of authentic close observation, transporting anyone familiar with the county’s birds back to their own personal store of treasured moments and memories...’

Andy Stoddart - British Birds