Books about local walks in your area

Hi Blackbird, just seen this post.

One of the books I have is not so much about local walks but about every Essex wildlife trust reserves, all local RSPB reserves, all country parks and any other nature reserves and open spaces in and around Essex and East london. It is an excellent book and gets plenty of use from me, and has plenty of walks in it.

The book is called " Exploring wild Essex" by Tony Gunton.

Hi Kathy

It's a co-incidence but we have just bought a couple of Ordnance Survey Explorer maps of areas that we might like to walk in.

If anyone is interested there is a current offer at W H Smith where if you buy one you can have a second one at half price

I have the popular 'Where to watch birds' book for my area, I usually go to my local patch or another patch but when the sun's shining and it's a day to simply go out, I pick one that looks good for the season and go for it :)

Got a bookcase full of local walking books one or two going back to the 1930's.The older ones are not a great deal of use nowadays but it is interesting to see how much access has changed.Not bothered about the latest ones having GPS and so on as being an ex outdoor instructor I reckon finding my own way.books like this and relative maps can make interesting reading on poor days when stuck indoors.

Something you may be interested in at least taking a look at would be Birdwatching magazine, they have a few walks each month - although not always close by where you live. These walks have listed birds you are most likely to see and target birds to look out for.

I'm no way involved in the magazine in any way other than a reader.

TYhe other thing is, most walks take you into areas where birds and wildlife are, the ones that are not near or part of reserves may mean that the area isn't likely to be a place where many people go, you may even have the whole place to yourselves. A bit of reserch into what type of habitat the walks go through may indicate what birds you are likely to see.

Answering your question, I use" AA" books "A Boot Up" and some local publications, including the council walks in our local council free magazine . Some of these walks get us out into local areas we've never even heard off and  we have seen some great birds by doing them. It's always nice to find a bird you didn't expect

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Something you may be interested in at least taking a look at would be Birdwatching magazine, they have a few walks each month -

These walks can be worth saving for reference when you are away on holidays,always good to have a pointer in an area that is new.

Not quite books - but some local authorities/tourist boards have downloadable leaflets on walks e.g. Midlothian Council has a general walking leaflet - not aimed at birdwatchers but does include some nice areas http://www.midlothian.gov.uk/downloads/file/478/midlothian_walks_booklet - also the Dumfries and Galloway Tourist Board has a number of really good leaflets which can be both ordered free of charge from them or downloaded from website - including at least 3 wildlife ones plus a number of more general local ones - we found them very useful last year - http://www.visitdumfriesandgalloway.co.uk/sitewide/brochurerequest/