I see someone has read Mark Cockers book, ALWYCH notebooks still available but you need to order them from the makers, normally advert in back of the birdings mags, not a bad notebook at least they are waterproofish.

I found a nice little police style one with a pocket for your permits excellent little book however it was so good I bought 20 so should last me a bit and cannot find then now so when you see a good one buy a few,

Ian as I recall from my notes on the china town warbler you were present making your notes on the back of scraps of paper, ( hee hee) I am sure you transcribed them afterwards.

My readable notebooks go back to 1st January 1976, and I do like to start a new notebook every year.

Keep Birding.


ps keep it quiet but alot of bird notes are in the back of a nice RSPCA notebook this year.

Moleskine look good, but are a bit expensive. I read in Mark Cocker's book 'Birders', that he once liked 'Alwych' notebooks. Anybody used these . Or even seen one?

I've tried all sorts of police-type notebooks, and the best have got to be Moleskine brand - not the cheapest, but Waterstones sometimes have them on a 3 for 2 offer. You can get them lined or plain, with top or side opening, and in several sizes. They survive getting damp without falling apart, which is more than you can say for the cheaper options.

Like Ian, I always use a propelling pencil and have never suffered from fading (get B or 2B "leads" if you can). My only problem is reading my own writing!

Steve

pencils are great until you go in the loft after 30 years to get your 1st notebooks to reminice,and find the pages are almost emty as the pencil has faded,i now always and have for about 15 years used click pens.,always remember a teacher at school telling me if you use pencils to draw,buy a spray that stops the fadingbe warned

-- Edited by JOHN TYMON at 07:02, 2008-11-21

I see less and less notebooks out in the field and sometimes dispair at the thought of birders trying to remember exactly what they've seen from memory, especially when they're lucky enough to bump into a county or national rarity (although most memory's may very well be better than my own ), how do you compile a thorough description?

Either way, as a stalwart notebook user which type to use etc really is down to the individual. If you do a lot of drawing a little lined notebook isn't much good but for noting down counts etc they're great. For drawing, a larger, non-lined book is better but they take up more space and rarely fit in a pocket, basically I've tried them all (no, really!) and find the little black 'policeman's' type notebook probably one of the best all-rounders, the pages flip over, it slips easily into any pocket, can be bound with the elastic 'strap', have lots of pages and are cheap. Personally, I searched for ages for my current notebook, a large (still just fits nicely into cargo pant pockets etc), un-lined, suede bound, flip-over (expensive!) type number which allows me to draw easily but still make plenty of notes even though there's no lines. I find WHSmiths the best, go in an search through them all to find the one you think suits you and your type of recording best, I even used one a few years ago which had waxed pages, easy to write on yet waterproof for using in the rain!

As for writing/drawing impliment, a self-propelled pencil is easily the best in my opinion. I bought a decent one and changed the leads (which are very easily refillable) for a darker, softer graphite to enable better drawing/shading. They have a retractable rubber in the top of them (essential!) and using a 0.5mm nib are always fine enough to carry off small detail but not snap all the time.