Sometimes I dream about escaping the lingering flurries and barely tolerable temperatures of February in Montana. I want to feel sand filtering its way through my toes as the tropical sun ever so gently radiates upon my shoulders (maybe even a little sunburn). I start thinking of Jack Johnson and the Beach Boys tunes – oh yeah, “Aruba, Jamaica, Babe I wanna take ya.” Aruba, yeah that’s the ticket. A trip to Aruba cures the winter blahs for certain. But alas, the funds have not materialized in the old bank account. Guess, I will have to settle for reading about the Birds of Aruba, Curaçao & Bonaire.
As far as field guides for Princeton University Press go, this is a rather thin text. Not thin because of lack of content, but rather, it is thin due to the nature of island biogeography. On an island, any habitat is limited, which means the avifauna is likewise limited. These islands are located with such proximity to South America that they can be generally categorized as possessing South American avifauna with a sprinkling of West Indies specialties for variety’s sake. In other words, these islands are not the classic Darwinian hubs of endemic birds.
To be honest, I find the illustrations to be completely cartoonish, almost to the point of not accurately portraying some species (especially the shorebirds). The species accounts are succinct with the best feature being the local names on all three islands for each species. Who know that the Black Skimmer is known as Bok’i skèr on Bonaire? While this is far from the best field guide that Princeton University Press has been so kind to put in front of my eyes, it is just good enough to take away the chill. Is that a tropical breeze I feel?
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