The Virginian-Pilot 
                            THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994               TAG: 9411051049
SECTION: COMMENTARY               PAGE: J2   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Book Review 
SOURCE: BY FERN E. MACALLISTER
                                             LENGTH: Short :   49 lines

GUIDEBOOK HELPS BIRDERS SCAN SKIES OF COASTAL N.C.

A BIRDER'S GUIDE TO COASTAL NORTH CAROLINA

JOHN O. FUSSELL III

The University of North Carolina Press. 540 pp. $29.95; $16.95 (paper).

I have been a charmed and delighted birder ever since I took a high school science class with Miss Hazel Bradley in my home state of Michigan. The intrepid and knowledgeable Miss Bradley was also the adviser for Science Club, on whose field trips I discovered the pure joy of seeing and identifying the wide panoply of our fascinating bird world.

Now living part time on the Outer Banks, I am in the right place at the right time: John O. Fussell III, who was introduced to ``the wonderful, exciting world'' of birding at the age of ``five or so'' by his parents, has compiled in A Birder's Guide to Coastal North Carolina an extensive array of birding material dealing with the more than 400 species of birds seen in coastal North Carolina.

Says Fussell, ``One reason for the birding potential of the region is the presence of the tropics and subtropics just offshore.'' The proximity of the Gulf Stream, which is often a few miles off Cape Hatteras, provides this. Fussell also points out that ``north and south come together in Coastal North Carolina,'' with southern species extending their breeding limits there, while thousands of northern species winter there. Now is the time for the bountiful autumn migration.

This book has everything to help a birder find the coastal North Carolina birds. It gives the location of birding sites, maps of the areas, information about when and how to visit them, descriptions of habitat and climate, frequency graphs of all regularly occurring species and an annotated list of them, plus a list of ``accidentals,'' species with five or fewer recorded sightings.

I'm sending it off soon to Miss Bradley, who, now in her 90s, lives in Kankakee, Ill., and still goes out in the field birding and gives birding lectures. Birding is a lifelong pleasure. MEMO: Fern E. MacAllister is a retired psychiatrist who lives part time on the

Outer Banks. by CNB