The Short-eared Owl book by Bryan Benn

Page last updated on 1 October 2022

Book title, author, publisher and ISBN

Book title Short-eared Owls; An extensive study of Short-eared Owls in Britain

Author

Publisher Bryan Benn

ISBN 978-1-8384800-0-4

Contact the Author

This simple web page provides an email contact for Kent Yeti, also known as Bryan Benn! as I start to sell my Short-eared Owl book. The book has been written by me, and taken to a high quality design by Nicola Liddiard of Nimbus Design, a professional designer who has done work for a number of top publishing companies. It has been printed to a high standard in Britain by J W Ruddocks Ltd of Lincoln, a company whose origins go back to 1880.

This web page also gives a basic preview of the book and that follows below the text. But first, how to purchase a copy.

Price and availability

This section covering all the ways in which the book can be purchased was updated on 6 October 2022

Paragraph 3 below covers the changes I have made to those who purchase the books by post from myself during the Royal Mail strikes of Autumn 2022.

1. From NHBS Ltd (Formerly Natural History Book Service)

The book is now stocked by NHBS and can be purchased from them online at NHBS

NHBS handle sales from outside of the UK.

The above link to my book at NHBS includes some details of the book, along with two 'media' reviews.

2. From Elmley NNR

There are two ways for UK purchasers to buy the book via Elmley NNR, the first is for online purchase via Elmley NNR This is at the price of £35 per book, plus the additional cost of postage and packaging. Online purchases from outside the UK can only be made directly from NHBS or myself, see below for both of those.

The book is also available over the counter in the Cafe at Elmley NNR at a reduced price of £30 per copy. It is my intention to hold the price at this lower level for some time to come, in recognition of the continuing support and interest in my study and the book shown by Elmley Friends, along with day and overnight vistors to the reserve. Elmley plan to put their share of net income from sales of this book to a further conservation project on the reserve. It is important to note that Friends and day visitors will only be able to make such purchases during the hours they have normal access to the reserve and at times when the Cafe is open.

3. From myself by post to buyers within the UK

Changes I have made to help those buying by post from myself during the Royal Mail strikes of Autumn 2022

I will now be using the Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Signed service, and I will attempt to get individual orders into the postal system on a day that looks to minimise or even eliminate delays due to strike action once Royal Mail have the book. I will notify purchasers of the day that Royal Mail have collected orders from myself. Full details as to purchasing books directly from myself are below.

Please email me at Yeti.in.kent@gmail.com with your full postal address and I will provide details of how to make the payment to my PayPal account of £35 per copy, which is £30 for the book and £5 for postage and packaging.

I am using Royal Mail's Tracked 24 and Signed service and Royal Mail will use your email to give some advance notification of delivery. Royal Mail state that such emails will not be used for marketing purposes.

From myself by post to buyers outside of the UK

Please email me at Yeti.in.kent@gmail.com with your full postal address and I will try and provide a price, in UK£, US$ or Euros€, as close to the UK price of £35 (including post and packing) as I can, but please bear in mind that postage costs for a heavy book to outside of the UK can be quite high. I will also provide details of how to make the payment to my PayPal account. That payment can be in UK£, US$ or Euros€

Initial feedback on the book

This paragraph was updated on 11 January 2022

I am somewhat overwhelmed by the wonderful comments I am receiving from those who now have copies of my book. It is heartwarming to know I can share my love of these owls with others. A lot of those comments come from people who have helped and supported me in my study, and to whom I have given complimentary copies, and I will reproduce some of those comments later on. But for now, as sales of my book commence, I think it best, and only with each purchaser's permission when a comment is made, to just reproduce comments from those who have purchased copies of the book.

On 23 October 2021 CD wrote: I have read a huge amount of bird books, but can only describe yours as outstanding. It is a work of art, and is the only book I have seen covering SEOs in such detail.

On 27 October 2021 MH wrote: It really is an impressive and beautiful body of work.

On 29 October 2021 DC wrote: Speechless, and can't thank you enough.

On 13 November 2021 DK (Netherlands, 3 copies purchased) wrote: very fast shipping, nice personal cards written by author and great help with customs handling.

On 9 January 2022 RB wrote: I wanted to congratulate you on writing and publishing this absolutely stunning book. The photographs are outstanding and your love for your subject shines through. I have many natural history books and I'm a complete bibliophile so when I say yours stands out, this is an acknowledgement of the quality and depth of research that has gone into this book. I can see from looking through it that it is very comprehensive and beautifully produced!

On 11 January 2022 MT wrote: Absolutely superb, info, photos etc top notch! You can always tell when a book has been written by someone who's been out in the field and studied the subject in detail as you obviously have. Congratulations on an excellent piece of work.

The book; statistics

This paragraph was updated on 29 October 2021

It is a hard-covered book of 432 pages, with the cover design laminated onto that hard cover. It is a little under A4 size; Crown Quarto, 189 mm x 246 mm portrait style. It comprises 11 chapters which, with the five appendices, is just under 116,000 words and includes more than 360 photos. Those photos include 55 full page, 13 as full double page spreads, and five that are partly double page spreads. The book also includes 31 tables, nine diagrams, seven charts and five maps.

I have a life long hate of extensive appendices, so a lot of tabular information is in the body of the book alongside the relevant photos and text. The five actual appendices are limited to naming the locations I have been to in Britain (68 so far); how I have worked in my study to eliminate any distubance to the owls in my watching and photography; those who have helped me in this study; a set of measurement conversion tables from metric to imperial (the book is metric throughout), and, finally, a list of books, documents and published studies that I have referred to.

The next stages in my study

This paragraph was updated on 12 October 2021

As always planned, my study of Short-eared Owls continues, but, and subject to me strictly following all Government pandemic rules and any additional self-imposed precautions, that study is currently limited to me being able to choose locations near home (nearly all on the Isle of Sheppey), where I feel comfortable with being able to handle the issues arising from the pandemic. I am recording any significant findings and observations in a draft 'Chapter 12'; with no certain plans yet as to how I will use it in the future. That new work will, as well as recording any significant additions to the current book chapters, also cover ways in which I can record and present, in more detail, action from the hours when most Short-eared Owls are usually active; between sunset and sunrise. That may take time, as there is not yet available to the consumer market a thermal imaging camera that can reproduce the quality I want. But progress in that area is currently good, so I have my fingers crossed!

Bryan Benn, (aka Kentyeti Cantium Gigantanthropus), 29 October 2021

Copyright

Copyright © of the entire content of this web site, kentyeti.co.uk including the photos and book content reproduced below, belongs to Bryan Benn. To reinforce that, the copyright notice inside the front of the book is reproduced below. That applies equally here to all the book content reproduced below.

Copyrightphoto

Book previews.

Below are some screen grabs of parts of my Short-eared Owl book which give an idea of what the full book looks like.

First, a low resolution copy of the book cover. The cover is laminated/fixed onto the hard cover, and not just placed around the cover as a dust sheet is. I much prefer that. So there is not lots about me inside the flap of a dust jacket, as appears in some books. There is enough about why I wrote the book in the Foreword. I want the focus to be on the owls, and not on me.

Short-eared Owl book cover

Short-eared Owl book cover photo.

And now pages from inside my book. All are low resolution copies of the first two pages of the frontpiece, the full contents page, and just the first two pages of some of the chapters, or, in some cases, pages from inside a chapter.

Frontpiece

Book frontpiece photo

Short-eared Owl book contents

Short-eared Owl book contents photo

Chapter 1: Description

Photo of first two pages of Description chapter

Chapter 2: Location & Movement

Photo of first two pages of Location and Movement chapter

Chapter 3: Habitat

Photo of first two pages of Habitat chapter

Chapter 4: Hearing

Photo of first two pages of Hearing chapter

Chapter 5: Vision

Photo of first two pages of Vision chapter

Chapter 6: Voice

Photo of first two pages of Voice chapter

Chapter 7: Food & Hunting

Photo of two pages from within the Food and Hunting chapter

Chapter 8: Breeding

Photo of two pages from within the Breeding chapter

Chapter 9: Daily Life

Photo of first two pages of Daily Life chapter

Chapter 10: Conflicts, Mortality & Conservation

Photo of first two pages of Conflicts, Mortality & Conservation chapter

Chapter 11: Around Britain & Close Encounters

Photo of first two pages of Around Britain and Close Encounters chapter

Appendices

Photo of two pages of the Appendices