New Caledonia is dazzling.
There’s a charming mix of French and Melanesian: warm hospitality sitting beside European elegance, gourmet food beneath palm trees, sand, resorts, bungalows, concrete, bamboo.
Natural wonders and manmade delights are at your fingertips.

• swim in a ‘natural swimming pool’ after a lobster lunch on Île des Pins
• maps
• head into the surprisingly isolated far south of the Grande Terre for a full moon kayak tour
• transport
• drinking black coffee with the locals at Noumea’s market while listening to a local Kanak band singing by the water
• restaurants & accommodation

Melanesia is the chain of islands extending from New Guinea into the South-west Pacific, supporting birds from both regions and a huge number of endemic species and subspecies.
Many of these are poorly known as suprisingly few birdwatchers and scientists have visited many of the islands, and there are few local ornithologists.
This thorough yet practical field guide will surely stimulate the study and conservation of the birds of this fascinating region.

• The first comprehebsive field guide to the Bismarck archipelago, Bourgainville, the Solomons, Vanuatu and New Caledonia
• Covers all 501 species recorded in Melanesia, 204 of which are endemic
• 86 superb plates illustrate almost every species, including many endemic subspecies
• Species texts give detailed identification and distributional information, as well as the key features for all subspecies
• Distribution bars are given for all species exept extreme vagrants

Famous for their size and elegance in flight, albatrosses are familiar to anyone who has travelled through the southern oceans, and are a flagship family of conservation concern.
However, albatrosses are just one of several groups of 'pelagic' birds - those that visit land only to breed, and spend the rest of their lives far from the coast, soaring from ocean to ocean in a never-ending search for food.
Mysterious and graceful, these birds can present a formidable identification challenge to even the most experienced birder.
This book provides the answer - the first comprehensive guide to pelagic birds, the albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, storm-petrels and diving petrels.

• A comprehensive guide to 137 species of pelagic seabirds, with subspecies and phases fully illustrated.
• Concise information opposite plates is designed for use in the field, with tips for identification at sea, at close range and over distance.
• Confusion species included on plates to assist accurate identification.
• Detailed species accounts include colour distribution maps for every species.

This new field guide is a complete and convenient reference to every species of Cetacean, Pinniped and Sirenian in the world, along with the Marine and Sea Otters and the Polar Bear.
Every species is illustrated with colour paintings and photographs, chosen to illustrate the key field marks which can be used to separate each species in the field.
The author's unique depth of experience and knowledge, coupled with the artist's unrivalled skill, have come together to produce a neat, practical field guide that will enable any observer to quickly identify any mammals they may encounter at sea.

• All 129 species illustrated with over 500 beautiful new artworks
• Easily confused species are also shown together on comparison plates
• Over 475 stunning colour photographs
• Informative, up-to-date species distribution maps, including viewing hotspots
• includes a useful guide to some of the best marine mamal watching sites