The current buzz: giss

Check out this Fort Wayne News Sentinel article about birding by impression, the basis for two recent books: The Shorebird Guide by Crossley, Karlson and O'Brien and Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion. "Giss" stands for "general impression of size and shape."

Kevin Karlson -- who writes the Birder's I.D. column in each issue -- provided a glimpse at the shorebird book's gist in the January/February issue. An excerpt of Dunne's work appeared in the May/June issue.