The predecessor to Helen Macdonalds H Is for Hawk, T. H. Whites nature-writing classic, The Goshawk, asks the age-old question: What is it that binds human beings to other animals? White, author of The Once and Future King and Mistress Mashams Repose, was a young writer who found himself rifling through old handbooks of falconry. A particular sentencethe bird reverted to a feral stateseized his imagination, and, White later wrote, A longing came to my mind that I should be able to do this myself. The word feral has a kind of magical potency which allied itself to two other words, ferocious and free. Immediately White wrote to Germany to acquire a young goshawk. Gos, as White named the bird, was ferocious and Gos was free, and White had no idea how to break him in beyond the ancient (and, as it happened, long superseded) practice of depriving him of sleep, which meant that he, White, also went without rest. Slowly man and bird entered a state of delirium and intoxication, of attraction and repulsion that looks very much like love.
White kept a daybook describing his volatile relationship with Gosat once a tale of obsession, a comedy of errors, and a hymn to the hawk. It was this that became The Goshawk, one of modern literatures most memorable and surprising encounters with the wildernessas it exists both within us and without.
Are birds monogamous? Why do kookaburras laugh? Is the ivory-billed woodpecker really extinct? These fascinating stories feature the delightful and exotic sounds of birds, plus astute and informative commentary from bird lovers, bird experts, and so...
New research indicates that crows are among the brightest animals in the world. And professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington John Marzluff has done some of the most extraordinary research on crows, which has been featured in The...
In this extraordinary narrative, Alan Tennant recounts his all-out effort to radio-track the transcontinental migration of the peregrine falcon -- an investigation no one before him had ever taken to such lengths. On the Wing transports us from the...
Simon Barnes is one of Britain’s leading bird writers and humorists. His weekly column in The Times, his essays for the RSPB magazine and his two books on bad bird-watching have made him one of the characters of the bird world. Here he re...
A classic in the making -- an account of the biggest year in birdwatching history.In the USA, some 50 million people lay claim to being bird-watchers or “birders,” spending billions of dollars on birding-related travel and membership fee...
Narrator: Del Roy,Oliver Wyman Published: 02/03/2004
A classic in the making -- an account of the biggest year in birdwatching history.In the USA, some 50 million people lay claim to being bird-watchers or “birders,” spending billions of dollars on birding-related travel and membership fee...
Narrator: Del Roy,Oliver Wyman Published: 10/15/2003
For the first time ever, Eastern and Western Bird Song audio guides from the famed team of Donald and Lillian Stokes will be available in one comprehensive box set with new premium packaging. An incredible 923 species from all of North America are...
For the first time ever, Eastern and Western Bird Song audio guides from the famed team of Donald and Lillian Stokes will be available in one comprehensive box set with new premium packaging. An incredible 923 species from all of North America are...
When Helen Macdonalds father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer captivated by hawks since childhood, shed never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators: the goshawk. But in her grief,...
