Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook358 pages5 hours
Raptor: A Journey through Birds
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
From the merlin to the golden eagle, the goshawk to the honey buzzard, James Macdonald Lockhart’s stunning debut is a quest of beak, talon, wing, and sky. On its surface, Raptor is a journey across the British Isles in search of fifteen species of birds of prey, but as Lockhart seeks out these elusive predators, his quest becomes so much more: an incomparably elegant elegy on the beauty of the British landscape and, through the birds, a journey toward understanding an awesome power at the heart of the natural world—a power that is majestic and frightening in its strength, but also fragile.
Taking as his guide the nineteenth-century Scottish naturalist and artist William MacGillivray, Lockhart loosely follows the historical trail forged by MacGillivray as he ventured from Aberdeen to London filling his pockets with plants and writing and illustrating the canonical A History of British Birds. Linking his journey to that of his muse, Lockhart shares his own encounters with raptors ranging from the scarce osprey to the successfully reintroduced red kite, a species once protected by medieval royal statute, revealing with poetic immediacy the extraordinary behaviors of these birds and the extreme environments they call home.
Creatures both worshipped and reviled, raptors have a talon-hold on the human heart and imagination. With his book, Lockhart unravels these complicated ties in a work by turns reverent and euphoric—an interweaving of history, travel, and nature writing at its best. A hymn to wanderers, to the land and to the sky, and especially to the birds, Raptor soars.
Taking as his guide the nineteenth-century Scottish naturalist and artist William MacGillivray, Lockhart loosely follows the historical trail forged by MacGillivray as he ventured from Aberdeen to London filling his pockets with plants and writing and illustrating the canonical A History of British Birds. Linking his journey to that of his muse, Lockhart shares his own encounters with raptors ranging from the scarce osprey to the successfully reintroduced red kite, a species once protected by medieval royal statute, revealing with poetic immediacy the extraordinary behaviors of these birds and the extreme environments they call home.
Creatures both worshipped and reviled, raptors have a talon-hold on the human heart and imagination. With his book, Lockhart unravels these complicated ties in a work by turns reverent and euphoric—an interweaving of history, travel, and nature writing at its best. A hymn to wanderers, to the land and to the sky, and especially to the birds, Raptor soars.
Unavailable
Author
James Macdonald Lockhart
James Macdonald Lockhart is an associate editor of, and regular contributor to, Archipelago Magazine, and a literary agent at Antony Harwood Limited.
Related to Raptor
Related ebooks
Raptor: A Journey through Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of a Feather: A Brief History of American Birding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Know the Birds: The Art and Adventure of Birding Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Bird Identification: A Straightforward Approach to Putting a Name to the Bird Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent's Natural Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGulls Simplified: A Comparative Approach to Identification Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Bird Finding: Before You ID Them, You Have to See Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ornithology in Laboratory and Field Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Edge of the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Birding: Tips, Tools, and Concepts for the Field Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why Dinosaurs Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raptors: The Curious Nature of Diurnal Birds of Prey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Meaning of Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trees of Eastern North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Europe Travel For You
From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes from a Small Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Family and Other Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Corfu Trilogy: My Family and Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and Relatives; and The Garden of the Gods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Spanish : How To Learn Spanish Fast In Just 168 Hours (7 Days) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Unlocking Spanish with Paul Noble Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conversational French Quick and Easy: The Most Innovative Technique to Learn the French Language. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Huckleberry Finn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5North: How to Live Scandinavian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mastering Spanish Words: Increase Your Vocabulary with Over 3000 Spanish Words in Context Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Everything Travel Guide to Ireland: From Dublin to Galway and Cork to Donegal - a complete guide to the Emerald Isle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLysistrata Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Easy Learning Italian Conversation: Trusted support for learning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Hate Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Bucket List Europe: From the Epic to the Eccentric, 500+ Ultimate Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEasy Learning French Conversation: Trusted support for learning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Creeper: an atmospheric, chilling horror from the author of The Watchers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Frommer's Athens and the Greek Islands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Raptor
Rating: 3.625 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
8 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A lovely mix of history and natural history. It introduces William MacGillivray, the underrated ornithologist ,to those of us who have never heard of him. James MacDonald Lockhart writes a lot about the spaces in between, and his has to fit his raptor watching into the spaces of his own life. It is also a heartbreaking story of absences and persecution, both historic and ongoing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raptors have captivated and enthralled man for millennia. Remains of sea eagles have been found in Neolithic tombs and imagery of these magnificent creatures have been discovered all over Europe in art dating back thousands of years. These birds are the pinnacle of the food chain, each having some specialty that makes them super deadly killers. In his debut book, Lockhart uses a chapter to explore each of the 15 species of raptors that live and breed in this country visiting parts of the country from the far north in Orkney, to the sunny climes of south Devon, where it is best to see these magnificent birds.
But there is more to this book than just the raptors. It is also an eulogy to the Scottish naturalist William MacGillivray. He was an artist and writer of some repute, and was famous for walking over 800 miles from Aberdeen to London with the intention of visiting the British Museum’s natural history and bird section. Along the way he collected many plants, and was described as a walking scarecrow at times. MacGillivray was also fascinated by the raptor, though he thinks nothing of killing the subjects of his study, but he did contribute much to the study of all things wild.
It is the raptors that star in the book though. In each of the locations he visits, Lockhart is prepared to camp out and wait for the birds to appear on their daily hunts. He sits watching massive sea eagles harassing gulls for the fish that they have caught, trying to catch the blistering fast peregrines hunt over Coventry cathedral, sees red kites hovering over the Welsh Hills and a hobby plucking dragonflies from the air at the Arne peninsular in Dorset. Each of the birds has a moment to shine in its chapter. He notes other birds that he encounters on his trips, from the tiny wrens that flit throught the hedgerows, ravens that mob buzzards, to a surreal
Whilst this is a really good debut book by Lockhart, it sadly doesn’t soar like the birds he is following. His writing is lyrical and the detail on each of the raptors and his journeys to see them is fascinating, but I think the addition of MacGillivray’s epic journey, even though there is strong links to what Lockhart is writing about, is a bit of a distraction. There is precious little on the challenges facing these birds even today; they are still poisoned and shot by gamekeepers and by others afraid of losing livestock. That said, Lockheart has the potential to be a quality natural history writer and I am looking forward to his next book.