Review by Booklist Review
Gessner insists that this is not a bird book but, instead, a book about the nature of human happiness. Many of the people in it "have turned their attention to things with feathers that fly." Gessner had become obsessed with ospreys while on Cape Cod and decided to follow a flock when the flock left at the end of the summer on its annual migration. The birds fly over the eastern U.S., then over Cuba, and spend the winter in South America. Gessner joined a BBC crew making a documentary, traveling illegally into the mountains of Cuba and then into Venezuela. They traveled by car, plane, boat, and on foot to follow these raptors, whose wingspread measures six feet. Gessner describes the birds' antics and writes about the people he meets along the way. Despite what Gessner says, however, the book really is about birds; he also happens to be the author of Return of the Osprey0 (2001) and The Prophet of Dry Hill0 (2005). This is a thoughtful and loving examination of these beautiful creatures. --George Cohen Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the outset, Gessner tells readers that "[t]his is not a bird book"; indeed, it's more about what Gessner came to understand about himself by spending day after day studying one particular species of bird, the osprey. Gessner, who previously wrote Return of the Osprey, which focuses on the effort to rescue ospreys from DDT annihilation, this time turns his attention to migration-why ospreys migrate to Central and South America every winter, and what they do when they're there. He tracked ospreys on one basic migration route-from Cape Cod to Cuba and back. While Gessner weaves in the science of tracking the birds, it's his rowboat-and-binoculars approach to the subject that will most attract readers. Spending days watching ospreys and chatting with other bird-watchers, Gessner discovers the "joy in reducing life to one thing." Gessner writes beautifully, with grace and humor. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Birds of prey attract aficionados as no other group of birds does. Gessner (creative writing, Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington; Return of the Osprey), a charming, literate maverick, tells of his travels and travails following ospreys ("fish hawks") in their migrations. Much of his journey's drama derives from the fact that his project, by happenstance, competes with a parallel, simultaneous one of the BBC, with all of its resources. Unorganized and of modest means, Gessner is nevertheless knowledgeable, lucky, and endearing himself to key experts and authorities along the way. He engagingly takes the reader down the East Coast, to Cuba, and to Colombia using information from birds tracked by satellite and his own narrative of travel to and within these places. His book shares many of the good qualities of On the Wing by Alan Tennant, another off-center character and gifted writer who followed wide-ranging peregrine falcons in a small plane. Good reading; recommended for the biology and natural history collections of all libraries, especially large public.-Henry T. Armistead, formerly with the Free Lib. of Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
One man's serendipitous adventures and misadventures as he follows the annual southern migration of his favorite birds. Longtime osprey observer Gessner (Creative Writing/Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington; Return of the Osprey, 2001, etc.) began his journey on Cape Cod in September 2004. Armed with the usual birding equipment, plus a cassette recorder and journal for recording his impressions, he seems to have also taken along Lady Luck as a traveling companion. On a tight budget and schedule, he was repeatedly given advice, directions to good sites and even room and board by fellow birders he met along the way. While focused on the behavior of a particular species, this is also about birders and their highly competitive sport. The author himself was in competition with a British television crew that was tracking five ospreys on their southern migration with the aid of a satellite and sophisticated telemetry. One osprey, dubbed Bluebeard by the Brits, Gessner renamed Fidel, hoping he would see it in Cuba. Getting to Cuba was an adventure in itself, as was getting around the country once he arrived. The author went back to North Carolina for a brief stay with his wife and daughter before setting out for the jungles of Venezuela, taking along as a sort of bodyguard a friend who resembled "a large, hairy scarecrow." Much beer and many birds later, they returned home safely. Gessner's account is filled with nitty-gritty details about the days and nights of an itinerant birder and beautifully detailed descriptions of ospreys in action. When actual observations were not possible, he imagined what the ospreys were doing and writes intelligently of that. In the final chapter, while summering on Cape Cod, Gessner learned that Fidel had been tracked back to Martha's Vineyard, and it was there that he got to see his special bird. A grand adventure, not just for birders and nature lovers. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
