Falcon (Animal Series)

I loved H is for Hawk...This book is very different, so educational, and you will be learning so many essential things about birds of prey! I am a would-be falconer, just at the very beginning of that journey. Thanks for the help along the way!

great read

given as a gift for someone very interested in falconry - I myself did not read it but receiver was delighted

Second half of book more enjoyable .

I'm too late to say the first nice thing about Helen Macdonald. Doubtless her writing----scholarly work, essays, and erudite poetry----have made heads nod and shake in amazement for years. Author Steve Bodio recently raved of this fellow writer and falconer: "Her blog posts are better than most essays published for money today. I just went through the latest New Yorker and there was nothing to compare with her best." Agreed. With Falcon, her first book on birds, Helen Macdonald manages to make a lesser work of everyone else's treatment of the topic. That's a big claim: Many remarkable writers and scientists cover the field, but none I know have yet produced a book as smart, insightful, literate or original. Billed by the publisher as a "cultural and natural history of the falcon," Falcon simply could not have been written by anyone else. Listed among Macdonald's fields of study at Jesus College, Cambridge (where she is a Research Fellow), are: "History of ecology, amateur natural history, biological field-sciences and field-sports/hunting in 20th Century cultures; history of conservation and ethology; history of biological warfare; war and nature." War and nature! There's depth of interest for you. I could add military aviation to the list, an area of expertise that finds its way often and effectively into the text: "What of flight, the single most celebrated falcon characteristic? Falcon bodies are heavy in relation to their wing area...Their wings have a high aspect ratio----the ratio between the wingspan and the wing width----and their low-camber wings are long and pointed. The result is a low-drag confirmation more suited to active, flapping flight and fast gliding than soaring." Adding poetry to physics, Macdonald describes a stooping falcon this way: "At speeds of over 100 miles an hour, the minutest alterations to her body shape gave punishingly exaggerated effects; she looked, as Franklin later described, shrink-wrapped, mummified. And just as it seemed impossible for her to fall any faster, she'd change her shape again." The military deployment (that's right: deployment) of trained falcons gets its own chapter in this uniquely well-rounded falcon book. Other sections examine the raptors' biology, conservation, and successful adaptations to urban life. Macdonald reserves one chapter for the looming mythical status of falcons throughout history. And of course, falconry receives special treatment. Our sport takes pride of place in the center of the book, skillfully tying its wide-ranging topics together. Throughout the text you'll find surprising revelations (no "trivia") that could only result from extensive and enthusiastic study. For example, did you know? "Falconry techniques and knowledges have been traded between disparate cultures for millennia. European knights took falcons with them on the Crusades, and learned how to hood falcons from their foes...Falconry's symbolic system was largely shared between both sides, and so it was able to articulate power-struggles in ways immediately comprehensible to either." Then, typically Macdonald, a wry anecdote illustrates the point: "A besieged Richard I sent an envoy to Saladin to request food for his starving falcons; Saladin immediately delivered baskets of his best poultry for the falcons alone." What Macdonald does with Falcon is bring all of herself to the subject. She breathes life into the work; pulls the lives of falcons and people together into a rare three-dimensional portrait. The effect is illuminating.

I discovered the "Animal" series a couple of years ago and have been reading through all of them. This is one of the best of a very good series. If you are interested in falcons, this is a good book. As in all the series, it includes natural history, the animal as a cultural figure and how cultures have made use of the animal. I found some surprises, and if the book were updated might find more. They see polarized light, so while we humans see three colors, falcons see four. They may see things ten times faster than we do, so a blur to a human eye might be slow motion to a falcon. She also refers to military study of the falcon--how does a peregrine falcon not black out when hurtling down at top speed, experiencing many G's. And adult falcons will drop dead or disabled prey from high up so that young falcons can learn to hunt. Chapters include Natural History; Mythical Falcons; Trained Falcons; Threatened Falcons; Military Falcons; and Urban Falcons. There is a good deal of natural history and descriptions of various species, as well as discussions of falconry and how falcons have recently become re-established in some big cities. The bird as a cultural item may seem odd, but recall how the Egyptians made huge numbers of falcon mummies, and made a falcon sort of god, or how a medieval emperor wrote what is still considered a classic work on falconry.

Self possessed.

The author went and found the history and usage of falcons and falconry. My chapter in particular was all about the past and present of falcons. From the readers point of view it was very informational, not very exciting and told you how falconry traveled and was used by different cultures. She told readers where falconry came from and how important it is to different cultures around the world because people don't understand the reason why falconry is not just training your pet falcon to hunt and fly around for you. The explanation of training falcons gave the reader insight to what it means and takes to become a falconer, essentially telling the reader that it takes skill, discipline, and patience, to train a falcon. The ways to train falcons was passed on to one another and the knowledge did not just belong to just belong to one country, it belonged to everyone. I thought that the chapter was informative but not creative enough to deliver the information. I lost interest at parts of the chapter and ended up re-reading parts with breaks so I could concentrate. The chapter was too wordy where it would explain the main point and then explain interesting but non-essential facts that would distract the flow of the chapter.

Wow, this book is as much fun to read as H is for Hawk. Anyone interested in falcons must buy this book. MacDonald is thoroughly knowledgeable and not afraid to express vivid opinions on the ways humans have mythologized, exterminated, and exploited these incredible birds.

Bought as a gift. No complaints. So probably a good read. Other books by same author have been enjoyable

No me ha decepcionado nada en absoluto. Ha superado espectativas es increíble esperaba mucho pero ya digo ha superado mis espectativas y no os cuento nada por qué no me gusta destripar los contenidos ...

I love this series and now this one of the series. Helen Macdonald is very knowledgable and she writes so well, she's thorough and articulate, couldn't be better. I know a bit about the subject and am much more informed after reading this gem. Glad to add it to my library. Good condition book, excellent value, thanks.

I really enjoyed 'H is for Hawk' and so thought to give this one a go. It's a very different book and so if you were expecting more of the same, then just be ready for the fact that it isn't.. Does that make it bad? Absolutely not. There is some good content here and I enjoyed reading it, if it is a bit "US centric" at times. I'd read a few falconry-related books in the past, but still learned a bunch of new things here, so all good on that front. Just not quite what I was expecting or hoping for, which is why I 'docked' it one star.