"Eagle Attacks Child"

Six years ago that was typical of the many headlines that appeared in newspapers throughout the world. A child was attacked by an eagle in a Montreal park and video proof was offered. The proof was soon found to be false and there was one less thing to worry about.
Given that many parents these days are highly attuned to the many, many dangers children face, they may have worried a little less about the eagle threat, but were probably kept awake wondering if such an event could happen.
I wasn't worried, but I did wonder. The event in this case was clearly fabricated, but I did recall reading about such attacks. I went looking for accounts of eagle attacks and found many of them over a period of 150+ years.
Recently the great eagle event of 2012 was referred to and I was reminded of all the hard work I did on behalf of worried parents everywhere. I was moved to assemble it all here and will attempt to embed the 50 page pdf in this post. If I fail, email me and I will send it to you.
Here are some samples to entice you. Although many of the reports I provide are from the United States, I can let my loyal Canadian readers know that I did find some that were close to Montreal. In 1881 a child was attacked near Gananoque and received minor injuries. The next year, a child was more seriously injured near Belleville. Things did not work out so well for the child in this account from 1895 and you can learn more of the gruesome details in the attached (I hope) report:
     “A few mornings since the wife of Jean Baptiste Romilly, a farmer in St. Vincent de Paul, a village about ten miles from Montreal, was feeding her fowls, while her child, aged about two years, was playing around, when suddenly a large bald-headed eagle swooped down and bore the little one off in its talons. The child screamed and extended its arms to its mother, who was beside herself with mental agony, but was powerless to render assistance...."   I can see that these snippets do nothing to ease the anxiety of anxious parents. I can assure you, however, that all the news is not bad and that the entire report will make you feel better.
For details see: Avian Abductions.
(or email me)

Nature Writing (2) - British Version

The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize

Having just posted for you a list of nature books that won an American award, here are some that have won the Wainwright Prize for "...the best writing on the general outdoors, nature and UK-based travel writing."

     The award is named for Alfred Wainwright (1907-1991) who produced Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. To learn more about him see the website for The Wainwright Society.

     The prize for the best UK Nature & Travel Writing is sponsored by Wainwright Golden Beer and the National Trust. For additional information and a list of the award winners see Wainwright Prize.

For your convenience, information about the past five winners is provided below:

The 2018 Winner

The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson, William Collins, 2017

"The Seabird’s Cry is a celebration of the wonders of seabirds, the only creatures at home in the air, on land and on the sea, but it also carries a stark warning about the rapid decline in seabird numbers. With numbers dropping by two thirds since the 1950s, Adam Nicolson suggests that the extinction of some species of seabirds within this century could be a very real possibility."

The 2017 Winner

Where Poppies Blow, John Lewis-Stempel, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. "Where Poppies Blow is the unique story of the British soldiers of the Great War and their relationship with the animals and plants around them. This connection was of profound importance, because it goes a long way to explaining why they fought, and how they found the will to go on. At the most basic level, animals and birds provided interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches and billets – bird-watching, for instance, was probably the single most popular hobby among officers. But perhaps more importantly, the ability of nature to endure, despite the bullets and blood, gave men a psychological, spiritual, even religious uplift."

The 2016 Winner

The Outrun, Amy Liptrot, Canongate Books

"After a decade of heavy partying and hard drinking in London, Amy Liptrot returns home to Orkney, a remote island off the north of Scotland. The Outrun maps Amy’s inspiring recovery as she walks along windy coasts, swims in icy Atlantic waters, tracks Orkney’s wildlife, and reconnects with her parents, revisiting and rediscovering the place that shaped her."

The 2015 Winner

Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field, John Lewis-Stempel, Doubleday

"In Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field, John Lewis-Stempel charts a year in the life of a field on his farm on the Herefordshire border. If you're thinking that sounds like it could be a claustrophobic or dull experience, put such ideas out of your mind immediately. Books have been written about entire countries that contain a less interesting cast of characters than Lewis-Stempel's account of one field on the edge of Wales. Foxes, red kites and voles become as intricately shaded as characters in an HBO drama, the readers' sympathies swinging between them and their adversaries. Not every English meadow contains such a vast variety of wildlife as Lewis-Stempel's, and he's lucky to live somewhere so unspoilt, but his immense, patient powers of observation – along with a flair for the anthropomorphic – mean he is able to offer a portrait of animal life that's rare in its colour and drama."

The 2014 Winner

     

The Green Road Into The Trees: A Walk through England, Hugh Thomson "Hugh Thompson said: “After years of travelling in exotic places like Peru, Mexico and the Indian Himalaya, this book gave me the chance to explore perhaps the strangest of them all - my own.”

Still Christmas Shopping?

Here are the ones that were shortlisted for 2018:

The Last Wilderness by Neil Ansell (Tinder Press)

"Neil sets the experience of being in nature alone within the context of a series of walks that he takes into the most remote parts of Britain, the rough bounds in the Scottish Highlands."

Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler (Hodder & Stoughton)

"Alys writes about a journey exploring the one hundred miles of navigable canals around Birmingham where she lives by boat."

Outskirts by John Grindrod (Sceptre)

"The green belt: a mystery of modern life. It doesn’t appear on maps, it is not signposted, and it is hard to know where it lies. It also stirs up fiery emotions. Here John Grindrod tells the story of the creation of these mysterious tracts of land: the people who dreamt up the idea; how and when they came into operation; and what people get up to in them."

The Dun Cow Rib by John Lister-Kaye (Canongate)

"John Lister-Kaye has spent a lifetime exploring, protecting and celebrating the British landscape and its wildlife.  His joyous childhood holidays – spent scrambling through hedges and ditches after birds and small beasts, keeping pigeons in the loft and tracking foxes around the edge of the garden – were the perfect apprenticeship for his two lifelong passions: exploring the wonders of nature, and writing about them.  Warm, wise and full of wonder, The Dun Cow Rib is a captivating coming of age tale by one of the founding fathers of nature writing."

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (Hamish Hamilton)

“The Lost Words is a stunning book beautifully written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris that represents a lost lexicon of nature. It seems impossible, laughable, that words like acorn, bluebell, fern, newt, otter and wren have been omitted from certain dictionaries because they are no longer relevant to modern-day childhood, but it is sadly true."

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn (Michael Joseph)

"In one devastating week, Raynor and her husband Moth lost their home of 20 years, just as a terminal diagnosis threatened to take away their future together. With nowhere else to go, they decided to walk the South West Coast Path: a 630-mile sea-swept trail from Somerset to Dorset, via Devon and Cornwall. The Salt Path is a piece of nature writing in the form of a memoir."

Nature Writing

Books That Have Won The John Burroughs Medal

    John Burroughs (1837-1921) wrote many essays and books about nature, and the Association that honours him "...strives to enrich lives through nature by encouraging and promoting nature writing." For most years since 1926 a John Burroughs Medal has been awarded to those authors who have produced "... exceptional nature writing that combines accurate scientific information, firsthand fieldwork, and creative natural history writing."
     If you are Christmas shopping and are tired of the titles du jour or suspicious of the ones recommended by the clerk at the big box store, have a look at the award winners below.
    All of the annual winners for this century are listed. If you live in the London area and have access to the libraries up at Western or use the public London Public Library system, note that I have indicated whether the books are available locally at this time.

The Winner for 2018

"David Haskell has won acclaim for eloquent writing and deep engagement with the natural world. Now, he brings his powers of observation to the biological networks that surround all species, including humans. Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees, exploring  connections with people, microbes, fungi, and other plants and animals. He takes us to  trees in cities (from Manhattan to Jerusalem), forests (Amazonian, North American, and boreal) and areas on the front lines of environmental change (eroding coastlines, burned mountainsides, and war zones.)  In each place he shows how human history, ecology, and well-being are intimately intertwined with the lives of trees."

Western Libraries -Taylor Library Stack 6 (S6) - Regular Loan QH541.5.F6H375 

Copies also available in the London Public Library System

The Winner for 2017

“Dave is fourteen years old, living with his family in a cabin on Oregon's Mount Hood (or as he prefers to call it, like the Multnomah tribal peoples once did, Wy'east). Dave will soon enter high school, with adulthood and a future not far off-a future away from his mother, father, his precocious younger sister, and the wilderness where he's lived all his life. And Dave is not the only one approaching adulthood and its freedoms on Wy'east that summer. Martin, a pine marten (of the mustelid family), is leaving his own mother and siblings and setting off on his own as well.” This is a work of fiction which is unusual for a winner of the Medal. Copies available in the London Public Library System.

The Winner for 2016

"In the exploding world of citizen science, hundreds of thousands of volunteers are monitoring climate change, tracking bird migration, finding stardust for NASA, and excavating mastodons. The sheer number of citizen scientists, combined with new technology, has begun to shape how research is conducted. Non-professionals become acknowledged experts: dentists turn into astronomers and accountants into botanists.Diary of a Citizen Scientist is a timely exploration of this phenomenon, told through the lens of nature writer Sharman Apt Russell’s yearlong study of a little-known species, the Western red-bellied tiger beetle. In a voice both humorous and lyrical, Russell recounts her persistent and joyful tracking of an insect she calls “charismatic,” “elegant,” and “fierce.” Patrolling the Gila River in southwestern New Mexico, collector’s net in hand, she negotiates the realities of climate change even as she celebrates the beauty of a still-wild and rural landscape."

N/A -Dec. 2018

Winner for 2015

"A long-time Alaskan, Simpson offers a series of compelling essays on Alaskan bears in both wild and urban spaces—because in Alaska, bears are found not only in their natural habitat but also in cities and towns. Combining field research, interviews, and a host of up-to-date scientific sources, her finely polished prose conveys a wealth of information and insight on ursine biology, behavior, feeding, mating, social structure, and much more."

N/A - Dec. 2018

The Winner for 2014

“In Sightlines, Kathleen Jamie takes us, for the most part, to the northern fringes of human habitation, and then beyond. She looks at gannets in Shetland, whale skeletons in Bergen, petrels in Rona, the northern lights in Greenland.” N/A - Dec. 2018 Here are the rest of the winners for this century with an indication of whether the books are available in libraries in the London area in Dec. 2018.

2013: Hanson, Thor, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, Basic Books, 2011

Western Libraries has an e-version for those affiliated with Western.

Copies available in the London Public Library System

2012:Hoagland, Edward (Ted), Sex and the River Styx, Chelsea Green, 2011

Copies available in the London Public Library System

2011

Bailey, Elisabeth Tova, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, Algonquin Books, 2010

Copies available in the London Public Library System

2010: Welland, Michael, Sand, University of California Press, 2009
N/A

2009: Burroughs, Franklin, Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay, Tilbury House, 2006
N/A

2008: Whitty, Julia, The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific, 

Taylor Library Stack 6 (S6) - Regular Loan QH198.F74W48 2007 (Western)

Copies available in the LPL System

 2007: Meloy, Ellen. Eating Stone:Imagination and the Lost of the Wild. Pantheon Books. 

Weldon Library 5th Floor - Regular Loan QL737.U53M44 2005   (Western)

2006: Kroodsma, Donald. The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Bird Song,  Houghton Mifflin, 2005. 

Taylor Library Stack 5 (S5) - Regular Loan QL698.5.K76 2005   (Western)

2005: Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Oregon State University Press, 2003.

Storage - Use "Request Item" Button - Regular Loan QK537.K56 2003   (Western)

2004: Levin, Ted. Liquid Land: A Journey Through The Florida Everglades The University of Georgia Press, 2003.

Storage - Use "Request Item" Button - Regular Loan QH105.F6L47 2003  (Western) 

2003: Safina, Carl. Eye Of The Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival Henry Holt and Company, 

Copies available in the LPL System

2002: Lamberton, Ken. Wilderness and Razor Wire. Mercury House, 2000.
N/A

2001: Carroll, David M. Swampwalker's Journal. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Storage - Use "Request Item" Button - Regular Loan QH105.N4C27 1999  

2000: Heindrich, Bernd. Mind Of the Raven. New York : HarperCollins, 1999.

Taylor Library Stack 5 (S5) - Regular Loan QL696.P2367H445 1999  (Western)

Copies available in the LPL System

Sources:

For the other winners of the Burroughs Medal dating back to 1926 see the website of the John Burroughs Association. (In some years an award was not given.) An award is also given for the best nature essay. In 2018 the winner is: “The Keeper of the Ghost Bird,” by Jenn Dean, published by the Massachusetts Review, in its October 2017 issue. That periodical is available online at the Western Libraries for those affiliated with Western.
The works of John Burroughs are available over the internet. A list of his books is easily located on the John Burroughs Association website.

You can even read his original journals which were made available by Vassar College to the Hudson River Valley Heritage and are found here. (the journal entries are fairly clear, but transcriptions are also provided.)

Edward Gorey's Library

There is a new biography of Gorey and a review of it in the Dec.10th issue of the New Yorker, the cover of which consists of Gorey's cats. I was not particularly interested in Gorey, but am more so now. I recall seeing many of his illustrations over the years on book covers and in children's books, most of which are now probably deemed inappropriate (The Gashlycrumb Tinies... for example: "I is for Ida who drowned in a lake" - "J is for James who took lye by mistake"). The title of the new biography is illustrated above.
Early in the review Gorey is quoted as having said, "I can't go out without buying a book," and later the reviewer notes that he ended up with 21,000 of them. As you probably don't know, I have posted before about "boys with books" (Mailer and Roth) and a "bloke with books" (Colin Wilson) and another guy who also had around 20,000 (Chimen Abramsky). So, I wondered what happened to all those Gorey books.
If you go to the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA you won't find them, but you will find a book store, a good biography and some interesting exhibits. It looks like a good place to visit if you are on your way to the Cape. If you are in the general area you should also visit the Wadsworth Atheneum (in Hartford, CN) since Gorey gave them many of the other things he collected and they often stage exhibits and lectures related to him.
His books are now located on the other coast, however, which is a good thing given the weather. Visit San Diego State University and you will find 26,000 volumes in the "Edward Gorey Personal Library" held in the archives. If you click on that link you can find out why they ended up there, listen to a lecture and read the blog Goreyana.
If you prefer not to leave the country you can check out the Gorey collection at McGill: “The collection of the American designer, illustrator and author Edward Gorey (1925-2000) consists of books by and/or illustrated by him. The books, of which there are eighty-eight volumes, are mostly first editions and date from the period ca 1950 to 1980. As well, there is a small body of ephemera including book jackets by and articles about Gorey.”
If you are still not satisfied you can go to the Columbia University Library which has material donated by the architect and attorney, Andrew Alpern, who spent over 50 years collecting Gorey books and memorabilia. The collection "is chock-full of everything from books, postcards, photographs, and newspaper clippings to T-shirts, pot holders, mugs, and plastic party cups—all decorated with Gorey’s illustrations." For an interesting article about Alpern see: "A Treasure Trove of Edward Gorey," Eve Bowen, New York Review of Books, Aug. 4, 2012.



Post Script
Curious about what the university close by (Western) might have by and about Gorey, I looked and was surprised to find as many books as I did. Part of the explanation relates to the fact that many are held in the LGBTQ "Pride Library". As an aside, although the author of the new biography apparently focuses a lot on "gayness" the reviewer does not think it important. Nor did Gorey.

I noted by the way that the name of the donor of some of the Gorey books is given as: Empress II Madison Hart, Royal Imperial Sovereign Court of London and of Southwestern Ontario.
Surely the Empress is worth a post.....when I get time.

Insect Apocalypse

My only purpose here is to call your attention to an article that you should read even though it will spoil your day. It is a long article and I will not attempt to summarize it since I already wrote an elegy to insects over a year ago. It is not that I was particularly prescient, I was just paying attention. If you read this essay and my elegy your work will be done.

  The essay is a very good one; do read the whole thing: “The Insect Apocalypse is Here: What Does it Mean For the Rest of Life on Earth?”, Brooke Jarvis, Nov. 27, 2018, The New York Times Magazine.  Here is a sample paragraph:

"Entomologists also knew that climate change and the overall degradation of global habitat are bad news for biodiversity in general, and that insects are dealing with the particular challenges posed by herbicides and pesticides, along with the effects of losing meadows, forests and even weedy patches to the relentless expansion of human spaces. There were studies of other, better-understood species that suggested that the insects associated with them might be declining, too. People who studied fish found that the fish had fewer mayflies to eat. Ornithologists kept finding that birds that rely on insects for food were in trouble: eight in 10 partridges gone from French farmlands; 50 and 80 percent drops, respectively, for nightingales and turtledoves. Half of all farmland birds in Europe disappeared in just three decades. At first, many scientists assumed the familiar culprit of habitat destruction was at work, but then they began to wonder if the birds might simply be starving. In Denmark, an ornithologist named Anders Tottrup was the one who came up with the idea of turning cars into insect trackers for the windshield-effect study after he noticed that rollers, little owls, Eurasian hobbies and bee-eaters — all birds that subsist on large insects such as beetles and dragonflies — had abruptly disappeared from the landscape."

 

Post Script
     Also discussed in the essay is the "shifting baseline syndrome" which basically indicates that what is "normal" changes over time. If you are a child that has rarely seen a bug or a blue sky you won't miss them (and you will be diagnosed with "nature deficit disorder".) That reminded me of the recent furor over the decision to remove some words from the new Oxford Junior English Dictionary since children wouldn't be familiar with them - words like "heron", "nectar",  "acorn" and "buttercup". If you are interested see:"How the Loss of Vivid, Exacting Language Diminishes Our World," Meara Sharma, The Washington Post, Dec. 8, 2017 and "What's a Dictionary's Job? To Tell Us How to Use Words or To Show Us How We're Using Them," Scott Huler, The Washington Post, Jan. 25, 2018. And if you are really serious: "Badger or Bulbasaur - Have Children Lost Touch With Nature?', The Guardian, Sept. 30, 2017.
     Among the new words we adults will need: "Anthropocene" and "Eremocine" which means the "age of loneliness."

Little Toller Books

Little Toller Books is a little publisher located in West Dorset and if you choose to go walking in England you can stay at their shop. If you are looking for new or classic books relating to nature, visit the Little Toller website. Here is a recent endorsement from Michael Ondaatje:







Michael Ondaatje, "By the Book," New York Times, June 14, 2018.
“What was the last truly great book you read?"
“Actually I am still reading it. Gilbert White’s “The Natural History of Selborne,” published by the wonderful Little Toller Books in Dorset, which keeps great books on nature in print. Written in 1798, it has the atmosphere and many of the qualities of a great English novel, except that the Bennet family has been replaced by weather and landscapes, as well as the seasonal arrival of visiting insects, all of them faultlessly described. White’s writing, with his depiction of a returning rainstorm or the slow wanderings of his tortoise, is great literature at a perfect pace, every creature dressed and portrayed in quick-witted adjectives; and he enthralls us with his knowledge of crickets, who are a “thirsty race,” who “open communications from one room to another” and who can sometimes foretell the death of a near relation or the approach of an absent lover. The book is a classic and has never been out of print since its first publication.”

The title of one of Little Toller's new books was puzzling to me: Orison For A Curlew. 'Orison' is an archaic word for 'a prayer' and the subtitle of the book is, In Search of a Bird on the Brink of Extinction.

If you go to the Little Toller website you can order a set of their books and probably get them in time for Christmas. If you would like to sample the wares first, go to their site and read some of the essays in The Clearing, their online journal.

Post Script
Unfortunately the curlew is not the only bird on the verge of extinction. If you choose to read The Clearing you will find within it a very good essay by Anita Roy: "Vultures on the Brink." You may recall that I posted about this subject a while back. See: "Vanishing Vultures."