Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght
Nonfiction
Why you should read it: For the blend of breathless adventure and riveting observations of landscape, animals, and people. This account of Slaght’s doctoral work studying the elusive Blakiston’s fish owl of eastern Russia is part natural history, part travelogue, and part personal account of meeting human and natural challenges. Lively and clear writing places the reader at the center of the action, whether it is a slapdash snowmobile ride down a river of dangerously thin spring ice, or a solitary night observing an owl for the first time.
What it’s about: The very real difficulties of scientific field study in the most remote locations--challenged by severe weather, limited funding, equipment failure, and rounds of hard drinking by hosts and guests alike while trying to study the world’s largest (and least studied) owl. The Blakiston’s fish owl shares its habitat with the Amur tiger and is equally elusive and in need of conservation.
Here’s a taste: “The nights dragged on; a deep winter stillness perforated by occasional firecracker-like pops: ice expanding in tree cracks as air temperatures plummeted after sunset. The adult female fish owl was like a ghost. We heard her vocalize with her mate almost every night, but she appeared onscreen only once, when she hit our snare but pulled the knot free before we reached her.”
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