Owls of the Eastern ice : : a Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest owl

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Call Number: 598.97 Sl
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	598.97 Sl	4-week checkout	On Shelf

A village named Hell -- The first search -- Winter life in Agzu -- The quiet violence of this place -- Down the river -- Chepelev -- Here comes the water -- Riding the last ice to the coast -- Village of Samarga -- The Vladimir Goluzenko -- The sound of something ancient -- A fish owl nest -- Where the mile markers end -- The banality of road travel -- Flood -- Preparing to trap -- A near miss -- The hermit -- Stranded on the Tunsha River -- An owl in hand -- Radio silence -- The owl and the pigeon -- Leap of faith -- The currency of fish -- Enter Katkov -- Capture on the Serebryanka -- Awful devils such as us -- Katkov in exile -- The monotony of failure -- Following the fish -- California of the east -- Terney County without filter -- Blakiston's fish owl conservation.
When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist. Despite a wingspan of six feet and a height of over two feet, the Blakiston's fish owl is highly elusive. They are easiest to find in winter, when their tracks mark the snowy banks of the rivers where they feed. They are also endangered. And so, as Slaght and his devoted team set out to locate the owls, they aim to craft a conservation plan that helps ensure the species' survival. This quest sends them on all-night monitoring missions in freezing tents, mad dashes across thawing rivers, and free-climbs up rotting trees to check nests for precious eggs. They use cutting-edge tracking technology and improvise ingenious traps. And all along, they must keep watch against a run-in with a bear or an Amur tiger. At the heart of Slaght's story are the fish owls themselves: cunning hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat. Through this rare glimpse into the everyday life of a field scientist and conservationist, Owls of the Eastern Ice testifies to the determination and creativity essential to scientific advancement and serves as a powerful reminder of the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of the natural world.

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Insightful submitted by lvpratt on July 3, 2023, 9:29pm An engaging narrative about dissertation fieldwork combined with an ecological message. I read it just before departing for my own 11 months of fieldwork, and it inspired me to record my experiences in an intentional way. Full of funny characters plus the trials and foibles of science; I think it's a great book to help people see how science happens at the ground level -- (mostly) not with single moments of great discovery, but a lot of waiting, and error, and cold wet feet.