Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the Forest - WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2022

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This book is for anyone that loves nature, birds, exploring, and preserving what is illustrious and precious within our surroundings.

Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the

Goshawks are unpredictable birds; it can be incredibly difficult to locate them, as they do not like to be seen. Aldred comments: 'Some are skittish; others brazen. Some like low and stay put; others slope off the nest and melt away the moment anyone steps foot in their wood.' They more often than not nest in the same place, returning year after year; they can use the same physical nest for up to a decade. DNA research into goshawks is currently taking place and this will allow us to build up a better picture of the species’ population genetic structure, its dispersal from nesting areas and also the relationship between different birds within the population. Although this book is not designed to be a monograph on the Goshawk it does include many interesting observations, such as the female returning to the nest and sprinkling fresh pine needles onto the male while he is incubating. I've not read about that before and conceivably nobody has been close enough to a nest for long enough to witness it. Could it have been an attempt to get him to move, or did she simply want to add fresh greenery and he happened to be in the way?The images he evokes in his diary entries are highly descriptive and transport you to the heart of the natural environment. Other creatures are also described - Dartford warblers, curlews, dragonflies, foxes among them - and James's love for, and understanding of, these creatures shines through every paragraph. Aldred is the author of one previous book, entitled The Man Who Climbs Trees, and has worked as a wildlife cameraman and documentary filmmaker since 1997. He has worked with the likes of the legendary David Attenborough, and has won awards for his work. As one would expect, for a filmmaker skilled particularly in filming from heights using aerial equipment, Aldred has worked all over the world. In early 2020, he was located in East Africa following a family of cheetahs.

Goshawk Summer - Eventbrite James Aldred: Goshawk Summer - Eventbrite

Supposedly their population is increasing, the one thing that suggests their situation isn’t as dire as the hen harrier’s, but I really wonder about that. A pole trap set in dense woodland is probably even harder to spot than one on a moor and would be devastating for goshawks. I can imagine them gravitating towards the same places they shoot pheasants at anyway, all those poults would be an additional attraction – some lost to goshawk grudged whereas beak to tail roadkill is acceptable. Goshawk do need more attention. Petty, S.J. (2002). Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis. In Wernham, C.V., Toms, M.P., Marchant, J.H., Clark, J.A., Siriwardena, G.M. and Baillie, S.R. (Eds.). The Migration Atlas: Movements of the Birds of Britain and Ireland. Poyser, London. Pp. 232-234. Award-winning documentary film-maker James Aldred spent the spring and summer of 2020 filming Goshawks in the New Forest, his childhood home. This book, presented in an extended diary form, catalogues the author’s time with the Goshawks and many of the Forest’s other inhabitants. The text is punchy, with short, sometimes staccato sentences and delivers a very personal take on these magnificent birds, and much else besides. The diary format means that the text jumps around a bit, presenting the reader with short accounts of other encounters – a swan on the A36, an active Buzzard nest down the slope from where he is filming – so don’t expect a developing central narrative. Having said that, this is still an interesting read, full of closely observed detail of Goshawk behaviour and the world of the wildlife film-maker. Wildlife books are also ways of engaging discussion about our interaction with nature and finding a balance between enjoying the natural landscape and preserving its integrity. These environments are not just for our own use but primarily for the creatures who live there and depend on its resources.

He got to know which birds frequented each tree and what their alarm calls were. “You can work out what they are telling other birds in the wood. And if you can break that code, then they can actually inform you when there’s a predator around.” His passion for filming all types of animals takes him to East Africa to a cheetah family, baby cubs and lions. I believe the actual goshawk population is only at about 6% of what it should be. Is there any other bird of prey where the national population at least is as badly suppressed as the goshawk’s is? I don’t believe that magpies or crows are responsible for songbird losses, but at the same time their prime predator is largely absent and I’m not really comfortable with that or the numbers of wood pigeon and grey squirrels we have. The book moves softly, and silently, through the months of summer from April, until the end of June 2020, and does so in diary entries which record just what James observed in the woods, his relationship with nature, and more importantly what he learned about, and from the goshawks, as they live out their challenging, but majestic lives. Sharply observed, every nuance of the woodland area is investigated and brought to life, and the narrative is so finely placed it feels cinematic in quality just as though you are cocooned high above the canopy of the New Forest watching as the ancient woodland unfolds deep below you to share its innermost secrets.

Goshawk Summer: A New Forest Season Unlike Any Other - WINNER

Acutely aware that he alone had been given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to observe how the wildlife behaved in the forest without humans around, for a documentary that will be out later this year, he began to develop “a sort of imposter syndrome” about being there. “The sheer emptiness of the place... It felt weird, being out there in that paradise on my own. I felt overprivileged.” The book, as you might expect, has a pretty single-minded focus. Yet there are plenty of asides into other topics like the history of the New Forest, or the population fluxes of different bird species, which I found myself relishing and appreciating. Aldred teaches the reader by stealth, and the science he slips in is never overwhelming. The narrative flows effortlessly. At this unique moment, James was granted a once in a lifetime opportunity to keep filming. And so, over Spring and into Summer, he began to record his experiences in a place empty of people but filled with birdsong and new life. Even though goshawks have an unsettling ability to silently come and go, the alarm calls of these other birds would warn him when they were on their way. “By listening to what the birds in the forest were saying, I could work out which direction the goshawk would be coming from and be ready with the camera.”To be able to get a glimpse into the workings and existence of this fabulous and fascinating predictor was just breathtaking. This is a secretive bird that is harder to visualize and study just by its own behavior, habitat, and nature. I loved being able to take a glimpse into this complex and beautiful bird. In nature there has to be a place for all to enjoy. Those who do, hikers, runners, mountain bikers, artists, drivers, dog walkers, and all, must play their part as well. They were reintroduced from the 1960s onwards, not by any conservation organisation, but by falconers and hawk-keepers who brought birds into the country initially from Poland and Germany, then subsequently in the 1970s from Finland (Petty 1996). Some of these imported birds escaped from captivity and others were deliberately released, to establish wild populations for harvest. These released and escaped birds established scattered populations throughout the country (Marquiss & Newton 1982).