Falconry is an ancient and noble art, still practiced today by falconers throughout the world. While, these days, falconry birds are mostly bred in captivity, they are still wild, independent animals and owning and training them requires the right commitment, knowledge and skills. Falconry Basics is designed to provide those new to falconry with the essential information they need, including the basics of types of birds and their individual characteristics; acquiring the proper equipment; ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & BEST GARDENING BOOKS OF 2020 - Sunday Times'Every page a joy' NIGEL SLATER'From a very early age I loved the countryside as much as any garden and was fascinated by the life that I saw all around me from trees, wildflowers, birds, insects and mammals. In a sense this book has been over sixty years in gestation. I have kept notebooks and journals ever since I could w...

Did you know that an ostrich egg can make an omelet for ten people? How about that crocodiles have the world’s most powerful bite, yet their mouths can be held shut by a man’s bare hands? Or that box jellyfish are the most venomous creature in the world, and they’re almost impossible to see?Wild animals do the most extraordinary, and sometimes frightening, things. Some are exceptionally bright, using tools and even treating themselves with medicinal plants. Others are devious, using...

Deep Country is Neil Ansell's account of five years spent alone in a hillside cottage in Wales.'I lived alone in this cottage for five years, summer and winter, with no transport, no phone. This is the story of those five years, where I lived and how I lived. It is the story of what it means to live in a place so remote that you may not see another soul for weeks on end. And it is the story of the hidden places that I came to call my own, and the wild crea...

'I found myself turning the pages with an inward leap of joy' - Isabella Tree*WINNER of the Richard Jefferies Award for Nature Writing**Shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Conservation*'Exquisite' GUARDIANIt was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife when England's last and loneliest golden eagle died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District. ...

An introductory guide to everything the serious falconer needs to know about training, handling, and flying raptors from the five family groups.Learn how to train birds of prey correctly and safely. Jemima Parry-Jones, owner and director of the International Centre for Birds of Prey, covers everything the serious falconer needs to know about the five family groups: eagles, hawks, falcons, buzzards and owls.You will learn about handling, training, and flying. ...

Jemima Parry-Jones has devoted most of her life to working with animals, primarily birds of prey. This eBook, written with vast authority, takes the whole subject of falconry further. Jemima explains some of the motives behind the sport of falconry, the background to captive breeding, and shows how to approach both in a practical and ethical way. Details are given on the most suitable birds, on how to care for birds of prey, preventative medicine, treatment and rehabilitation to the wild o...

Strands describes a year's worth of walking on the ultimate beach: inter-tidal and constantly turning up revelations: mermaid's purses, lugworms, sea potatoes, messages in bottles, buried cars, beached whales and a perfect cup from a Cunard liner.This is a series of meditations prompted by walking on the wild estuarial beaches of Ainsdale Sands between Blackpool and Liverpool, Strands is about what is lost and buried then discovered, about all the things you find ...

Thus begins the tale by Stephen Bodio, a lover of birds and nature, of the incredible connection between man and birds of prey. Falconry can be traced back over four thousand years and, as Bodio says, it is amazing that the practice did not die out soon afterward when its first adherents starved.”With a new introduction by Helen MacDonald, A Rage For Falcons not only shares the history of falconry, but shows the personal side in a way only Bodio can share. With masterful ...

Join celebrated naturalist Stephen Moss, host award-winning BBC series Springwatch and author of The Robin, for a year in the idyllic village of Mark on the Somerset Levels – a watery wonderland rich in nature and wildlife, from birds to butterflies to badgersAs the year unfolds, Moss transports the reader to the entrancing landscape of flora and fauna that accompanies the dawn of each month. Deeply informative and profoundly inspiring, Wild Hares...

Colin Elford's A Year in the Woods is an enthralling journey into the heart of the English countryside - with a preamble by Craig Taylor.Colin Elford spends his days alone - alone but for the deer, the squirrels, the rabbits, the birds, and the many other creatures inhabiting the woods.From the crisp cold of January, through the promise of spring and the heat of summer, and then into damp autumn and the chill winds of winter, we accompany the fores...

"This wonderful collection of wildlife encounters will make anyone want to pull on their boots and re-discover the world on our doorsteps."—Kate Humble, TV host & authorFor the last thirty years, naturalist John Lister-Kaye has taken the same circular walk from his home deep in a Scottish glen up to a small hill loch. Each day brings a new observation or an unexpected encounter—a fragile spider's web, an osprey struggling to lift a trout from the water or a woodcock...