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Peter Matthiessen - The Birds of Heaven (1 Viewer)

andythomas

andythomas

Well-known member
I'm sure some of you must have read this book about the author's journeys around the world to see the fifteen remaining species of crane.

What did you think of it?

I haven't started reading my copy yet but it looks really good.

Does anyone recommend any of Matthiessen's other books?

--
Andy
 
I have read this, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had a hard copy of the book from my local library, which included the Robert Bateman illustrations -- superb!!

I wouldn't mind actually owning this book -- don't know where I'd put it, tho!!

I'm real sucker for books that are birds/nature/geography/travel, and this one certainly fit the bill.

I don't know that I've really read Matthieson other than this book -- vague memory of starting something by him a long time ago that I never got into. Have no idea what it was.
 
I devoured this book - it is haunting, sad, exciting and really conveys the beauty of this species and its habitats. The paintings (in the hardback - not sure if it is paperback now?) are some of the best and most evocative bird paintings I have seen. A book to read and treasure.
 
Well based on youz guyz' recommendations, I've just ordered this (Paperback version) from Amazon.
 
Oh, I hope the paperback has Bateman's illustrations, Birdman! If it doesn't, run to your library and and borrow the hardback. The illustrations are at least half the pleasure of the book!
 
I bought this book last month along with many others and it looks a cracker and has small print so it is going to keep me occupied which is a good thing (some books only last five minutes!). The illustrations are good too.

It has to wait until I have started and finished Sir Edward Grey's 'The Charm of Birds'.
 
Peter Mathiesson

He's written a number of excellent books but my favourite is "The Snow Leopard", an account of his quest to see one in the Himalayas. It also about his coming to terms with the death of his wife by cancer. It is quite Zen-like in places but not oppressively so; in fact this is part of the book's beauty. It was written in the 1970s and is one of those books that you will never firget once you've read it.
 
I decided to read this book before Edward Grey's and it was an excellent book depicting the impact of mankind's sprawl on the world's Crane species. The first few chapters are very hard to maintain concentration with. The reason being they are set in Asian countries with unusual place names like Xianthoyypang or something like that so you get lost. After those few countries the reading gets easier.

All in a highly recommended book!
 
Thanks for that, Andrew.

I bought Birds of Heaven do to recommenations on BF.

I'm finding it very evocative, but hard going it has to be said... but I shall persevere!
 
It is well worth persevering with - especially to get to the points where he finally sees some of the rarer Cranes.
 
I have one of his books-"the Blue Meridian". It's about the first people to film the Great White Shark from underwater cages. It was written in the 60's well before "Jaws" and at the time he spent a lot of tme on whaling ships (the sharks were attracted to the bleeding whale corpses).........................how times have changed. He talks quite a lot about the seabirds he sees while they look for the sharks.

There are a lot of his books on my list to read sometime inthe future. There's one about East Africa, another about New Guinea......................

I recommend books by Redmon O'Hanlon if you're into these kind of travel/nature titles. He's a bit more flippant than Matthieson but very entertaining. And he DOES go to some extreme places too. He's also well into his birds.

Matthiesson is one of the leaders on some birding/nature cruises in the North Pacific that leave from Japan. Shame I'll NEVER be able to afford them.......
 
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One more site had info
http://www.whoopingcrane.com/wccatoday.htm
"The reintroduced Whooping Cranes began nesting in 1999. Since then we have documented 17 nesting attempts. In the 2003 nesting season we monitored 6 nests, five of which hatched 1 or more chicks. One of the first chicks fledged on 7 June 2002 became the first of a second generation of non-migratory whooping cranes in Florida. This historic bird, nicknamed Lucky, was also the first bird to be produced by captive reared, wild released, parents. "

There is a picture of the juvenile there in flight.
 
Peter Matthiessen's newest book is about Antarctica. I'm not sure how much it covers the birdlife there, but if you're a Matthiessen fan, I'm sure you'll like it anyhow.

A friend of mine told me that his criticism of Matthiessen revolves around how much he puts himself into the story line. I guess there's a difference between memoir and pure natural history reporting, but I've enjoyed most of what I've read by the author in question.

In "The Snow Leopard," for instance, I agree with my friend that George Schaller was a very interesting personage and deserved more of an in-depth profile in the book. Schaller's written his own account of his travels in the Himalayas, I believe, so I guess that you could get some treatment there.

All in all, I've enjoyed what I've read by Peter Matthiessen and will likely read the Antarctica book once it's released in paperback.

Steve in Houston
 
Tero, if you're interesting the Whooping Cranes, be to check out Operation Migration's website:

www.operationmigration.org (or it might be .com)

This is the group that had led the group of captive-bred Whoopers from Wisconsin to Florida. And while not every crane has survived, enough have to call it a most successful project.

The lifer Whooper I saw back in November at Jasper-Pulaski (along with 16,000 Sandhills) was a member of the 'class of 2001'.

And they should be well on their way back north now. Last year's migration had about 15 or so 'stuck' in Indiana ("Windiana", the site called it!) for a week last March. They stayed in south central Indiana in a wetland area where they were easily visible from a nearby county road via scope.

The group posts journals of their migrations on the site, so it's possible to follow them northward and southward each year -- and with lots of photos.
 
Thanks. We are headed out to see Sandhill Cranes end of this month. We have to go when kids have spring break.
 
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