Peregrines called "hawks" in a book (1 Viewer)

[foresttwitcher]

In England an 'overhead wire' could refer to either telephone or electricity lines, the latter both on poles or pylons.

 

[senior]

"As soon as the hawk-hunter steps from his door he knows the way of the wind, he feels the weight of the air. Far within himself he seems to see the hawk’s day growing steadily towards the light of their first encounter. Time and the weather hold both hawk and watcher between their turning poles. When the hawk is found, the hunter can look lovingly back at all the tedium and misery of searching and waiting that went before."
Do you think "turning poles" is a reference to the poles and gates in slalom skiing?

"Ringing recoveries suggest that immigrants to the east coast of England have come from Scandinavia. No British-ringed peregrines have been recovering in south-east England."
Just curious, how were bird rings recovered, just technically, in the 1960s? The latter "recovering" means the peregrines were taking rest, right?

"They may in fact be returning to places where their ancestors nested. Peregrines that now nest in the tundra conditions of Lapland and the Norwegian mountains may be the descendants of those birds that once nested in the tundra regions of the lower Thames. Peregrines have always lived as near the permafrost limit as possible."
Does Baker mean that young peregrines choose the types of places, not exact locations, where their ancestors dwelled? Because in the second sentence here he speaks about ancestors and descendants living in areas far away from one other.

"These hunting lines may run from estuary to reservoir to valley, and from valley to estuary; or they may follow the lines of flight from roosting places to bathing places. The territory is also effectively quartered by long up-wind flights, followed by diagonal down and cross wind gliding that finishes a mile or two away from the original starting point. Hunting on sunny days is done chiefly by soaring and circling down wind, and is based on a similar diagonal quartering of the ground."
Does Baker mean something in the way of what I drew in the picture? Does "quartering" mean "patrolling" here, more or less?

 

[nartreb]

"As soon as the hawk-hunter steps from his door he knows the way of the wind, he feels the weight of the air. Far within himself he seems to see the hawk’s day growing steadily towards the light of their first encounter. Time and the weather hold both hawk and watcher between their turning poles. When the hawk is found, the hunter can look lovingly back at all the tedium and misery of searching and waiting that went before."
Do you think "turning poles" is a reference to the poles and gates in slalom skiing?

I do not. It might be something to do with the poles of the earth (the endpoints of the axis around which the earth turns) but how either time or weather is like one of those, or how they "hold" bird and watcher, I don't know. "turning pole" is not a familiar phrase to me. I imagined something like a maypole, or a stick holding a marionette but that spins like a fairground ride (the one that's a combination merry-go-round and swingset) but those dont' make a whole lot of sense either. There are turning lathes, some of which are called "pole lathes" but again the imagery doesn't fit. Lastly there's the chivalric "tournery" in which knights rode past each other then turned -- I believe there were poles marking the ends of the course. But those don't "hold" anything.

"Ringing recoveries suggest that immigrants to the east coast of England have come from Scandinavia. No British-ringed peregrines have been recovering in south-east England."
Just curious, how were bird rings recovered, just technically, in the 1960s? The latter "recovering" means the peregrines were taking rest, right?

I suspect this is another bad edit. Previous sentence suggests he meant "no British-ringed peregrines have been recovered in south-east England.

"They may in fact be returning to places where their ancestors nested. Peregrines that now nest in the tundra conditions of Lapland and the Norwegian mountains may be the descendants of those birds that once nested in the tundra regions of the lower Thames. Peregrines have always lived as near the permafrost limit as possible."
Does Baker mean that young peregrines choose the types of places, not exact locations, where their ancestors dwelled? Because in the second sentence here he speaks about ancestors and descendants living in areas far away from one other.

No, he means that Peregrines nesting in England today (and at the time he was writing) are nesting in places where peregrines once nested during the previous ice age. Timeline: 11,000+ years ago: peregrines nested in England (but not Lapland, which was under miles of ice). After the ice age: peregrines nested in Lapland (tundra near the permafrost) but not in England. Circa 1960: peregrines begin nesting in England again. (Though, in most of their range they do not nest on tundra. They nest in cliffs, or on buildings.)

"These hunting lines may run from estuary to reservoir to valley, and from valley to estuary; or they may follow the lines of flight from roosting places to bathing places. The territory is also effectively quartered by long up-wind flights, followed by diagonal down and cross wind gliding that finishes a mile or two away from the original starting point. Hunting on sunny days is done chiefly by soaring and circling down wind, and is based on a similar diagonal quartering of the ground."
Does Baker mean something in the way of what I drew in the picture? Does "quartering" mean "patrolling" here, more or less?

View attachment 1557680

More or less. "Quartering" is a search pattern; there are many variations. Here's an interesting variation:

(half-hour video)

Baker is saying that peregrines follow two different patterns (outside of "commuting" from, say, roost to estuary) depending on the weather. The first is what you drew; the second, used on sunny days, involves more circling but somehow still ends up mostly "diagonal" - I guess the circles are small so the overall path is very similar to the first pattern.

 

[senior]

"The territory is also effectively quartered by (C1) long up-wind flights, followed by (C2) diagonal down and cross wind gliding that finishes a mile or two away from the original starting point. Hunting on sunny days is done chiefly by (S2) soaring and circling down wind, and is based on a similar diagonal quartering of the ground."

I am still somewhat puzzled by Baker's description of the peregrine's style of search.

In the first sentence, he describes the style of flying on cloudy days. C1 - long up-wind (circling, right?) flights to gain height. C2 - the bird turns back and glides in diagonals or cross-wind.

In the second sentence, Baker talks about flights on sunny days. How the bird gains height is not described. And S2, the style of descent, seems to be no different from C2.

Strange wording, isn't it?

 

[nartreb]

I think you're confused by his use of "up" and "down". He's talking about the bird's direction relative to the wind, not the bird's height. Nothing in that paragraph says anything about gaining or losing height, though we can make some assumptions. Most of the time the bird will stay within some range of heights that it finds convenient for searching. During a "long up-wind flight" the bird will be flapping its wings all the time, and can choose whether to flap for maximum speed, or to flap to gain height; I expect it maintains a compromise stroke so its speed and altitude both remain steady. During "down [-wind] and cross-wind gliding" the bird can similarly adjust its wing angles to maintain or even gain height at some cost to its speed and/or heading. The same is true when "soaring and circling downwind" with the added likelihood that the bird can find some thermals within which to circle, increasing its height for less effort.
The difference I see between C2 and S2 is that S2 involves circling. I think Baker is using "soaring" to mean flying in circles, possibly with gain of height. Whereas I think he uses "gliding" for flying in a straight line without flapping the wings, and plain "flight" for flying that involves flapping.

 

[senior]

@nartreb

I think you're confused by his use of "up" and "down".

No, not really.

But your lines below explain this paragraph to me. In my view, otherwise it is quite unclear, especially given that it is from the introductory part of the book.

The same is true when "soaring and circling downwind" with the added likelihood that the bird can find some thermals within which to circle

The difference I see between C2 and S2 is that S2 involves circling. I think Baker is using "soaring" to mean flying in circles, possibly with gain of height. Whereas I think he uses "gliding" for flying in a straight line without flapping the wings, and plain "flight" for flying that involves flapping.

Also, I misunderstood this line. I thought it was about two different flight patterns, one diagonal, the other cross-wind. Which means my picture was wrong.

(C2) diagonal down and cross wind gliding

 

[Patudo]

Time and the weather hold both hawk and watcher between their turning poles.
Do you think "turning poles" is a reference to the poles and gates in slalom skiing?

No. I think it's a reference to the North and South Poles - Baker means to say that time and weather are the absolutely central things around which peregrine-watching revolves around ("turning").

"Ringing recoveries suggest that immigrants to the east coast of England have come from Scandinavia. No British-ringed peregrines have been recovering in south-east England."
Just curious, how were bird rings recovered, just technically, in the 1960s? The latter "recovering" means the peregrines were taking rest, right?

Rings would normally be recovered from birds that were either found dead (in most cases) or re-trapped.

"Recovering" looks like it's part of the actual text, but must be a typo - it should be "recovered"?

"They may in fact be returning to places where their ancestors nested. Peregrines that now nest in the tundra conditions of Lapland and the Norwegian mountains may be the descendants of those birds that once nested in the tundra regions of the lower Thames. Peregrines have always lived as near the permafrost limit as possible."

Does Baker mean that young peregrines choose the types of places, not exact locations, where their ancestors dwelled? Because in the second sentence here he speaks about ancestors and descendants living in areas far away from one other.

Basically yes. His meaning is that as the glaciers receded, peregrines that nested in the tundra gradually moved north.

 

[senior]

"...a peregrine’s day usually begins with a slow, leisurely flight from the roosting place to the nearest suitable bathing stream."
"The search for a suitable bathing place is one of the peregrine’s main daily activities, and their hunting and roosting places are located in relation to this search."
"At dusk, he settled to roost at the top of the two-hundred-foot chimney, ready to attack the gulls again as they went inland at sunrise. This was a well-sited roosting place at the confluence of two rivers"
"As the gulls came out to roost on the open water, he flew towards them..."
"Like a roosting hawk, I listen to silence and gaze into the dark."
"Fieldfares clacked and whistled above me on their way to roost by the river."
(around 7 AM) "A hen-harrier rose from its roosting place on the saltings and flew to the wall."
Do "rosting" and "nesting" mean now the same process (sleeping in the nest), now different processes (taking rest in a stationary position and sleeping in the nest)?

"Where the lateral and binocular visions focus, there are deep-pitted foveal areas; their numerous cells record a resolution eight times as great as ours."
"I will follow him till my predatory human shape no longer darkens in terror the shaken kaleidoscope of colour that stains the deep fovea of his brilliant eye."
"Idly, indifferently, he saw it all, as he swung and swayed round the glittering gun-sight of his eye’s deep fovea, and watched for a flash or spurt of wings at which to aim his headlong flight."
Baker implies that a peregrine has one retinal fovea per eye. But modern sources say that the bird has two foveae per eye. Outdated information?
* Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, see Figure 4: Raptor Vision
Does this mean Baker had outdated knowledge?
* IntoBirds.com: "falcons and other raptors have two foveae in each eye" Eyes of a Peregrine Falcon

There is a difference between swooping and stooping.

Baker: "The hunting hawk uses every advantage he can. Height is the obvious one. He may stoop (stoop is another word for swoop) at prey from any height between three feet and three thousand. Ideally, prey is taken by surprise"
It seems that Baker writes "swooping" and "stooping" now as synonyms, now as different kinds of flight.

"Over the valley and the estuary, many gulls and lapwings are killed by the peregrine in October and November, chiefly from freshly ploughed land. From December to February woodpigeons are the main prey, especially in hard weather, when fewer lapwings are available. Woodpigeons are still taken in March, the killing of lapwings and gulls increases again, and more duck are killed than in any other month. Game-birds, moorhens, fieldfares, and waders, are taken occasionally throughout the winter. In rain or fog, game-birds and moorhens become the principal prey."
What birds do you think Baker calls "game-birds"?

"The peregrine swoops down towards his prey. As he descends, his legs are extended forward till the feet are underneath his breast. The toes are clenched, with the long hind toe projecting below the three front ones, which are bent up out of the way. He passes close to the bird, almost touching it with his body..."
Do you think the position of the bird's legs looks something like this picture? (See the attached image.) Also, "the toes are clenched" and the three front toes "are bent up out of the way" sounds contradictory, doesn't it?

 

[senior]

In the introdductory part, Baker provides three charts with peregrine kills:

"During ten winters I found 619 peregrine kills. Individual species were represented as follows:
Woodpigeon - 38%
[...]

In addition to these ten, there were 35 other species taken, to make up the remaining 25% of the total. Analysed by families, these are the proportions:
Pigeons – 39%
[...]

More woodpigeons were killed during the winter I have described in this book, because of their extraordinary abundance in the cold weather, and because of the absence of other inland species at that time. The relative figures for this particular winter are as follows:
Woodpigeon – 54%
[...]

The remaining 14% was made up of 22 other species."

Right after the charts, he draws this conclusion:

"These tables suggest that the juvenile peregrine preys mainly on those species that are most numerous in its hunting territory, provided they weigh at least half a pound. Sparrows and starlings are very common here, but few are killed by peregrines."

How come he speaks about the age of the hunting birds? The charts only show kills.

 

[Patudo]

Baker: "The hunting hawk uses every advantage he can. Height is the obvious one. He may stoop (stoop is another word for swoop) at prey from any height between three feet and three thousand. Ideally, prey is taken by surprise"
It seems that Baker writes "swooping" and "stooping" now as synonyms, now as different kinds of flight.

If Baker states that stoop and swoop are the same, then it should be taken that way, certainly in the context of his book. There is a difference, though, and not just to me, because falconers and other observers of peregrines very seldom use the word "swoop". I've given some thought to what that difference is and I think most likely it is the shape of the bird when stooping (wings close to its body, making a teardrop shape for greater streamlining and speed). It's very different from say an owl or kestrel coming down on a mouse, or a white-tailed eagle snatching up a fish, so different that it's not surprising that falconers (who would have spent more time watching peregrines back in the old days than anyone else) coined a distinctive term for it. It's something that really has to be seen to be appreciated, it's very hard to put into words the power and punch of a stooping peregrine to one who hasn't seen it.

But you mentioned upthread that "Baker seemingly differentiates between birds' swooping and stooping" which makes me think (not having read the text myself) he was in fact cognizant of the difference between the two. Maybe, because the section in which he wrote "(stoop is another word for swoop)" was at the beginning of the book, he was trying to get readers that might not have been familiar with the bird and the language around it to associate a more familiar word (swoop) with the less familiar (at least to the average reader, in the context of rapid downward motion) "stoop".

 

[senior]

If Baker states that stoop and swoop are the same, then it should be taken that way, certainly in the context of his book. There is a difference, though, and not just to me

Yes, like you said, this sentence, "stoop is another word for swoop", was at the beginning of the book and was the first time the word "swoop" was used. I've gone through these two words again and it seems that mostly Baker uses them as direct synonyms, but occasionally "swooping" means just what you wrote, "To swoop on the other hand is more general sort of term that describes a swift downward movement". Also, "swooping" is sometimes used to describe the flight of non-raptors, such as ducks and pigeons. And, Baker sometimes writes "to swoop up" (e. g., to a perching position), which clearly has nothing to do with attacking.

Many thanks!

 

[Patudo]

roosting - it means to sit up and rest, most often overnight, but peregrines often sit up on high perches in the daytime for what can be long periods. A roosting perch or location doesn't require there to be a nest: it can be anywhere that offers enough shelter. When you're looking for peregrines in Moscow, investigate high towers and spires, and look for sheltered spots that the birds can tuck themselves out of the wind.

gamebirds - the family that includes grouse, pheasants, partridges, quail etc, traditionally shot for sport ("game") and food. In Baker's area the grey partridge was probably the main gamebird caught by peregrines.

In the broader sense, game bird can mean any bird that that provides sport (for shooting or indeed falconry). Mourning doves are often refered to as gamebirds in the US, as are snipe/woodcock, classified as waders, in the UK.

"The peregrine swoops down towards his prey. As he descends, his legs are extended forward till the feet are underneath his breast. The toes are clenched, with the long hind toe projecting below the three front ones, which are bent up out of the way. He passes close to the bird, almost touching it with his body...

This actually does not happen until the peregrine is almost ready to grab or strike its prey - until then, its legs/feet are tucked close to its body for maximum streamlining (shown in this photo). Only in the final second or so does it reach out and attempt to catch. That is the most dramatic moment of the hunt, where success or failure is decided in a split-second.

The reference to the clenched front toes and the projecting hind toe isn't necessarily contradictory. When it is attempting that sort of strike, the front toes are curled up out of the way and the rear toe (with the longest and strongest talon) extended to strike or rake its quarry. I have very rarely seen this myself, maybe because most of the prey in London is smaller than where Baker was watching and possibly also because of the risk of losing prey if it falls into the city streets.

Last weekend the birds I was watching were in the air a lot, patrolling their territory and now and again displaying. I'm not sure if peregrines in Russia nest at the same times as those in the UK, but you might have a very good chance of seeing them if you watch around a nest location on bright sunny days, when they are most likely to fly.

 

[senior]

Thank you, @Patudo !

 

[senior]

"March 11th

I spent the day on the south side of the estuary, walking in the wet fields and searching for hawks in the long tree-hedges and the warm, lark-hung sky. I found none, but it was a happy day.

West of the flat estuary plain there are small dome-shaped hills with deep valleys between them. At six o’clock the light above these hills was brightening towards sunset. The valley fields were shaded and sombre. Flickering through the dark shadows of the trees, below the lane where I was standing, the tiercel peregrine circled up towards the light. He flew fast, banking in narrow turns, winding in steep spirals, wings lashing and quivering. Soon he was high above me. He could see the hills sinking down into the shadowed valleys and the far woods rising all around, the towns and villages still in sunlight, the broad estuary flowing into blue, the grey dimness of the sea. All that was hidden from me was shining clear to his encircling eye."

First Baker writes that he hasn't seen a hawk on that day, but in the next four paragraphs he describes a sighting. Could he mean that he had seen no hawk up close, what do you think?

 

[Patudo]

It has to mean he didn't see a peregrine until 6.00pm that day.

I have some friendly questions for you ... which parts of the book have you enjoyed the most so far? What are your thoughts on Baker as a writer? How do you think Baker's style of writing translates into Russian? Do you think your translation gives the same feeling when read in Russian as you feel when reading the original text in English? Most of all, do you think differently about peregrines (and indeed birds in general) after having read a book that focuses on them so much?

 

[senior]

It has to mean he didn't see a peregrine until 6.00pm that day.

@Patudo right, thanks!

I have some friendly questions for you ... which parts of the book have you enjoyed the most so far?

I think all the parts and seasons are interesting. The diary-style entries read somewhat like poetry. But there are overarching storylines too: the passing of seasons and the transformation of man into a bird.

What are your thoughts on Baker as a writer?

I like this book a lot even though Baker is imperfect as a writer. Reading The Peregrine, you can tell it was his first book and he had no experience. Sometimes his style is over the top, and there are many repetitions. But it doesn't matter, the book is beautiful. Its honesty and courage are rare in literature.

How do you think Baker's style of writing translates into Russian? Do you think your translation gives the same feeling when read in Russian as you feel when reading the original text in English?

To me, translation is always an imitation of the original. This is especially true for Baker, with his complex language rooted in English poetry and culture. There is no way to directly transmit this experience, but I did my best to make my version as close as possible to the original, without losing its vigor in the process.

Most of all, do you think differently about peregrines (and indeed birds in general) after having read a book that focuses on them so much?

Definitely. I had known very little about birds, specifically raptors, before reading Baker. Birds live in their special realm, a curious and crazy part of the bigger realm. Also, it was great to discover the very friendly birder discussion boards, international and Russian, including birdforum.net. Without your help, the result would have been worse.

 

[senior]

"At dusk I saw a barn owl again, hunting between road and river. For twenty minutes it quartered the meadow, moving across in long, straight lines. Six feet above the grass it flew, with fast even wing-beats. The steady pulse of its wings was curiously soothing. Dusk deepened. The owl grew bigger and whiter. The rising moon turned from deep orange to yellow as it drifted clear of the trees. The owl rested on a gate-post, and I could see the bland meditative mask of its face looking at me from the grey of the field. The curved hook of its beak protruded from the heart-shaped disc of the mask, like a single claw. The dark eyes were rimmed with wine. It flew overhead, and in the first coldness of the spring night, suddenly called. A hoarse bellowing shriek drew out to a sharp edge, and bristled away to silence. But not the silence that was there before."

Do you think "wine" is the irides, or the thin dark outside rims of eyelids and eyesockets?

 

[nartreb]

"Rim" means outermost edge. In your second photo you can see some wine-colored (or port-colored anyway; it's more brown than burgundy) stain on the feathers around the eye, especially on the medial side of the bird's left eye.

How Baker could judge the color in the moonlight is a separate question.

 

[senior]

@nartreb That is probably what Baker meant, although these feathers are neither a rim, nor wine-colored.

 

[Richard Prior]

@nartreb That is probably what Baker meant, although these feathers are neither a rim, nor wine-colored.

I've had the odd glass of Bordeaux that had gone that colour S and the brown colour does encircle the eye in the photo you attach, so with a bit of poetic licence a rim it could be called