November 7, 2009
Last summer, Scott Farrell interviewed me for his website Chivalry Today. Just discovered the podcast the other day. I share the posdast with a Zulu stick fighter and a chess-playing philosopher. Here’s his intro to the podcast:
“In This Episode: Scott interviews author Rachel Dickinson, whose new book, Falconer On The Edge, explores the lifestyle of the men and women who hunt with birds of prey in today’s world, and carry on the traditions of this chivalric sport. Plus: A conversation about the game of chess and the philosophy of chivalry with Prof. Benjamin Hale, senior editor of Philosophy Looks At Chess; and some thoughts on honorable behavior in Zulu stick fighting.
November 6, 2009
Giant jellyfish sunk a Japanese fishing trawler the other day according to a story in the Telegraph.
Here’s the beginning of the story: “The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba`as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura’s jellyfish.
Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months. (click here to read more . . .)
November 4, 2009
Weather brings ducks –
Tim flies his peregrine but
no duck dinner yet.
October 22, 2009
This is unbelievable footage. A BBC natural history film crew filmed an attack on a white reindeer calf by a golden eagle. The Sami — reindeer herders in Finland — had told researchers that this could happen but it has never been documented on film before. Although the golden eagle is not the largest eagle in the area — the white-tailed eagle is larger — the golden eagle is more agressive. The Samis say that it is usually immature goldens attacking the calves. And they usually attack the white calves rather than the tan or brown ones.
This is from BBC Earth News:
“One eagle was filmed swooping down and grabbing a calf, while another pulled out of an attack at the last minute.
A BBC natural history film crew gathered the extraordinary footage along a reindeer migration route in northern Finland.
It finally proves this eagle species does occasionally hunt reindeer, something suggested by forensic evidence and the local Sami people.
The crew filmed the behaviour while capturing footage of the reindeer migration for the BBC natural history series Life, though the images were shot at too far a distance to be included in the final cut of the high definition programme. . . (click here to read more and see the video).
October 20, 2009
As the days get colder in Upstate New York there’s hope that the ducks will begin migrating through with some regularity. Each day, before dawn, Tim gets up, puts his peregrine MacDuff in the back of the truck, and starts driving around the countryside in search of ducks that might have dropped into ponds during the night. So far there’s not been much action.
Tim Gallagher and MacDuff getting ready for the hunt
October 18, 2009
Steve Bodio did a round-up of mini-reviews back in September and here’s what he had to say about my book:
“Falconer on the Edge by Rachel Dickinson is the best book about falconry by a non- falconer ever written– in fact, it is better than 90% of the ones written by falconers! For an excellent longer review by artist (and falconer) Carel Brest van Kempen go here; for Rachel’s blog go here.”
Rare praise and I’m completely flattered. Bodio can write circles around me.
October 18, 2009
Snow in mid-October blankets our little village. Because many of the leaves are still on the deciduous trees, we were very worried that the weight of the snow — in Freeville we had at least two and a half inches of heavy, wet stuff — would do some serious damage. But it was gone by mid-day.
the backyard on October 16th
September 19, 2009
On a recent trip to Gaspe Peninsula in eastern Quebec, I spent a day near Perce, a little touristy town on the eastern tip of the peninsula on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, due west of Newfoundland and Labrador. Perce Rock is a tall, narrow limestone formation that rises from the gulf . This Devonian-age island has sheer cliff faces and a flat top making it look something like a large wedge of swiss cheese. It is called Perce Rock because of the arch that goes all the way through the formation – it is pierced, hence the name.
Looking at Perce Rock from Bonaventure Island
Not far from Perce rock is a low-slung island – Bonaventure Island — that’s home to the largest gannet colony in the world. A ferry runs from the village of Perce to Bonaventure, which is a regional park. We hiked the Colonies Trail up and over the island’s mid-section and came upon the gannet colony. The stench was almost overpowering and the noise of over 100,000 seabirds was unbelievable. But what beauties they are with their sleek, streamlined look and the electric blue detailing around the eye. Quite stunning.
August 27, 2009
The end of summer in Upstate New York is always a bittersweet affair. It’s alternately hot then cold. And when it’s hot we complain bitterly about the heat and the humidity and slouch in our chairs on the porch and weakly wave paper fans on sticks gotten from the Methodist Church on a sultry summer evening years before. And when it’s cold we complain bitterly about the cold and damp and wear sweaters and stomp around and swear because we just know the sweet corn season will be ruined. There is no happy medium.
soon we'll be dealing with snow shovels instead of lawnmovers and rakes
I’ve taken to savoring whatever the weather brings this time of year because life’s too short to complain. When it’s sticky hot out I feel the sweat run down my face and get all live-in-the-moment about the consequences of the humidity. I listen to the late-summer cicadas buzzing away in the treetops and the sounds of neighbors mowing their lawns and wonder why someone would pick the hottest part of the hottest day to push a mower around. If I can muster the energy I walk around the yard and think about all the things I should be doing like watering thirsty plants and plucking spent blossoms from flowers but I usually put all those activities off because it’s too hot. I generally find myself siting at the slightly mossy picnic table placed under the old maple in the backyard and flip through the pages of a magazine while the dog lies in the shade of the tree, head on his crossed paws, eyes trained on me.
Soon the cool days will out-number the hot ones and those moments of sitting at the mossy picnic table will be few and far between. The sweet corn will be a lost-food memory and there will be no more sounds of lawns being mowed. Instead, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the scrape scrape scrape of rakes moving leaves into piles.
August 8, 2009
It’s hard not to smile when you’ve been reviewed on a blog called Bookslut because it’s such a great title for a blog. The reviewer, Colleen Mondor, tackles books in all disciplines and I was honored to have Falconer on the Edge included in her August round-up called A Flock of Books.
Her review of Falconer begins:
“After reading about Rosalie Edge’s work on Hawk Mountain, and reviewing Tim Gallagher’s falconry book, I was quite intrigued to come across Rachel Dickinson’s Falconer on the Edge. Dickinson is married to Gallagher, although, as she candidly admits, the notion of sharing a large portion of her life with raptors never crossed her mind. She reveals a few insights about marriage to the sport in this title but mostly she writes about Steve Chindgren, an extreme falconer whose life is framed around the sport. Although happily married and a proud father, Chindgren still leaves his home in Utah for months out of the year to travel to Wyoming with his birds and dogs to hunt. This is not a weekend adventure to him — it is, to a large extent, everything. Dickinson is intrigued by such commitment and also the unique relationship between man and bird.” (to read more click here.)
