Hawk Highway in the Sky: Watching Raptor Migration
Millions of hawks, eagles and falcons migrate between their summer and winter homes each year. In North America many of them pass over the Goshute Mountains in Eastern Nevada where they are studied by scientists and volunteers working with HawkWatch International. Join the HawkWatch team at its trapping and banding station and learn more about these extraordinary birds of prey.
Look for my new book about raptors, A Bald Eagle's World (Picture Window Books, 2009)Hawk Highway in the Sky: Watching Raptor Migration will be my fourth book published by Harcourt Brace and, like the my earlier book about the California condor, reflects my longtime interest in birds and in the environment. To research the book I backpacked to a bird banding station on a mountaintop in eastern Nevada and spent five days watching and participating in the trapping and banding process. Few experiences can match the thrill of seeing hawks and falcons up close and then watching them soar skyward after their release. The pictures for this book were provided by Robert Kruidenier, an experienced volunteer at the banding station who is also an excellent photographer.
"As hawks, eagles, and falcons pass over Nevada's Goshute Mountains, scientists and the volunteers of HawkWatch International observe, catch, and measure the birds, charting statistics and plotting migration patterns. The steps in this process, along with information on habits and habitats of the raptors, are lucidly detailed by veteran nature writer Arnold. HawkWatch volunteer Robert Kruidenier's sharply shot full-color photographs (many of them close-ups) work well with Arnold's clear, well-organized text, capturing the fierce beauty of the birds as well as the scientist's painstaking work. A useful breakdown of day-flying raptors and migration sites is appended."
"The busiest location for observing migratory raptors in Western North America is in the Goshute Mountains of eastern Nevada, which author Caroline Arnold visited for Hawk Highway in the Sky. Illustrated with close-up color photos...the book is full of interesting details about these magnificent birds (females are larger than males; not all birds of a given species migrate). Arnold describes how raptors are netted and banded. surprisingly, only 1 percent of banded birds are ever found again, but an address is given in the book to report finding a banded bird."