The Hen Harrier

Product Description

An acknowledged classic of narrative nature-writing Donald Watson's The Hen Harrier was the culmination of a lifetime's study of this beautiful upland bird A gentle warm & wonderfully written book The Hen Harrier stems from an age of amateur' conservation from the pen of a man who cared deeply about birds & their habitats especially of the Scottish borders where he conducted much of his research & painting The book was among the last of a dying breed; it would be thirty years or more before writing on our natural history would again reach the heights of accessibility to nature-lovers exemplified by Donald Watson & his peers The book starts with Watson setting down more or less everything known about harriers
- which at that time often consisted of information sent by letter to the author rather than published in a journal
- before moving on to the story of Watson's years studying nests in the south-west of Scotland With a foreword by conservation champion Mark Avery this edition of Watson's greatest work is particularly timely The conflict between grouse-shooting interests which has overseen the virtual extinction of the harrier as a breeding bird in England through illegal persecution & an increasingly vocal conservationist lobby is the number one conservation issue in Britain today Donald Watson's narrative soars like a sky-dancing harrier throughout this book Read it & be taken back to a simpler age of nature conservation by a true master of the art