
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 Scotl&. 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.