Peregrine Spring: A Master Falconer's Extraordinary Life with Birds of Prey
By: Nancy Cowan / Narrated By: Janet Metzger
Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
A life spent so close to Nature—oh how lovely!
Tho’ the title refers to a specific Spring author Nancy Cowan had, where her day-to-day life amongst hawks was bookended by caring for two Peregrine falcons—one a rehab of an older and injured Peregrine, and one the newfound joy of a youngun’—this book is actually about an entire life devoted to living very closely with raptors of all sorts. There are tears, there are joys, but mostly there’s the most profound love for the birds.
It’s strange, but Cowan goes to great lengths to make sure that there’s no such thing one can feel for a raptor such as love, that raptors are their own creatures, worthy of respect, yes, but love? No, she says. The relationship between human and raptor is one of commingling, of working together, of honoring differences between the two species.
Ahhh, but maybe it’s Janet Metzger’s narration or something, because LOVE comes through loud and clear. And for someone such as I, that’s what made Peregrine Spring such an extraordinary listen. I’m nothing if not a sap for having the ol’ heartstrings tugged and, tho’ Respect is obvious, the way Cowan devotes her time, her life, to the birds will have you soaring to the sun as you listen, only to be brought down low by grief as Nature claims its own.
I’ve often thought of falconry as a bit elitist (I know, I know! I’m a judgmental wench…), of hunting with them rather self-indulgent. But this new experience, seeing a union of species, has me less ridiculously harsh and more in awe. I mean, this is a tale of wooing birds, of being firm and heartsworn companions, if not outright mates.
Whether a bird starts life out imprinted to humans, or if s/he is taken in as an older bird, Cowan and her husband are THERE. She started life out as an animal lover, but she blames her husband for her ever evolving devotion to raptors (See? It’s ALWAYS the man’s fault…!). The two of them had laws introduced to include falcons in New Hampshire’s hunting laws, thereby allowing falconry to become a valid lifestyle, thereby allowing their true joy for a life amongst the birds and Nature, to become possible.
As I mentioned before, Metzger’s narration is more than adequate. She captures the utter highs, the devastating lows as Life plays itself out amongst the skies. Her warm tones had me nearly weeping with devastation as Cowan describes how each raptor’s life progressed, from bonds developing, to the time when each breathed its last. No, Cowan saaays Love isn’t the word, but I couldn’t hear her words, as voiced by Metzger, as anything BUT the most ardent devotion and extreme affection (At leeeeast!).
There are a fair amount of chuckles in this telling of life with the raptors, but be prepared for a heartfelt Listen. This was a wonderful audiobook, and while I can’t say that it’s inspired me to call Cowan to schedule a lesson in falconry, or to watch the Red Tailed Hawks that live in the neighborhood as they plummet downward then swoooop upward, trashed pigeon in their claws, it did indeed instill in me a desire to see through the eyes of a raptor.
…To soar as they do…!
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