A Vulture Landscape: Twelve months in Extremadura
by Ian Parsons
From Whittles Publishing:
A Vulture Landscape is more than just a book about vultures, in the same way that these majestic flyers are more than just birds. Vultures are a crucial part of many of the world’s ecosystems, and without these specialist environmental cleansers the ecosystems wouldn’t work properly. A calendar year in the lives of these gargantuan raptors is explored as they live, breed, feed and fly with effortless ease across the skies of the vulture landscape that is Extremadura in central Spain.
There are four species of vulture in Europe, and a fifth that is becoming more of a regular visitor as its own global population plummets. The serious conservation issues faced on a day-to-day basis by these species, and their relatives spread across the globe, are explored, issues that in many cases threaten their very survival. However, this book is a celebration of the vulture and the landscape in which it reigns.
Using the latest science, his keen eye and his passion for the birds themselves, the author takes the reader on a journey, introducing readers to the vultures, their lives and their landscape. Along the way, much of the other wonderful wildlife of the vulture landscape, from exotic Bee-eaters and bewitching Montagu’s Harriers to rutting Red Stags, are included. Ian explains how watching vultures is not only addictive, but that it can often lead to vulture gazing, surely the most relaxing form of bird watching there is!
With his fine descriptions, readers can enter the world of the vulture, get to know these brilliant birds, learn how they control diseases, why some species have bald necks and how they have mastered the art of flying without expending any energy. The author has spent several years living permanently in Extremadura and now splits his time between his native county of Devon and his beloved vulture landscape, where he leads bird tours introducing people to the birds and the area he clearly loves.
This book has been sitting next to my spot on the couch for a while, waiting for me to check it out in preparation for this post. I intended to read just the first chapter to get an idea of the book. I’ve now read three, and won’t be stopping. Parsons writes about this landscape and these birds so passionately and evocatively, it is such a joy to read. This is easily recommended to anyone who enjoys reading about birds.
A Vulture Landscape: Twelve months in Extremadura
by Ian Parsons
Paperback; 141 pages
Whittles Publishing; January 14, 2021
ISBN: 9781849954570
$23.95
Buy from NHBS
(based in the U.K.)
Posted by Grant McCreary on March 2nd, 2021.
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