Goshawk Summer: a New Forest Season Unlike Any Otherby James Aldred (Elliott & Thompson, London, 2021).

Sunday book review – Goshawk Summer by James Aldred Sunday book review – Goshawk Summer by James Aldred

His passion for filming all types of animals takes him to East Africa to a cheetah family, baby cubs and lions. The images he evokes in his diary entries are highly descriptive and transport you to the heart of the natural environment. Other creatures are also described - Dartford warblers, curlews, dragonflies, foxes among them - and James's love for, and understanding of, these creatures shines through every paragraph. They will take a wide variety of birds and small animals as prey, birds as small as goldcrests to those as large as pheasants. However about two thirds of their diet consists of wood pigeons, crows, rooks and rabbits. The book, as you might expect, has a pretty single-minded focus. Yet there are plenty of asides into other topics like the history of the New Forest, or the population fluxes of different bird species, which I found myself relishing and appreciating. Aldred teaches the reader by stealth, and the science he slips in is never overwhelming. The narrative flows effortlessly.Despite the envy, the author has written an excellent book. All the effort from himself and all those that assisted him in his endeavours should be applauded. The other emotion I mentioned at the beginning was that of joy. Because it was a joy to read such a well-written and well-documented account of one of Britain's rarest predators.

Paradise regained in the New Forest: no planes, no people

There definitely should be far more emphasis on fighting goshawk persecution, and why are those same people constantly bemoaning how many corvids we have not waving the flag for the goshawk’s return? If there was any imbalance in corvid numbers I think it infinitely more likely goshawk would correct it properly rather than someone in tweed with a gun arbitrarily deciding that six jays, thirteen magpies and eight crows need to die…or more likely that they all do. In a way, coronovirus has been something of a boon to some nature writers since it creates a year like no other in which their observations of natural history can be set. It allows there to be juxtaposing of ‘how I feel about this wildlife thing’ against ‘how I feel about this pandemic thing’, and this works well in this account; one moves from the close world of filming at a nest to the broader scene with good effect. But this wildlife account is fascinating in its own right and well worth reading – it’s just that the global pandemic adds to it. James Aldred ist Kameramann und Filmemacher, der sich auf das Filmen von Tieren spezialisiert hat. Er hat mit Sir Richard Attenborough zusammengearbeitet und hat für seine Dokumentation einen Emmy bekommen. Im Frühling und Sommer 2020 hatte er die einmalige Chance, das Nest eines Habichts von der Ankunft der Eltern bis zum Flüggewerden der Jungen unter besonderen Bedingungen zu filmen. The book moves softly, and silently, through the months of summer from April, until the end of June 2020, and does so in diary entries which record just what James observed in the woods, his relationship with nature, and more importantly what he learned about, and from the goshawks, as they live out their challenging, but majestic lives. Sharply observed, every nuance of the woodland area is investigated and brought to life, and the narrative is so finely placed it feels cinematic in quality just as though you are cocooned high above the canopy of the New Forest watching as the ancient woodland unfolds deep below you to share its innermost secrets. I don’t see many Goshawks, and so I was interested to read about film cameraman James Aldred’s experiences filming this species for much of the spring and summer of 2020. Spending so much time with this bird would make it ‘a season unlike any other’ for most of us but it was also a season of covid for our world, although the Goshawks would have been oblivious to that.Here in Wales we have 4 local territories 2 regularly used and breedi8ng successful most years when the local pheasant keepers leave them alone. They are hated by many keepers and suffer heavy persecution. We probably have habitat in the UK for thousands of pairs but in many areas any birds away from big forestry are easily killed with the right traps, poison or guns.

JAMES ALDRED — Goshawk Summer

I really enjoyed this book. James's style is relaxed, informative and often humorous. As a weekly visitor to the New Forest I have seen many Goshawk nests, but I have never gained the insights to their behaviour that James was privileged to see. Through this book he allows us to share his experiences and to understand what it is like to be a wildlife camera operator on a mission. But the stars are the Goshawks, dominating the dense woods in which they live, in a National Park that receives 15 million visitors each year." Even though goshawks have an unsettling ability to silently come and go, the alarm calls of these other birds would warn him when they were on their way. “By listening to what the birds in the forest were saying, I could work out which direction the goshawk would be coming from and be ready with the camera.” This detail reveals an intimacy, formed between the photographer and his subject, which comes across in the text and transports the reader to the hide and the unfolding drama of this Goshawk breeding attempt. This intimacy is perhaps most evident in a passage describing how the author exits the hide at the end of a filming session. Aided by a colleague who walks in below, he has to judge the sitting bird’s response and you can feel the tension growing as he plans his exit under the bird’s fierce glare. It is a wonderful moment, and one of many throughout this engaging book. I also loved the author’s ability to include the reader within his entries and descriptions. I really felt as if I was there as well along for the ride.Acutely aware that he alone had been given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to observe how the wildlife behaved in the forest without humans around, for a documentary that will be out later this year, he began to develop “a sort of imposter syndrome” about being there. “The sheer emptiness of the place... It felt weird, being out there in that paradise on my own. I felt overprivileged.” There are many lovely dates set in his amazing diary inside this book that James tells readers all what he see, and all the exploring, watching and filming that he did. I really enjoyed Aldred's last book, 'The Man Who Climbs Trees', so I jumped at the chance to read his second. Interestingly, Aldred's prose didn't stand out to me all that much the last time around, whereas I found it astounding and assured in 'Goshawk Summer'. Francis, I. and Cook, M. (2011). (Eds.). The Breeding Birds of Northeast Scotland. Scottish Ornithologists� Club, Aberdeen. For most, the tangled web of a forest canopy is a dangerous, impenetrable barrier. Even a peregrine wouldn’t enter it at speed. Yet – as we have come to see – goshawks aren’t like other birds.

Goshawk Summer: a New Forest Season Unlike Any Other Goshawk Summer: a New Forest Season Unlike Any Other

The goshawk used to be widespread throughout Great Britain but became extinct in the late 19th century due to deforestation followed by relentless persecution. James Aldred filmed a family of goshawks in the New Forest over the course of the summer in the middle of a global pandemic. Amidst the fragility and the fear, there was silver moonlight, tumbling fox cubs, calling curlew and, of course, the soaring Goshawks – shining like fire through one of our darkest times. A Goshawk summer unlike any other. Goshawks are unpredictable birds; it can be incredibly difficult to locate them, as they do not like to be seen. Aldred comments: 'Some are skittish; others brazen. Some like low and stay put; others slope off the nest and melt away the moment anyone steps foot in their wood.' They more often than not nest in the same place, returning year after year; they can use the same physical nest for up to a decade. DNA research into goshawks is currently taking place and this will allow us to build up a better picture of the species’ population genetic structure, its dispersal from nesting areas and also the relationship between different birds within the population.I believe the actual goshawk population is only at about 6% of what it should be. Is there any other bird of prey where the national population at least is as badly suppressed as the goshawk’s is? I don’t believe that magpies or crows are responsible for songbird losses, but at the same time their prime predator is largely absent and I’m not really comfortable with that or the numbers of wood pigeon and grey squirrels we have. Petty, S.J. (2002). Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis. In Wernham, C.V., Toms, M.P., Marchant, J.H., Clark, J.A., Siriwardena, G.M. and Baillie, S.R. (Eds.). The Migration Atlas: Movements of the Birds of Britain and Ireland. Poyser, London. Pp. 232-234. Magical and transporting. James Aldred's account of a season spent filming Britain's most powerful and mesmerising avian predator shines with the shifting complexities of weather, season, mood and place. In these dark times, it's a beautiful and deeply evocative hymn to love, hope and connection."