Birding with a Purpose: Of Raptors, Gabboons, and Other Creatures

Dust jacket notes: "This is one of those rare books which hugely entertain while imparting a great deal of scientific information for the wildlife biologist, ornithologist, and birding and banding enthusiast. It is also a fine tale, well told, of the wild and rowdy side of wildlife work few people know. Fran Hamerstrom's adventures are hilarious, unique, and even dangerous at times. She has trapped raptors and been raked by their talons. She has dropped a car through the ice not once but three times in an effort to trap and band snowy owls. She has climbed a sky-high beech tree to band an eagle. She has called a police officer a gabboon to his face - and watched him beam with pride. You'll find out why Fran bakes a dead mouse in her oven. You'll meet the Rockford Bunch: a clutch of scruffy teenagers who dislike school and who argue about the fine points of some erudite matter such as the juvenile plumage of the Swainson's hawk. Hamerstrom exclaims: 'I'd never met people like this before. Specialized, rowdy scholars - united by their flamboyantly uncouth manners, and above all by their passionate interest in birds of prey.' Joseph J. Hickey, wildlife ecology professor at the University of Wisconsin describes raptor trappers: 'Officially, they want to band birds to learn about their weight and moult, their later movements, their longevity, and all that. Underneath, they are unabashed admirers of the wildness, magnificent strength, and awesome flight of creatures at the top of the animal pyramid...they have a youthful zest, and they will endure any hardship and go to any length to catch their birds. Fran is one of these youthful persons. In her own light-hearted way, she portrays here the fascinating development of raptor-trapping techniques in the past few decades, a development in which she played a leading role.'"