Prolific author of animal books Sy Montgomery discusses her foray into falconry

Share
(Photo by Tianne Strombeck)

Sy Montgomery—the bestselling author of 30-plus books, including “The Soul of an Octopus” and “The Good Good Pig”—discusses in a “Talking Animals” interview what prompted the exploration of raptors and falconry at the core of her new book, “The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty” (adapted and expanded from a chapter in Montgomery’s 2019 collection, “Birdology.”)

She responds to my observation that a Sy Montgomery book tends to tell a story about a given animal entering her world–or Montgomery entering an animal’s world—and what ensues is a warm, poignant, sometimes magical tale. “The Hawk’s Way” is a horse of a different color, and not just because it’s a compact, 79-page micro-memoir.

Sure, she’s as taken with the hawks she meets—enraptured by raptors–as she’s been with previous animals she’s befriended. But as her accounts in this book make clear, these birds are hunters first and foremost, high-strung, and can attack their human falconry partners. And do!

Montgomery hasn’t directly experienced this sort of bird assault, but notes in “The Hawk’s Way” that her falconry instructor, Nancy Cowan, among others, had. Yet, notwithstanding that sort of ever-present peril, she writes, the “birds will show me a kind of relationship I had never known was possible with any living being”—which, for those who’ve read even just a few of Montgomery’s books, profiling a vast array of animals (and humans) jumps off the page as a striking assertion.

Montgomery goes on to detail the intense connection she forged with these birds, likening the feeling to agape love. Despite developing that deep affection for hawks and other raptors—and falconry—she explains the elements of her life, and lifestyle, that prevented her from accepting Nancy Cowan’s invitation to become her apprentice.

Cowan passed away in January, and Montgomery has dedicated “The Hawk’s Way” to her.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

It's The Music Thursday
Player position: