Owls of the eastern ice : a quest to find and save the world's largest owl /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020
Longlisted for the National Book Award
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and the Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction
A Finalist for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award
Winner of the Peace Corps Worldwide Special Book Award

A Best Book of the Year: NPR, The Wall Street Journal , Smithsonian , Minneapolis Star-Tribune , The Globe and Mail , The BirdBooker Report , Geographical, Open Letter Review
Best Nature Book of the Year: The Times (London)

"A terrifically exciting account of [Slaght's] time in the Russian Far East studying Blakiston's fish owls, huge, shaggy-feathered, yellow-eyed, and elusive birds that hunt fish by wading in icy water . . . Even on the hottest summer days this book will transport you."
-- Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk , in Kirkus

I saw my first Blakiston's fish owl in the Russian province of Primorye, a coastal talon of land hooking south into the belly of Northeast Asia . . . No scientist had seen a Blakiston's fish owl so far south in a hundred years . . .

When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist.

Despite a wingspan of six feet and a height of over two feet, the Blakiston's fish owl is highly elusive. They are easiest to find in winter, when their tracks mark the snowy banks of the rivers where they feed. They are also endangered. And so, as Slaght and his devoted team set out to locate the owls, they aim to craft a conservation plan that helps ensure the species' survival. This quest sends them on all-night monitoring missions in freezing tents, mad dashes across thawing rivers, and free-climbs up rotting trees to check nests for precious eggs. They use cutting-edge tracking technology and improvise ingenious traps. And all along, they must keep watch against a run-in with a bear or an Amur tiger. At the heart of Slaght's story are the fish owls themselves: cunning hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat.

Through this rare glimpse into the everyday life of a field scientist and conservationist, Owls of the Eastern Ice testifies to the determination and creativity essential to scientific advancement and serves as a powerful reminder of the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of the natural world.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Slaght recounts his five-year study of Blakiston's fish owls: raptors notable for their large size, rarity, and habitat (shared with Amur tigers) in southeastern Russia. The author, now the Russia and Northeast Asia Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society, is a young PhD candidate looking for a research topic when the book begins. He's essentially starting from scratch, since so little was known about the birds. As fine a writer as he is scientist, Slaght gives the narrative an enticing structure; it's well into the book before he gets a good look at the cryptic species. Information about fish owl behavior and biology is gradually revealed as his knowledge expands. Readers learn much about the vagaries of scientific fieldwork, including the worries caused by severe weather, equipment failure, and project funding issues. While the birds are marvelous, there's a compelling human side to the story as well as Slaght describes his interactions with local scientists and research assistants. VERDICTS Slaght's extensive field research is rendered into clear, readable prose, making it a solid choice for bird lovers, but also for armchair travelers looking for eco-adventure on the fringes of civilization.--Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

Booklist Review

Primorye is the southeasternmost district of Russia, bordering on North Korea and China, and home to Amur tigers, primeval forests, salmon streams, and the world's largest owl, Blakiston's fish owl, an eagle owls and a distant cousin of North America's great horned owl. When biologist Slaght saw one for the first time he was captivated, and parlayed his years of experience in Russia into a PhD project studying the fish owl, with the aim of conserving it and its habitat. The owls are secretive and hard to find, which, coupled with the wintry wilderness setting, makes for an adventurous tale. Slaght learns how to look for owls as well as how to get along with the hard-drinking locals and survive the cold. The excitement of finding owl tracks in the snow (the owls fish for salmon along open stretches of rivers) and owl nests is intertwined with stories of camping, attaching transmitters to owls, and dealing with recalcitrant equipment and villagers. Slowly the owls reveal their secrets, and Slaght lets readers revel in the discoveries along with him.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jonathan C. Slaght is the Russia and Northeast Asia coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society, where he manages research projects on endangered species and coordinates avian conservation activities along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway from the Arctic to the tropics. His annotated translation of Across the Ussuri Kray , by Vladimir Arsenyev, was published in 2016, and his work has been featured by The New York Times , The Guardian , the BBC World Service, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine , Scientific American , and Audubon magazine, among others. His new book, Owls of the Eastern Ice , won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award as well as the Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. He lives in Minneapolis.