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Rites of Autumn
Dan O'Brien spent the summer of 1986 in the Rocky Mountains releasing young peregrine falcons on the mountain cliffs. When one of his release sites was raided by a golden eagle, he managed to save a peregrine chick, and decided to make an improbable two-thousand-mile trip with the surviving young falcon, Dolly. From the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico, following the autumnal migration of waterfowl, O'Brien taught her to hunt as a wild falcon would, in the hopes of releasing her into the natural world. The Rites of Autumn is the riveting account of their incredible journey.
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1988
4 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Dan O'Brien
18 books58 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Dan O'Brien was born Daniel Hosler O'Brien in Findlay Ohio on November 23, 1947. He attended Findlay High School and graduated in 1966. He went to Michigan Technological University to play football and graduated with a BS degree in Math and Business from Findlay College in 1970 where he was the chairman of the first campus Earth Day. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of South Dakota in 1973 where he studied under Frederick Manfred. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green University (of Ohio) in 1974, worked as a biologist and wrote for a few years before entering the PhD program at Denver University. When he won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction in 1986 he gave up academics except for occasional short term teaching jobs. O'Brien continued to write and work as an endangered species biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks and later the Peregrine Fund. In the late 1990s he began to change his small cattle ranch in South Dakota to a buffalo ranch. In 2001 he founded Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance to produce large landscape, grass fed and field harvest buffalo to supply high quality and sustainable buffalo meat to people interested in human health and the health of the American Great Plains. He now raises buffalo and lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch in western South Dakota with his wife Jill. Dan O'Brien is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants for fiction, A Bush Foundation Award for writing, a Spur Award, two Wrangler Awards from the National cowboy Hall of Fame, and an honorary PhD from the University of South Dakota. His books have been translated into seven foreign languages and his essays, reviews, and short stories have been published in many periodicals including, Redbook, New York Times Magazine, FYI. New York Times Book Review.
Dan O'Brien was born Daniel Hosler O'Brien in Findlay Ohio on November 23, 1947. He attended Findlay High School and graduated in 1966. He went to Michigan Technological University to play football and graduated with a BS degree in Math and Business from Findlay College in 1970 where he was the chairman of the first campus Earth Day. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of South Dakota in 1973 where he studied under Frederick Manfred. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green University (of Ohio) in 1974, worked as a biologist and wrote for a few years before entering the PhD program at Denver University. When he won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction in 1986 he gave up academics except for occasional short term teaching jobs. O'Brien continued to write and work as an endangered species biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks and later the Peregrine Fund. In the late 1990s he began to change his small cattle ranch in South Dakota to a buffalo ranch. In 2001 he founded Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance to produce large landscape, grass fed and field harvest buffalo to supply high quality and sustainable buffalo meat to people interested in human health and the health of the American Great Plains. He now raises buffalo and lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch in western South Dakota with his wife Jill. Dan O'Brien is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants for fiction, A Bush Foundation Award for writing, a Spur Award, two Wrangler Awards from the National cowboy Hall of Fame, and an honorary PhD from the University of South Dakota. His books have been translated into seven foreign languages and his essays, reviews, and short stories have been published in many periodicals including, Redbook, New York Times Magazine, FYI. New York Times Book Review.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
October 31, 2020
I'm so glad I finally took this off my shelf and read it. The book is glad too.
First reading Robert Murphy's Peregrine Falcon, I bought this book shortly afterward. It is more powerful even now, now that we are in the midst of climate change. I loved his lyrical writing style, his attention to nature, and the tales of this captive bird. I still hate to think of things killed, but that is why they are called birds of prey, right? Trying to remember that as a meat eater I am none the less as guilty.
The author's love and respect of nature and trying to find his place in it touched me. I won't add any spoilers, just know this is a beautiful book; especially if you love birds.
First reading Robert Murphy's Peregrine Falcon, I bought this book shortly afterward. It is more powerful even now, now that we are in the midst of climate change. I loved his lyrical writing style, his attention to nature, and the tales of this captive bird. I still hate to think of things killed, but that is why they are called birds of prey, right? Trying to remember that as a meat eater I am none the less as guilty.
The author's love and respect of nature and trying to find his place in it touched me. I won't add any spoilers, just know this is a beautiful book; especially if you love birds.
March 25, 2020
https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/th...
With a mere nineteen pages left to read in this extremely fine and interesting book, I am faced with it swiftly coming to its end. This is not good and it makes me very unhappy. In some way by writing this review now I am only delaying the inevitable. But neither you nor I need to know how the book ends, or whether or not Dan and company make it to the Gulf of Mexico, or if the young bird makes it back into the wild where it belongs. Unfortunately, and with every nonfiction book of Dan O’Brien’s, there is a sad moment when you must say goodbye. And what is so difficult about this is that O’Brien lets you all the way into his life as well as the people and animals he touches. There are anecdotes galore and no few instances of lessons given whether they be biological, scientific, geographical, political, historical, or having something to do with the natural world we live in. O’Brien is an amazing storyteller who never preaches but is certainly passionate about what he believes in.
O’Brien digresses often and is another huge reason why I love his writing so much. By reading this wonderful book I also learned, among other things, more about the great American Indian called Crazy Horse who settled upon Fort Robinson in Nebraska where he was infamously murdered. Or the Spaniard Coronado’s search for nonexistent gold in the plateaus of Liano Estacado located just over the border of New Mexico in Texas. And these short history lessons are only smidgens of the interesting tidbits scattered among the pages of one man’s long journey top to bottom through the American West. The story begins with a failed professional “hacking” while attempting to return four young falcon chicks to the wild. O’Brien hopes now to return the lone surviving peregrine falcon to the wild at what would naturally be the end of its natural migration south for the winter. And as O’Brien travels alone in his pickup truck with his new pup Spud and his trusty black lab pal Jake he is required to teach this falcon named Dolly how to hunt and survive in the wild. And there isn’t much time left before winter sets in and their window closes fast.
Throughout his lifetime Dan O’Brien has been friends with many interesting people. The writer Jim Harrison was one of these good friends and my devouring of Harrison’s nonfiction books is the only reason I discovered the work of Dan O’Brien. I do not imagine any sort of book about buffalo or falcons would have caught my interest without the goading of Jim Harrison who offered a blurb for the back of this book that states something far better than anything I might write: The Rites of Autumn has a quiet but breathtaking dignity. It owns the specific grace of a whole man writing a whole book, and the wholeness is at the same time resonant and profound…
I have mentioned often enough that book blurbs usually, if not always, disappoint me. Harrison’s blurb is the first that did not. It seems to me that once you hit gold in literature you tend to have found the mother lode, and all that remains is to continue mining from that source. I am nearing the end of my nonfiction journey with Dan O’Brien that began first with his two fantastic books written later in life regarding his switch from raising beef cattle to bison on his South Dakota ranch. Because these two books were so heartfelt, family-oriented, interesting, and important, and where he mentions often his love and history with falcons, I decided to read his two books on his experience with peregrine falcons. This opening for me into the world of falconers is a total surprise. The next and last book in this series is titled Equinox and promises to be another great read. Meanwhile, I too must return to the remaining nineteen pages in what has become for me a remarkable odyssey of a man, his dogs, and a bird.
With a mere nineteen pages left to read in this extremely fine and interesting book, I am faced with it swiftly coming to its end. This is not good and it makes me very unhappy. In some way by writing this review now I am only delaying the inevitable. But neither you nor I need to know how the book ends, or whether or not Dan and company make it to the Gulf of Mexico, or if the young bird makes it back into the wild where it belongs. Unfortunately, and with every nonfiction book of Dan O’Brien’s, there is a sad moment when you must say goodbye. And what is so difficult about this is that O’Brien lets you all the way into his life as well as the people and animals he touches. There are anecdotes galore and no few instances of lessons given whether they be biological, scientific, geographical, political, historical, or having something to do with the natural world we live in. O’Brien is an amazing storyteller who never preaches but is certainly passionate about what he believes in.
O’Brien digresses often and is another huge reason why I love his writing so much. By reading this wonderful book I also learned, among other things, more about the great American Indian called Crazy Horse who settled upon Fort Robinson in Nebraska where he was infamously murdered. Or the Spaniard Coronado’s search for nonexistent gold in the plateaus of Liano Estacado located just over the border of New Mexico in Texas. And these short history lessons are only smidgens of the interesting tidbits scattered among the pages of one man’s long journey top to bottom through the American West. The story begins with a failed professional “hacking” while attempting to return four young falcon chicks to the wild. O’Brien hopes now to return the lone surviving peregrine falcon to the wild at what would naturally be the end of its natural migration south for the winter. And as O’Brien travels alone in his pickup truck with his new pup Spud and his trusty black lab pal Jake he is required to teach this falcon named Dolly how to hunt and survive in the wild. And there isn’t much time left before winter sets in and their window closes fast.
Throughout his lifetime Dan O’Brien has been friends with many interesting people. The writer Jim Harrison was one of these good friends and my devouring of Harrison’s nonfiction books is the only reason I discovered the work of Dan O’Brien. I do not imagine any sort of book about buffalo or falcons would have caught my interest without the goading of Jim Harrison who offered a blurb for the back of this book that states something far better than anything I might write: The Rites of Autumn has a quiet but breathtaking dignity. It owns the specific grace of a whole man writing a whole book, and the wholeness is at the same time resonant and profound…
I have mentioned often enough that book blurbs usually, if not always, disappoint me. Harrison’s blurb is the first that did not. It seems to me that once you hit gold in literature you tend to have found the mother lode, and all that remains is to continue mining from that source. I am nearing the end of my nonfiction journey with Dan O’Brien that began first with his two fantastic books written later in life regarding his switch from raising beef cattle to bison on his South Dakota ranch. Because these two books were so heartfelt, family-oriented, interesting, and important, and where he mentions often his love and history with falcons, I decided to read his two books on his experience with peregrine falcons. This opening for me into the world of falconers is a total surprise. The next and last book in this series is titled Equinox and promises to be another great read. Meanwhile, I too must return to the remaining nineteen pages in what has become for me a remarkable odyssey of a man, his dogs, and a bird.
April 28, 2024
Dan does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to falconry and telling the story of not only Dolly but the recovery of her species and his love of nature. With his writing style I can smell the various scents and feel the different climates as we travel with them to prepare Dolly for a possible new life. I'm reminded of Hershey, a public education peregrine I worked with for a couple of years in Kansas. Although I hated the fact that he couldn't be released, I loved that bird and looked forward to every moment with him. He was something special, and I can tell Dan felt the same way about Dolly. This was a quick read from late afternoon to mid-evening... enjoyed it very much.
April 11, 2018
« De temps à autre, je crois être devenu plus sage. Le plus souvent, j’ai l’impression de n’avoir rien appris. »
4/5
Une belle surprise, une écriture sobre et plutôt factuelle mais une belle histoire de nature, d'homme et d'animaux. C'était simple et agréable, rapidement lu, un bol d'air frais.
4/5
Une belle surprise, une écriture sobre et plutôt factuelle mais une belle histoire de nature, d'homme et d'animaux. C'était simple et agréable, rapidement lu, un bol d'air frais.
January 1, 2019
An inspired and inspiring book whether you're a falconer or not.
February 26, 2024
Au départ, il s’agit simplement du récit simple d’un fauconnier qui décide d’apprendre à son faucon pèlerin, né en captivité, à retrouver ses instincts sauvages. Mais c’est en fait une histoire sincère de laquelle se dégage une beauté farouche et un savoir biologique épatant.
On suit Dan O’Brien dans son témoignage quotidien et authentique. En traversant le continent, il fait des remarques biologiques, typiques d’une éducation américaine ancienne : les différentes espèces d’oiseaux, leur habitat, leur nourriture et leurs prédateurs. Les parties de chasse auxquelles on assiste sont présentées comme un art ancestral, une tradition respectueuse où l’homme ne fait qu’un avec la nature et s’imprègne de ce qui est plus puissant que lui. On ne peut qu’être admirateur de l’instinct animal que l’on connait trop peu.
Le trip de Dan O’Brien a quelque chose d’émancipateur en ce que sa vie se résume à poursuivre les oiseaux, et à perpétuer le cycle naturel de prédation. Or, à mesure qu’il rencontre des obstacles, et qu’il fait référence à des ouvrages et récits célèbres d’Hommes ayant essayé de préserver la liberté sur leurs terres (Indiens, trappeurs…), on comprend que la fauconnerie est une activité infime face à la destruction de l’environnement.
L’histoire de Dan O’Brien prend ainsi place dans des enjeux écologiques et moraux plus importants, dans la cause animale anti-capitaliste et matérialiste. Il en résulte un roman frappant de sincérité et de simplicité, peut-être un peu désillusionné, qui nous donne envie de partir sur les routes pour ne dépendre que de la nature, comme au départ.
On suit Dan O’Brien dans son témoignage quotidien et authentique. En traversant le continent, il fait des remarques biologiques, typiques d’une éducation américaine ancienne : les différentes espèces d’oiseaux, leur habitat, leur nourriture et leurs prédateurs. Les parties de chasse auxquelles on assiste sont présentées comme un art ancestral, une tradition respectueuse où l’homme ne fait qu’un avec la nature et s’imprègne de ce qui est plus puissant que lui. On ne peut qu’être admirateur de l’instinct animal que l’on connait trop peu.
Le trip de Dan O’Brien a quelque chose d’émancipateur en ce que sa vie se résume à poursuivre les oiseaux, et à perpétuer le cycle naturel de prédation. Or, à mesure qu’il rencontre des obstacles, et qu’il fait référence à des ouvrages et récits célèbres d’Hommes ayant essayé de préserver la liberté sur leurs terres (Indiens, trappeurs…), on comprend que la fauconnerie est une activité infime face à la destruction de l’environnement.
L’histoire de Dan O’Brien prend ainsi place dans des enjeux écologiques et moraux plus importants, dans la cause animale anti-capitaliste et matérialiste. Il en résulte un roman frappant de sincérité et de simplicité, peut-être un peu désillusionné, qui nous donne envie de partir sur les routes pour ne dépendre que de la nature, comme au départ.
December 4, 2022
"Dan O'Brien spent the summer of 1986 in the Rocky Mountains releasing young peregrine falcons on the mountain cliffs. When one of his release sites was raided by a golden eagle, he managed to save a peregrine chick, and decided to make an improbable two-thousand-mile trip with the surviving young falcon, Dolly. From the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico, following the autumnal migration of waterfowl, O'Brien taught her to hunt as a wild falcon would, in the hopes of releasing her into the natural world. The Rites of Autumn is the riveting account of their incredible journey."
This book was, and wasn't, what I thought it would be. It certainly was the story of one man's determination to find a way to release peregrine falcons to the wild as adults rather than chicks. It was also the story of the man himself: his history, his values, his choices. And it was also the story of their odyssey: of the places they traveled to for Dolly to learn the various skills she would need to survive in the wild, and for Spud, the setter puppy, to start learning the skills of a bird dog. And of the friends along the way, all of whom, each in their own fashion, loved the land as it should be and did what they could to keep it natural, or return it to a natural state.
Did Dolly learn the skills she needed? Was she successfully released in the wild, to join the migration south for the winter? You'll have to read the book to find out.
This book was, and wasn't, what I thought it would be. It certainly was the story of one man's determination to find a way to release peregrine falcons to the wild as adults rather than chicks. It was also the story of the man himself: his history, his values, his choices. And it was also the story of their odyssey: of the places they traveled to for Dolly to learn the various skills she would need to survive in the wild, and for Spud, the setter puppy, to start learning the skills of a bird dog. And of the friends along the way, all of whom, each in their own fashion, loved the land as it should be and did what they could to keep it natural, or return it to a natural state.
Did Dolly learn the skills she needed? Was she successfully released in the wild, to join the migration south for the winter? You'll have to read the book to find out.
May 10, 2020
Un beau récit sur les difficultés de l'introduction des espèces en voie d'extinction dans son milieu naturel, dans cet ouvrage c'est le faucon pèlerin dans l'ouest américain. Dan O'Brien nous raconte au passage quelques anecdotes des régions traversées et de l'histoire américaine
Dan O'Brien :
Grâce à ce livre, j’ai rencontré des personnes qui avaient pris conscience que le fond du problème
venait du schisme entre l’écologie populaire et la compréhension profonde de la lutte pour la survie,
cette règle principale qui régit la planète depuis l’aube des temps.
Mais l’histoire contée dans Rites d’automne est triste et les chances d’un dénouement heureux sont maigres,en partie à cause de la destruction constante de l’habitat animal et du développement de l’Ouest américain qui porte avec lui une multitude de luxes auxquels il est impossible de résister.
Nous voulons des terres sauvages et suffisamment de place pour en profiter, mais nous ne voulons pas nous priver pour autant du superflu que nous apporte le XXIe siècle. Nous refusons de regarder en face le fait que notre capitalisme engendre le matérialisme et la dynamique glaciale de la surpopulation humaine. Pour tout dire, nous ne savons pas vraiment ce que nous voulons
Dan O'Brien :
Grâce à ce livre, j’ai rencontré des personnes qui avaient pris conscience que le fond du problème
venait du schisme entre l’écologie populaire et la compréhension profonde de la lutte pour la survie,
cette règle principale qui régit la planète depuis l’aube des temps.
Mais l’histoire contée dans Rites d’automne est triste et les chances d’un dénouement heureux sont maigres,en partie à cause de la destruction constante de l’habitat animal et du développement de l’Ouest américain qui porte avec lui une multitude de luxes auxquels il est impossible de résister.
Nous voulons des terres sauvages et suffisamment de place pour en profiter, mais nous ne voulons pas nous priver pour autant du superflu que nous apporte le XXIe siècle. Nous refusons de regarder en face le fait que notre capitalisme engendre le matérialisme et la dynamique glaciale de la surpopulation humaine. Pour tout dire, nous ne savons pas vraiment ce que nous voulons
November 21, 2022
• O’Brien’s writing, as always, is entrancing and makes me long for something deep in the northern prairies.
• I love his understanding of the nuance of human vs nature, of the very idea that humans are natural or unnatural, that humans can do anything to escape the way we are created.
• I admire the way he loves the world and also sees it practically.
• I love his understanding of the nuance of human vs nature, of the very idea that humans are natural or unnatural, that humans can do anything to escape the way we are created.
• I admire the way he loves the world and also sees it practically.
July 17, 2022
Un excellent livre qui fait voyager dans des paysages superbes et au cœur de la nature, tout en nous faisant découvrir la fauconnerie.
L’auteur a vraiment un rapport à la nature très beau, et ses commentaires sur les relations humain-nature me parlent beaucoup.
L’auteur a vraiment un rapport à la nature très beau, et ses commentaires sur les relations humain-nature me parlent beaucoup.
August 16, 2018
I absolutely adored this book. It was so easy for my to get lost in the pages of this book.
April 26, 2019
Pour savoir ce que j'en ai pensé :
https://boisdeslivres.home.blog/2019/...
https://boisdeslivres.home.blog/2019/...
August 25, 2020
Wonderful book about a man taking a trained falcon along its migratory path. I enjoyed getting an inside look at the mind of a person so in touch with nature
March 16, 2021
This book is fascinating, especially for anyone who loves the prairie.
March 24, 2025
Heartfelt and compelling. Informative and easy to grasp. Wish it went on longer.
March 10, 2013
Qui eut cru que je me laisserais charmer par des histoires de chasse et de fauconnerie ?!
Bien sûr, Rites of Autumn est bien plus qu'un livre sur la chasse, même si après ma lecture ralentie pour prolonger le plaisir de l'expérience, je m'aperçois qu'il existe des aspects fascinants dans les relations entre le chasseur et ses chiens, et ici son faucon, très différents de mon expérience régionale indirecte qui se réduit à balader le chien sans jamais rien ramener pour le repas de dimanche ou partager un bocal de pâté et un verre de rouge dans la palombière... Ici étant la chasse permet de se nourrir et n'est pas un divertissement sportif.
Rites of Autumn, c'est un superbe voyage le long des chemins empruntés par les oiseaux migrateurs, des Rocheuses au Golfe du Mexique, en passant par les Grandes Plaines et le Nouveau Mexique ; un voyage ponctué de réflexions sur la vie et la survie du monde animal, sur l'arrivée de l'homme blanc et l'impact de son attitude essentiellement conquérante face aux peuples et à la terre de l'Amérique du Nord, sur la Nature et l'avenir.
On retrouve son compère, Erney, et leur relation étrange et profonde. Des anecdotes historiques et personnelles ainsi que les aventures hilarantes de Spud, le très jeune setter d'O'Brien et de Jake, le chien de sa femme, vieux baroudeur de la chasse.
La différence du ton et de l'atmosphère par rapport à Buffalos for the Broken Heart, écrit après Rites of Autumn (mais que l'on peut lire avant) réside essentiellement dans la mélancolie qui teinte le périple de Dolly, le faucon pèlerin, à travers les États-Unis vers son retour à la vie sauvage, dans lequel se fond discrètement la recherche de Dan O'Brien d'un sens, d'une définition à sa vie, et tout ceci au fil de la plume poétique d'un homme qui est devenu un de mes héros.
Bien sûr, Rites of Autumn est bien plus qu'un livre sur la chasse, même si après ma lecture ralentie pour prolonger le plaisir de l'expérience, je m'aperçois qu'il existe des aspects fascinants dans les relations entre le chasseur et ses chiens, et ici son faucon, très différents de mon expérience régionale indirecte qui se réduit à balader le chien sans jamais rien ramener pour le repas de dimanche ou partager un bocal de pâté et un verre de rouge dans la palombière... Ici étant la chasse permet de se nourrir et n'est pas un divertissement sportif.
Rites of Autumn, c'est un superbe voyage le long des chemins empruntés par les oiseaux migrateurs, des Rocheuses au Golfe du Mexique, en passant par les Grandes Plaines et le Nouveau Mexique ; un voyage ponctué de réflexions sur la vie et la survie du monde animal, sur l'arrivée de l'homme blanc et l'impact de son attitude essentiellement conquérante face aux peuples et à la terre de l'Amérique du Nord, sur la Nature et l'avenir.
On retrouve son compère, Erney, et leur relation étrange et profonde. Des anecdotes historiques et personnelles ainsi que les aventures hilarantes de Spud, le très jeune setter d'O'Brien et de Jake, le chien de sa femme, vieux baroudeur de la chasse.
La différence du ton et de l'atmosphère par rapport à Buffalos for the Broken Heart, écrit après Rites of Autumn (mais que l'on peut lire avant) réside essentiellement dans la mélancolie qui teinte le périple de Dolly, le faucon pèlerin, à travers les États-Unis vers son retour à la vie sauvage, dans lequel se fond discrètement la recherche de Dan O'Brien d'un sens, d'une définition à sa vie, et tout ceci au fil de la plume poétique d'un homme qui est devenu un de mes héros.
January 24, 2015
I wanted to read this book when I came across it because Dan O'Brien's Spirit of the Hills was very good and left a big impression on me. I've often listed it among my favorite books. This book is about his attempt to preserve the Peregrine Falcon, and to set one in particular free after teaching it all he could about how to be wild and hunt for food. It was good reading, even though falconry or birding are things I know little about. This story told sadly of how the changing landscape and lifestyle we have brought about has almost obliterated places for birds to nest and in the falcon's case, hunt. O'Brien offers some interesting opinions and observations and even questions himself and his intentions.
I don't know if I've ever seen or would recognize a falcon flying, although according to O'Brien, once seen, it's hard to forget. I vaguely remember that a guy had one two blocks down when I was growing up. Like Dolly in the book, the bird was kept hooded and blocked, which was like being perched and tethered, unless released by the owner to fly. Interfering with nature is something I have a hard time with. I like to think there is some kind of balance and everything will come back around in its own time. I have a lot of respect for Dan O'Brien as an author. The love of the land, nature and history and the knowledge O'Brien possesses are amazing. They come across in both books. The rites of autumn are hard to accept, falcon or goose.
I don't know if I've ever seen or would recognize a falcon flying, although according to O'Brien, once seen, it's hard to forget. I vaguely remember that a guy had one two blocks down when I was growing up. Like Dolly in the book, the bird was kept hooded and blocked, which was like being perched and tethered, unless released by the owner to fly. Interfering with nature is something I have a hard time with. I like to think there is some kind of balance and everything will come back around in its own time. I have a lot of respect for Dan O'Brien as an author. The love of the land, nature and history and the knowledge O'Brien possesses are amazing. They come across in both books. The rites of autumn are hard to accept, falcon or goose.
June 22, 2011
Dan O'Brien set out to train and release a young Peregrine in the days just after DDT had more than decimated their natural population. The author/falconer trained the falcon as they crossed the nation, North to South, following (roughly) the migration patterns of wild birds. O'Brien's descriptions of personalities and events are top-notch, as always. This book features a surprising (and realistic) ending, which adds to the quality of the whole. The individual characterizations of Dolly (falcon), Jake and Spud (O'Brien's dogs) are fantastic and truly make you feel as if you know and love them.
July 6, 2011
This is Dan O'Brien's story of his attempt to release a peregrine falcon into the wild, following her natural migration route across the US as he trains her to hunt. The writing is often beautiful in a melancholy kind of way - it's really a memoir and an expression of his sadness at watching the landscape destroyed by development. It's also very much a hunter's story; falconry is hunting, after all.
January 3, 2017
I love the book because it was a true story and it was easy to read. It was about the wild outdoors and hunting with a falcon which I'm very interested in. Another thing that I really liked is that the author Dan O'Brien is from South Dakota and incorporates South Dakota history into his books. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in in hunting and the outdoors and want to read something by a South Dakotan.
January 14, 2013
A short and lovely read detailing a falconers experience with a peregrine that he hand reared from an injured chick and his quest to try and rehabilitate it into the wild. It had a relatively sad ending but still none the less an enjoyable read. This was a very thoughtful gift from a fellow member of my Druid Order so thank you once again for this. :)
October 26, 2022
Dan O'Brien writes with a yearning....for what has been, his dreams, and for all things lost to man's progress and need to get close to nature. Why move to the woods and cut all the trees down? He fails to see the worth of his work in the 80's with peregrine falcons that helped save them from being the last in our country.
March 10, 2012
Loved it. I've been reading a lot of books on falconry lately, so it was nice to come across one with a story. Felt a little Edward Abbey-ish
October 7, 2013
Great book. Well written and interesting from an environmental perspective as well as a good story.
February 18, 2016
Good book, not a hard read.
May 9, 2017
I'm the kind of person that wants to know about what other people say about my home state. And this book has just that and also takes you through the journey of the Great state of South Dakota and what everyone and everything contributes to make this state as wonderful as it is.
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