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Tracking Desire: A Journey after Swallow-tailed Kites
“My memory is etched with a clear image of how that bird swung into view and hung over me, suspended like an angel, so starkly black and white, with its wide-scissored split of a tail.”It took just one sighting of a swallow-tailed kite to dispatch Susan Cerulean on a pilgrimage through its fragmented and ever-shrinking habitats. In Tracking Desire, Cerulean immerses us in the natural history and biology of Elanoides forficatus. At the same time, she sifts through her past--as a child, student, biologist, parent, and activist--to muse on a lifelong absorption with nature.
Once at home throughout much of the eastern United States, the swallow-tailed kite is now seldom seen. With ornithologist Ken Meyer, and then on her own, Cerulean roams the kite’s much-reduced homelands, gaining knowledge about the bird and the grave threats to its breeding grounds and migration patterns. Her quest takes her to the muddy banks of the Mississippi, to an enormous and vulnerable roost on corporate ranchlands in southwest Florida, and to the remnant pinelands of Everglades National Park.
In seeking the bird, Cerulean comes to question her own place in our consumerist society. “My journeys after kites have led me to understand that the power of our longings is placing the integrity of life on our tender emerald planet so greatly at risk,” she writes. “What are the fractured places in our hearts and minds and spirits that have allowed us to stand by and watch, and even to participate in, the destruction of so much of life?”
Once at home throughout much of the eastern United States, the swallow-tailed kite is now seldom seen. With ornithologist Ken Meyer, and then on her own, Cerulean roams the kite’s much-reduced homelands, gaining knowledge about the bird and the grave threats to its breeding grounds and migration patterns. Her quest takes her to the muddy banks of the Mississippi, to an enormous and vulnerable roost on corporate ranchlands in southwest Florida, and to the remnant pinelands of Everglades National Park.
In seeking the bird, Cerulean comes to question her own place in our consumerist society. “My journeys after kites have led me to understand that the power of our longings is placing the integrity of life on our tender emerald planet so greatly at risk,” she writes. “What are the fractured places in our hearts and minds and spirits that have allowed us to stand by and watch, and even to participate in, the destruction of so much of life?”
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 21, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 19, 2020
If you have never seen a swallow-tailed kite, I hope you do. These kites are among the most elegant birds in the Americas. White and black, with a wide wingspan and a flowing tail, they appear and disappear, giving the viewer just a glimpse. They soar high and land only on the tall trees where they build their nests.
Swallow-tailed kites used to have a wider range, but now they can be seen in only a few places in the United States. Most appear in Florida in late March and depart in midsummer. They winter in South America. Although in migration they can congregate briefly in large groups, they are generally seen alone or with one or two others. Their numbers are declining because of habitat loss and all the other destruction wrought by humans.
Susan Cerulean, a sometime biology student and naturalist, developed a passion for swallow-tailed kites. This is the story of how she managed to spend some time viewing them. She began her book in 1994, and even then habitat loss was a problem.
Cerulean loves nature and writes about it with great zeal. She is deeply attached to wild Florida, and is among those who try to preserve as much of it as possible. Floridians often enthuse about orange groves, but it was those groves that paved the way to the destruction of much habitat and many wildlife corridors, Cerulean says. I sympathized with her lament that she had to spend much time in an office, unable to watch birds.
Swallow-tailed kites used to have a wider range, but now they can be seen in only a few places in the United States. Most appear in Florida in late March and depart in midsummer. They winter in South America. Although in migration they can congregate briefly in large groups, they are generally seen alone or with one or two others. Their numbers are declining because of habitat loss and all the other destruction wrought by humans.
Susan Cerulean, a sometime biology student and naturalist, developed a passion for swallow-tailed kites. This is the story of how she managed to spend some time viewing them. She began her book in 1994, and even then habitat loss was a problem.
Cerulean loves nature and writes about it with great zeal. She is deeply attached to wild Florida, and is among those who try to preserve as much of it as possible. Floridians often enthuse about orange groves, but it was those groves that paved the way to the destruction of much habitat and many wildlife corridors, Cerulean says. I sympathized with her lament that she had to spend much time in an office, unable to watch birds.
June 15, 2021
Susan captures the natural beauty of her landscape with a personal journey. She always leaves me wanting more.
February 26, 2021
I picked up this title on the recommendation of the owner of Downtown Books and Purl, a quirky little independent bookstore and yarn shop (yes, yarn!) in Apalachicola, Florida. Cerulean is the director of Red Hills Writers Project in Tallahassee and the author and editor of several titles. The essays in Tracking Desire explore the author’s connection to her landscape, in general, and to a beautiful bird, in particular — the swallow-tailed kite. The story of these magical birds and Cerulean’s connection to them create a lovely and satisfying read.
When Cerulean saw her first swallow-tailed kite, she writes “ ...I knew that something essential connecting me viscerally to wildness had come into my life. I wanted that wildness...I wanted to follow that bird”. She laments our disconnection from the wild world, stating “...living atop our enormous constructs, we have come to believe that we deserve to stand apart and above …”
As I write this, literally (yes, not figuratively), literally thousands of snow geese are making their presence known near me in some fields surrounding this portion of the Chesapeake Bay. They are truly demanding my attention. While the kites are known for their magic, mystery, and high-flying acrobatics, the snow geese are known for their sturdy bodies, robust honking, and dedication to eating well.
Perhaps living local is the lingering lesson of Tracking Desire. We are truly missing out when we equate nature with “somewhere else” and ourselves as separate from it. We miss out when we strive for only wilderness and overlook the wildness that is right here. You just have to look.
When Cerulean saw her first swallow-tailed kite, she writes “ ...I knew that something essential connecting me viscerally to wildness had come into my life. I wanted that wildness...I wanted to follow that bird”. She laments our disconnection from the wild world, stating “...living atop our enormous constructs, we have come to believe that we deserve to stand apart and above …”
As I write this, literally (yes, not figuratively), literally thousands of snow geese are making their presence known near me in some fields surrounding this portion of the Chesapeake Bay. They are truly demanding my attention. While the kites are known for their magic, mystery, and high-flying acrobatics, the snow geese are known for their sturdy bodies, robust honking, and dedication to eating well.
Perhaps living local is the lingering lesson of Tracking Desire. We are truly missing out when we equate nature with “somewhere else” and ourselves as separate from it. We miss out when we strive for only wilderness and overlook the wildness that is right here. You just have to look.
July 6, 2021
Finishing this marvelous journey focusing solely on swallow tail kites, the impact changes the vistas to really be seen. This talented writer imbibes the reader with the passion one experiences in obsessive compulsive behavior of a beautiful bird.
Another like minded ornithologist invites her along as he tracks these birds on their journey migration, the roosting and mating. In this way, we share her appreciation for lives never before understood.
The writing captures the reader with words beyond imagining. The need for correcting the destruction of homeland of these birds is explained with incredible
power.
A book for anyone that loves the balance of nature.
Another like minded ornithologist invites her along as he tracks these birds on their journey migration, the roosting and mating. In this way, we share her appreciation for lives never before understood.
The writing captures the reader with words beyond imagining. The need for correcting the destruction of homeland of these birds is explained with incredible
power.
A book for anyone that loves the balance of nature.
March 30, 2026
This read like a naturalist’s memoir of her life inspired by a special species of bird and the challenges they face to live in a world of diminishing habitats. I almost put the book down when I reached the chapter about wood ducks.
September 4, 2021
If you love birds -especially the Swallow-tailed Kite then read this!
February 20, 2023
The best Florida nature writer meets the best Florida bird. What’s not to love? Descriptive, thoughtful, challenging.
January 16, 2026
Susan Cerulean’s heart breaks for the Swallow-tailed Kite and the human-driven plight of thousands of other species around the world. She puts the way many of us feel into words. You will learn more about Cerulean than kites. Well written and certainly emotional, but it never caught on for me and so it was tough to finish. It would probably be 4 stars if I was more invested.
June 15, 2010
This is a great book for anyone who has a love for Swallow Tailed Kites, or who has felt a deep desire to communicate with an animal. Cerulean's journey was interesting and informative for bird enthusiasts, however, she also seemed to be working through her own emotional challenges in this book, and that was a distraction from the tome's purpose. There were times when Cerulean digressed so deeply into earth spirituality and her childhood that I became totally exasperated with her. That being said, I still enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone whose heart thrills when a Kite passes by them.
August 2, 2011
A bit of a disappointment, really - not quite what I was expecting. At times it felt like a "stream of consciousness" sort of thing from the author. While I realize she was trying to show how our personal lives are connected to the birds, it got so jumbled that I had trouble following her train of thought. She skipped a bit too abruptly from her thoughts to the story at hand and back and forth. And to be honest, some of her personal history seemed only remotely connected to the topic at hand. In the end, I feel like I learned little about the kites, except how much the author obsesses over them.
January 11, 2014
Ironically, the chapters about the Swallow-tails were the more weak chapters. The chapters where she recalls her family stories were heartbreakingly beautiful. It was like two different people wrote this book. The decline of these beautiful birds overwhelmingly depressing and she could not find a tone to convey anything otherwise.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews