A Hawk in the Sun: Adventures Studying Hawks

By Leon R. Powers

A Hawk in the Sun brilliantly shows the passion of a true scientist. The research was of the nesting and other habits of the ferruginous hawk-an extremely shy and difficult-to-study bird that is the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0931625408
• ISBN13: 9780931625404
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Dimi Pr
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A rare jewel

Leon Powers is a truly rare find. Few professional scientists have Power's ability to communicate to the lay person in such natural manner. In this book he is able to bring his reader into the lives of these magnificent yet little understood animals. He also provides a taste a what the life of a research biologist is like. From the sweltering heat inside a small blind to the shear frustration of simply trying to locate a ground nest only to see it "eaten" in front of his eyes. Yet he does this in a style anyone can read. A previous reviewer referred to words that "evaporate off the page". This really is true. If you are interested in birding, ornithology, natural history or simply curious about the world around us; this is a fine read. I highly recommend it.

Very much worth reading

In the 1970s, the author was a graduate student at Idaho State University, working toward his PhD in Zoology. He wrote a 300-page dissertation on ferruginous hawks. This book is a shorter, less-scientific version of that dissertation. Ferruginous hawks are the largest hawk in North America. They are also very shy birds, so they are considered a good barometer for measuring the encroachment of man. Flying away, and abandoning a nest, if people get too close, is possible for them. The author chose to study ferruginous hawks because so little was known about them. Several nests in southern Idaho and northern Utah were chosen for observation. Some nests are set up in juniper trees, only a few feet off the ground, and some are set up on the ground. Most of the observations had to be done from blinds set up a couple of hundred yards away. The nests are big, anywhere up to several feet across. The hawks, especially the chicks, have developed ways to deal with the sun beating down on their nests (there is no shade nearby). The nests in the trees are not high enough to prevent attacks by predators, especially coyotes, as the author observed one day. A couple of times, while the adults were away, Powers would climb up to the nests and feed the chicks miniature transmitters. These were intended to measure their internal body temperatures. After excretion, the transmitters were not found at the base of the trees, as expected. Adult hawks pick up bones, caracsses and droppings, and deposit them several hundred yards away, so the smell will not attarct predators. For a time, there was a shortage of jackrabbits (the main food source for the hawks) in the area. Powers was interested in seeing if the hawks would make do with whatever they could find as substitutes, like snakes, rats and lizards. This is a really interesting book. The author's passion for his work and "his" hawks shows through everywhere. For those interested in nature and the environment, whether actively or of the armchair variety, this is very much worth reading.

An exhilarating excursion into an unknown desert landscape!

Not since the publication of Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring, has a book of natural history come along, which more completely bridges the gap between the language of the interested lay person and university trained animal behaviorist, than does A Hawk in the Sun. This book is so readable that the words literally evaporate off the pages. It unravels not only the cognitive mechanisms of pure scientific naturalistic research, but also the less often recognized spiritual connection one invariably makes with one's own research, in such a way that the reader finds him or herself crouching beside the author, sweating together with him under the hot sun, agonizing with him over the death and predation of young hawks, marveling with him at the majesticness of the hawk and the surrounding desert landscape, together embracing a spiritual journey of religious magnitude. The reader of Hawk in the Sun cannot help but learn a great deal about the behavior of the ferruginous hawk from this slender tome. More importantly however, the reader will gain valuable insight into animal behavior as a whole and will attain knowledge of several key concepts in the study of animal behavior which heretofore were too cumbersome and scientificated for the average layperson.As a high school biology teacher, who is always looking for books which make the study and understanding of natural history and research more approachable for his students, I have decided to incorporate this fine treatment of nature into my own curriculum. I am certain that my students will learn and experience the thrill of biological discovery just as I and hundreds of other students have from the incomparable Dr. (Uncle Leon) Powers. Even after fifteen years of my having since graduated from college, my mentor is still teaching and his pupil, still learning, is more attentive than ever!

Leon Powers took me with him

I felt as if Leon Powers took me with him into the Idaho desert on those shivering cold mornings and withering hot afternoons. I could hear his voice in his stories and thoughts. By the end I knew his venacular. He may have introduced a bird or other animal by its scientific name, but, when we got to know it personally, it was a "critter." Were I an ornithologist, I'm quite sure I would have delighted in the science of the book, but I am a layperson, and I delighted not only in the science, but in the language, the landscape, and the love of this majestic but imperiled hawk and her shrinking world. This is a book I will reread.

Very highly recommended for ornithologists

A Hawk In The Sun by Leon R. Powers (Professor of Biology, Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa - Idaho) is a narrated story of observations by Professor Powers as he watched the nesting and daily habits of the ferruginous hawk - a shy bird that is the largest hawk in North America. From a battle between a pair of hawks, to the travails of a hawk mother who strives to raise her young, to the loss of a hawk chick, and more, A Hawk In The Sun is fascinating, informative reading, and very highly recommended for ornithologists, bird watchers, and anyone else who is keen to learn more about the life and habits of these fascinating feathered raptors.