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'...The book is stuffed full of photos and personal anecdotes, and it all makes for a highly readable account of one of our best-loved birds.' - Birds Illustrated 'So the book is part diary, part autobiography, part species account and part historical perspective. It is at all times fascinating and often very entertaining and we are also treated to excellent photographs and line drawings, maps and notes - a nicely considered mix... Its tale is a fascinating one entertainingly told by Roy Dennis. I guarantee anyone who even lightly dips their big toe into this book will learn something and I defy anyone to not find themselves immersing themselves in its rich storehouse and terrific gallery.' -Fatbirder '...his enthusiasm and single-mindedness and this exudes from him throughout this book. ...there are some outstanding pictures including ospreys taking fish and a close-up of an osprey's eyes that are so compelling. ...you can almost feel that you are there taking in the same experiences.' - Highland News 'He writes with first-hand knowledge gained from a lifetime's experience of working with ospreys in the wild, punctuating the text with excerpts from his diaries, giving the book an added dimension. ... Everything one could ever wish to know about these birds seems to be covered in this book.' - John Muir Trust Journal
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Ospreys are one of our best known and best loved birds and the name Roy Dennis is not only synonymous with the successful return of the osprey to Scotland, but is also renowned for his international work with a variety of species. From the time he saw his first osprey, back in 1960, Roy has worked to help this magnificent raptor establish itself once more in a country where it had been hounded and persecuted to near-extinction over hundreds of years. This book tells the story not only of the osprey, but of the osprey watcher, following the bird's fortunes in Scotland, seeing its numbers rise from that single pair in the 1950s to close to 200 pairs today. From a look at its history in Scotland and the rest of the UK including the bad old days of egg thieves and the shooting of birds as specimens, it moves to the present day, with satellite radios allowing us to follow the every move of the osprey on its migration to Africa and back.Roy has pioneered the building of artificial nests for ospreys, which had been instrumental in increasing their numbers and range, as well as starting the first European trans-location taking chicks from their nests in the Highlands and releasing them at Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the Midlands. The book also covers the ecology of the osprey with many personal anecdotes and insights. Diary entries give a more immediate feel to the chapters, and the worldwide distribution of ospreys is enlivened by that sense of immediacy. Roy's writings, at a time when no one knew whether or not his lifetime's work would succeed, add a sense of history to this personal tale.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth the wait,
By
This review is from: A Life of Ospreys (Paperback)
This book, is a revelation, is a masterpiece, is well worth the wait. The author an accepted world expert on Ospreys brings together within its covers a wide range of information from historical hand written notes to the latest cutting edge satellite tracked telemetry. There is something for everyone here, from the casually curious to the dedicated Osprey watcher, and all at a very competitive price. The stunning photographs complement the erudite text in a balanced way rarely achieved in modern publications.
A must have addition to anyone's bookshelf. I am absolutely delighted with it. A veritable treasure trove of history and information on that remarkable bird the osprey. Enjoy Be lucky David
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Life of Ospreys,
By
This review is from: A Life of Ospreys (Paperback)
Although it is one of the most widely-distributed birds in the world, more time has been devoted to the Osprey's survival in Scotland than anywhere else, and nobody is more closely linked to that devotion than Roy Dennis. Although George Waterston (to whom this book is dedicated) was instrumental in setting up protection for the birds when they first returned to breed at Loch Garten in 1954, it was Roy Dennis whose name became synonymous with the Osprey through his role in driving the RSPB activities throughout the Highlands from 1971 to 1992. Since then he has remained heavily involved with Ospreys and has pioneered satellite tracking work on chicks that have been hatched in recent years, and he has also co-ordinated the translocation of birds to Rutland Water.
When Roy Dennis moved to Speyside there were just ten pairs of Ospreys nesting in Scotland. This book tells the story of their return to the Highlands and eventual spread back into traditional nesting areas - including the Lake District and Wales. It also gives a very good feel of the challenges that the Osprey watchers had to contend with, from natural disasters and unnatural ones such as egg collectors. Now there are almost 200 nesting pairs in the UK, so well over 600 birds head south every autumn and in my own county of Hampshire you can probably find at least one if not up to three Ospreys on any weekend in September! Plenty of background is given on Ospreys, their lifestyle, the migration they undertake and the world that they live in when not in Scotland. Much of this information is from Dennis's notebooks and so it really has the feeling of a personal story. Illustrated in colour throughout this book is very easy to read. I found myself dipping in and out of the various sections because of the way they are laid out, and so I was one minute reading of Ospreys in West Africa, then the nesting birds in Scotland, and then the reintroduction schemes in Spain.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent tribute to a fascinating bird,
By
This review is from: A Life of Ospreys (Paperback)
Despite not being a bird watcher or having read any bird books before, I found this book fascinating and quite difficult to put down. I had not expected to become so enthralled by the remarkable efforts of these birds in order to successfully reproduce.
It is a very well balanced book, with scientific information and facts presented in an easily accessible format together with accounts of individual birds and extraordinary events, past and present. It is comprehensive, covering so many different aspects of the life of ospreys, from history, biology to current conservation efforts together with the personal experience of the author who has been working with ospreys for nearly 50 years. Virtually every page is broken up by photographs, newspaper cuttings, sketches, tables, graphs as well as printed pages from the author's field diary. This together with the informal style and pleasant tone in which the author writes makes it a hugely enjoyable read. The book leaves you with a desire to contribute in some way so that these magnificent birds can thrive in the future.
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