A Saga of Sea Eagles By John A Love | Whittles Publishing | July 2013 | 248 Pages | Paperback | ISBN: 9781849950800
Publisher’s View: This is a much-needed update on a pioneering reintroduction project and its much-celebrated success. It also provides essential background and a logical and objective summary of its justification and significance in global conservation terms. It is very much a personal account, although fundamentally based upon and cognisant of the science, deriving much from the author’s own experiences and researches, and liberally illustrated mostly by the author’s photographs and drawings.
This intimate account tells all that has happened since the reintroduction of the White-tailed Sea Eagle first began and exactly how its successes over the subsequent three and a half decades have received such worldwide recognition and acclaim. It describes the pioneering Rum releases (Phase 1) with which the author had been intimately involved, summaries of the Wester Ross (Phase 2) and East Scotland (Phase 3) releases with up-to-date information on the current Irish project in Kerry.
The book includes a classification of the eagles and their folklore and information about the bird’s history, distribution and biology including its breeding and feeding habits. The reader learns how the kudos of having Sea Eagles nesting locally has brought considerable economic benefit to Scottish communities, as it has in Norway and elsewhere.
Sure to be of immense appeal to all birdwatchers and anyone with an interest in and appreciation of wildlife, the natural world and conservation. Since so much success was achieved since the Reintroduction Project began, A Saga of Sea Eagles will be the definitive book on this pioneering work.
The Author:
John A Love is a writer, illustrator and lecturer. He was appointed Manager of the Sea Eagle Reintroduction Project based on the Isle of Rum, 1975-85 and is a member of the UK Sea Eagle Project Team, advising on the later phases of the reintroduction. He was also formerly Area Officer for Uist, Barra and St. Kilda with Scottish Natural Heritage and now lectures on wildlife cruises. He is the author of the acclaimed The Return of the Sea Eagle.
Review Round-up: ‘…brings the story up to date by 30 years, but does far more besides. …a magnificent book that does full justice to its equally magnificent subject… …should be considered essential reading for anyone with an interest in birds: and more widely for anyone with an interest in the future of Scotland’s wild places’. Undiscovered Scotland
‘John Love engages us in the ups and downs, the failures and successes of the Rum project. We can imagine the joy of his team when the transplant took, and what he calls “the first Gaelic-speaking sea eagle” was once again born, raised, survived and bred in the Hebrides’. West Highland Free Press
‘…brings the story up to date by 30 years, but does far more besides. …a magnificent book that does full justice to its equally magnificent subject… …should be considered essential reading for anyone with an interest in birds: and more widely for anyone with an interest in the future of Scotland’s wild places’. Undiscovered Scotland
Fatbirder November 2013