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  1. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb It totally makes sense. So -- where the Lemmy Kilmister moustache of this bird intersected with his Zorro mask, was his eye. Could you please share the code you used to insert an image?
  2. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    "The big eyes protruded slightly from the angle where the vertical moustachial lobes met the dark horizontal eye bars. The bare blue-grey skin surrounding them gleamed white whenever the hawk turned his head." Do you think the moustachial lobes and horizontal eye bars are the areas I've marked...
  3. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    I had absolutely no idea, didn't even feel like double-checking this. Thank you for the answer.
  4. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    I doubted "mumble" here has its most common meaning (to speak indistinctly) because of how the verb is linked to the noun "edges". Maybe these edges were being chewed by the sea? But it's corn, not wheat. And corn is too delicate to be sowed in winter. It's just that in all such photos from...
  5. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    I have come up with more questions about the book and, again, would appreciate help. "Shallow streams, brooks, or deep ditches, are preferred [by peregrines for bathing] to rivers. Salt water is seldom used. Dykes lined with concrete are sometimes chosen, but only if the concrete has been...
  6. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    Many thanks for the comments!
  7. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    I've come up with more questions and would appreciate comments on these too: Baker seemingly differentiates between birds' swooping and stooping. But what's the difference, really? These verbs seem to be synonyms and are used interchangeably by birders, from what I've found on the Internet...
  8. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    Many thanks for all the comments! It indeed may be old terminology. I haven't gone deep into this yet, but one of the very few mentions I've found in Russian was from a 1950s ornitological journal. For some reason, that article has recently been reprinted: О функциональном значении удлинённых...
  9. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @Patudo There seem to be very many falcons in London, which is wonderful. I've come up with a few more questions about The Peregrine and would appreciate help with these. "This was the way he flew. The inner wings were held up at an angle of forty-five degrees to the body. They did not move...
  10. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @Patudo @dantheman Many thanks for all the comments! My view is that the heat on December 22, 1962 was his poetic invention. It was the day of winter solstice ("The shortest day: dull, cold, with a sudden flare of sunlight before dusk."). Accodring to a weather record archive, the temperature...
  11. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @Patudo A week or so ago, I went to Moscow University building in the afternoon, around 4 o'clock. It seemed that I sighted a falcon right after I came there, but I can't be completely sure. The alleged falcon flew towards one of the lower towers and disappeared behind it. The wing-beat looked...
  12. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    (A December entry.) "South of the wood, where there is sloping ground out of the wind and flat to the sun’s low angle, the hawk suddenly rose higher, lengthened his glides, and swept round in wider circles. He drifted southward, a thousand feet up, gliding slowly down wind. Over open parkland he...
  13. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb I misspelled "rug", have corrected it. Regarding the "puritan": I got it! I forgot that Baker switched from a song thrush to a blackbird and was trying to apply the image to the wrong bird. Thanks!
  14. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @Patudo Thanks for pointing this out! I am sure seeing a wild peregrine by myself will change my vision of the book and the way I translate it. I'll do it when I can. From what I know, they mostly fly around the Moscow University skyscraper, which isn't far from where I live. Have you found...
  15. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    I think I now understand how to translate this, thanks!
  16. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    Redwings are mentioned 4 times in the book as a separate species, fieldfares 31 times.
  17. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb @Richard Prior I did not write this but Baker actually does mention song thrushes as a separate species, for example: "A hard tapping sound began, a long way off. It was like a song thrush banging a snail on a stone, but it came from above." "Song thrushes bounced and sprang to spear...
  18. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb Understood, thanks! Which species from the rather big family does Baker likely mean below by "thrush"? Thrush - Wikipedia "Consider the cold-eyed thrush, that springy carnivore of lawns, worm stabber, basher to death of snails." "Grey plover were feeding, leaning forward like...
  19. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb @Richard Prior Thank you, it makes sense now. I was confused by "wisp" as a flock of snipe and somehow couldn't put it together with the other meaning that you mentioned. Regading "jinking": I think I'll now find a way to translate this passage so it's not self-contradictory. One...
  20. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    But he says the snipe were "flying high and fast in a group, like starlings." Starlings maneuver a lot when fleeing, don't they?
  21. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @Richard Prior Got it, thank you! "Snipe huddled in a flooded meadow north of the river, like little brown monks fishing. They crouched low over their bent green legs, and I could see their Colorado-beetle-coloured heads and their gentle brown eyes. They did not feed, but simply held their long...
  22. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    "At the mouth of the estuary, land and water lose themselves together, and the eye sees only water and land floating upon water. The grey and white horizons are moored on rafts. They move out into the dusk and leave the water-land to the ear alone, to the whistling of the wigeon, the crying of...
  23. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @Patudo I am sure there are many. In Moscow where I live they are rare though. There's a peregrine couple living on top of Moscow University's skyscraper. They made a presentation website about them: Наблюдаем за соколами-сапсанами под шпилем МГУ (If interested, you could read using...
  24. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb Amazing, many thanks. I didn't know those were called star shells. The extract makes sense now. Regarding his faith. In the introductory part, he writes: "My pagan head shall sink into the winter land, and there be purified." It's not that it explains anything.
  25. S

    Peregrines called "hawks" in a book

    @nartreb He was an avid reader, so he must have read Shelley, I guess. Thank you for the reference. @Mono @LittleBitOfBreadNoCheese Thank you for letting me know. Do you think imagery from the paragraph below could be inspired by the mystical star from the Bible? It is military-related too...
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