Peregrines called "hawks" in a book (1 Viewer)

[senior]

@dantheman Understood, thanks!

 

[Patudo]

"sagging and rebounding" - what kind of motion exactly could it be?.

It's described in the couple of lines before "sagging and rebounding" - "sinking nearly to the ground, rising again". In other words, going up and down.

He drew one leg up into his feathers, and slept, waking frequently to preen and look around. Hawks sleep lightly."
Does this mean he lifted one leg and sticked it under his wing?

no, just up into his belly feathers. Here is a good photo of a young peregrine doing exactly this:



Incidentally, if you are peregrine-watching, and see a peregrine in that posture - feathers fluffed up and one leg tucked snugly into its feathers - be prepared to wait a while (sometimes a long while) for the bird to become active...

 

[senior]

@Patudo Understood, thanks! Do they stand on one leg to preserve heat, or to avoid their legs cramping, or something else?

 

[Patudo]

Most likely for comfort. It's like you putting your hand into a lined pocket, or tucking one foot under a duvet.

 

[senior]

(About a cock bullfinch) "He was a red and black fatty, idly grazing, occasionally exerting himself to breathe out the husky ‘du-dudu’ of his song, fat dewlap gently quivering. "
What body part could "dewlap" denote here? Bullfinch's chest and belly look quite monolithic. (I've gone through a hundred or so photos.) These birds seemingly have no caruncles on their throat or chest or belly. Caruncle (bird anatomy) - Wikipedia

(April) "Spring evening; the air mild, without edges, smelling of damp grass, fresh soil, and farm chemicals."
Were those smelly chemicals fertizilers or pesticides or yet something else?
More generally, what were the agricultural substances that poisoned peregrines in that area in the 1960s?

"Spring dusk; creak of bats’ wings over the steel river, curlew-call of the lemuring owls."
The owls were hunting curlew? The owls' cries resembled the cries of curlew?
The owls' faces and big goggling eyes resembled those of lemurs?

"Great spotted woodpeckers were noisy in South Wood. Seven sailed out of a tree together, chittering like piglets. They separated, and floated away on stiffly outstretched wings. They settled on the surrounding trees, and drummed for a second before dispersing; glorious clowns in Arden."
Do you think this is a reference to the (now non-existent) Forest of Arden,?
Could it be related to Shakespeare's As You Like It? This comedy is set in this region, which was also Shakespeare's native region. The play has a strong motif of escape and exile. Baker's paragraph describes how the woodpeckers initially stayed together and talked through their drumming. But then they flew away, each its own way.
Does this explanation make sense to you?

(About a peregrine.) "At five o’clock he circled up in wide rings and began to soar. He drifted east, calling and looking down. He called for a long time, as the hawk that departs calls down his sorrow to the one that stays. Then he glided away towards the coast."
Do you think Baker speaks about a signal to the bird that stays on the ground or in the sky?

(About a peregrine.) "Slowly his speed increased. He was travelling on an immense parabola, and long before his final vertical fall was ended he had vanished into the hard clear light of the eastern sky."
How do you understand the "vertical" fall here?

 

[Schneppe]

I am translating the book by J. A. Baker called Peregrine. It is a somewhat fictionalized but still documentary record of observations of peregrine falcon. The place is the coastal part of Essex, England, the time around the 1960s.

For some reason the author often calls the bird a "hawk", although falcons and hawks belong to different taxonomic orders. Why could he be doing that? I would appreciate help with this issue.

Below are two sample paragraphs where the author interchangeably writes "peregrine" and "hawk":

"To be recognised and accepted by a peregrine you must wear the same clothes, travel by the same way, perform actions in the same order. Like all birds, it fears the unpredictable. Enter and leave the same fields at the same time each day, soothe the hawk from its wildness by a ritual of behaviour as invariable as its own. Hood the glare of the eyes, hide the white tremor of the hands, shade the stark reflecting face, assume the stillness of a tree. A peregrine fears nothing he can see clearly and far off..."

"The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there. Books about birds show pictures of the peregrine, and the text is full of information. Large and isolated in the gleaming whiteness of the page, the hawk stares back at you, bold, statuesque, brightly coloured. But when you have shut the book, you will never see that bird again..."

Hi,

that book is a masterpiece, and one of my all-time favourites. Have you made any progress so far translating it?

- Fabian

 

[senior]

Have you made any progress so far translating it?

Yes, I have almost finished the first draft, just a few paragraphs left. Lots of editing ahead. It is a beautiful book.

 

[dantheman]

(About a cock bullfinch) "He was a red and black fatty, idly grazing, occasionally exerting himself to breathe out the husky ‘du-dudu’ of his song, fat dewlap gently quivering. "
What body part could "dewlap" denote here? Bullfinch's chest and belly look quite monolithic. (I've gone through a hundred or so photos.) These birds seemingly have no caruncles on their throat or chest or belly. Caruncle (bird anatomy) - Wikipedia

(April) "Spring evening; the air mild, without edges, smelling of damp grass, fresh soil, and farm chemicals."
Were those smelly chemicals fertizilers or pesticides or yet something else?
More generally, what were the agricultural substances that poisoned peregrines in that area in the 1960s?

"Spring dusk; creak of bats’ wings over the steel river, curlew-call of the lemuring owls."
The owls were hunting curlew? The owls' cries resembled the cries of curlew?
The owls' faces and big goggling eyes resembled those of lemurs?

"Great spotted woodpeckers were noisy in South Wood. Seven sailed out of a tree together, chittering like piglets. They separated, and floated away on stiffly outstretched wings. They settled on the surrounding trees, and drummed for a second before dispersing; glorious clowns in Arden."
Do you think this is a reference to the (now non-existent) Forest of Arden,?
Could it be related to Shakespeare's As You Like It? This comedy is set in this region, which was also Shakespeare's native region. The play has a strong motif of escape and exile. Baker's paragraph describes how the woodpeckers initially stayed together and talked through their drumming. But then they flew away, each its own way.
Does this explanation make sense to you?

(About a peregrine.) "At five o’clock he circled up in wide rings and began to soar. He drifted east, calling and looking down. He called for a long time, as the hawk that departs calls down his sorrow to the one that stays. Then he glided away towards the coast."
Do you think Baker speaks about a signal to the bird that stays on the ground or in the sky?

(About a peregrine.) "Slowly his speed increased. He was travelling on an immense parabola, and long before his final vertical fall was ended he had vanished into the hard clear light of the eastern sky."
How do you understand the "vertical" fall here?

Dewlap - think he is being slight artistic licence here. I presume when the bird sings it's throat muscles are vibrating the feathers on its throat. The throat bulges a little as air fills and is then expelled. (Watch a Robin or commoner bird singing)

Farm chemicals - DDT. See eg Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I have no idea how strongly they would have smelt.

Curlew-call of the lemuring owls. - Hmmm. He's inferring the call sounds like the curlew. Tawny Owls do lots of calls ... but not sure what he means here myself. Lemuring is a nice sounding onomatopoeic word?

glorious clowns in Arden - no idea

to the one that stays. - The one on the ground (or cliff perhaps). Its mate. (I think that the 'calling down his sorrow' may be a further literary reference; plaintive calls)

his final vertical fall - final part of a stoop


Hope this helps!

 

[Richard Prior]

Glorious clowns in Arden is a reference to the comic rustic characters who are the clownish characters that live in the forest in Shakespeare‘s As You Like It.
( sorry, just noticed you referred to it in your query Senior!) I find Woodpeckers’ antics quite amusing to watch in Spring, so quite a good allusion by the author.

 

[dantheman]

Can I just say ...

I think this is one of the most useful/informative threads on BF at the moment? There is probably a wealth of information contained on bird behaviour, bird term definitions and also other natural history information, along with an insight into some changes in the environment/birding history etc in this thread.

Partly down to the information/answers given by the number of contributors who have made interesting observations and answered questions (notwithstanding not all questions answered, or alternatives given/uncertainty at times) but also much to do with the wealth and depth of information in the original text and the right and searching questions Senior has been asking. Perhaps a by-product of the translation process, but you also tend not to have an in-depth look yourself ...

Worth bookmarking (imo) for new birders or those wanting to find out more (or even remind yourself of things you may have forgotten). Worth making a 'sticky' at any rate?

 

[Myyraap]

(About a cock bullfinch) "He was a red and black fatty, idly grazing, occasionally exerting himself to breathe out the husky ‘du-dudu’ of his song, fat dewlap gently quivering. "
What body part could "dewlap" denote here? Bullfinch's chest and belly look quite monolithic. (I've gone through a hundred or so photos.) These birds seemingly have no caruncles on their throat or chest or belly. Caruncle (bird anatomy) - Wikipedia

(April) "Spring evening; the air mild, without edges, smelling of damp grass, fresh soil, and farm chemicals."
Were those smelly chemicals fertizilers or pesticides or yet something else?
More generally, what were the agricultural substances that poisoned peregrines in that area in the 1960s?

"Spring dusk; creak of bats’ wings over the steel river, curlew-call of the lemuring owls."
The owls were hunting curlew? The owls' cries resembled the cries of curlew?
The owls' faces and big goggling eyes resembled those of lemurs?

"Great spotted woodpeckers were noisy in South Wood. Seven sailed out of a tree together, chittering like piglets. They separated, and floated away on stiffly outstretched wings. They settled on the surrounding trees, and drummed for a second before dispersing; glorious clowns in Arden."
Do you think this is a reference to the (now non-existent) Forest of Arden,? The description of woodpeckers and their playful behavior can be a metaphor for the creative process itself, as well as a reference to images that find their inspiration in the works of such top writers as Shakespeare and others. I saw similar ideas from https://essays.edubirdie.com/write-my-essay when I read their work. It's like an invitation to the world of art, where reality and fantasy intertwine. Could it be related to Shakespeare's As You Like It? This comedy is set in this region, which was also Shakespeare's native region. The play has a strong motif of escape and exile. Baker's paragraph describes how the woodpeckers initially stayed together and talked through their drumming. But then they flew away, each its own way.
Does this explanation make sense to you?

(About a peregrine.) "At five o’clock he circled up in wide rings and began to soar. He drifted east, calling and looking down. He called for a long time, as the hawk that departs calls down his sorrow to the one that stays. Then he glided away towards the coast."
Do you think Baker speaks about a signal to the bird that stays on the ground or in the sky?

(About a peregrine.) "Slowly his speed increased. He was travelling on an immense parabola, and long before his final vertical fall was ended he had vanished into the hard clear light of the eastern sky."
How do you understand the "vertical" fall here?

Farm chemicals could be insecticides like DDT or Lindane. They ranked 1st and 2nd in usage at that time, and both have a chemical smell, although not very strong.

 

[nartreb]

dewlap - the term originates with grazing animals like cows. It's a flap of skin (often with extended hairs) that hangs down from the throat and brushes the ground as the animal feeds. The term is sometimes applied to other animals with saggy/bulgy throats (e.g. the wattle of a turkey), but as Dan says, Baker is being poetic (or just sloppy) here. He's talking about the expansion of a bird's throat (and the flaring of the feathers there) while the bird is singing.

lemuring owls - a pure Baker invention. I don't think it's onomatopoeic, though. I suspect it's something about how the owls are perched (erect cand close to the trunk) and/or their turning toward the observer with big yellow eyes.

the one that stays - a hawk's mate, in the nest. It's common for hawks to give several cries after they trade places on the nest. "Calls down his sorrow" means that (in Baker's assumption) the departing hawk is sad to leave his mate.

 

[senior]

@Myyraap @nartreb Thanks for the comments!

his final vertical fall - final part of a stoop

But Baker mentioned that the bird was flying on a parabola. The paragraph says nothing about stooping or hunting. The bird was just traveling eastwards and in the end it "vanished into the hard clear light of the eastern sky."

Glorious clowns in Arden is a reference to the comic rustic characters who are the clownish characters that live in the forest in Shakespeare‘s As You Like It.
( sorry, just noticed you referred to it in your query

No, many thanks for this comment. I actually don't remember these characters at all because I read the play many years ago.

I think this is one of the most useful/informative threads

I think this thread may be useful for the future translators or editors of the book. There are lots of valuable comments that generally allow a non-birder to translate it.

 

[nartreb]

parabola - is a bell-shaped curve; the opening of the bell may be downward, or upward, or sideways, or facing any direction. A diving bird (or airplane) typically follows a downward parabolic arc: starting out travelling horizontally, it curves increasingly downward until its path is essentially vertical.
Strictly speaking, a downward parabolic arc never becomes vertical, it only approaches verticality, asymptotically. (Imagine throwing a ball horizontally, off a high balcony. [Neglecting air resistance] it never loses its horizontal speed, but its vertical speed keeps increasing until its path is close enough to vertical as makes no difference.) But Baker would not have cared about such niceties. Birds don't care about parabolas either; there's no reason a diving falcon couldn't steer itself onto a truly vertical course.

I was a bit confused by this passage, as Baker says that the bird vanished from sight in the middle of the vertical part of the dive. At that moment the bird would be getting slightly closer to Baker, who was presumably on the ground. So the bird isn't becoming any visually smaller. But if there is glare on the horizon from the morning sun, and/or foggy air near to the ground, then either of those would hide the bird as it approaches the ground. Baker's mention of "hard clear light of the morning sky" is consistent with the former.

 

[Patudo]

He was travelling on an immense parabola, and long before his final vertical fall was ended he had vanished into the hard clear light of the eastern sky."
How do you understand the "vertical" fall here?

I have seen something similar to what Baker describes on quite a few occasions. So the tiercel (he) would probably have been travelling on a path somewhat like this (going from left to right):



If you imagine the bird then coming down fully vertical, at 90 degrees to the horizon - that is "his final vertical fall".

It can be hard to imagine just how much sky a peregrine can cross ("an immense parabola") when doing this unless you've seen it. If the bird is already far off and its path is taking it away from you - as is all too often the case - it can disappear due to increasing distance alone, which sounds like what happened in Baker's account above. They can also produce, even in mid-stoop, sudden bursts of incredible acceleration (I mentioned this in my post #113) that can make them vanish from your field of view like magic. It's incredibly frustrating when it happens - who said birdwatching was a quiet relaxing pastime!

NB. I find it very hard to reconcile this sort of account, that is so totally right, with the kestrel-like behaviour Baker describes in your post #117). In all fairness, a kestrel would not be able to swallow a large mouse in two bites, and peregrines on the tundra do regularly catch small rodents, like lemmings. But how strange (and worth discussing in another thread, maybe...) for a peregrine to be catching mice in the manner of a kestrel!

Do you think Baker speaks about a signal to the bird that stays on the ground or in the sky?

It's the bird in flight calling to one that is perched. The "sorrow" Baker speaks of is a figment of his imagination, I think. But peregrine pairs do call to each other quite frequently. During the nesting season you will sometimes hear the female call to the male to go hunting with a call similar to (but louder and stronger than) the young birds calling for food; during the courtship season (which is starting now in London, but may be a month or so to come in Moscow) you will sometimes hear one or both birds calling, especially when one bird is on a regular perch and the other is arriving.

 

[nartreb]

Peregrines, like many hawks and falcons (and seagulls), have (among their other calls) a high-pitched cry that often reminds humans of wailing in pain or sadness. See the recording labeled "Colorado April 18 20013" for example.

 

[senior]

Many thanks for the comments, it is all quite evident to me now.

* * *

"At three o’clock I suddenly felt sure that, if I went at once to the coast, eight miles away, I should find the peregrine there. Such certainty comes seldom, but when it comes it is as irresistible as the downward bending of the dowser’s twig. I went.
"It seemed hopeless. Dark clouds gloomed low in the cold north wind, and the light was very bad. The falling tide was far out across the saltings."
Does he mean the light wasn't good enough for his binoculars (because of their limited aperture or lack/the poor quality of coating)?

"When both crows rushed at him, he flew at once to an overhead wire, where they left him alone."
"He flickered lightly ahead of me in the driving rain, flitting from bush to post, from post to fence, from fence to overhead wire."
"Half an hour later I found him near the bridge, perched on an overhead wire."
"He was there, less than a hundred yards away, perching on an overhead wire, outlined against the dark inland sky."
Various sources suggest that overhead wires serve either to transmit power or the telephone/television signal and the like. What does this expression mean in the UK context, specifically in Essex?

"From the town, the river flows north-east, bends east round the north side of the ridge, turns south to the estuary. The upper valley is a flat open plain, lower down it is narrow and steep-sided, near the estuary it is again flat and open. The plain is like an estuary of land, scattered with island farms. The river flows slowly, meanders; it is too small for the long, wide estuary, which was once the mouth of a much larger river that drained most of middle England."
Baker seems to be saying that the flat land around the estuary is like an estuary in itself, of the greater surrounding land. Am I right?

"Hawk-hunting sharpens vision. Pouring away behind the moving bird, the land flows out from the eye in deltas of piercing colour. The angled eye strikes through the surface dross as the obliqued axe cuts to the heart of the tree. A vivid sense of place glows like another limb. Direction has colour and meaning."
Do you think "another limb" means an additional horizon of the Earth, an Earth halo (see, e. g., Lunar limb), or an additional bodily limb, as, e. g., in the famous Orthodox Christian icon Virgin Mary with Three Hands?

 

[nartreb]

Many thanks for the comments, it is all quite evident to me now.

* * *

"At three o’clock I suddenly felt sure that, if I went at once to the coast, eight miles away, I should find the peregrine there. Such certainty comes seldom, but when it comes it is as irresistible as the downward bending of the dowser’s twig. I went.
"It seemed hopeless. Dark clouds gloomed low in the cold north wind, and the light was very bad. The falling tide was far out across the saltings."
Does he mean the light wasn't good enough for his binoculars (because of their limited aperture or lack/the poor quality of coating)?

Was he using binoculars? There's no mention of them and no particular reason to think he was more worried about lenses than about his own eyes. Assuming he was using binoculars, his first task would be to find the bird with the naked eye; you have almost no chance of finding a distant bird by simply sweeping your binoculars around, especially when the bird is moving swiftly. I'm confident he didn't have any technical deficiencies of his binoculars in mind when he wrote this. The light was simply bad, binoculars or not.

"When both crows rushed at him, he flew at once to an overhead wire, where they left him alone."
"He flickered lightly ahead of me in the driving rain, flitting from bush to post, from post to fence, from fence to overhead wire."
"Half an hour later I found him near the bridge, perched on an overhead wire."
"He was there, less than a hundred yards away, perching on an overhead wire, outlined against the dark inland sky."
Various sources suggest that overhead wires serve either to transmit power or the telephone/television signal and the like. What does this expression mean in the UK context, specifically in Essex?

I'm not English and have never used that phrase, but I assume that Baker didn't know or didn't care whether the wire was a telephone wire, a power wire, or something else. "Something else" is a handful of rare things, like abandoned telegraph cables. Television cable would be extremely unlikely in this time period, I think. Pantographs for rail or streetcars also count as "overhead wires", but I rather doubt Baker was taking his walks in such bustling places.

Hmm... image search for "overhead wire" comes up with a lot of those big metal towers that hold many high-voltage lines, and almost none of the simple wooden telephone poles you'd see lining a town street. I hope an Englishperson will confirm, but I'd guess in the countryside you're more likely to find (and a falcon is likely to prefer; it's higher) a row of big power transmission towers rather than a line of small telephone poles; but I don't think we can be certain it's one or the other every time the phrase is used.

"From the town, the river flows north-east, bends east round the north side of the ridge, turns south to the estuary. The upper valley is a flat open plain, lower down it is narrow and steep-sided, near the estuary it is again flat and open. The plain is like an estuary of land, scattered with island farms. The river flows slowly, meanders; it is too small for the long, wide estuary, which was once the mouth of a much larger river that drained most of middle England."
Baker seems to be saying that the flat land around the estuary is like an estuary in itself, of the greater surrounding land. Am I right?

"Estuary of land" is a strange phrase.

It's not obvious whether "the plain" in the second bold sentence means the "flat and open" land near the estuary, or "the upper valley". The upper valley is explicitly named a "flat open plain", but I can't think of a way in which the upper valley could resemble an estuary. So the only thing that makes sense to me is that the lower land near the estuary itself is "like an estuary" (in its flatness and its overall shape) because it is , or rather was, one. The tidal flats of today are a small portion of a larger area that is now dry, but was formed as an estuary when the river was larger.

"Hawk-hunting sharpens vision. Pouring away behind the moving bird, the land flows out from the eye in deltas of piercing colour. The angled eye strikes through the surface dross as the obliqued axe cuts to the heart of the tree. A vivid sense of place glows like another limb. Direction has colour and meaning."
Do you think "another limb" means an additional horizon of the Earth, an Earth halo (see, e. g., Lunar limb), or an additional bodily limb, as, e. g., in the famous Orthodox Christian icon Virgin Mary with Three Hands?

Excellent question; my guess is that "limb" here means body part. Baker was talking about trees in the previous sentence; tree branches are also called "limbs". To support my guess, I'll also guess that "glows" is an error. It should be "grows".

 

[senior]

The light was simply bad, binoculars or not.

I see your point. It's just that "bad light" sounds to me like the language of a professional - a painter, a photographer, or an observer with binoculars. But I guess it could be just poetic language too.

"Estuary of land" is a strange phrase.

He wrote that there were farms "scattered" around that land, just like little islands were scattered around a real estuary. This seems to be the only similarity.

Confusing is both A. which land he is talking about (the upper valley or that near the real estuary) and B. the strange comparison.

To support my guess, I'll also guess that "glows" is an error. It should be "grows".

It makes sense!

 

[Patudo]

"It seemed hopeless. Dark clouds gloomed low in the cold north wind, and the light was very bad. The falling tide was far out across the saltings."
Does he mean the light wasn't good enough for his binoculars (because of their limited aperture or lack/the poor quality of coating)?

I think he means the conditions as a whole were very difficult for trying to spot distant birds. Light is part of that. If you watch from daybreak or into dusk it becomes more and more difficult to follow and even to spot the birds the less light there is, or when sunlight is obscured by cloud etc. It never ceases to amaze (and frustrate) me how well distant - and sometimes not so distant - peregrines can disappear into the background. The back of an adult bird is grey like the camouflage of a fighter jet, and for much the same purpose. I don't know how often you get the grey gloomy days that happen all too often in the UK in your part of Russia (I'd guess St Petersburg, being by the coast, might get more overcast days?), but under those conditions, trying to spot birds that might be a mile or more away (and Baker would certainly have been using binoculars - you cannot really search effectively for peregrines with the unaided eye) can indeed seem almost hopeless. Low cloud also means that if a bird goes soaring it can all too easily be hidden by cloud.

I actually like overcast conditions as I think it helps peregrines surprise their prey - I have often seen them stop hunting when it got too bright - but you want to be somewhere you know they are (their regular building or cliff). If you don't know quite where they will be, and need to search for them, you'll normally want the conditions that let you search best.

"Hawk-hunting sharpens vision. Pouring away behind the moving bird, the land flows out from the eye in deltas of piercing colour. The angled eye strikes through the surface dross as the obliqued axe cuts to the heart of the tree. A vivid sense of place glows like another limb. Direction has colour and meaning."

I was intrigued enough to check the actual text, and it is as you cited it. I can't comment on Baker's phraseology, but he is right that the long hours of searching do train you to spot detail, give you a different perspective of the landscape you are viewing over. When, because of your intense concentration as you are following a fast-moving bird, the background behind it blurs and almost seems fluid, you will recognize Baker's meaning when he says "Pouring away behind the moving bird, the land flows out from the eye".