Enraptured by raptors
New books about NZ birds of prey and a life in the wilds.
Debbie Stewart’s The Hunters (Penguin/
Random House, $50) is no mere flight of fancy. Here’s a sumptuously illustrated salute to New Zealand’s raptors. Although some birds of prey have vanished from our skies (including the largest flying bird in NZ natural history, the formidable Haast’s eagle), others endure, albeit precariously. As director of Wingspan, the organisation formed to protect and monitor these beautiful and remarkable birds, Stewart admits to being obsessed about a species under pressure from an expanding human population, diminishing habitats and public apathy about the species’ vital but fragile position in the ecosystem. Her book is an engrossing study of the four species of raptor
– the falcon (kārearea), the swamp harrier (kāhu), the morepork (ruru) and the Australian barn owl. Detailed, informative, but always readable, The Hunters can’t be dismissed as a book solely for the dedicated ornithologist. Stewart’s fascination with a group of feathered hunters, each perfectly adapted to their environment, is infectious.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, a young manager for a Southland aquaculture company became disenchanted with the corporate world and decided to construct a new life in a remote niche in Fiordland. Charlie Paterson’s book, Out
of the Wild (Pure Wilderness $39.90), takes readers on a personal journey through seven eventful years at Jamestown Bay. At its heart is a resourceful, pragmatic
New Zealander who established a home in the rugged bush and mountains and reconstructed his life. Paterson hardly fits the purist’s label of hermit or recluse. Life’s biggest challenges appear to have been the weather, sandflies and bureaucracy. The book is a distinctly clunky affair that would have benefitted from a rigorous edit, especially a cringingly gauche chapter on women. Nevertheless, as an account that fits the image of a good, keen Kiwi, it will undoubtedly appeal to lovers of the great outdoors. Barry Crump would have approved.