Goshawk Summer

A wonderful insight into how much commitment you need to be a wildlife cameraman, all day sat in a hot hide at the top of a slowly swaying tree, up at 3am to get into the hide by causing the least stress to the animal or sitting in a ditch with water in your boots whilst being butchered by midges. Glad I got the book instead…although the challenge of have a wee in a bottle at the top of a tree does hold a certain appeal, I just couldn’t stay still for that long. James was lucky enough to be able to continue working during the first lockdown of 2020 by filming a Goshawk Nest in the New Forest. This gave him a unique view of the effects of the lockdown on nature….and also on people.

The book is written in diary format, we start off with the start of lockdown and the fears that James has were shared by many of us. Right from the start of the book James notices that things are different, there is a new silence in the woods that the animals are quick to take advantage of. James gets help from this chap called Andy, he has worked in the forest for many years and has a huge amount of knowledge, the sort of guy I wish I knew, soon the ideal spot for the hide is picked and luckily that is where a pair of Goshawks decide to nest. As James is filming he shares a lot of info with the reader, a remarkable bird, almost the ultimate killer with a very high successful kill rate. In-between days filming the nest James also spends time filming a family of foxes, his descriptions really capture your imagination and you can almost see the fox cubs rolling around in the bracken having a scrap. His knowledge of wildlife doesn’t stop there, any creature he spots there was something new for this reader to learn, most interesting was the Cuckoo’s colouring.

The pandemic is always in the background of the book and James witnesses the utter chaos of the lockdown ending and the 1000’s of people heading out to dump on nature, I saw the photos on social media but it is really hard to see it written down as James sees the peace shattered and any good done to nature is quickly undone. He doesn’t let it get to him though, luckily the Goshawk nest isn’t upset and he continues to film the chicks as they develop their own little personalities.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, the wonderful writing makes it easy to read and so much knowledge has been shared, my daughter is going to read this next….the selling point was the peeing in a tree haha.

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/goshawk-summer-a-new-forest-season-unlike-any-other-by-james-aldred/