I have become an ardent fan of the largest living species of owl, the Blakiston’s fish owl. But I’m happy to report that this book has changed me. I once cared for a rescued barn owl, and while it was a beautiful creature, possessing a cat-like hauteur and strangely human face, it was about as rewarding to interact with as a porcelain statuette. There’s something puppet-like about this creature, like a living Jim Henson creation, but it also resembles a beast pulled straight from the pages of a medieval bestiary – which is fitting, because Owls of the Eastern Ice reads like a modern-day grail quest: a tale of one man’s travels through a daunting landscape of snow and ice and radioactive rivers, searching for an animal that seems all ghost.Ī confession: I’ve never understood why so many people are obsessed with owls. Its feathers are shaggy and wet, and from its mouth protrudes the tail end of a silver fish. Arms crossed, hands deep in a pair of unwieldy leather gauntlets, he holds against his chest a huge owl. Behind him are snowy woods and running water. Pale, bearded, dressed in black, he gazes at the camera with forbidding intensity. Helen Macdonald, author of “H is for Hawk,” called it “an old-school, tautly strung adventure.”Īdvance registration is required for this webinar:Īfter registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.J onathan Slaght has the best author photograph I’ve ever seen. In addition to the National Book Award nomination, his book “Owls of the Eastern Ice” received rave reviews from The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal and more. Slaght’s writings, scientific research, and photographs have been featured by the BBC World Service, the New York Times, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, The New Yorker and Audubon Magazine, among others. He manages research projects involving endangered species such as Blakiston’s fish owls and Amur tigers, and coordinates WCS avian conservation activities along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway from the Russian Arctic to the mudflats of Southeast Asia. Slaght is the Russia & Northeast Asia Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Here, he will describe the owls and his project, including details of fieldwork and the conservation outcomes. His memoir of this quest, called “Owls of the Eastern Ice,” was published earlier this year and longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction. From 2006-2010, Jonathan Slaght studied Blakiston’s fish owls in Russia for his PhD degree in Wildlife Conservation at the University of Minnesota.
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