After writer Sy Montgomery of Hancock spent a day at falconer Nancy Cowan’s farm in Deering, it sparked an interest that led to the book “The Hawk’s Way: Encounters With Fierce Beauty.”
Montgomery will discuss and sign copies of the book Saturday, May 7, at 11 a.m. at The Toadstool Bookshop, 12 Depot Square, Peterborough.
Cowan allowed her Montgomery to work with Jazz, a feisty, 4-year-old, female Harris’s hawk with a wingspan of more than four feet. Jazz was a fierce predator with talons that could pierce skin and bone but was willing to work with a human to hunt.
Over the next few years, Montgomery spent more time with hawks, getting to know their abilities and instincts. In her account, featuring 16 pages of color photographs, Montgomery reveals the world of hawks and what they can teach about nature, life and love.
Montgomery’s latest picture book for young readers is “The Seagull And The Sea Captain,” the illustrated true story of a seagull and a sea captain who became friends over the course of four summers.
In a quiet harbor in New England, a sea captain named Ellis is visited by a seagull that lands on the back of his family’s passenger schooner one afternoon. Ellis feeds the seagull, and by the end of the week, it was eating crackers right out of his hand. Their friendship lasted the summer, and four years later, the wild seagull Polly still visits.
Both books will be available at the event, which is free and open to all. For information, call 603-924-3543.