Querencia Must- Reads

This is shaping up to be a good year for readers, especially those who love both good writing and books "with trees in them", to use the phrase that some anonymous first reader allegedly wrote when he rejected MacLean's A River Runs Through It.

The first, out in England just about now, is by a name long - time Q readers will know well: Pluvialis, Helen Macdonald, author of Falcon, blogger, poet, sometime historian of science, and falconer. With her new book,  H is For Hawk, she should get the recognition she deserves as one of the most brilliant nature writers living, and those of us who have been printing out and filing her blog posts now have an entire book of her best work yet to read and reread.

Helen at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin TX, researching TH White's papers

And I do mean reread. "H" is about training a Goshawk, about TH White's great sad book about the same, and about her grief at her father's death, all braided into a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. But what parts! Line by line, Helen may be the most incandescent "nature writer" I know. I decided to open the book without looking where to see if I could get a good quote and laughed with delight.

"Everything was gone except this quiet sylvan scene. Into which I intended to let slip havoc and murder. I stalked around the edge of the wood, crouching low, holding my breath. My attention was microscopically fierce. I'd become a thing of eyes and will alone. Mabel held her wings out from her sides, her head snaking, reptilian, eyes glowing. It felt like I was holding that bastard offering of a flaming torch and an assault rifle. Soft grass underfoot. One hand out to steady my self, we picked our way around to the final corner. And then I slowly extended my gloved fist out from the screen of brush.

"The hawk left the fist with the recoil of a .303 rifle. I stepped out to watch. Saw a chain of events so fast they snapped into a comic strip: frame, frame, frame. Frame one: gopshawk spluttering from the fist in bars and pinions and talons. Frame two: goshawk low to the ground, grass streaking along under her. Chocolate wings, beating strongly, hump-backed. Frame three: rabbits running. Frame four: The pheasant, too, crouching and running into the wood's safe margin.

"But it wasn't safe. Split-second, ink-starred decisions in the hawk's tactical computer. She slewed round sling-shot style, heel-bow, soaking up g-force like a sponge. Closed her wings and was gone. Sucked into the black hole of the wood, beneath a low-hanging larch branch. Everything disappeared. No rabbits, no pheasant, no hawk. Just a black hole in the wood's edge. It had gone very quiet. There was the distant coc-coc-coc of a scared pheasant."

You can get H is for H here at Amazon UK; the US edition  is coming in December from Grove Atlantic.

And coming from the same publisher is Malcolm Brooks' first novel, Painted Horses. Here is what I said about it after reading it in manuscript.

" I read Malcolm Brooks’ new novel, Painted Horses, with fascination, then amazement. Big, thrilling, poignant, astonishingly confident, it is the work of a master rather than that of a first-time novelist. With a story that moves from the bombed cities and battlefields of Europe to the wild badlands of Eastern Montana, and an eye for everything from the quality of a horse to the techniques of painting and archaeology, it will draw you in and leave you dreaming. I have rarely read a novel that realized a world so well.”

It is not just the best first novel I have ever read ; it is one of the best novels I have read in years. And it's not just me.  Rick Bass compares it to the Border trilogy and Angle of Repose; Carolyn Chute says that the "Great American novel still lives"; David James Duncan says "There isn’t a passing landscape, archaeological wonder, minor character, dialect, or wild horse in this story that isn’t convincing"; Lily King that "“Malcolm Brooks has the same intuitive understanding of women that his character John H has of horses. Painted Horses is a beautiful, sensual, authentic novel. A western novel that is about so much more than the West, it is an exquisite, enthralling debut.”

Here is Malcolm on YouTube, answering  some questions:

And a few photos for his fans- to- be: dinner with us and Penelope Caldwell in Laramie; chez Carlos Martinez del Rio, also in Laramie; and with a pheasant at home in Montana.

Update on the new kid

He is just at the age that he can trash the house, and soon we must take him up, but he is a lot of fun. What in the world do people talk about who don't have animals?

And what are these THINGS on my legs? Oversized Kazakh jesses designed for a Siberian Gos, too big but easier to get on for a single person-- Libby does not like "casting"birds-- and useful if only to get him used to the idea.

Another Quote

...just popped up. From John Stuart Mill:

"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. . . . Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. This is not the way to do justice to the arguments, or to bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of, else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty."

True Writing Quote

From Ron Hansen, quoting John Gardner:

"My favorite piece of advice for beginning writers comes from John Gardner, that you should write the fiction you like to read. We immediately recognize phoniness or when a writer’s heart isn’t in the material."

We Need More Feathered Dinos

John McLoughlin was writing about them in the late SEVENTIES. Isn't it time yet to acknowlege, preferably before the next Jurassic Park, that dinos resemble eagles and turkeys and Roadrunners more than, oh, fence lizards?

Especially with all the good artists around...

These last would be so good if they weren't lizard- naked!

This guy has known it for a long time...

And this one; well, these ones holding their long - ago first books in front of my house some years back, but I learned at least partly from the guy with the beard.

Hans Windgassen, Pigeon Impressionist

The late Hans Windgassen,  Pennsylvania artist and lifetime pigeon fancier, was one of the most interesting thinkers--no, scratch that, we were all interesting thinkers!-- in our pigeon rearing art and genetics group. He visited once, but we kept up a constant correspondence, and the genes of pigeons he sent-- our tastes were similar-- live on in my loft.

Recently I had a note from his widow, Barbara Polny,  and I asked if she had any of his pigeon portraits. She had one, and sent it, refusing any money. What she may not have known was that it was of one of my favorite breeds, the (German) Beauty homer, an ornamental descendant of flyers, with a distinctive profile and a long graceful neck.

 

(They really have that profile. Here is one from Patrick in Massachusetts, who crossed back to flying homer to get both ability and showiness-- this bird has returned swiftly from a race distance of 300 miles, same day, no sweat! I want some young ones to fly...)

Here is a small Hans portfolio-- me, the girls in their prime...

And a few international pigons, including flyers in Jerusalem and a breed we tried to cross back to but  couldn't revive in our own lofts...

Aristocracy

Five inch gold- leaf bronze of an old- style Afghan by D L Engle, with a hint of Bugatti in its planes...

I would own this one in a SECOND.

Serendipitous semi-random hound meeting

This is a very preliminary photo batch, as we are having dinner with Joel, and photos are not yet all in. But Dutch Salmon invited us to meet him at the Owl in San Antonio (our S A, NM not  TX) where he was picking up a young female part- Azawakh from Marya. (I hadn't seen him since his successful Deep Brain Parkinson's op). We were barely seated when Sis Olney came in, with a phone full of SCENT hound pics (her unique Gascon crosses, now hunting lion in at least two states), trail hounds with French genes and heat- tolerant sighthounds & how & why &...

Two more random observations: we live in a culture where "PHONE full of trail hound pics" is natural; and, if I continue to be vain I must eat less...

Save the Dioramas!

I grew up looking at great dioramas, the magical combinations of painting and taxidermy that rose to a high art in the early twentieth century. Perhaps their highest expression is in two halls that depict the habitats and wildlife of North America and Africa in my favorite museum in the world, The American Museum of Natural History in New York. Every lover of "naturalist" art should make at least one pilgrimage to see them, but meanwhile, Stephen Quinn has written an excellent book that shows most of them and explains their genesis: Windows on Nature.

Yesterday a good friend, the artist and sculptor Tony Angell,  forwarded an alarming letter from Quinn. Apparently another unique set of dioramas in Minnesota, featuring painting by such masters as Francis Lee Jacques, is under threat of destruction by the usual flock of visually and historically ignorant illiterates who think change and trendiness trumps beauty and history. His is a long letter, but dense with information-- let me snip a bit.

"I'm writing to inform you all of some disturbing plans that I have just learned about for the James Ford Bell Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many of you may know that the Bell Museum possesses what are, arguably, the most magnificent collection of natural history dioramas done by the great wildlife and bird artist, Francis Lee Jaques. Also represented in this priceless diorama collection are the contributions of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Robert Bruce Horsefall, Charles Abel Corwin, and pioneer diorama designer, famed Ornithologist and early conservation activist Frank Chapman.

"Late in his career at AMNH, Jacques assisted in the design of the Bell Museum building to facilitate and assure its primary objective of optimum display for its dioramas and, through the 40s and into the 50s, designed, directed construction of, and painted the backgrounds for a series of dioramas that can be considered his best... Jacques was originally from Minnesota, grew up on its prairies, northwoods boundary waters, and hunted waterfowl on its, then, vast and wild wetlands... These scenes of thousands of Snow Geese over windswept marshes, Sandhill Cranes alighting on a spring prairie meadows, or majestic Moose in the northern lake country all evoke such a compelling illusion and sense of place and personal presence that one is struck by the ABSENCE of the cries of the birds or the chill of the north wind on one’s cheek when standing before them.

"Sadly, I have learned last week that the Minnesota State Legislature has approved funds to build a new natural history museum on the University of Minnesota campus at Saint Paul and this new plan calls for gutting the interior of the Bell Museum in Minneapolis, an attempted removal of some of its unique collection of irreplaceable dioramas in order to “reinterpret” some in the new museum, and the possible storage or disposal of the rest.

(Snip)"...  to attempt to extract these great works from the alcove settings in which they were specifically designed and fabricated to be viewed in, is a folly and loss for the generations to come that will never see them under those intended conditions. Removed, "re-purposed", "re-interpreted", or "re-designed" to become "relevant" and "useful" to today's University of Minnesota, will inevitably mean that they will find themselves adapted as "open-air", "immersive", or "walkthrough" dioramas... they will become even more vulnerable to the whims of ambitious exhibit designers, short-sighted curators, and a nature-deprived public who, with a constant diet for the latest techno/interactive bombardment, cannot begin to understand their value historically, scientifically, or artistically as the remarkable replicas and record of a wilderness they can not comprehend, in this new setting."

(Snip) "The James Ford Bell Museum is THE ONLY remaining building in NORTH AMERICA that was specifically designed, in its entirety, as a standing theater for natural history dioramas. It's very exterior structure; site plan and interior floor plan reflect this. It is superbly, and perfectly “fine-tuned” for this purpose. There are NO OTHER buildings like it in the US or Canada!!!  As such, it is just as significant, both architecturally and artistically, as the Biological Museum of Gustaf Kolthoff and Bruno Liljefors in Stockholm, Sweden, and the grand Akeley Hall of African Mammals or the magnificent Hall of North American Mammals in New York....  They were all created by the great naturalists/artists/ scientists and educators of their time, requiring extensive and costly travel and expeditions, unique and groundbreaking fabrication techniques, and embraced a mission to present an illusion of nature so powerful and compelling that, it can be argued, they will NEVER be equaled again.

(Snip) "We MUST all spread the news of this impending tragedy with a letter-writing campaign to the critical individuals involved... The threat to that building and those dioramas needs to be clearly known and it’s loss clearly recognized and understood by all who are making this decision.

 "... Also, notably, I have learned that the University, itself, does not view the dioramas favorably, but sees them as “archaic and old” and does not consider them a priority in the plans for their future museum, and would prefer not to address them at all. What is to prevent the University from, in the future, allocating funds away from the dioramas, sighting the VERY high costs for the proper removal, conservation, and reconstruction of these dioramas as not worth it?... In a relatively short time, they are likely to be considered diminished in value and therefore disposed of."

Here is a site with more links and images. I will update this as soon as I have more contacts. Stay tuned...

One afterthought: friends and scholars-- Jonathan Kingdon, John McLoughlin-- and writers and scientists I have never met-- Stephen J Gould, Ed Wilson, Richard Dawkins-- have all written in praise of the traditional museum that formed and nurtured them. Do ultramodern, interactive, "Game"- themed, info- free installations have any such potential? Without the Harvard and later,  New York Museums, I don't know that I would have the interests I do today, or this blog.

A Baby arrives

From Dan Konkel in Sheridan-- a male, 3/4 Gyr, 1/4 Saker. At this age his schedule is pretty simple...

Post- Apocalyptic Images

NOT Detroit. Think more maritime. Haunting, IMAO...

UPDATE: My brother- in- law George, who took these, explains:

"Glad you've enjoyed these. This is the former Naval Ammunition Annex, a WWII fabrication facility in a closed area, Wompatuck State Park, Hingham, MA. It's been abandoned for over 40 years, the state finally has the funds to demolish it. As Karen said, we've enjoyed the "forbidden ruins" as military historians and urban decay explorers. It's also part of what locals called "the creepies". Taggers entered the area en'force about eight years ago...there's been some serious competition in that place, magnificent artistry. I've been collecting maps, taken photos, some video and now artifacts collecting during the demo.. Sad to see it go...the early am maritime fog that particular morning was a jackpot for capturing the eerie feel, or premonition or even pre-apocalyptic. Yes...the mind can really wonder in that environment. We'll miss that place."
...George Graham

George, at your leisure I would love to  see more!

Curriculum

Trying hard not to spend much time here but some things are too interesting to ignore. Via Prufrock I found this excellent suggestion for early education, by a poet, in the NYT.

Its real effort echoes my spontaneous reply to an academic in Amherst Mass, back in the 70's, who demanded at a party what I would offer, since I rejected her PC touchy- feely course list. Having had too much to drink, my list was short, though not too bad for off- the cuff improvisation. I replied:

"Poetry, history, evolutionary biology, and how to use a chainsaw."

Adjust for local conditions, ie rope a calf/ catch large fish for use a chainsaw...

Jack's evolution through Classics , voracious reading, and river guiding wasn't bad either. And I would definitely add at least a language, but preferably two-- one familiar enough to be easy-- French, Spanish-- and one with at least a different alphabet-- Russian, Chinese.

Guardian Dogs & Wolves in the Alps

Wolf damage to livestock herds in the southern French Alps continues to be a chronic problem, with more than 2,400 head of livestock killed by wolves in 2013. Researchers have indicated that the region is facing the limit on the efficacy of the use of Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) in that region.

Researchers
Preliminary results of the most recent detailed research project were published in the Spring 2014 Carnivore Damage Prevention News. The paper, “The CanOvis Project: Studying Internal and External Factors that May Influence Livestock Guardian Dogs’ Efficiency Against Wolf Predation,” was written by Jean-Marc Landry, Gerard Millischer, Jean-Luc Borelli, and Gus Lyon of the Institute for the Promotion and Research on Guarding Animals in Switzerland, and Parc National du Mercantour of France.

Methods
Researchers were equipped with a long-range infrared binocular with recording capabilities. They were able to record night-time interactions between wolves and LGDs in the Maritime Alps. Research involved three flocks of sheep, two of which had high wolf pressure, including one grazing in an area where no wolf shooting permits are issued – not even to livestock producers experiencing wolf attacks on their herds. Flock sizes ranged from 1,750 to 2,500 sheep. One area had two flocks at the start of the grazing season, but these were combined at the end of the summer due to frequent wolf predation on one herd. All three flocks were protected by LGDs, mainly by Great Pyrenees dogs, or Great Pyrenees/Maremma crossbreds. One flock had 11 LGDs, while the other two herds had four LGDs each. The LGDs were fitted with GPS collars each evening, and their movements were tracked until sunrise.

How did the LGDs react?
LGD reactions ranged from no reaction, to barking, social or close contacts (33% of the events), and chasing. Using the infrared binoculars, researchers were able to document wolves passing by the flock, feeding on freshly killed sheep, and attempting to attack sheep – despite the presence of LGDs. The researchers noted: “Wolves were apparently unafraid of LGDs. Although wolves were chased by LGDs or had agnostic encounters, these experiences did not prevent them from returning the same or following nights. Moreover, we recorded several occurrences in which a single LGD faced a wolf and exaggerated its behaviors instead of attacking, allowing enough time for the wolf to escape. Thus, the LGDs observed (either naïve or experienced with wolf encounters) seemed to be very cautious around wolves.”
The researchers suggest that LGDs should be considered a primary repellent by disrupting a predator’s behavior, but they do not permanently modify that behavior. Wolves become habituated to the presence of LGDs, according to the researchers. They found that both LGDs and wolves seem to evaluate the risk of escalating confrontation.

Aggression
Great Pyrenees LGDs are often selected for use in areas with a high degree of tourism, because they are known to be less aggressive to humans and other dogs. In fact, they are now bred and promoted for their docility. But LGDs that are expected to be effective guardians in wolf territory must have a higher level of aggression to predators. They must have a willingness to confront and fight the predator, as certain LGD breeds are known to do. Researchers pointed to the Karakachan from Bulgaria as a breed known its aggression to intruders.

Stepping away from the research paper for a moment, I would note that our family started with Great Pyrenees LGDs but found they were not aggressive enough for the predator challenges they faced. Thus we moved to Akbash, which have a higher level of aggression to predators while not posing a threat to humans; and to Central Asian Shepherds, which have a high level of canine-aggression. We have found them to be very effective in wolf-inhabited areas of western Wyoming.



Yearling females: tri-colored is a Central Asian Ovcharka, while the white dog is Rena, an Akbash.

Barking
The researchers found that LGD barks do not modify wolves’ ongoing behaviors, but these vocalizations do seem to transmit information. “Because barking is easy to pinpoint, they might give valuable information to the wolves about the LGDs’ location, the number of individuals, their distance and maybe even temperament. Nevertheless, LGDs’ barks can attract other LGDs, even if they are not able to observe the scene.”

Marking
The LGDs in the study were often seen leaving the flock in the early mornings to defecate and urinate before returning. Some LGDs and wolves defecated on the same spot, so these “scent markings” did not serve to deter wolf presence.

Age & Courtship
Just as wolves become more sedentary and their predatory performance declines with age, the same appears to be true with LGDs, especially as it pertains to a weakening physical condition that comes with age. Thus, the age structure of the LGD pack is a key factor in protecting skills.

The researchers also noted that female LGDs in heat poses a separate problem that needs managed by the herder or flock owner. “The energy to protect the flock is wasted on courting females and fighting males,” the researchers noted. “In our case, a strange male LGD managed to reach a female in heat in the middle of the flock despite the presence of three males, probably because they were wounded during a fight at the beginning of the evening.”

Young Wolves
Particular wolves were seen staying near the flocks, attempting (and failing) to attack, and interacting with LGDs. Researchers believe these were young wolves learning to hunt and testing the LGDs. “Consequently, if these first encounters are not associated with negative consequences, we hypothesize they will learn that LGDs and shepherds are not a danger and will perceive sheep as an available resource. This knowledge may then be passed to the next generation through associative learning. Thus, more aggressive LGDs may be necessary to teach young wolves that encounters with LGDs have severe consequences.”

Shepherds aren’t a threat either
The researchers found that shepherds aren’t viewed as much of a threat to the wolves either. Since their only option is yelling and throwing rocks, the effect on wolves is negligible. The researchers found that the wolf flight distance when confronted by the shepherds was sometimes as short as 100 feet.
Recent wolf attacks on sheep herds are happening more often in daylight (52% of all attacks) and a shepherd reported being challenged by a wolf while trying to retrieve a wounded lamb.

Future
The CanOvis project research project will continue, with researchers continuing to observe how LGDs react to wolves and how wolves counter-respond. To read the full paper, click here.

Ratting Party

Boys with a terrier and rats in Edinburgh, the Writer's House, from Guy Boyd.

High Lonesome

This one is for Chad Love, in response to this essay and in thanks for this one .

Random Doggage

Micaela Lehtonen's J Litter in Finland.