The Hawk's Way - Sy Montgomery

The Not Old Better Show Smithsonian Associates Interview Series, Inside Science

Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series on radio and podcast. Today's episode is part of our Inside Science series.  

Our guest today is Smithsonian Associate, Dr. Sy Montgomery.   Dr. Sy Montgomery, our guest today will be presenting at Smithsonian Associates coming soon, so please check out our show notes for details about Sy's upcoming presentation.  

When author and naturalist Sy Montgomery spent a day at falconer Nancy Cowan's New England farm, home to a dozen magnificent birds of prey, it was the start of a deep love affair. That's when she met Jazz, a feisty, four-year-old female Harris's hawk with a wingspan of more than four feet. Not a pet, Jazz was a fierce predator with talons that could pierce skin and bone, and yet she was willing to work with a human to hunt.

Montgomery fell under the magnetic spell of the hawk, and over the next few years she spent more time with these creatures, getting to know their extraordinary abilities and instincts. Deeply emotional animals, hawks are quick to show anger and frustration and can hold a grudge for years. But they are also loyal and intensely aware of their surroundings. In a fascinating program highlighted by splendid color photos, Montgomery recalls her time in the world of hawks and shares what they can teach us about nature, life, and love.

To research books, films and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica, worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana.

She has been deftly undressed by an orangutan in Borneo, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, electric eels and dolphins in the Amazon. She has searched the Altai Mountains of Mongolia's Gobi for snow leopards, hiked into the trackless cloud forest of Papua New Guinea to radiocollar tree kangaroos, and learned to SCUBA dive in order to commune with octopuses.

Sy's 31 books for both adults and children have garnered many honors.

Her new book, The Hawk's Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty is wonderful and let's hear from Sy Montgomery as she reads from The Hawk's Way.

That of course is our guest today, Dr. Sy Montgomery, reading from her new book, The Hawk's Way.  Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast, Sy Montgomery.  

My thanks to

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