To cause the extinction of a highly localized species is of sufficient evil to classify as a sin against Nature. To do so to a species found all around the planet defies any word I know to sufficiently describe the crime committed. Yet that’s what we indeed nearly did to the Osprey through our love affair with DDT and other pesticides in the mid twentieth century.
Fortunately, perceptive, persistent people such as Rachel Carson, Roger Tory Peterson, and a small band of like-minded souls refused to hold their peace once they noticed something amiss among their local wildlife populations.
In his new Ospreys; The Revival of a Global Raptor, Dr. Alan F. Poole, former editor of Birds of North America and presently Research Associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recounts both the remarkable conservation as well as life history of these now fortunately recovered birds, presenting their story in both lyrical prose as well as breath-taking imagery.
For more information about the book in the words of Dr. Poole himself, this recent blog post from the Johns Hopkins University Press blog is highly recommended.
