num_pages: 336
description: A celebration of birds that reflects a year in the wild revealing how these amazing creatures embody our changing world by one of Britain's foremost naturalists.Gods of the Morning follows the year through the turning of the seasons at Aigas the Highlands estate John Lister-Kaye has transformed into a world-renowned wildlife center. John's affection wisdom and lyricism sings off every page bringing the natural world around him to life: from the rookery filled with twenty-nine nests and distinct bird calls to descriptions of the winter morning light from the wood mice and the squirrels preparing for winter to tracking a fox's path through the snow. In particular it brings John's lifelong love of birdshis gods of the morningto the fore.&gt;In the Highland glens bird numbers plummet as their food suppliesnatural fruits and every kind of creeping crawling slithering or flying bugbegin to disappear. Not just the swallows and house martins have vanished from round the houses. Gone are the insect snatching wheatears whinchats and stonechats from the hills and redstarts and flycatchers have fled the woods. Pied wagtails no longer flicker across the lawns and sandpipers and grey wagtails have deserted the river banks. Farmland and hedgerow species have vanished in the night: the linnets yellowhammers and all the warblers have decamped from the thickets.By the first frosts the hills will have emptied down to a few hardy stalwarts such as the golden eagles the raven and the irrepressible hooded crows. Silence settles across the land. The few species that are left frequent a changed world. Soon only the buzzards and wood pigeons will hang on in the woods and the coniferous forests will be host to flocks of chaffinches tits siskins and crossbills passing through.
language: English
title: Gods of the Morning: A Bird's-Eye View of a Changing World
publisher: Pegasus Books