“Suddenly he was flying, starlings around him, rising from the field and mounting over the river. His wings flickered high, with a lithe and vigorous slash, looking supple and many-jointed. Darting and shrugging, he shook starlings from his shoulders, like a dog shaking spray from his body.”

— J. A. Baker, *The Peregrine*

#JABaker #ThePeregrine #Peregrines #Birds #NatureWriting #Essex #England #Hawks

“The field was silent, misty, furtive with movement. A cold wind layered the sky with cloud. Sparrows pattered into dry-leaved hedges, rustling through the leaves like rain. Blackbirds scolded. Jackdaws and crows peered down from trees. I knew the peregrine was in this field, but I could not find him.“

— J. A. Baker, *The Peregrine*

#JABaker #ThePeregrine #Peregrines #Birds #NatureWriting #Essex #England #Hawks

“Craving into flight”…J.A. Baker bending language in The Peregrine. #newyorkreviewbooks #jabaker #literature

More breathtaking #NatureWriting from #JABaker in #ThePeregrine —

“Screaming gulls corkscrewing high under cloud. Islands blazing with birds. A peregrine rising and falling. Godwits ricocheting across water, tumbling, towering. A peregrine, following, swooping, clutching. Godwit and peregrine darting, dodging; stitching land and water with flickering shuttle. Godwit climbing, dwindling, tiny, gone: peregrine, diving, perching, panting, beaten.”

A piece of ecstatic descriptive #NatureWriting to experience over and over again—

“Bar-tailed godwits flying with curlew, with knot, with plover; seldom alone, seldom settling; snuffling eccentricities; long-nosed, loud-calling sea-rejoicers; their call a snorting, sneezing, mewing, spitting bark. Their thin upcurved bills turn, their heads turn, their shoulders and whole bodies turn, their wings waggle. They flourish their rococo flight above the surging water.”
— #JABaker #ThePeregrine #birds

“One of those rare autumn days, calm under high cloud, mild, with patches of distant sunlight circling round and rafters of blue sky crumbling into mist… High tide was at three o’clock, lifting along the southern shore of the estuary… White glinting water welling in, mouthing the stones of the sea-wall. Moored boats pecking at the water. Dark red glasswort shining like drowned blood.”
— J. A. Baker, *The Peregrine*
#NatureWriting #Estuary #JABaker #ThePeregrine #England #Essex

“The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there.”
—J A Baker, *The Peregrine*
#jabaker #theperegrine #trueseeing #perception #naturewriting