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Rating: 
Summary: Very highly recommended for ornithologists
Review: A Hawk In The Sun by Leon R. Powers (Professor of Biology, Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa - Idaho) is a narrated story of observations by Professor Powers as he watched the nesting and daily habits of the ferruginous hawk - a shy bird that is the largest hawk in North America. From a battle between a pair of hawks, to the travails of a hawk mother who strives to raise her young, to the loss of a hawk chick, and more, A Hawk In The Sun is fascinating, informative reading, and very highly recommended for ornithologists, bird watchers, and anyone else who is keen to learn more about the life and habits of these fascinating feathered raptors.
Rating:
Summary: Leon Powers took me with him
Review: I felt as if Leon Powers took me with him into the Idaho desert on those shivering cold mornings and withering hot afternoons. I could hear his voice in his stories and thoughts. By the end I knew his venacular. He may have introduced a bird or other animal by its scientific name, but, when we got to know it personally, it was a "critter." Were I an ornithologist, I'm quite sure I would have delighted in the science of the book, but I am a layperson, and I delighted not only in the science, but in the language, the landscape, and the love of this majestic but imperiled hawk and her shrinking world. This is a book I will reread.
Rating:
Summary: Leon Powers took me with him
Review: I felt as if Leon Powers took me with him into the Idaho desert on those shivering cold mornings and withering hot afternoons. I could hear his voice in his stories and thoughts. By the end I knew his venacular. He may have introduced a bird or other animal by its scientific name, but, when we got to know it personally, it was a "critter." Were I an ornithologist, I'm quite sure I would have delighted in the science of the book, but I am a layperson, and I delighted not only in the science, but in the language, the landscape, and the love of this majestic but imperiled hawk and her shrinking world. This is a book I will reread.
Rating:
Summary: An exhilarating excursion into an unknown desert landscape!
Review: Not since the publication of Konrad Lorenz's King Solomon's Ring, has a book of natural history come along, which more completely bridges the gap between the language of the interested lay person and university trained animal behaviorist, than does A Hawk in the Sun. This book is so readable that the words literally evaporate off the pages. It unravels not only the cognitive mechanisms of pure scientific naturalistic research, but also the less often recognized spiritual connection one invariably makes with one's own research, in such a way that the reader finds him or herself crouching beside the author, sweating together with him under the hot sun, agonizing with him over the death and predation of young hawks, marveling with him at the majesticness of the hawk and the surrounding desert landscape, together embracing a spiritual journey of religious magnitude. The reader of Hawk in the Sun cannot help but learn a great deal about the behavior of the ferruginous hawk from this slender tome. More importantly however, the reader will gain valuable insight into animal behavior as a whole and will attain knowledge of several key concepts in the study of animal behavior which heretofore were too cumbersome and scientificated for the average layperson. As a high school biology teacher, who is always looking for books which make the study and understanding of natural history and research more approachable for his students, I have decided to incorporate this fine treatment of nature into my own curriculum. I am certain that my students will learn and experience the thrill of biological discovery just as I and hundreds of other students have from the incomparable Dr. (Uncle Leon) Powers. Even after fifteen years of my having since graduated from college, my mentor is still teaching and his pupil, still learning, is more attentive than ever!
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