Tailing the roving raptor

Migrating peregrines are incandescently fierce raptors, pushing on through storm, famine, downpour and sudden predation, streaming homeward with unerring accuracy over inconceivable distances. Alan Tennant buckles us into a rattletrap Cessna flown by a septuagenarian stunt pilot and flings us aloft to share an obsessive, madcap, death-defying and often illegal adventure attempting to radio-track the transcontinental migrations of these majestic, endangered birds from the salt flats of Texas’ barrier islands north to Alaska, and as far south as Belize.

Falcon chasing’s no game for sissies. The plane’s a bust-loose mess of epoxy and duct tape. The U.S. Army, Canadian Mounties and Guatemalan smugglers try to clip the fliers’ wings, but they keep cranking. As we skim over the Great Plains and ruined Mayan temples, Tennant regales us with wide-ranging natural history: medieval falconry, Tyrannosaurus rex, how polar bears hunt, the ongoing decimation of wildlife by toxic agricultural chemicals. An exhilarating, hilarious and cautionary tale.

--Susan Dworski