David Gessner - New York Times Bestselling Author

Return of the Osprey

A memoir, tribute to a once-endangered species, and natural history, Return of the Osprey recounts the many discoveries David Gessner made when he immersed himself for an entire nesting season in the lives of the ospreys that had returned to his seagirt corner of Cape Cod.

The osprey, hailed by Roger Tory Peterson as the symbol of the New England coast, all but vanished during the 1950s and ’60s because of the ravages of DDT. In the next few decades, however, the birds returned, slowly at first and then in a rush. Writing with passion, humor, and a reverence for the natural world, Gessner interweaves the stories of the nesting osprey pairs he observed with his own readjustment to life on the windblown, beautiful, and increasingly developed landscape he had known as a child.

With a new preface from Gessner and foreword by Helen Macdonald, Return of the Osprey celebrates one of nature’s most remarkable creatures, as well as our own limitless capacity for wonder.

Booklist (Boxed Starred Review)

“This beautifully told story of a season with birds of prey makes for engrossing reading as we learn about osprey life from a master essayist.”

The Boston Globe

“Return of the Osprey can, on those grounds alone, claim a place among the classics of American nature writing.…A reader could put Return of the Osprey aside at this point and feel the satisfaction that comes at the end of a memorable book. But Gessner has only been waiting for his chance for him, and the ospreys, to dazzle. And when it comes, Gessner puts you right there.”

John S. Major, Senior Editor, Book-of-the-Month Club

“It was David Gessner’s good fortune to become obsessively interested in ospreys, and it is ours that he writes about them with such clarity, elegance, and passion that this book becomes an instant classic of natural history. It is also a work of great spiritual power…This is a book to read, reread, and remember for a long time.”

The Miami Herald

“Gessner’s Osprey soars with detail and a sense of wonder.”

Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“A year well spent and carefully recorded: heedful, respectful and filled with the romance of being out of doors.”

Publisher’s Weekly

“A naturalist’s jewel…Gessner provides insights into the history of the great sea bird of prey that will delight both the committed birder and the general reader.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Gessner’s Osprey soars with detail and a sense of wonder By the end of the book, you feel as if you’ve been out there with Gessner much of the time, shivering in the woods, mucking through the maarsh, kayaking upriver to an isolated nest site. It’s strangely satisfying, imparting a sense of the profound. And you don’t even have to venture outdoors to experience it.”

Booklist

“Gessner talked to the people who knew and loved Flaco best, and as he tells the owl’s story, we also get the story of New York’s birders and the fleeting light of cyber fame.”

Kirkus

“The responses of the birding community are as much the focus of the book as Flaco himself. Two factions emerged: One wanted to spread news of Flaco as widely as possible, and the other looked to shield the bird from public scrutiny. Gessner gives both sides a sympathetic portrayal, along with those whose interest in birds was much more casual until Flaco appeared. Drawing on his own experience of observing ospreys in the wild while researching an earlier book, the author also puts Flaco’s story in the wider context of the ecological movement and looks at whether we can justly make parallels between humans and wild animals.
A well-told story of the bird that captured the imagination of New York and much of the world.”

Publishers Weekly

“Gessner offers a panoramic overview of the bird’s impact on the environment, the law, and everyday New Yorkers, as well as providing shrewd insight into why Flaco attracted so many fans, suggesting that the owl’s story tapped into the desire “in each of us… to break out of the lives we find ourselves trapped in.” Flaco’s admirers will flock to this.”

Library Journal

“A delightful tale that will enthrall readers, whether they have a history of birdwatching or not.”

Foreword

“Issuing a subtle challenge to reappraise human effects on wildlife, The Book of Flaco is a touching tribute to a bird mourned worldwide.”

People Magazine

“For Flaco fans, birdwatchers and those interested in the threats facing our environment, The Book of Flaco promises to be a hoot.”

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The Book of Flaco

Between the night in February 2023, when he stepped through the hole that vandals had cut in his cage, and his death the following February, Flaco, the much-loved Eurasian eagle-owl, made Central Park and the surrounding city his home. During that year Flaco was the protagonist of a story with a moral, and even a basic narrative arc, that is still uncertain and varied, dependent very much on who you talk to or what posts you read. The poor owl carried so much symbolic weight that it was a miracle he could fly at all.

For many, Flaco represented freedom, life beyond a cage; for others, he was an immigrant, trying to make it in a foreign city; and for others still, he was a non-native who posed a threat to native birds. Flaco even managed to become part of our never-resting culture wars, with the New York Post heaping scorn on the anthropomorphizing softies who followed him, bemoaning “another example of progressivism gone awry.”

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ABOUT DAVID GESSNER

David Gessner is the author of fourteen books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling, All the Wild That Remains, Return of the Osprey, Sick of Nature and Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness.

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THE BIRDMAN BLOG

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“For nature-writing enthusiasts, Gessner needs no introduction. His books and essays have in many ways redefined what it means to write about the natural world, coaxing the genre from a staid, sometimes wonky practice to one that is lively and often raucous.”

WASHINGTON POST

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