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GODS OF THE MORNING
‘I love this book. It quickens the heart with hope and wrests real beauty from keen observations of the natural world. If only we could all be as attentive to the life around us as John Lister-Kaye. No one writes more movingly, or with such transporting poetic skill, about encounters with wild creatures. Its pages course with sympathy, humility, and wisdom’
Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk
‘Gods of the Morning is an exquisitely observed account of a year in the life of a Scottish glen, backed by a deep understanding gleaned through decades of study by a working naturalist, and homing in on the struggle the local wildlife is facing in coping with weather patterns that have become more and more unpredictable’
Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country
‘The spirit of nature holds many unknowns, mysteries and magic. John Lister-Kaye questions these unknowns with perfectly crafted words, delving so deep that you can almost feel nature’s pulse’
Colin Elford, author of A Year in the Woods
‘Gods of the Morning is an extraordinary, beautiful and honest book by a writer of profound personal and scientific knowledge. Few books urge me to read them again but this is one of them’
Virginia McKenna
‘John Lister-Kaye is a rare species – a respected naturalist and a consummate wordsmith. Whether in person or on the printed page, there is no one I would rather choose to guide me through the glens in search of Scotland’s wildlife’
Brian Jackman
‘John Lister-Kaye is one of the most joyful, inspirational naturalists I know’
Kate Humble
‘Gods of the Morning is a rich treasury of secrets stolen from the Highlands, seen through the eyes of a great naturalist’
Chris Packham
Also by John Lister-Kaye
The White Island (1972)
The Seeing Eye (1979)
Seal Cull (1979)
Ill Fares the Land (1994)
One for Sorrow (1994)
Song of the Rolling Earth (2003)
Nature’s Child (2004)
At the Water’s Edge (2010)
GODS
OF THE
MORNING
A Bird’s Eye View of aHighland Year
JOHN LISTER-KAYE
CANONGATE
Edinburgh · London
Published in Great Britain in 2015 by Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
This digital edition first published in 2015 by Canongate Books
Copyright © John Lister-Kaye, 2015
The moral right of the author has been asserted
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on
request from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78211 415 4
eISBN 978 1 78211 416 1
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
Ted Hughes extracts on p.43 ‘Crow’s Theology’ & p.50 ‘Crow’s Nerve Fails’ from Crow, p.68 ‘The Thought-Fox’ from The Hawk in the Rain, p.176 ‘Deceptions’ & p.191 ‘March Morning Unlike Others’ from Season Songs. All reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd; p.120 & p.152 J. A. Baker, The Peregrine. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © 1967, J. A. Baker; p.158 From Nature Cure by Richard Mabey. Published by Vintage. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group; p.203 Scott Weidensaul Living on the Wind, North Point Press, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan; Edwin Way Teale Circle of the Seasons. Works by Edwin Way Teale are copyrighted by the University of Connecticut Libraries. Used with permission; p.215 Extract from Richard Ryan’s ‘The Thrush’s Nest’ by permission of the author, from Ledges (published by Dolmen Press, Dublin, Oxford University Press, London, Humanities Press, New York, 1970); p.249 From ‘Natural History’ © 1930 E. B. White. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved; p.261 From Crow Country by Mark Cocker. Published by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd; David Wheatley ‘The Pine Marten’, by kind permission of the author c/o The Gallery Press; p.279 From The Man Made of Words © 1998 by Scott Momaday. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. All rights reserved.
For
Arthur Williamson
with love
‘Let us haste to the cool fields, as the gods of the morning begin to rise, while the day is young, while the grass is hoar, and the dew on the tender blade most sweet to the cattle.’
Georgics 3 324 ff – Virgil
Contents
| Preface | |
| 1 | Blackcap |
| 2 | That Time of Year |
| 3 | So Great a Cloud of Witnesses |
| 4 | And Then There Were Rooks |
| 5 | Prints in the Snow |
| 6 | A Swan for Christmas |
| 7 | The Day the Sun Stands Still |
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8
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