David Gessner 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.