Don’t Miss! H is for Hawk: A New Chapter

Helen Macdonald with goshawk (photo ©Mike Birkhead Associates)
Helen Macdonald with young goshawk (photo ©Mike Birkhead Associates)

27 October 2017

If you love raptors don’t miss H is for Hawk: A New Chapter premiering Wednesday November 1 on PBS NATURE.

The program follows Helen Macdonald, author of the award-winning book H is for Hawk, as she decides that now’s the time to train a new goshawk. But this will be different.

Ten years earlier while mourning her father’s death she acquired and trained a goshawk named Mabel. Goshawks are so difficult to work with that most falconers do not take them on.  The book tells of Macdonald’s journey through grief and healing as she bonds with her fierce, inspiring hawk.

Mabel died before the book was finished and Macdonald thought she’d never have a goshawk again, but now things have changed. “After a big bereavement you fall apart and have to remake yourself,” she says. “The person in the book isn’t really me anymore.”  Indeed this chapter is a journey of joy.

Beautiful and evocative, we thrill with Macdonald as she watches goshawks nesting in the wild and cheer as she and her new goshawk, Lupin, grow and bond.

Don’t miss H is for Hawk: A New Chapter  on Wednesday November 1 at 8pm ET on PBS. Check your local listing. In Pittsburgh it’s on WQED.

Click here for the video preview.

(promotional photo ©Mike Birkhead Associates)

7 thoughts on “Don’t Miss! H is for Hawk: A New Chapter

  1. Kate, I am relatively new to your blog and have a question. Two days this week I have had a hawk (that looks like the one in the picture) on my porch. Living in Monongahela, PA I was wondering if they are around this area of the country. BTW, I check your blog every day and have learned a lot about birding. Thank you!

  2. I just ordered the book. Another really fun book is “Quail in my Bed” about a couple that adopt and travel with…wait for it…quails! HA
    I have quite a few books about birds actually, I enjoy all of them.

  3. When it says “she acquired a goshawk”, that means she took it from a nest in the wild, correct? If that is true, I am not in favor of this hobby/activity. I recall at an outdoor environmental event here in central PA, a falconer expressed interest in locating the nest of a some kind of hawk that someone in the audience had described to him. It was apparent why he was interested – to “acquire” one of the chicks.

    1. No. She did not take one from a nest. In the U.K. all falconry goshawks are bred by falconers.

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