Owls of the Eastern Ice

A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl

By: Jonathan C. Slaght

Narrated by: Jonathan C. Slaght

A field scientist and conservationist tracks the elusive Blakiston's fish owl in the forbidding reaches of Eastern Russia.

When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of Eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist.

Despite a wingspan of six feet and a height of more than two feet, the Blakiston's fish owl is highly elusive. They are easiest to find in winter, when their tracks mark the snowy banks of the rivers where they feed. They are also endangered. And so, as Slaght and his devoted team set out to locate the owls, they aim to craft a conservation plan that helps ensure the species' survival. This quest sends them on all-night monitoring missions in freezing tents, mad dashes across thawing rivers, and free-climbs up rotting trees to check nests for precious eggs. At the heart of Slaght's story are the fish owls themselves: cunning hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat.

©2020 Jonathan C. Slaght (P)2020 Tantor

a very enjoyable book

If you love nature writing, you will enjoy this book about the Russian Far East and fish-owls, as well as the interesting characters the author encounters during his work.

Fish owl conservation

I was pleased to learn how the research yielded helpful information for the conservation of fish owls.

Enthralling Nature Writing

Jonathan Slaght is a an intrepid researcher, a vivid writer, and an excellent narrator: truly a triple threat.

His account of several winters researching the threatened Blakiston's fish owl in remote Eastern Russia is gripping. Who knew?

I listened to this book because it won the Minnesota Book Award for nonfiction. It far surpassed my expectations, and I heartily recommend it to anyone curious about the natural world and human interaction with it.

Absolutely Magical

I listen to many books about nature and this was by far the best I have listened to so far. The owls are fascinating and the author's story about finding them has all of the tension and conflict of a well-written novel. The science is interesting; the story and the lessons about conservation are compelling.

A candid look at field work

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially as I was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota only a few years prior to the author. I studied fish and not birds, but the challenges of field work span species, so I related to much of his experience. Especially the stress involved when the clock is ticking, nothing about your study is working out, and you’re worried you’ll never get the data you need to graduate.

One of the things I loved about field work was immersing myself in another culture, with all of the upsides and downsides that entails. So I loved getting to learn more about the culture in this part of Russia, and I enjoyed that aspect of this book as much as learning about fish owls. I appreciated how candid the author was in relaying his experiences in that regard, and I felt like I got to experience a culture I’ll never see firsthand. The respect the author holds for the people he got to know is evident, and the people come alive in this story as much as the owls and the forests they inhabit.

I ended up leaving the field after graduation, so I’m sometimes nostalgic, and sometimes thankful I no longer do field work. It was such a treat to immerse myself in that world again, and I wish the author the best in his career. I’m glad there are people who stick with such careers, even though it didn’t work out for my circumstances. It’s difficult and important work, done for love and passion for the species being studied. There’s nothing financially rewarding about it, and yet it’s so important for our survival to have healthy and functioning environments. Books like this give people a glimpse into the realities…that it’s so much more difficult to study animals than nature programs imply, and that a ton of painstaking and physically challenging work must be done before even basic, yet vital, questions can be answered.