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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Wild animals > Birds & birdwatching
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Fragile: Birds, Eggs & Habitats (Hardcover)
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Fragile: Birds, Eggs & Habitats (Hardcover)
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Birds' eggs are true wonders of the natural world: they are strong
enough to protect the embryo as it grows and to withstand
incubation by the parent, yet sufficiently fragile to allow the
chick to hatch. Little wonder that the enormous diversity of avian
eggs - the amazing range of shapes, sizes, colours, textures and
patterns - has long fascinated us. Since boyhood, the renowned
landscape photographer Colin Prior has had a passion for wild
birds. For him, birds are the embodiment of nature, and
fundamentally enrich the experience of being outdoors. This
stunning new book presents Prior's remarkable images of birds' eggs
side by side with his dramatic photographs of the birds' natural
habitats. At a time when many human influences are having an
adverse impact on the environment, these habitats are equally
fragile and vulnerable to change. Loss of habitat is, in turn, a
major factor in the decline of wild bird populations. It has been
illegal to take any birds' eggs from the wild in Great Britain
since 1954, and since 1982 it has been against the law to possess
the egg of any wild bird. The eggs featured in this book belong to
the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which holds one of
the world's largest collections of birds' eggs. The eggs were
collected legally during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and
bequeathed to the museum by private collectors. Prior set up a
studio at the museum and spent five weeks photographing more than
300 eggs using the latest digital technology. Each photograph is a
compilation of between 40 and 80 separate exposures that were then
blended into a single image using specialist software. The final
image is an exquisite, almost three-dimensional rendition of the
egg, pin-sharp from the front to the back. The eggs vary in size
from that of the tiny goldcrest, the UK's smallest bird, to that of
the mute swan. In his introduction, Prior describes how his love of
the natural world was nurtured by the endless hours he spent in the
countryside around the Glasgow suburb where he grew up; how he
overcame the technical challenges of photographing the eggs; how
the featured eggs were selected from the museum's collection; and
how the photography of each bird's habitat was completed. In his
essay, the Scottish environmentalist Professor Des Thompson
reflects on the state of nature and the relationship between
nesting and habitats. In the main part of the book, the birds' eggs
are arranged into chapters according to the species found in a
particular habitat, such as 'Mountain and Moorland' and 'Seashore
and Estuary'. The caption beneath each egg details the common and
scientific name of the bird, the date the egg was collected, the
size of the clutch, and the egg's dimensions. Each egg is presented
in a diptych with a photograph of the bird's habitat, painstakingly
captured at a time of year when the dominant colours of the
landscape most closely resemble those of the egg. Fragile - the
culmination of ten years' work - not only showcases the inherent
beauty of birds' eggs, but also serves as a powerful reminder to
protect the birds' natural habitats and thereby the birds
themselves.
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