News & Reviews
Magical Merlins:
It is an epic book, a great personal accomplishment, and a wonderful tribute to merlins - proving that big things do indeed come in small packages.
- Benton H. Elliott
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I like the larger format of the book and the nice paper and endless beautiful photos. It’s really a masterpiece!
- John Hawley
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It's really a remarkable achievement… Great content and beautiful artwork.
- Tim Gallagher
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It is epic and I am sure will take its rightful place among the falconry classics and well as wildlife research collections. It is wonderful and your choice of artwork impeccable.
- John Baker
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All I can say is that if any book like this existed for any of the birds in falconry then no personal research would have ever been needed. Your book is a tour de force in the description of any bird or mammal. Thank you!!!!!
- John Szabo
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The Colorful Lives of Birds of Prey:
I highly recommend The Colorful Lives of Birds of Prey to readers of all ages. The beautiful Red-tailed Hawk on the cover will capture your eye. The stunning images, insightful captions, and imitable drawings will inspire you to portray birds of prey in new and creative ways. I guarantee this book will light up your life. Get a copy, grab your colored pencils, and enjoy!
- Jamaica Smith
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This book’s dramatic cover grabs our eyeballs, its images and captions open them to the beautiful and fascinating lives of wild raptors in their natural environs, and the corresponding drawings encourage us to create our own vision of these scenes in living color. An educational and fun book for all ages!
- Benton Elliott
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Beach Bird:
Beach Bird, in the main, covers the Tundra Peregrine Falcon and the history and heritage of falconry in the U.S.A. The book contains many illustrations including photographs and original artwork from artists such as John P. Baumlin, Andrew Ellis, John D. Baker, Hans J. Peters, and Mark Upton. I heartily recommend Beach Bird in which Bruce Haak has described many aspects of not only falconry, but trapping, history, and the environment.
- Peter Eldrett, The Falconers and Raptor Conservation Magazine
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Beach Bird is a beautifully crafted and richly illustrated book that has been researched and written with the care and precision of a working scientist who is passionate about his topic…Bruce Haak's lovely book pays homage to the passage peregrine, and to the experience of partnering with one in the hunt…It contains photography by the author, photographs contributed by falconers at the top of their game, historic photos reproduced from The Archives of Falconry, and, exquisite paintings by John D. Baker, Andrew Ellis, Hans J. Peters, and Mark Upton, that enrich the text from front to back cover.
- Glenn Stewart, President, California Hawking Club
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In Beach Bird, Bruce Haak recounts his journey from his early days to the present, in his falconry pursuit of the dynamic and often spectacular passage peregrine which he brings to life in this book...Beach Bird is well illustrated with historical archive and many colored photos dating from the early 60’s through to the present day. In its uniqueness, it documents a branch of falconry that has passed into our history, but has become a modern-day renaissance in North American falconry.
- Diana Durman-Walters, Author of The Modern Falconer
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"What a lovely little coffee table book this is. Its sole subject is passage peregrines, with an emphasis on the appreciation of the trapping experience. This philosophical journey involves a modest amount of text but lots of eye-candy photographs depicting everything from an expected historical analysis to modern trapping and game-hawking. Overall the book is an impressionistic response to the author's personal experiences within our shared sport. If you are looking for a coffee-table-styled, eye-candy book on falconry (and who isn't?) this one is hard to beat!”
- Mike McDermott, American Falconry Magazine
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Beach Bird: Renaissance Falconry with Passage Peregrine Falcons, published by Falco Sapiens Press in 2016, is a wonderful little (approximately 140 pages) book. The text is supported with a generous number of interesting (and sometimes vintage) pictures and artwork, making for an enjoyable, short read. The author is superbly well versed in all things peregrine, and his breadth of experience comes across on the pages of this insightful book.”
- Joe Roy, III, American Falconry Magazine
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Bruce takes the reader on this adventure-journey as he drives across America to get to southern beaches that are 2,000 miles from his home. He learned beach trapping from the expert falconer-researchers that capture and band peregrines annually. Bruce ultimately acquires two falcons in subsequent years. He clearly explains his intent to hunt a variety of quarry with fresh trapped passage falcons, as a means of testing their competency by today’s standards.
This is a unique book about the juxtaposition of the best of the old and the new. Training and flying passage peregrines in the 21st Century as described in Beach Bird will, I hope, instill the passion to fly passage peregrines for many more falconers.
- Alan Gates http://www.eaglefalconer.com/Beach_Bird.html
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A new book about Peregrine Falcons and their place in falconry is a celebration of both their history in Europe and the United States. Bruce Haak has gone over the top in writing a superb story, taking contemporary photos, finding rare photographs and including outstanding artwork in this scholarly and well illustrated work.
This is a book that will be cherished by falconers around the world and should find a place in their library next to "The Rites of Autumn" and "American Hawking." Let me encourage you to forward this to others who will enjoying knowing this book is now available.
- Rich Howard http://sagebrushsea.weebly.com
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