Call of the Kingfisher: Bright sights and bird song in a year by the river

“All writers want the reader to see through their eyes, but few succeed in making them hear through their ears as successfully as Nick Penny… Very special.” Jamie Blackett, Country Life "An odyssey of simple joy, filled with historical facts and stories, where the writer makes us feel part of the journey. It’s like strolling the riverbank with a friend - and is a timely reminder that regular paths walked can lead to irregular and surprising encounters" - Ceri Levy, Caught by the River Call of the Kingfisher is the enchanting debut from composer and wildlife recordist Nick Penny. This love letter to a short stretch of Northamptonshire’s River Nene (UK) celebrates all the wild things that live there, especially the kingfishers. The original print book comes with access to 42 wildlife sound recordings made by the author. These are woven into the audiobook along with the spoken text. Nick has walked beside the river at Oundle in Northamptonshire for four decades. But for a whole year he gave the waterway all the time it asked for. The more attention he gave it, the more he saw the kingfishers and heard their high whistling calls. Set in a lovely but little-known part of England, Call of the Kingfisher relates a year by the river, the author’s experiences there and the different people he meets. Other strands are woven around the elusive feathered protagonist: explorations of local history and landscape, from Roman and Bronze Age sites to watermills and centuries-old stone churches; visits at different times and to different places in the valley; homages to naturalists who lived nearby; forest dawns and dusks listening to the precious song of nightingales. But the background tapestry is the sights and sounds, and greens and browns, of the riverbank, shot through with the blue and orange threads of a kingfisher’s glowing feathers.

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