Soaring With Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond.

SOARING WITH FIDEL: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond DAVID GESSNER

With limited resources but boundless enthusiasm, Gessner follows osprey during their yearly migration cycle from Cape Cod, down the East Coast, over Cuba, into South America, and back. Gessner, an environmental writer, dispenses the information he acquired from experts on the eagle-size bird known for its spectacular diving. He reveals that, unlike most raptors, ospreys migrate along an over-ocean route. Early on his trip along that path, the author learned that a BBC crew had, coincidentally, embarked on the same voyage for a documentary. Thanks to the network's technology and the Internet, Gessner followed birds tagged with satellite trackers. Thus he discovered that the birds do test flights before embarking on their big migrations. Gessner documents his journey--via car, ferry, and plane--and the help of many sympathetic locals along the route down the U.S. coast, to Havana, and to the birds' wintering grounds in Venezuela. Beacon, 2007, 289 p., hardcover, $24.95.