126 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



FIERCE AND ALERT, THIS YOUNG GREAT HORNED OWL SCARED THE AUTHORS DOG 



"She had just left the nest, near Great Falls, Virginia, but was too weak to fly far. We chased 

 her until she perched on a small limb, which she was unable to grip tightly enough to keep upright, 

 and caught her while she was hanging upside down. Placed on the ground, she fluffed out her 

 feathers, snapped her beak, and glared at us with bright yellow eyes. Our dog was sufficiently 

 impressed to do his barking from a safe distance." 



lose all fear in the thrill of the climb. 



After tying our ropes to a stout tree and 

 getting our camera equipment in readiness 

 for the descent, we argued as to who would 

 go first. As we all wanted the honor of the 

 first climb and the thrill of finding the eyrie, 

 we flipped a coin. I (John) won the flip 

 and went over first (page 111). 



Once over the cliff I could not hear a 

 word from above. Morgan Berthrong went 

 over to the far end of the crag, where he 

 could hear my voice, and relayed my in- 

 structions to tighten or slacken the rope. 



We had overlooked the fact that the cliff 

 was overhung. When dangling on the end 

 of a hundred feet of rope, with the ground 

 two hundred feet below, I found myself 

 ten feet to the left of the nest and fifteen 

 feet away from the cliff. As I hung there 

 in space I wondered if I had not been hasty 

 in taking first chance. 



Frank and Morgan were afraid to at- 

 tempt swinging me for fear of loosening 

 rocks, and they had about decided to 

 haul me up when I solved the problem 

 myself by taking a deep breath, shoving 



off a projecting rock, and swinging in a 

 large semicircle which landed my body 

 squarely on the nesting ledge but left my 

 stomach falling in space. Like the parent 

 birds, I had flown to the nest. 



The nesting cavity was so small that it 

 barely contained the four half-grown hawks. 

 There was no place to stand, so I signaled 

 and was quickly hauled up by a series of 

 jerks, drops, and bumps. 



ONLOOKERS CALL AN AMBULANCE 



I explained the difficulty of photograph- 

 ing and we decided instead to bring up 

 two hawks to train. This would be a help 

 to the father of the family, as the female 

 had been shot three days before our arrival 

 and the tiercel was having a difficult time 

 feeding his ravenous brood. 



According to the flip, Morgan was second, 

 so over he went. He was busily engaged 

 in putting a screaming, fighting hawk into 

 his knapsack when an ambulance far below 

 came whizzing in to the foot of the cliff. 

 Nervous spectators, on seeing me make the 

 descent, had telephoned for an ambulance, 



