The beautiful and powerful Swainson's Hawk.

Dr. Stuart Houston of Saskatoon, enthusiastic and engaging bird bander, and author of so many articles in ornithological journals, has led groups for decades across the landscape of Saskatchewan to watch, count, and band birds.

TWIXT HEAVEN AND EARTH explores the world of the Swainson’s Hawk, a world which includes the entire length of the western hemisphere, from the grasslands of Saskatchewan in Canada, to the Pampas of Argentina, a distance of 11,000 kilometres, travelled by the hawks each year in spring and again in the fall, the second longest migration on record. Nesting in western North America, seen there in breeding pairs as they soar across the endless Saskatchewan horizon in search of prey, these powerful raptors are visited in their nests by Dr. Stuart Houston and his team of bird banders, who band the cute and fuzzy flightless nestlings under the watchful, keen- eyed, vigilance of the parent hawks. Dr. Houston’s banding activities over the past fifty years having contributed greatly to the pool of knowledge about migratory birds, and have established him as a world authority on the Swainson’s hawk.

Using the latest technology available, satellite telemetry, adult hawks are trapped and fitted with a body pack satellite radio transmitter, their migration route and speed mapped, the information sent by e-mail to the network of individuals who study the birds. Although the Swainson’s Hawk nests throughout western North America during breeding season, the entire world population of the hawks gathers in the Pampas of Argentina the rest of the year, where they live in huge flocks, often numbering 10- 15, 000.

Because of this high concentration of hawks in Argentina, the growth of agriculture there and the use of pesticides has proved tragic. In 1995, the largest bird kill on record occurred in the Argentine Pampas, when, in one farmer’s field, pesticide killed at least 5000 birds.

However, the story is not all tragedy, but rather, a watershed in conservation efforts in the western hemisphere. The governments of Argentina, the United States, and Canada worked with international bird organizations and the pesticide manufacturer, Ciba Geigy, devising a plan to save the hawks from further devastation, engendering hope for the future to all concerned for the welfare of the beautiful hawks, and indeed for many other species as well.