Overview

Birds' eggs are true wonders of the natural world: they are strong enough to protect the embryo as it grows and to withstand incubation by the parent, yet sufficiently fragile to allow the chick to hatch. Little wonder that the enormous diversity of avian eggs - the amazing range of shapes, sizes, colours, textures and patterns - has long fascinated us. Since boyhood, the renowned landscape photographer Colin Prior has had a passion for wild birds. For him, birds are the embodiment of nature, and fundamentally enrich the experience of being outdoors. This stunning new book presents Prior's remarkable images of birds' eggs side by side with his dramatic photographs of the birds' natural habitats. At a time when many human influences are having an adverse impact on the environment, these habitats are equally fragile and vulnerable to change. Loss of habitat is, in turn, a major factor in the decline of wild bird populations. It has been illegal to take any birds' eggs from the wild in Great Britain since 1954, and since 1982 it has been against the law to possess the egg of any wild bird. The eggs featured in this book belong to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which holds one of the world's largest collections of birds' eggs. The eggs were collected legally during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and bequeathed to the museum by private collectors. Prior set up a studio at the museum and spent five weeks photographing more than 300 eggs using the latest digital technology. Each photograph is a compilation of between 40 and 80 separate exposures that were then blended into a single image using specialist software. The final image is an exquisite, almost three-dimensional rendition of the egg, pin-sharp from the front to the back. AUTHOR: Colin Prior is an acclaimed landscape photographer with almost four decades of experience. He seeks out patterns in the landscape and the hidden links between reality and the imagination. His images capturing sublime moments of light and land are the result of meticulous planning, and often take years to achieve. 250 colour illustrations

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9781858946887

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Colin Prior is an acclaimed landscape photographer with almost four decades of experience. He seeks out patterns in the landscape and the hidden links between reality and the imagination. His images capturing sublime moments of light and land are the result of meticulous planning, and often take years to achieve. His previous books include Living Tribes (2003), The World’s Wild Places (2006) and Scotland’s Finest Landscapes (2014). In 2020 Merrell will also publish Prior’s book on the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan. Among Prior’s awards are the National Adventure Awards, Business Category Winner (2015), and the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture (2020). He has been the subject of three BBC documentaries entitled Mountain Man. Professor Des Thompson is the Principal Adviser on Science and Biodiversity with the government agency NatureScot. He has specialist interests in arctic-alpine landscapes, habitats and birds. He has written widely on nature and has authored more than fifteen books, among them Nature’s Conscience: The Life and Legacy of Derek Ratcliffe (as co-editor, 2015) and Curious about Nature: A Passion for Fieldwork (as co-editor, 2020). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chair of both the Field Studies Council and the UN Convention on Migratory Species Technical Advisory Group developing action plans for African and Eurasian birds.

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