Wildlife Congregations: A Priest's Year of Gaggles, Colonies and Murders by the Salish Sea
Details
Author: Laurel Dykstra
ISBN: 978-0-88839-753-9 [paperback]
ISBN: 978-0-88839-756-0 [eBook]
Binding: Trade Paperback
Size: 5.5" x 8.5"
Pages: 232
Illustrations/Photos: 20
Publication Date: April 1 2024
Description
A naturalist-priest documents a year of spiritual encounters with large gatherings of wild creatures in the lower Fraser watershed. These local low-tech adventures with a run of spawning salmon, a siege of nesting herons, a colony of bats in a heritage house, a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, 1000 sea lions with bad breath and more are an antidote to interspecies loneliness in this age of extinction. A moving testament to both the fragility and resilience of a bioregion impacted by our current climate crisis, the book offers entry points for all kinds of readers. Dykstra twines together accessible natural history, love of language, the history of saints and clerics in the natural sciences, and gratuitous detours into the weird and wonderful: gay bat sex, exploding caterpillars, and the colonization history of bird poop. Each chapter includes a wealth of resources, from field guides to fiction, for nature enthusiasts of all ages.
Author Biography
Book Reviews
“We have been longtime allies using prayer as the backbone of our work. I encourage people to read this and see why we love and protect everything that has a spirit which we are all connected to.”
— Rueben George, Grandson of Chief Dan George, Tsleil Waututh First Nation
“Is there a special sort of loneliness, an emptiness in the human soul, caused by our loss of engagement with massive gatherings of animals? Join Dykstra on a quest for close-up experiences of gaggles, colonies, & murders. Be forewarned, you may be inspired to do some traipsing of your own.”
— Lynne Quarmby, Molecular Biologist & Biochemist, Author of Watermelon Snow: Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear
“I love the playful lyricism of this book, combined with its soulful reflectivity. The words beautifully articulate a collective experience of our time: awe for the abundance and flourishing of nature, and the grief of irreparable loss. Laurel shares remarkable learnings from communing with nature, whether it be the joy of parent and child encountering 1000 sea lions, or reflecting on the loss of tens of thousands of shorebirds that we no longer see with the rapid decline of bird populations. Terms of Venery conveys a powerful message: reconnecting with diverse ecosystems can motivate us to defend them.”
— Brigette de Pape, Rogue Page and climate activist
Customer Reviews
"Must be a good book", remarked a random stranger on the city street where I live. "You have two copies?" Yes, it is a first-rate book!!
I am struck by the author’s characteristic naturalist and sacred echoes, Water “flows through the Christian story in baptism, creation, liberation and a host of wilderness prophets like Miriam, Elijah and John the Baptist [who] heard God’s call for justice beside wells and seas and rivers” while chronicling the astounding Life-Water of this place. The Fraser River is 1375 kilometres [855 miles] long…pouring nearly one and a half Olympic-sized swimming pools per second into the Salish Sea on my doorstep, home to more salmon than any other in the world.
Eclectic Sources and Resources at the end of each chapter contain a wealth references of field handbook material, websites, children’s books, novels, and songs like: ” Where Do the Crows Go?” by Paul Silveria!
Buy a book, buy two if you can – I give them away faster than I can finish reading.
I'm half-way into this book, and am savoring every page! I have been reading eco-spirituality and eco-theology books for years, and this book stands out from the rest as an ode to the particular wild neighbours in Dykstra's watershed. It is beautifully written, invites curiosity and wonder, and draws us into deeper connection with these particular species and their unique gifts and quirks. What a sad world it would be without them! This book invites and inspires me to build similar connections with my wild neighbours in the community of creation here where I live.
Wildlife Congregations is a great read! The author includes a lot of fascinating information about each creature - one per chapter- I learned many interesting things about the animals that I grew up around on Vancouver Island. The stories are witty and easy to relate to, like a fun conversation with an old friend.
But I still think it is smart, funny and insightful. A must if you love the creatures of the Salish Sea region and worry about the impacts of climate change on this bioregion.
