Based on the true story of hand-rearing common swift chicks during a global pandemic.
Locked down in the heart of the Peak District with no experience caring for injured birds and no one to call for help, a married couple embarks on a frantic and heartbreaking mission to nurse two malnourished swifts back to health.
While acting as surrogate parents, the couple discuss and imagine the incredible migration one tiny swift will take when fully fledged. A perilous nonstop solo flight of over seven thousand miles to the African continent.
Buy Adventures of Broken Beak using my PayPal link or QR code below.
(Add your swift group code at checkout to donate £1 to your local group)
"The thrills were heart-stopping and very moving. And the little stories as he crossed the landscape were fascinating and often very profound."
Lynn Crowe - Emeritus Professor of Environmental Management at Sheffield Hallam University
A4 novella
Based on a true story
32 illustrations
TIDESWELL to TANZANIA
Adventures of Broken Beak
The book's first four chapters are based on actual events of hand-rearing swift chicks, a rollercoaster ride of caffeine-fuelled highs and heartbreaking lows. The following fifteen are a dramatised account of a swift's-eye view of life on the wing, connecting with human stories on the ground along the way.
Drawing on scientific material, the adventure story is peppered with interesting facts about how and why common swifts migrate to the African continent. It is an airborne travel log of the most enigmatic, aerobatic, and fastest bird in level flight, not to mention one of the oldest bird orders on the planet.
A young swift's first attempt to travel solo using actual swift flyways, navigating over seven thousand miles across two continents and one of Earth's greatest land-based barriers to reach sub-Saharan Africa. The final two chapters include swift care and conservation information, website links, and emergency contacts.
Foremost, this story is about the remarkable and dangerous adventure of a tiny bird trying to survive against the odds.
About Mat Dale
I have lived in the Peak District National Park for 25 years and volunteer for local swift charity as a swift nest surveyor. Adventures of Broken Beak is my debut novella, written to raise awareness for common swift (Apus apus) conservation.
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Buy Adventures of Broken Beak using my PayPal link or QR code below.
(Add your swift group code at checkout to donate £1 to your local group)
