Western Skies: Bird Hunting in the Rockies and on the Plains [Paperback]

John Barsness (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

Western Skies is a brilliant writer's story of chasing Western horizons with dog and shotgun for sage grouse, sharptailed grouse, ringnecked pheasant, Hungarian partridge, and the unending flocks of geese and ducks each autumn. This is a book all bird hunters will cherish.

Editorial Reviews

Review

No one has written about the plains and mountains of the Northwest with more accuracy and affection, and that is what makes Western Skies the small jewel of a book that it is. -- Field & Stream Magazine

Western Skies is a superb collection of stories by an outstanding writer. -- Chicago Tribune

From the Back Cover

When the first explorers and settlers pushed west they found the skies filled with flocks of upland birds and waterfowl, birds that darkened the horizons like buffalo darkened the prairie. Western Skies is a brilliant writer's story of chasing those horizons, with dog and shotgun and a hiker's sense of history.Huge sage grouse still strut on the ridges of the sage brush wilderness, and sharptailed grouse still sail down the buffalo-berry draws - along with newcomers brought from the Old World, ringnecked pheasant and Hungarian partridge that have adapted as well to the American prairie as to their native steppes in Europe and Asia. And every autumn, unending flocks of geese and ducks still sweep down from the tundra across the plains. It's a semi-natural world made up of miles of grass and squares of wheat, perfect habitat for the birds and also for the hunter who wants to wander in all directions, wherever the horizon beckons. And there is still great sport, which Barsness records in careful detail and strong narrative.This is a book all birdhunters will cherish. (51/2 X 81/4, 160 pages)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558219234
• ISBN-13: 978-1558219236
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,174,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories well told with threads of golden info woven in., January 14, 2012

By 

David Cummings - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Skies (Hardcover)

This is not a "how to" book, nor does it claim to be. One of the promoters for the book claims you must read it twice: once for fun and twice for information. His comment is spot on. Each chapter takes the form of a story but each is also laced with tips and tricks to hunting if you read closely. We would all love a book that acts as a divining rod pointing the way to plentiful birds for us alone to pursue, but no such book exists. This is a book for lovers of the west which belongs on the shelf next to the likes of Aldo Leopold, Gene Hill and Robert Raurk. Barsness' writing occasionally becomes convoluted (he approaches stream of consciousness with his occasional digressions), but adds a bit of depth to the overall landscape of his stories. I must admit that I live in Montana and this book has special appeal to me for that reason, so be aware of that grain of salt.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bird Hunting, May 25, 2007

By 

John Wenzel "Cowbones" (Easton, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Skies: Bird Hunting in the Rockies and on the Plains (Paperback)

Just a pleasant read and not informative of where and how to put a hunt together. This appears to be the author's intent, however most of us are in the execution mode, not the live/read about other lives mode.