Wings for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock

In this inspiring book, young wildlife biologist Marcy Cottrell Houle spends a summer perched on a high rock in Colorado's southwest desert. With no phone or running water, she and her research parmer immerse themselves in the study of a pair of endangered peregrine falcons that return to their ancestral nesting site on Chimney Rock.

Coming to know these birds intimately while sharing their home, Houle develops an abiding devotion to them. She observes their breathtaking flight, their indomitable character, and their urgent will to survive.

Before me a peregrine falcon emerged from the cliff with a fierce beauty; with utmost ease and perfect control it spun in a dizzying dive to the earth. Talons outstretched, it lightly grazed the object of its attention — a trespassing prairie falcon who had slipped across the peregrine's invisible territorial line.... Its flight was a gust of pure energy.

While conducting her research, Houle learns that Chimney Rock is the site of an Anasazi ruin slated for commercial development. She meets the unexpected resistance and hostility of townspeople who resent the obstacle the endangered birds pose to potential tourist dollars. Houle uncovers the depth and complexity of the issue that leads this community — and so many others like it in today's growing world — to an angry impasse. With compassion, insight, and fairness, Houle explores the dilemma between environmentalists and developers, both of whom value the land, but in different ways.

Wings for My Flight is the story of one biologist who, through the help of another species, comes to a greater understanding of her own. As a Colorado press, Pruett Publishing is proud to reissue thisaward-winning book that addresses issues vital to Coloradans and Westerners.