Photos from Mongolia (eagles)

I have never known an animal so amazing as a Golden Eagle.

My new book, STAND ON THE SKY, is about the relationship between a girl named Aisulu and the golden eagle Toktar. Aisulu rescues Toktar as a baby -- he's orphaned -- and hand-raises him. Later she learns to fly him, even though among her people being an eagle hunter is something that's usually done by boys.

To find Aisulu's story, I went to Mongolia, where I lived with a family of Kazakh nomads who kept two eagles, a young eagle only recently taken from her nest, and a six-year-old eagle captured from the wild and still in training.

My friend Seanan Forbes was there too, and she took these pictures. Click to enbiggen.

All Mongolian pics are by Seanan Forbes, writer, photographer, traveller, teaching artist. The grants that sent me to Mongolia came from the Canada Council and Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.