Frightful's Mountain

Sleet, snow, and cold keep Frightful stuck at Woodchuck Lodge, and she hunts with Mole when she can. When a day of sunshine finally comes, Frightful looks for signs of which direction to head in, but the “window of migration” is closed (64), meaning that she cannot go south and will have to spend the winter in the cold. While flying on a clear day, Frightful spots Sam’s mountain again. She heads for the hemlock tree she knows so well, but on the way, she hears the familiar call of Duchess. Landing, Frightful finds Duchess wearing a hood, jesses, and a leash. A man emerges from a nearby cabin after hearing Frightful’s cry, and Frightful recognizes him as Bate, the man who took her from Sam. Another man, named Spud, is with him, and the two make a plan to catch Frightful and sell her to their Saudi Arabian buyer, Skri. While Frightful calls back and forth with Duchess, Bate and Skri use a duck to lure Frightful into their net, but Frightful ignores it and leaves for Sam’s mountain and “the one tree among millions” she recalls (69).

As Frightful flies, she sees a man walking and calls her special name for Sam, but the man is not Sam. A gust of wind knocks her into a power line, and as her wings touch two wires, Frightful is electrocuted. The man below, named Jon Wood, sees this happen and rushes to Frightful when she falls to the ground. Jon is incensed to see the utility pole seemingly take the life of such a beautiful creature. As a licensed master falconer, he knows that peregrines are endangered and have only recently started to increase in population thanks to the efforts of falconer Heinz Meng, who breeds peregrines in captivity and releases them into the wild through a process called “hacking.” Given the threat that wires pose to birds, Jon has written to the utility company manager several times, asking that the wires be adjusted, but each time the company refused.

Thinking Frightful dead, Jon places her in his pocket and goes to his home, where he has several other birds of prey. He and wife, Susan, bring them to schools to teach children about them. When Jon reaches for Frightful to show Susan, he finds that Frightful is still alive. He uses a pair of leather straps called jesses to keep Frightful from flying away. He is surprised to find that Frightful flips onto his falconer’s glove like a trained bird and even more surprised to see that she has no serious injuries from the electrocution. Jon and Susan decide to nurse and feed Frightful over the winter, then release her in the spring. In the meantime, they plan to bring her to elementary schools along with their other birds and use her as an example of the danger utility poles pose to birds.

Jon remembers that he needs to call Peter Westerly, the local conservation officer, about suspicious activity at a nearby abandoned cabin. Jon saw smoke rising from the cabin, and when he went to investigate, he heard men talking and a peregrine falcon calling. He suspects that Bate, who was arrested in the past for illegally selling falcons, may be using the cabin as a hideout. Peter agrees to inform Leon Longbridge, the conservation officer for the Delhi area, and to check out the cabin.

Susan and Jon have many questions about Frightful and suspect that she may be a trained falcon. Susan gives her the name “Destiny” because she believes the falcon has “a destiny to fulfill” (78). As Jon and Susan leave town for their elementary school visits, they see maintenance workers unloading equipment and learn that, by governor decree, all the bridges in New York State are to be repaired. This decree is the governor’s response to the flood that collapsed the Schoharie Bridge and killed five people. Jon is frustrated that he will have to see the industrial equipment near his mountain home and believes that many bridges do not need repair as urgently as roads.

At their first school visit in Roxbury, Jon and Susan show their birds, including owls, a bald eagle, a prairie falcon, and Frightful. They explain that Frightful survived electrocution from a utility pole, although many birds do not. The children ask to write letters to the utility company to urge it to adjust the wires so that birds cannot touch two wires simultaneously. This simple fix would help save the lives of endangered birds. Jon and Susan pitch the letter-writing idea to the other schools they visit, and children write over 600 letters to the utility company. When Jon and Susan return home, Jon spots Duchess flying overhead and calling to Frightful. Bate and Spud released her when they saw Leon Longbridge and Peter Westerly approaching their cabin. Jon feeds Duchess a rat and attempts to give Frightful one as well, but she won’t eat it. Jon, in turn, refuses to feed her. This way, hunger will drive her to catch rats and eat them. The letters from the children make the news on radio and TV, and before long, linemen from the utility company arrive at Jon and Susan’s house with orders to fix three utility pole wires. Jon is glad but knows that many more poles will need to be repaired to make a difference.