Educational Media Reviews Online

When asked to name species that make extended annual migrations between winter and summer habitats one might name Monarch Butterfly or the Gray Whale. Another species to consider is the Swainson's hawk. This hawk winters on the Argentine pampas and migrates over 11,000 kilometers each year to spend summers in the Canadian grasslands.

Twixt Heaven and Earth is narrated by Stuart Houston who has spent over 50 years researching the Swainson's hawk. Swainson's hawks preys upon Richardson's ground squirrels while in Canada and grasshoppers while in Argentina and are considered an indicator species, one that predicts the health of an ecosystem. Land management practice in Argentina, the United States and Canada has reduced Swainson's hawk habitat. The use of pesticides in Argentina has caused substantial mortality within the Swainson's hawk population including one of the largest pesticide related bird kills on record. Despite conservation efforts, the Swainson's hawk population has declined by fifty-percent over the past 10 years and as Houston has noted, up to 70% of nests can fail in any one year.

Twixt Heaven and Earth has great potential but the narration is more a chronicle of one researcher's efforts than a documentary of the Swainson's hawk. The script is inappropriately elementary for the subject matter addressed in the video. The footage of huge flocks of Swainson's hawks in Argentina, along with photos of birds destroyed by pesticides, is dramatic. The remaining footage of research practices including banding and handling hawks is uninspired. Viewers will see some of the research process but will learn little of the Swainson's hawk life cycle.

The script of this video is appropriate for grade school audiences, but the global issues addressed in the film will require a great deal of interpretation on the part of any teacher that chooses to show the video in his or her classroom. I can only recommend this video to larger public libraries.