Ola Jordheim Halvorsen

The Last Cock of the Woods
On a Road Trip Through Europe with a Kidnapped Capercaillie in the Luggage

There’s a capercaillie shortage on the European continent. To fix this, a group of Frenchmen are traveling from the Norwegian wilderness in Finnskogen to Alsace in France with the furious capercaillie named Nils and three capercaillie hens in lay. Hot on their heels is journalist and capercaillie hunter Ola Jordheim Halvorsen — eyes bloodshot, undernourished, and driving a 2006 Honda in poor health.

Ola has hunted forest birds his entire life. In the woods of his childhood, he has struggled — like his father and grandfather before him — to outwit the elusive capercaillie: a bird with a peculiar talent for deceiving hunters. Now, the hunter becomes the rescuer, in a desperate attempt to reestablish a capercaillie population in a region where wild nature is under pressure from industrialization, climate change, and Albanian blueberry gangs.

Will the capercaillie survive the grueling journey to France? And will the hunter accept seeing his trophy bird taken from him?

The Last Cock of the Woods is the cultural history of the wilderness — it’s as much a road trip as it is a coming-of-age story. A wild and true story told with passion and humor.