The book is famous for its poetry-like prose. I thought the author was trying too hard. Some of his phrases were descriptive and poetic, some were just silly. There are critics who think Baker pulled from his observations over many years to make it look like a single-season's worth of sightings. Others think he made a lot of it up. I don't know, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover is was a mix, more like a painting of what he imagined a Peregrine's life would be based on a lifetime of sightings.