Flight lines : across the globe on a journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds

Flight lines Across the globe on a journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds

Andrew Darby

Book - 2020

"An trans-world journey with an extraordinary shorebird--from Australia's southern ocean to the Arctic and back--that explores the mysteries of the natural world and its power to heal. As the sun lowered and turned Gulf St Vincent fiery, they each called a high-pitched 'peeooowiii!', flashed their black wing-pits, spread their tail skirts and took flight... In a luminous new book, Andrew Darby follows the odysseys of two outwardly-humble Grey Plovers, little-known migratory shorebirds, as they take previously uncharted ultramarathon flights from the southern coast of Australia to Arctic breeding grounds. On these death-defying flights they dodge predators, typhoons, exhaustion, and countless other dangers before they can... breed... and then survive the journey all over again and return south to their feeding grounds. But the greatest threat to these, and other long-distance migrants on the flyway, is China's "dragon economy," which is engulfing their vital Yellow Sea staging spots. In Flight Lines, we meet the dedicated people of all nationalities and backgrounds working to save these intrepid birds, from Russia to Alaska, from the rim of the Arctic Sea to the coasts of the Southern Ocean. Out of their hard-won science Darby finds hope for the birds--an unexpected bright light for our times. But his journey to understand these marvelous birds almost ends when he is suddenly diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Then he finds science coming to his rescue too, as his own story and the journey of these little birds intersect in an unexpected and beautiful way"--Dust jacket flap.

Saved in:
Save to List Email this
This item has been withdrawn.

2nd Floor Show me where

598.1568/Darby
All copies withdrawn
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 598.1568/Darby Withdrawn
Subjects
Pluvialis squatarola.
Migratory birds.
Birds > Migration.
Published
New York : Pegasus Books 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Andrew Darby (author)
Edition
First Pegasus Books cloth edition
Physical Description
324 pages : maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-315) and index.
ISBN
9781643135762
  • List of maps
  • 1. Hunting on a no-good shore
  • 2. Three letters will do
  • 3. Tiny sparks
  • 4. The undertone
  • 5. The treasure map
  • 6. The treasure house
  • 7. Perfectly suited
  • 8. The white bear bird
  • 9. Beringia
  • 10. A portion of their secrets
  • 11. Now south
  • 12. A flick of the dragon's tail
  • 13. Lost flocks
  • 14. A spoonful of hope
  • 15. Navigating the possible
  • 16. In harmony with the sun
  • Author's note
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

Darby invites readers to fly along on the transworld journey of two grey plovers (known as black-bellied plovers in the U.S) as they make their way from Australia, cross the north-west coast and Indonesia, pass through the Yellow Sea and Siberia, and finally settle in the Arctic to breed. Darby follows them both technologically, using satellite signal tracking via bands around the birds' legs, and literally, when he meets them at stopovers. Along the journey, Darby meets with other birders dedicated to tracking the flight lines of the plovers, such as the late Clive Minton, an ornithologist who'd been clipping metal tracking bands on birds' legs since 1947, and Maureen Christie of the Friends of Shorebirds SE, a science and environmental group. Sadly, due to the destruction of mudflats in China along the sea, the populations of these shorebirds are hugely declining. Darby's diagnosis with stage-IV cancer during the writing of this book adds to its already-dramatic effect: it's a work of great importance, and its words are not to be taken lightly.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

Darby (Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling) decided to follow the annual migration of his favorite shorebirds, Grey Plovers. In the autumn, they leave the Gulf of St. Vincent, Australia; feed in Indonesia; pass the Yellow Sea and Siberia before landing in the Arctic for breeding. They travel when there are favorable winds. The first leg of the trip covers 7,000 kilometers nonstop. The birds navigate using cells in their eyes that sense Earth's magnetic field. Later they do the trip in reverse. Darby quotes scientists, hobbyists, and Indigenous peoples while exhilarating descriptions create beautiful imagery. When the plovers headed for the Yellow Sea, Darby learned he had incurable lung cancer. Eight months after his diagnosis, he felt well enough to undertake part of the trip. Thereafter, he tells parallel stories of his fight, and the birds' flights. He also shares that in 2019, a UNESCO committee concluded that about one million animal and plant species face extinction. Since shorebirds are international, they offer a possibility of globalization during these difficult times. VERDICT Bird and nature lovers will be enthralled.--Susan G. Baird, formerly with Oak Lawn P.L., IL

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A shy, elusive shorebird reveals secrets of avian migration. Journalist and amateur birder Darby, a former correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald, became fascinated by a particular migratory shorebird, the Grey Plover, a "dovish wallflower," which flies thousands of miles each year from the southern tip of Australia to its Arctic breeding ground, and back. These birds, writes the author, "are driven to be restlessly, globally, mobile." Through his travels, during which he joined research teams that catch, tag, and track the birds using satellite telemetry and traveled to many of the birds' staging and breeding sites, Darby discovered the particular traits that enable migratory birds to traverse a range of temperatures and winds, to survive predators, and to adapt to a changing environment. Because shorebirds find no useful food on land or at sea, they "make epic flapping flights," up to 7,000 kilometers, "non-stop, without refuelling." In these birds' heads, writes the author, "probably in the eye, is an extraordinary sixth sense that gives it the means to know where it is, and the basis for it to navigate anywhere. Birds can 'see' earth's magnetic field" as well as sense polarized light, barometric pressure, and low-level infrasound. Migration impels millions of shorebirds to fly northward through the Yellow Sea on a flyway from Pakistan to the Philippines and southern New Zealand to the Arctic Sea. They must arrive in the Arctic soon after snow has melted, allowing them time to court and mate. Darby notes that migratory shorebird populations have been declining globally, but he sees hope in environmental efforts to protect wetlands and prevent pollution. "The genius of migratory shorebirds," he writes, "is that they have survived many ice ages, navigating their way around the edges of the possible. They are a reminder to us to measure our lives by the persistence of wildlife on the fringes of daily existence." A vividly detailed nature narrative. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Similar Items