A beautifully illustrated book following the extraordinary 18,000-mile annual migration of the Red Knot.

B95 can feel it: a stirring in his bones and feathers. It's time. Today is the day he will once again cast himself into the air, spiral upward into the clouds, and bank into the wind. He wears a black band on his lower right leg and an orange flag on his upper left, bearing the laser inscription B95. Scientists call him the Moonbird because, in the course of his astoundingly long lifetime, this gritty, four-ounce marathoner has flown the distance to the moon—and halfway back! B95 is a robin-sized shorebird, a red knot of the subspecies rufa. Each February he joins a flock that lifts off from Tierra del Fuego, headed for breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, nine thousand miles away. Late in the summer, he begins the return journey. B95 can fly for days without eating or sleeping, but eventually he must descend to refuel and rest. However, recent changes at ancient refueling stations along his migratory circuit—changes caused mostly by human activity—have reduced the food available and made it harder for the birds to reach. And so, since 1995, when B95 was first captured and banded, the worldwide rufa population has collapsed by nearly 80 percent. Most perish somewhere along the great hemispheric circuit, but the Moonbird wings on. He has been seen as recently as November 2011, which makes him nearly twenty years old. Shaking their heads, scientists ask themselves: How can this one bird make it year after year when so many others fall? National Book Award–winning author Phillip Hoose takes us around the hemisphere with the world's most celebrated shorebird, showing the obstacles rufa red knots face, introducing a worldwide team of scientists and conservationists trying to save them, and offering insights about what we can do to help shorebirds before it's too late. With inspiring prose, thorough research, and stirring images, Hoose explores the tragedy of extinction through the triumph of a single bird. Moonbird is one The Washington Post's Best Kids Books of 2012. A Common Core Title.

Thousands of ravenous tiny shorebirds race along the water’s edge of Delaware Bay, feasting on pin-sized horseshoe-crab eggs. Fueled by millions of eggs, the migrating red knots fly on. When they arrive at last in their arctic breeding grounds, they will have completed a near-miraculous 9,000-mile journey that began in Tierra del Fuego. Deborah Cramer followed these knots, whose numbers have declined by 75 percent, on their extraordinary odyssey from one end of the earth to the other—from an isolated beach at the tip of South America all the way to the icy tundra. In her firsthand account, she explores how diminishing a single stopover can compromise the birds' entire journey, and how the loss of horseshoe crabs—ancient animals that come ashore but once a year—threatens not only the survival of red knots but also human well-being: the unparalleled ability of horseshoe-crab blood to detect harmful bacteria in vaccines, medical devices, and intravenous drugs safeguards human health. Cramer offers unique insight into how, on an increasingly fragile and congested shore, the lives of red knots, horseshoe crabs, and humans are intertwined. She eloquently portrays the tenacity of small birds and the courage of many people who, bird by bird and beach by beach, keep red knots flying.

Describes the 20,000-mile annual migration of a shorebird called a Red knot, from the tip of South America to the Arctic tundra nesting grounds and back.

New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration. In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary. Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves. These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork, in A World on the Wing Weidensaul unveils with dazzling prose the miracle of nature taking place over our heads.

How to Gain a Positively Unfair Advantage on the River - Even if You're Unsure what the MANY Variations of "Euro Nymphing" Actually Involve... INCLUDING Over 2 hours of supporting video material (designed to be worth the price of the book on its own) Hands up who knows what Euro nymphing is? It's incredibly popular and causes many online arguments - yet most anglers show CLEAR GAPS in their skills and knowledge. So if you want to go beyond bobbers and split shot, you'll need to dodge an overwhelming tide of BS online covering "Tight Line Nymphing" and European competition methods. While there are good books available, certain tactics are left out (keeping a number of methods known only to a handful of top anglers) and it is difficult to build a strategy for choosing and using each of the different rigs, methods and flies. The aim of this book is to arm you with the most complete range of tactics possible and give you the confidence to tackle new waters and different conditions. It does this by clearly explaining WHY to choose - as well as HOW to use - each rig & technique. The methods include: Czech nymphing (both the little-known LONG-line variant & the famous SHORT-line tactics) Polish nymphing Ladder Leader Nymphing (so you can quickly alter the spacing between your droppers, which means you're more likely to actually benefit from those "fine-tuning" tweaks) Classic French Nymphing The family of modern "Nymphe au Fil", Pêche a la Sempé and Spanish Nymphing French Leader with Dry Fly French Leader with Streamer Duo and Trio (Euro-style Hopper/Dropper with "everything off the water" up to the dry) Slovakian nymphing ...and even a little "suspension" nymphing so that the typical "Tight-line Euro tactics" don't have it all their own way All this is underpinned by the understanding of a freshwater biologist (and nymph fishing addict) which reveals important secrets of predators and prey behaviour in our rivers - and how to hotwire that system with our artificial flies. Stories from around the world bring the tactics to life - as well as making the take-home messages much more memorable (so you'll actually use them in your own fishing) PLUS: Full color photos of actual flies gifted during major international competition events which let you peek inside boxes of multiple World Championship competitors (including captains and coaches) Multiple Detailed Spotlight Features on: Sighters/indicators ★ Reading the Water ★ Stealth ★ Casting ★ Feeding Biology of Fish ★ Trade Secret Leader Recipes and Chemical Treatments★ A Simplified Set of Fly Patterns ★ Magic Bullet Method (Selecting Rigs, Flies & Fishing Locations) Method in my Madness Carefully layering the information means that there are "quick win" tips you can use right away - while bigger ideas build up and become absorbed naturally over the course of the book. I believe this gives you the best chance of greatly improving your ability to catch fish, to adapt to situations - and perhaps "re-boot" your love of fly fishing in the process! Who SHOULDN'T buy this? This is a practical, paperback manual - not an ornament. Don't buy this book if informal, conversational language or Sans Serif font aren't your things. You can check out the design/layout in Amazon's "Look Inside" preview feature before you purchase.

A trans-world journey with an extraorindary 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 boook, Andrew Darby follows the odysseys of two seemingly-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 jrouney 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 marvellous 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.