num_pages: 324
description: Andrew Darby follows the odysseys of two 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 extraordinary flights they chance predators typhoon weather and exhaustion before they can breed and maybe return to familiar southern feeding grounds. But the greatest threat to these and other long-distance migrants on the flyway is China's dragon economy engulfing their vital Yellow Sea staging spots.The author meets the dedicated people working to save these intrepid birds from Russia to Alaska and the rim of the Arctic Sea to the coasts of the Southern Ocean. Out of their hard-won science he finds hope for the birds - a bright light for our times.But his journey to understand this work and these birds almost ends when he is suddenly diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Then he finds science coming to his rescue too.
language: English
title: Flight lines: across the globe on a journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds
publisher: Allen & Unwin