The Flight of the Red Knot: A Natural History Account of a Small Bird's Annual Migration from the Arctic Circle to the Tip of South America and Back [Hardcover]

Brian Harrington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1996

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

Red Knots are in the sandpiper family. They are barely ten inches long and weigh about twenty ounces. Each spring they breed in the Arctic, but in the year that follows they will migrate to the southern tip of South America and back again in their quest for food. Why and how they travel more than 18,000 miles each year, often as many as 2,500 miles nonstop (and at speeds averaging between thirty and forty miles per hour), is the subject of this engrossing and beautifully illustrated book.

Based on a popular NOVA series on migration, The Flight of the Red Knot is the story of an ornithological marvel by one of the world's foremost authorities. Here we learn of the marvelous physical equipment of the long-distance flyers, their extraordinary food storage capacity, and the nature of their ever-moving food supply. The methods of research into the Red Knots' life cycle are also described. Bird lovers especially, but also any one interested in nature will love this book.
Four-color photos

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The epic subtitle only hints at the amazing scope of this story. The subject is the migration of a species of sandpiper, known as the red knot for its smoked salmon breeding coloration. These birds mass in the tens of thousands on New Jersey's Delaware Bay beaches in late May, a pit stop between Brazil and Hudson Bay, one leg of their immense journey. Their short New Jersey sojourn indicates both the wonder of their stamina and the fragility of the whole elaborately evolved enterprise, for they use this stop to consume a prodigious number--as many as 135,000--of tiny horseshoe crab eggs. Yet this bit of New Jersey shore is a vital link that makes the completion of the trip possible. An astonishing and important story.

From Library Journal

Many shorebirds are noted for their extraordinary migrations. The red knot, though it may not be familiar to many birders since it regularly stops at only a few coastal sites in the United States during its long flights, is a typical example. Derived from a segment of the PBS series Nova and based on original research done by Harrington (Manomet Observatory), this book uses the knot as a paradigm for examining broader topics of migration, behavior, ecology, and especially conservation. Simply but not condescendingly written and generously illustrated with fine color photos, this is a good choice for popular (including young adult) science collections.?Paul B. Cors, formerly Univ. of Wyoming Lib., Laramie
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (February 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393038610
• ISBN-13: 978-0393038613
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,779,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Flight of the Red Knot., September 10, 2004

By 

Wesley L. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Flight of the Red Knot: A Natural History Account of a Small Bird's Annual Migration from the Arctic Circle to the Tip of South America and Back (Hardcover)

The author introduces himself by describing his Rhode Island boyhood conversion -- from his BB gun to his brother's telescope. He then proceeds to bring the reader along on a rather incredible journey, observing the patterns of feast and flight of the curious migratory shorebird known as the red knot. The annual junket of sorts traces from the southern reaches of South America to the northern reaches of North America, and is nicely summarized in these words:

"Patagonia and the Canadian archipelago are the antipodes of the cycle, but neither is truly end or beginning. In both locations summer briefly holds a tenuous grasp within the looming shadow of near-perpetual winter, but the knots never experience real winter at any latitude. They always stay just one flight ahead of the nether parts of the calendar, alighting only when and where the larder is full, living out their lives in perpetual spring and summer." (p 115)

My usual science reading tends decidedly to physics, which is often thought of as "hard science." In physics, the unknowns lead us toward the deepest philosophical inquiries of human wondering (like "what is reality?"), but the mysteries of animal biology seem rather closer at hand (although this depends, of course, on the observer/ questioner). Ornithologist Brian Harrington observes and speculates, counts and calculates, and often arrives at questions whose answers are essentially mysteries: "No one quite understands . . ." and, "we have very little idea . . ." he muses. At every level, nature gently resists our hopeful desire to oversimplify it. Our story here, of the red knots' travels, is told in five chapters. The last chapter [6] considers conservation issues; what can be done and what is being done to preserve critical coastal areas and other wetlands important to migratory birds. The book includes many photographs, which are interesting in their own right, but also illustrate the text. This is a fairly quick read and an interesting one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grab your binoculars and let's go!, February 27, 2006

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Flight of the Red Knot: A Natural History Account of a Small Bird's Annual Migration from the Arctic Circle to the Tip of South America and Back (Hardcover)

What an adventure! The story: A round-trip excursion from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America, more than 18,000 miles. The characters: A sandpiper known as the Red Knot, barely ten inches long and weighing two ounces per inch, that can fly thirty to forty miles per hour, often as long as 2,500 miles non-stop in their migratory quest. This is a companion piece to the PBS series "Nova," and as one would expect is a beautifully designed and written book with scores of impressive full-color photographs. It also contains maps of their annual flight that shows their landing spots, along with expected dates. If this information and the book doesn't inspire you to get to one of these sites with binoculars in hand, well, its message isn't for you. This is a study of the ever-increasing struggle these birds face against encroaching humanity upon their life-sustaining environments and what we can do to preserve them before it is too late. It's not preachy, but matter-of-fact in its discussion. I'm going to catch the very next migratory stop in my area, and probably will repeat myself in the years ahead. I can't wait to see these little marvels.