Eastern Curlew

by Harry Saddler

Every year around August, large flocks of Eastern Curlews leave their breeding grounds in the Arctic and embark on a perilous 10,000km journey to the coast of Australia. The birds cannot swim; if they become exhausted and fall into the ocean, they die. But it’s a journey they have taken for tens of thousands of years, tracing invisible flyways in the sky in what is one of the most spectacular mass migrations in the animal kingdom.Following the Eastern Curlew along its migratory path, award-winning nature writer Harry Saddler explores how these incredible birds have impressed themselves on the cultures of the countries they fly through, the threat to their survival posed by development, and the remarkable ways these birds and humankind may be entwined. The Eastern Curlew is a delightful and vivid portrait of a fascinating natural phenomenon.

Genres: Nonfiction, Birds, Animals, Travel

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 31, 2018

Reviews

[Michael Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous book that captures the incredible lives of migratory shorebirds and their increasingly tenuous survival thanks to the ongoing destruction of our environment. Harry draws out the ways in which waders (and particularly curlews) have resonated with people across the countries that intersect with their amazing migrations and hopefully will bring an awareness of these amazing creatures to a broad audience with this lovely book. (Full disclosure: Harry is a friend of mine.)

[Robert Lukins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful document of a bird, a wider world, and all the tendrils between them so dangerously close to being severed; a gorgeous piece of work.

[Susan Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Even though I have spent a fair bit of time in one of this bird’s most important feeding areas, I have never seen one. I’ll be looking out for it now that I know more about the amazing journey it undertakes to breed in Siberia.
I found Harry’s enthusiasm for nature and thoughtfulness very inspiring. While a book about an endangered bird could be sad and depressing (and sure, it is worrying) I detected some hope, and learnt a lot. I also headed off to the library for more books on this subject. If you don’t know about this bird, or any of Australia’s migratory birds, this is a good place to start.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful book, both heartbreaking and hopeful.
My sister had told me about the migration of the Eastern Curlew from the Arctic to French Island in Victoria and I was excited when a week later my workplace announced Harry Saddler as one of the authors at our annual writers event, Talkfest. I immediately went to the library and borrowed Harry’s books. While I am not a birder, natural science and natural history books are my favourite books to read.
Harry write sensitively on the bird’s migration, his love of nature, his travels following the Eastern Curlew’s flight way and the crises in climate change, over development and environmental conservation.
My sister and I plan to visit French Island to try and see Eastern Curlews and I’m excited to meet author Harry Saddler at our Talkfest in a couple of weeks.
I loved this book!

[Jenny]

This is a physically gorgeous little volume. Inside, it's a gently meandering, sometimes sad, sometimes hopeful story of the eastern curlew; it's role in our physical world and our consciousness (and all migratory shorebirds by extension). I also learnt quite a few things, so what more can you ask for?

[Shastra Deo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never expected to end this with so many tender feelings towards eastern curlews, but I'm glad that's how it turned out. Timely, necessary; a beautiful portrait of a beautiful bird making the precarious journey of a forever summer. I'll be at the Boondall Wetlands waiting to catch a glimpse.

[Marilyn Chalkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so much more than a book about a bird. It's a travel book, a thoughtful discussion on the risk of extinction, and an elegy to wildlife everywhere, told with humour, fine prose and a keen eye. It tells the astonishing story of a huge shorebird - about the size of a chicken - the Eastern Curlew who every year flies from the East Coast of Australia to the tundra of Siberia, to feed on millions of insects and to breed.

Because it's big, it has to stop off on the way in many places including Korea, and China to refuel. Harry Saddler visits the stopping off points in Dandong, China, just over the Yalu River from the western edge of N. Korea, and in Gunsan in S Korea. He finds that the mudlands where the curlews and other shorebirds feast on crabs are fast disappearing as they are developed into ports and tall buildings. But he also finds communities who are fascinated by the birds.

Harry Saddler looks at art - many artists in Australia, and in Asia are captivated by this striking bird with its huge curved beak, and its annual migration across the world. They have created artworks, performances, and puppet shows in admiration.

The Eastern Curlew is a beautiful book to read - if you have the tactile hard cover it is like a precious object- a personal and moving account of a creature so few of us know anything about. Make sure it's on your reading list before the birds disappear: better still go down to the coast, book in hand, and try and find the Eastern Curlews on the mudflats as they start to arrive from Siberia after a round trip of some 20,000 km.

[Sam Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Eastern Curlew is the best kind of book, which lets its author jump headfirst into an obsession and take the reader along for the ride. Having never read 'a bird book' before, this was such a good place to start.
Its subject is a species of migratory shorebird whose existence is in danger. Harry Saddler follows them around the world, writing of their incredible lives and the threats to their habitat. The book explores the scientific origins, artistic interpretations and metaphoric possibilities of the bird's incredible annual migration, and touches on themes of resilience, persistence and home. This is a rallying cry against ecological destruction, and an effective one.
If The Eastern Curlew is indicative of nature writing as a whole, I'd like to be reading a whole lot more of it. If it's only indicative of Harry's work, then I'd like to be reading a whole lot more of that, too.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undoubtedly this is an amazing bird and has an incredible tangle of stories woven around it. Well done to Harry Saddler for beginning to tell some of them. Migrating from Siberia to Melbourne and back every year is incredible when you think about it. The ongoing destruction of the vital habitat the bird needs is tragic, however. The thought of a flock of birds arriving at their destination, emaciated from flying thousands of kilometres, to find their mudflats "reclaimed" (a horrid euphemism) and no food to be found.

The book has some more engaging parts than others. Maybe because I'm a botanist (and a grumpy one at that), not a birder, and furthermore not that keen on mudflats or even the sea in general. I do generally like birds (of course), when I'm working I often stop to watch their antics and beauty, and I would love to stop and watch a Curlew while working. But what really engaged me in this was not the stories about congregations of birdwatchers, and rummaging through drawers of bones at the museum. Actually, the most interesting and engaging was the tales of visiting China and South Korea to view the bird there en route during its long migration. I've visited east Asia twice, only for holidays, but the account Saddler gives rings true to my impression. A certain amount of despair is generated on seeing these vast and wonderful countries charging down the industrial capitalist road of "development" (another terrible euphemism) that has done so much damage everywhere else. But at the same time, the optimism, openness, and welcoming attitude of the people you meet - even when they really don't have a clue why you are interested in that patch of grass or mudflat or whatever, even when you can only communicate in smiles and sign language - is cause for hope.

I found it funny to stumble on two little insights into life that I encountered in very similar form in the previous book I read (From Snow to Ash by Anthony Sharwood). One, on the change in how we perceive wonder and excitement in natural things (inter alia) as we progress from child to adult. Another, in the value of walking - a mode of transport that proceeds at the same pace as our brains process the landscape around us.

The sixth great extinction is on us, and only we can stop it; one hopes more people become familiar with what's going on outside the growing, artificial, square-edged concrete-steel-and-glass environments so many of us now live in. Here's one angle you might not have thought about. Read it.

I wasn't sure what to rate this. The bits that didn't grab me get 3 stars. The bits I liked get 4.

[Rachel Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harry Saddler has researched and written the gentle yet profound story of the Eastern Curlew's round-trip journey from the Arctic Circle to Australia via the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. This annual event requires these remarkable birds to fly thousands of kilometers between the Arctic summer to the Australian summer to feed (gorge themselves!) on wetland invertebrates before returning to the extreme northern hemisphere to feed, breed and repeat this ancient journey. I was reminded how connected we are to nature and its animals and how dependent we are on its survival; a dependency that requires community action to prevent the destruction of valuable and unique wetlands. For if we destroy the earth and it creatures, we destroy ourselves.

[Clare Rhoden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, profund, and sobering. I'm amazed at how Sadler manages to combine the awe and magic of the migratory birds with his documentation of their ongoing destruction. In hsi visits to sites of their migration, he gives us a deep insight - almost like peering through a window into an alien world - into their lives, how little we know about them, how little we value their universe.
A wonderful read. I am deeply grateful this book came my way.

[Roxani]

I have never seen an Eastern curlew. Before this year, I had never seen any curlews at all. Yet, they all come alive in Harry Saddler's book. This is a piece of 'nature writing' that is brimming with both vivid storytelling and thoughtful reflections on the politics (of climate change, of habitat loss, of classification, of centers and peripheries). I will be recommending this one a lot, with many thanks to the lovely Helen B. who sent it my way!

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

The striking blue cover with a bird in flight made this book hard to miss. By finding a hardcover copy of it for my ‘lunchtime reads’ not only have I learnt about the Eastern Curlew, I have also learnt about the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. It has given me an understanding of how humans and the environment are impacting on countless populations of migratory birds.

[Tamar Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book and experiencing the windows of the eastern curlew and other migratory shorebirds in such a unassuming way.
Very accessible study of the history and possible fate of this unique bird. Was part travelogue and part treatise on destruction of shorebird habitat - but not too intense. More personal exploration than brow beating.

[Halison Josue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, timely... yet hopeful. Provided deep insight into shorebirds, migration and the Cross over between art and science. A unique and charming tale about climate change, the beauty of nature, birds, travel, humans, chance encounters and the impact of so called “growth”.

[John Kidman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real treasure. I have recommended this gem to anyone who will listen to me. Just such an amazing story. I identified with so many of the places mentioned because of personal experiences in those places.

[Lydia D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful read and perfect for bird lovers like me. I wouldn't normally read the "travel memoir" type of genre, but Saddler does a good job at illustrating the human connection to nature. A tad political at times, but overall an enjoyable read that will make you want to go bird watching!

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little book that explores the extraordinary life of the Eastern Curlew as it migrates from the Arctic to Australia. At once a celebration of shorebirds, and a cri de coeur for their future as we humans continue destroying the fragile habitats they depend on

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review at
https://residentjudge.com/2019/01/28/...

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and easy read about locations in my local area, where the author has visited to do bird watching and observing.

[Hildegunn Hodne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, well written book, shedding light on so many important topics. Including the importance of treasuring shorebirds and saving their habitats. Recommended.

[Jolene Yaksich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written book. Learn about the Eastern Curlew and its amazing migration.

[Serendipity · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Eastern Curlew, the author focuses on one bird, uses it to look at wider environmental and ecological issues, travels to sites connected to the bird, and shares his personal connection to the species. The Eastern Curlew is thankfully not yet extinct but its numbers are declining and seem likely to continue as much of its essential habitat is lost. I always enjoy reading works where the author's connection to birds is obvious. This one was no exception.

[Nicole Sadler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a genuine eye opener. The twitchers are a unique community. Their passion is to be admired and Harry is certainly the epitome of this community. It is hoped this story gains a bit of traction through this space because the plight of the Eastern Curlew is dim without positive human action towards its preservation.

[John Kidman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not a slow reader, I’ve just been slow to update my Good Reads reviews. Second time I’ve read this amazing book and enjoyed it just as much as the ‘first reading’. I was taken off on a tangent with lots of Google searches to find out more about other bird ways and other migratory birds. Totally fascinating.

[LaNuit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful book, I’m very touched by the marvelous journey of the eastern curlew. It’s a book more than the story of migratory birds, highly recommended for anyone who is interested in the life of Eastern Curlew.

[Diane Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book of the year.

[Willem Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8/5 Stars good book to read

[felixexplody · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. It’s a striking illustration of how local ecosystems can have global significance. It was also wonderful to discover a whole world just outside Melbourne that I knew nothing about. Next stop, Mud Island!