Invisible Connections

Each year, invisible to the naked eye, millions of migrating shorebirds fly from Australasia towards the tidal flats of the Yellow Sea bordering China and Korea. Each flock is made up of individuals using whatever strategies they can muster to endure the flights, weather the storms and find safe havens to rest and refuel on their long journeys to the breeding grounds in Siberia or Alaska. Once there, successful reproduction of as many individuals as possible is key to survival. Shorebird migration is one of nature's most spectacular phenomena, creating surprising and hitherto poorly understood links between countries, habitats and people. Jan van de Kam's beautiful images, together with the compelling words of his colleagues, illustrate the magnitude of the feats performed by migrating shorebirds and the vital need for the connections that bind them to habitats to be sustained. This book invites you to discover the risks inherent in a shorebird's migratory lifestyle and the additional challenges created by expanding human populations. It reveals the crucial role that the shoreline of the Yellow Sea plays in shorebird migration and highlights the need for this unique and threatened habitat to be saved for future generations of birds and people. Number 187336 is a new edition with new material. The original Wetlands International edition (numbered 177640), in Chinese, Korean and English, is still available.

This book and its wonderful photographs by Jan van de Kam bring to life the dramatic journeys of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian – Australasian Flyway, the importance of their staging sites and the need for international cooperation to maintain this cycle. "Invisible Connections" is a wonderful photographic journey that follows the migration of shorebirds flying from their breeding grounds in the Arctic through East Asia to Australasia. It highlights one of nature's most spectacular phenomena and reveals the surprising and little-known connections that exist between countries, habitats and people through this migration.