The Slender-billed curlew is one of the world`s rarest birds. A beautiful, fragile creature, it bredin Siberia & wintered in the Mediterraneanbasin, passing through the wetlands & estuariesof Italy, Greece, the Balkans & cental Asiatwice a year. Then, for mysterious reasons, thepopulation crashed. The Slender-billed curlewnow exists as rumour, hope, unconfirmedsightings & speculation. The only certainty of its story is that it now stands at the brink of extinction. Birds are key environmental indicators
- their health or hardship has a message for us about theplanet, & our future. But we do not know what the fate of the Slender-billed curlew means for us, or what happened to it, or why. Orison for a Curlew is the story of a journey into that mystery. Following the bird`s migratory path takes the award-winning writer Horatio Clare on an odyssey through a fractured Europe, to the edges of the l&, & into the lives of the men & women who have fought to save & preserve the worlds to which the bird belonged. We travel with soldiers, beggars, students & green superheroes, including the father of ornithology in Greece, an extinction myth-buster in Romania, a Hungarian who invented the Danube delta biosphere reserve, & a bird watcher who drew the preservation map of Bulgaria. This is a story of beauty, triumph, mystery & struggle, & a homage to a creature that may never be seen again.
...

The Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, `the slim beak of the new moon`, is one of the world`s rarest birds. It once bred in Siberia & wintered in the Mediterranean basin, passing through the wetlands & estuaries of Italy, Greece, the Balkans & Central Asia. Today the Slender-billed Curlew exists as a rumour, a ghost species surrounded by unconfirmed sightings & speculation. The only certainty is that it now stands on the brink of extinction. Birds are key environmental indicators. Their health or hardship has a message for us about the planet, & our future. What does the fate of the Slender-billed Curlew mean for us, & for the natural world? What happened to it, & why? In Orison for a Curlew Horatio Clare journeys through a fractured Europe in search of the Slender-billed Curlew, following the bird`s migratory path on an odyssey that takes us into the lives of the men & women who have fought to save the landscapes to which the bird belongs. This is a story of beauty, triumph, & the struggles of conservation. It is a homage to a bird which may never be seen again. ...

Orissa in a series of locally produced administrative maps of Indian states, each with a booklet providing a guide to the area. The maps show the division of each state into districts & have more small towns & villages than on more general maps of India available from other publishers. Presentation is now considerably enhanced with the districts shown in different colours. The maps indicate each district ...

Oristano Province at 1:150, 000 in a series of handy size provincial road maps from Litografia Artistica Cartografica (LAC) with more minor local roads & country tracks than can be found on most regional maps from other publishers. This title is published with the traditional style LAC cartography.LAC’s provincial series is gradually being changed to a new style of digitally derived cartography, so presentation of adjoining titles may vary. All the maps have hill shading to represent the general relief with spot heights for selected peaks, & show a few more local roads & rough tracks than the other road map series. Intermediate road distances are indicated. Regional, provincial & communal borders are marked, & railways, funiculars, airports, sea ferry links & campsites are shown. The legend is in Italian only. The new, digitally produced editions are indexed & have enhanced, more finely drawn cartography: the hill-shading is less bold, motorway service areas are marked, natural parks are highlighted & an expanded range of symbols indicates various landmarks & sites, e.g. antiquities, churches, etc. Two styles of the new cartography are produced, differing only in the colour of the predominant background shading: grey or yellow/green. Some of the new editions include geographical coordinates for the map corners. The index of localities is on the reverse. To see all the titles in this series please click on the series link. ...

The 1:50, 000 topographic map gives a more general picture of the ground features than a basic map. It shows settlements, houses, roads, cultivated areas, waterways, cutting areas, mires, rock exposures, & relief. One map sheet covers an area of 30 x 40 km & one centimetre corresponds to 500 metres on the ground. The 1:50, 000 topographic map is also an ideal complement to nautical charts as it provides useful information about the land areas adjacent to waterways. For example, all Finnish sea areas are covered by 1:50, 000 topographic map sheets. ...

About this series: Ideal companions for any visitor to Scotland's islands. Each guide

Includes:: a number of

...

On a remote island in Orkney, a curiously-matched couple arrive on their honeymoon. He is an eminent literature professor; she was his pale, enigmatic star pupil. Alone beneath the shifting skies of this untethered landscape, the professor realises how little he knows about his new bride & yet, as the days go by & his mind turns obsessively upon the creature who has so beguiled him, she seems to slip ever further from his yearning grasp. Where does she come from? Why did she ask him to bring her north? What is it that constantly draws her to the sea? ...

On a remote island in Orkney, a curiously matched couple arrive on their honeymoon. He is an eminent literature professor; she was his pale, enigmatic star pupil. Alone beneath the shifting skies of this untethered landscape, the professor realises how little he knows about his new bride & yet, as the days go by & his mind turns obsessively upon the creature who has so beguiled him, she seems to slip ever further from his yearning grasp. Where does she come from? Why did she ask him to bring her north? What is it that constantly draws her to the sea? ...

Orkney & Shetland Islands in the Footprint Focus Guides, which are targeted at cities, regions & countries worldwide that have no, or very limited, coverage from other publishers. Widely recognised for their reliability & independent writing style, Footprint Focus guides all have the same layout. Smaller than their sister Handbooks, the Focus guides are intended to streamline the information contained so that you have more of what you need, without losing Footprint ...

A detailed topographic map of Orkney
- East Mainland from the Ordnance Survey Explorer series, covering South Ronaldsay, Shapinsay
...