Today’s youth are tomorrow’s conservation leaders. We have the responsibility and opportunity to provide effective, accurate education about precious natural resources to insure that the next generation is resource literate, connected to the land, and interested in resource management issues.

Specifically, the educational objectives for students participating in “Migration Science and Mystery: A Distance Learning Adventure” are as follows:

Bienvenidos! Welcome to Panama Bay, which is home to millions of birds. We are glad you could start the 6,535-mile journey with us in Panama.

Birds know no language barriers or international borders, so “Migration Science and Mystery: A Distance Learning Adventure” welcomes participants from all countries.

Many shorebirds and songbirds “winter” in Central and South America. However, even our words relating to migration on closer inspection seem to lack scientific precision and be a bit mysterious. The North American winter is, of course, the South American summer. So do some migrants actually “summer” in North America and “summer” in South America? Maybe this is question you’d like to ponder with your students and/or ask of the experts.

Although many shorebirds and songbirds, spend the months of November through March way south, “Migration Science and Mystery” will kick off our distance learning adventure in Panama. Audubon Panama, students from Colegio Brader, the Panama Department of Natural Resources, and Panama Department of Education have worked together to provide resources for this web site and begin the 6,535-mile (10,580-kilometer) journey to Alaska.

Where are the Birds?

Panama is a small Central American country bordered on the northwest by Costa Rica and on the southeast by Columbia. Operation of the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is one of the main industries of the country. Panama’s tropical environment supports an abundance of plants and animals.

Every year, the Upper Bay of Panama is visited by as many as two million shorebirds traveling between North and South  America via the Isthmus of Panama.  Counts of shorebirds along the Panama coast at times exceed 10,000 per kilometer.  The site is used by more than 30 percent of the world female population of Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) and is globally important for at least six other shorebird species. Based on these high migratory bird counts, the area has been recognized as a Site of Hemispheric Importance by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN).

Shorebirds are threatened by many factors, including habitat destruction, pollution and human disturbance.  More than a quarter of all North America’s shorebird species and subspecies are in serious decline, according to WHSRN.  Some, such as the New World race of Red Knot (Calidris canutus), will become extinct within present lifetimes if current trends are not halted.

The Upper Bay of Panama is the first site in Central America to join the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN), a partnership of organizations working to protect shorebirds and their habitats through a network of key sites across the Americas. Because of its importance to migratory birds, BirdLife identified the bay as an Important Bird Area (IBA) in 2003. It is also on the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance.

“For the past seven years, the Panama Audubon Society has been working to preserve the wetlands of the Upper Bay of Panama,” said Rosabel Miró, president of the Panama Audubon Society.  “The Bay of Panama, which is the first site in Central America to be part of the WHSRN network, is a critical site for migratory shorebirds. Preserving this annual spectacle can only be done through international cooperation, an increasingly obvious requirement for protecting the world’s ecosystems.”

Web Cam

Check out this webcam of Panama Canal operations.

Bienvenidos!  Welcome to Santa Maria Bay in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Santa Maria Bay is located in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Culiacán and Mazatlán are two of the largest cities in Sinaloa. Birds that have been wintering or resting in Panama have flown 2,130 miles (3,430 kilometers) to reach Santa Maria Bay. If you flew 2,130 miles from your home, where would you land?

Millions of birds stop at Santa Maria Bay because its extensive open tidal mud flats provide a wealth of food and shelter during migration.

There are a number of ways you can join us at Santa Maria Bay:

Make sure you join us at our next stop in San Francisco Bay.

Welcome to San Francisco Bay near San Francisco, California. The shorebirds will have traveled 1,750 miles (2,010 kilometers) from Santa Maria Bay in Sinaloa, Mexico, to arrive for a rest and a meal in San Francisco Bay. San Francisco Bay is 3,340 miles (5,440 kilometers) from Panama Bay!

There are a number of ways you can join us at San Francisco Bay:

There are many great webcams with views of San Francisco Bay.  CLICK HERE to check them out.

Welcome to the Fraser River Delta near the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.  The shorebirds will have traveled 950 miles (1,600 kilometers) from San Francisco Bay near San Francisco, California, to arrive for a rest and a meal at the Fraser River Delta.  The Fraser River Delta is 4,330 miles (7,040 kilometers) from Panama Bay!

There are a number of ways you can join us at the Fraser River Delta:

CLICK HERE for a list of webcams in the greater Vancouver area.

Welcome to the Stikine River Delta located near Wrangell, Alaska.  The shorebirds will have traveled 850 miles (1,350 kilometers) from the Fraser River Delta to get to the Stikine River Delta.  All in all, they will have traveled 5,180 miles (8,390 kilometers) to get to the Stikine River from Panama.

Here’s how you can learn about the Stikine River Delta:

Welcome to the Copper River Delta located near Cordova, Alaska!  The shorebirds will have traveled 555 miles (900 kilometers) from the Stikine River Delta to get to the Copper River Delta.  All in all, they will have traveled 5,735 miles (9,290 kilometers) to get to the Stikine River from Panama.  They have almost completed their journey to their nesting grounds in the Arctic Slope of Alaska and are making one last stop to rest and refuel before they are on their way.

Here’s how you can participate in this last stop before the shorebirds arrive on the Arctic tundra:

The shorebirds have traveled 800 miles from the Copper River Delta and a grand total of 6,535 miles from Panama and have finally made it to the Arctic Slope.  Wow!!  Millions of birds come to the far northern regions of the continent in summer to reproduce and raise their young. Long summer days in the north produce an abundance of insects and plants for birds and their young to eat.

Here’s how you can participate with us at the Arctic Slope:

This is the end of our journey north together.  We’re so glad you could join us on this exciting adventure. We hope you and your class have learned about migrating shorebirds. Please return to this web site to use these resources that are available here.

Let’s Chat

Thank you for joining us for the live webchat on Thursday, May 17, 2007 with Audrey Taylor, who is biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Migratory Bird Management. She is stationed at Fairbanks, Alaska. The Questions and Answers will be posted shortly.

Ms. Taylor became interested in shorebirds while working near the Great Salt Lake in Utah and moved to Alaska in 2003 to study these birds in more detail. She received a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell
University in 1997 and an M.S in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University in 2002. She is currently working on a Ph.D. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research focuses on the abundance and distribution, behavior, and physiology of pre-migratory shorebirds on Alaska’s North Slope. She is also employed as a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Migratory Bird Management. To see Ms. Taylor in action conducting research, have a look at the audio slide show entitled “Nature’s Extreme Makeover” at http://www.alaskas-spirit.com/shorebirds/.

The following are the questions and answers from the chat held May 17, 2007.

Tanner from California, Pennsylvania: Do you ever take baby birds to your house to take care of them?
Audrey Taylor: Sometimes, if the mom or dad is not around. But it is hard to take care of a shorebird baby so don’t try this at home!

George from California PA: How big is the wing span of a western sandpiper?
Audrey Taylor: 14 inches

Catherine from California, Pa: Do birds adopt motherless eggs or chicks?
Audrey Taylor: Sometimes they can if they lost their own nest.

Ryan from California Area Middle School, PA: Which bird flies the farthest?
Audrey Taylor: Bar-tailed godwits that breed in Alaska fly 11,000 kilometers non-stop to New Zealand in the fall!

Kevin from California Area Middle School PA: Why do you think the birds migrate other then to mate?
Audrey Taylor: Birds migrate after breeding to escape from the harsh weather and low food supply of a northern or arctic winter.

Ryan from California Area Middle School, PA: What shorebird has the longest legs?
Audrey Taylor: Check out a black-necked stilt!

Zach from California Area Middle School Pa: Do the birds mate in only one type of climate?
Audrey Taylor: Most species of birds mate in one type of habitat, like Arctic tundra or boreal forest. But some widespread species breed in many habitats.

Jalen from California Area PA: How long is a bird’s gestation period?
Audrey Taylor: For a small shorebird like a western sandpiper, the eggs take about 3 weeks to develop. During this time the adult bird(s) sit on them in a process called incubation. For larger species, egg development takes longer.

Brandon from California: How many birds would you say die or get injured during migration?
Audrey Taylor: That is a question that biologists are trying to answer – we don’t know.

Brandon from California Area Middle School, PA: How much does an average shorebird egg weigh?
Audrey Taylor: Shorebirds are all different sizes, from less than an ounce for a western sandpiper to over a pound for a large species like a godwit.

Mitchell from MS 51, Brooklyn, NY: Will drilling in the Arctic Refuge in Alaska effect shorebirds?
Audrey Taylor: We are trying to figure that out right now! There are lots of shorebirds that breed and prepare for migration in the Arctic Refuge, so they could be affected by oil drilling depending on where it happens.

Jarvis from Barbara Bush Elementary/ Texas: Why do some of the birds stop at Copper River Delta and not go all the way to the Arctic?
Audrey Taylor: There are several species of shorebirds that breed on the Copper River Delta (like least sandpipers and semipalmated plovers). But many species do go on to the Arctic.

Ryan from California Area Middle School, PA: What shorebids mostly migrate to Alaska?
Audrey Taylor: The common species where I work on the North Slope of Alaska are: red and red-necked phalaropes, dunlin, semipalmated sandpipers, pectoral sandpipers, and American golden-plovers. But there are 35 shorebirds species that breed in the state of Alaska!

Leslie from Barbara Bush Elementary/ Texas: When do the birds begin their migration back to Panama?
Audrey Taylor: The adult shorebirds may migrate as early as mid-July if their nest fails. Most adults leave the Arctic by late July or early August, but the juvenile birds that were born that summer stay a little bit longer.

Dakota from California PA: Can the birds get cooled enough to die?
Audrey Taylor: Yes, if they get wet or if the weather gets really bad.

Jeff from California PA: What would happen if a bird lost all their feathers?
Audrey Taylor: It might die of hypothermia. But birds do lose some of their feathers regularly, because they get worn out and the bird needs to replace them. This is called molt.

Sam from California Area PA: What is a group of shorebirds called?
Audrey Taylor: A flock.

Zach from California Area Middle School Pa: Do you like doing your job and how much does it pay?
Audrey Taylor: I love my job, but it doesn’t pay as much as being a doctor or a lawyer. In fact, if you want to be a biologist you better really love biology!

Dani from California Area PA: When they band the birds, does this harm the birds?
Audrey Taylor: No – most birds are fine after banding. It is a very fast process.

Ryan from California Area Middle school, PA: What do shorebirds eat the most?
Audrey Taylor: Mostly aquatic invertebrates like worms, small clams, and insect larvae.

Cordell from MS 51, Brooklyn, NY: How do you pick locations to study shorebirds?
Audrey Taylor: We let the birds tell us where there are important habitats! Sometimes we study a site to see if it IS important to shorebirds.

Shannon from California Area Middle School, PA: Can wind currents throw the birds off their path or interfere with their sense of direction?
Audrey Taylor: Yes -especially young birds that have never migrated before. Birders love big fall storms because sometimes birds get lost in the weather and end up in very unusual places.

Tanner from California, Pennsylvania: Do birds like different types of weather?
Audrey Taylor: Birds like nice weather just like humans. But they respond to different weather patterns in different ways – if the weather gets too bad on the breeding grounds sometimes they abandon their nests. And after a big storm many birds will leave a migration stopover and start flying.

Steven from Glennallen, AK: Since the shorebirds eat so much at their stopovers and gain so much weight, doesn’t it make it difficult to fly?
Audrey Taylor: Yes – sometimes birds get too fat to fly and then they risk getting eaten by a predator. So most birds eat enough to get to the next stopover site (or maybe a little more) and then migrate.

Josh from California Area Middle School Pa: What do they do when they are let free after being caught?
Audrey Taylor: They fly back to their flock and start feeding.

Robert from California Middle School PA: What shorebird is the biggest of them all?
Audrey Taylor: Curlews and godwits are the biggest shorebirds.

John from California PA: If a bird dies with her baby inside of her, does she still have it?
Audrey Taylor: Birds lay eggs instead of having babies. If the chick dies inside the egg before it is ready to hatch, the bird usually abandons the egg in the nest.

Kevin from California Area Middle School PA: Why do you think the shorebirds are so picky when they choose a mate?
Audrey Taylor: Because they want to find a mate that will pass on good genes to their chicks. If the chicks survive, then the bird has its own genes passed on.

Joe from PA: Do the birds feathers grow over their ears?
Audrey Taylor: Yes.

John from California PA: If a bird loses a wing, does it just die because it can’t fly?
Audrey Taylor: If a bird breaks its wing, it will likely die because it can’t migrate. Sometimes broken wings can heal, though, and the bird will live.

Katie from California Area Middle School, PA: Do you agree that it is insensitive to tag a bird?
Audrey Taylor: Tagging birds disturbs the birds for a short time, so from that perspective it has an impact on their lives. But we have lots of evidence to show that tagged birds survive very well, and we have learned a lot from tagged birds that helps us better understand their biology and thus help conserve their populations and habitats.

Sam from California Area PA: How long do the bands stay on?
Audrey Taylor: Hopefully as long as the bird is alive! But sometimes birds do lose their bands.

Lythea from California Area Middle school, PA: Is it possible that the bird could be smart enough to take the band off their leg?
What’s the smartest shore bird? And what makes them so smart?
What’s so significant about the shore birds? Your opinion?
What made you interested in shorebirds?
Audrey Taylor: Some birds are smart enough to remove bands, so we try to fool them by gluing the bands shut or making them wrap several times around the leg. Usually a bird stops noticing its bands after a while because it has more important things to do like feed or raise chicks. Larger shorebirds have larger brains and are therefore harder for us to outsmart.

Shorebirds are amazing because they migrate so far, they have a wide variety of mating systems, and because they form large flocks that fly in spectacular formations.

Sarah from California Area PA: How many tags can go on a birds leg?
Audrey Taylor: I have put as many as 6 bands on a bird’ s leg for individual identification.

Randall from California Middle School, PA:  Can a little bird choke on the tags that you put on his legs?
Audrey Taylor: No- we glue them shut so the bird can’t remove them and choke. I don’t think they would eat them anyway.

Molly from California Area PA: Do these bands send out signals?
Audrey Taylor: The bands don’t, but sometimes we put radio transmitters on the birds that send out signals.

Nick from California Area PA: How do you put the radio transmitters on the birds?
Audrey Taylor: We clip an area of feathers above their tail and glue the radio on. Sometimes we put a little harness around their body that holds the radio on. Other times the radio is actually implanted into the birds’ body cavities.

Carlos from Barbara Bush Elementary/ Texas: When you lose the signal with a tagged bird, what do you do to find them or do you just accept that maybe they died?
Audrey Taylor: Often we fly in a small plane over a larger area to see if the bird has moved away from our study site. Or sometimes we go out for a longer time and walk farther to find the signal. Or other times we know it means that the bird has migrated on and it will be picked up further along the migration route.

Kimberly from Barbara Bush Elementary/ Texas: Why do some birds fly in a V-formation when they migrate and why do some make a circle pattern when they land in their groups or start to take off?
Audrey Taylor: A V-formation is probably aerodynamic – the birds behind the leader can take advantage of the reduction in drag. Flying in a circle pattern might be a way to confuse a predator when they are taking off or landing.

Celeste from Glennallen AK: What are the main predators of the shorebirds?
Audrey Taylor: Mostly raptors like peregrine falcons, northern harriers, and gyrfalcons (in Alaska, anyway). Humans used to hunt shorebirds too but now they are protected from hunting in most places.

Mark from California Area Middle School: Are the birds able to digest a lot of dirt from their food and if so how much?
Audrey Taylor: Probably not – it likely just passes through their digestive tract.

Adam from California Area Middle School, PA: Is the beak of a bird made of bone, and is the color determined by heredity?
Audrey Taylor: A bird’s bill is made partly of bone and partly of hard tissue. The color is determined by heredity and is usually particular to the species.

Dakota from Caifornia PA: Do birds fight for territory and for food?
Audrey Taylor: Most shorebirds do not fight over territories or food, but some species defend their own breeding territories (like pectoral sandpipers).

Randall from California PA: How does the western sandpiper defend itself?
Audrey Taylor: They stay in large flocks during migration so that a predator has a hard time singling out one bird. They are often drab in color so predators can’t see them easily. And they sit very quietly on their nests.

Megan from Satori Elementary, Galveston Island, Texas: Does bird migration happen worldwide or just in certain places? Could lack of a place to stop during migration make the birds die or possibly go extinct?
Audrey Taylor: Bird migration is world-wide. Some bird species have gone extinct because their traditional stopover sites have been changed or destroyed by buildings – the birds need a place to rest between flights.

Megan from California Area Middle School, PA: What is the life expectancy of the birds?
Audrey Taylor: Small shorebirds like the western sandpiper you have been seeing during the live broadcasts can live 5-7 years (probably) in the wild. Larger birds live longer.

Dani from California Area PA: If a bird gets hurt will the other birds help them?
Audrey Taylor: Probably not – the other birds are more concerned with getting to the breeding grounds or raising their chicks.

Jeff from California PA: What would happen if a bird breaks its leg?
Audrey Taylor: Sometimes we see birds with broken legs – they can still fly and feed while hopping on one leg.

Molly from California Area PA: If there is something wrong with their baby bird, will the parent abandon it?
Audrey Taylor: If the baby can’t walk and keep up with the other chicks, the parent will eventually leave it behind.

Brea from California PA: Do birds ever choke on their food?
Audrey Taylor: Not that I’ve seen.

Ryan from California Area Middle School, PA: What shorebird has the longest beak?
Audrey Taylor: I think a long-billed curlew has the longest bill.

Jordon from California PA: How do you tell the age of a shorebird?
Audrey Taylor: Mostly by the color and shape of the feathers – young birds have different feathers than adult birds.

Katie from California Area Middle School, PA: What is the highest elevation the birds can fly?
Audrey Taylor: Well, some birds have been seen flying over the Himalaya Mountains, which are over 20,000 feet high!

Joe from PA: What is the average elevation for the birds to fly and how fast do they go?
Audrey Taylor: Some birds fly really high up (like 6000 feet), and others fly pretty close to the ground. It depends on the weather and the terrain.

Billy from PA: How do birds always know where to go back to after migration?
Audrey Taylor: That’s a great question! They have an innate sense of direction and they use lots of environmental cues (like the sun, the stars, and the earth’s magnetic field) to navigate to where they think they need to go in the winter or to breed.

Tanner from California, Pennsylvania: Do birds ever try to eat each other if they are really hungry enough?
Audrey Taylor: I don’t think so – shorebirds only eat invertebrates, so another shorebird doesn’t look like food.

Billy from California, PA: Why is migration so important?
Audrey Taylor: Because it allows the birds to take advantage of environments with large amounts of food or low levels of predation, but where the winters are too hard for birds to survive.

Tanner from California Area Middle School, Pa: Do the birds change their colors to different environments?
Audrey Taylor: No, but they change their colors for different seasons, either to attract a mate during the breeding season or to blend in with their environment and reduce predation risk during the winter.

Dakota from California Area PA: How many feathers do birds have?
Audrey Taylor: Lots!

Alexis from Satori Elementary, Galveston Island, Texas: Do all types of shorebirds migrate?
Audrey Taylor: Almost all shorebirds migrate – some of the longest migratory flights of all birds. But some tropical-nesting shorebirds do not migrate, and others fly only short distances.

Jeff from California PA: Iif a bird doesn’t eat what it picks out of ground, will another bird eat it?
Audrey Taylor: Most shorebirds eat what they find very quickly.

Brandon from California Area PA: If a human touches a shorebird’s eggs, will the mother bird leave the nest?
Audrey Taylor: No – shorebird moms are very dedicated and they will come back.

Mark from California, Pennsylvania: Can a female bird lay eggs more than twice a season?
Audrey Taylor: Yes – depending on what species and what latitude it is breeding at. Many Arctic shorebirds only lay once in a season, but other species lay all year round.

Dakota from California Area PA: Do shorebirds shed?
Audrey Taylor: Yes – except it is called MOLT in birds and it happens two times each year so they can make new feathers that help them fly better and attract a mate.

Jenna from California Area PA: What do you mean by extent of breeding plumage?
Audrey Taylor: How many feathers the bird has that are the color and shape it will use to attract a mate.

Dara from Califorina Middle School: How many different kinds of birds migrate a year?
Audrey Taylor: Many, many species of birds migrate each year – have a look in your bird field guide and the range maps will tell you where the different kinds migrate.

Jamar from Satori Elementary, Galveston Island, Texas: How cold does it have to get before the birds start to migrate ?
Audrey Taylor: Shorebirds in the Arctic leave in August or September, when it gets to 30 degrees and starts to snow.

Mark from California, Pennsylvania: Can a bird get frozen in the water?
Audrey Taylor: I don’t think so – they would leave before they got frozen.

Shannon from California Area Middle School, PA: Are the birds “picky” in choosing a mate?
Audrey Taylor: Yes – most shorebird males have to display and “show off” their colorful feathers and their songs to attract females, which tend to be the picky sex.

Josh from California Area PA: How fast can the birds fly?
Audrey Taylor: About 45 miles per hour.

Mark from California, Pennsylvania: If a bird would swallow or eat dirt or mud from the food they eat, will it be extremely harmful?
Audrey Taylor: No – shorebirds eat small mud particles all the time when they eat their invertebrate prey. The mud probably just passes through their digestive system.

Mark from California, Pennsylvania: Do the birds go back to the migration spot more than twice?
Audrey Taylor: Sometimes birds return every year to the same migration spot.

Jenna from California Area PA: How many times do shorebirds hearts beat in one minute?
Audrey Taylor: Small shorebirds have a very fast heartbeat – much faster than ours. Maybe as much as 100-120 beats per minute.

LizE from California Area PA: How many different ways can you tell if a bird is male or female and what are they?
Audrey Taylor: The ways we can tell the males and females apart are by color and extent of breeding plumage, overall size, size of bill or wing, whether a bird has a brood patch (for keeping chicks warm), and by their display behavior. Or, sometimes only by DNA.

Sara from California Area PA: How many times do shorebirds flap their wings a minute?
Audrey Taylor: That’s a good question! They can fly about 45 miles per hour but I don’t know how many wing beats per minute.

Abbey from Glenallen, Alaska: Do shorebirds take care of their young after they hatch, or do they leave them to fend for themselves?
Audrey Taylor: Shorebird parents show their young how to feed, and they brood them to keep them warm, but they mostly take care of themselves.

Robbie from Mt. Eccles Elementary School-Cordova Alaska: Why don’t shorebirds breed in the southern wintering grounds?
Audrey Taylor: Possibly because there is more competition on the wintering grounds, or because there is more food available in the Arctic.

Dania from Barbara Bush Elementary, Texas: In the last webcast, we got to see a good picture of the nets used to catch the birds. Once you catch them, what type of notes do you take on them before tagging them and releasing them again?
Audrey Taylor: We collect data on the birds’ size (bill length, wing length, and leg length), weight, age, degree of molt, and sex. Sometimes we also collect blood samples for hormone analysis or DNA.

Ian from Brooklyn, NY: At what age do shorebirds fly?
Audrey Taylor: Shorebirds can fly (a process called fledging) about 2 weeks after hatching!

Kristy from Virginia: Do you notice any effects from global warming?
Audrey Taylor: Some species of birds are nesting earlier as the Arctic gets warmer. Also, we see increased erosion along the coastline due to more frequent and intense summer storms.

Nora from Virginia: Have you found any birds that you have tagged?
Audrey Taylor: Yes! I received a beautiful photo of a Western Sandpiper that was banded in Barrow, AK in August 2005 and resighted in Gray’s Harbor, Washington in September 2005. Even more exciting: I also received a photo of a Dunlin (closely related to Western Sandpipers) that I put a radio transmitter on in Barrow in August 2006…the photo was taken outside of Tokyo JAPAN in November 2006 and you could still see the radio on the bird. This Dunlin became an international ambassador!

Ben from Virginia: What’s your favorite bird?
Audrey Taylor: red phalarope

Randall from California PA: Can you show us a picture of a phalarope or describe it? This is a bird our class has not seen yet.
Audrey Taylor: Phalaropes are the most aquatic shorebirds. A red phalarope is mostly gray in the winter but grows dark red feathers during the breeding season. Red-necked phalaropes look similar but have a red neck and gray body during breeding. Both species feed in the water by swimming in circles, which creates a current that pulls up invertebrates from the bottom of the pond.

Check out the webcam of the Barrow Sea Ice: https://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_webcam/.

Integration into Many Subjects!
The shear magnitude of what shorebirds accomplish in their effort to survive is truly amazing and a great tie into numerous subjects. Calculating distances and mapping where these birds migrate also make great opportunities for bringing math and geography into the classroom in a relevant and fun way.

Hook for Wetland Conservation!
Shorebirds are the hook for wetland conservation. By learning about and protecting shorebirds, we are protecting an entire ecosystem and all the flora and fauna that depend on these important natural areas.

Found Throughout the Country!
Because shorebird migration is worldwide and through all 50 states many more people can actively participate in the program.

Schedule Field Trips!
Shorebirds migrate in huge flocks and stop at relatively predictable times of the year and at the same places. This allows for planning of educational events, festivals, and field trips. This also allows for schools along the flyway to take part and report on the migration of shorebirds through their community.

Darn Cute and Fun to Watch!
Shorebird behavior and their variable features make them a wonderful observable species to teach and learn about.

Bird Migration Routes

From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Many North American birds come to the far northern regions of the continent in summer to reproduce and raise their young. Long summer days in the north produce an abundance of insects and plants for birds and their young to eat. Because this food is not available during cold, winter months, many birds migrate south to forage in warmer climates.

These birds follow migratory routes, called flyways, between their northern breeding grounds and southern wintering areas. There are four major flyways in North America: the Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic Flyway.

Flyways are the routes that shorebirds use when they migrate each year. How many flyways are there? Where are they? What are some of the shorebird species that use each flyway? This section provides information on flyways and why they are important to shorebirds.

• Atlantic
• Central
• Mississippi
• Pacific

American Pacific Flyway

Route Description

The American Pacific Flyway generally follows the eastern Pacific coastline from the western Arctic, including Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, down the Rocky Mountain and Pacific coastal regions of Canada, the United
States, and Mexico, to where it blends with other flyways in Central and South America. This extensive flyway system is separated into four geographic areas: Alaska, the Northern Pacific, the Intermountain West, and the
Southern Pacific Region.

Facts About the Flyway

Alaskan Region

• Alaska’s size and northerly position provide breeding habitat for more types of shorebirds than anywhere else in the United States.
• Of the 71 species which have occurred in this region, 37 breed here.
• Most Alaskan shorebirds migrate to southern areas of the United States and Mexico. About one third head to South America or Oceania (Australia and New Zealand).
• More than one million birds congregate at Alaskan staging sites. In the spring, as many as five to eight million shorebirds use the food resources of the famous Copper River Delta.

Northern Pacific Region

• Estuaries like Gray’s Harbor, Willapa Bay, and Bandon Marsh support over 100,000 shorebirds during peak migration.
• Other important shorebird habitats, such as the Willamette Valley are a mix of wetlands and agriculture and are used extensively in winter by Dunlin and Wilson’s Snipe.
• Of the 50 shorebird species that breed in the United States, 40 are found regularly in this region.
• Important habitats include coastal estuaries, sandy beaches, rocky shorelines, freshwater marshes, pastures, and agricultural lands.

Intermountain West Region (IMW)

• Eleven species of shorebirds breed and another 23 migrate regularly through this huge region that includes a variety of wetlands, from saline sinks to alpine streams.
• Up to 90 percent of the world’s adult Wilson’s Phalaropes molt and stage in the IMW hypersaline lakes prior to their trip to South America.
• Important habitats include large saline lakes, marshes, upland, agricultural fields, ephemeral wetlands, man-made impoundments, and riparian areas.

Southern Pacific Region

• Internationally and nationally significant numbers of Western Sandpipers, Snowy Plovers and Mountain Plovers are found here.
• Important habitats include tidal wetlands and marshes, salt ponds, seasonal wetlands, flooded agricultural lands, managed wetlands, and range and agricultural land.
• Twenty eight species of shorebirds spend the nonbreeding season here.

Shorebirds are a group of special birds that are adapted to live near coasts, or shores. Because of their lifestyle, particularly during their spectacular migrations, of walking through water and mud to find food, Europeans call these long legged birds “waders.”

Each spring and fall, enormous flocks of shorebirds swarm along the coasts in great migrations. It is a thrilling sight when the shore comes alive with feeding birds, or a flock swiftly wheels and turns in flight. These flocks pulse to and fro with the cycles of the tides, and, on a broader scale, with the cycles of the seasons. Shorebirds eat, breed, travel, and rest as a part of these cycles of nature.

Shorebirds are more accurately described as birds of open land, including, but not limited to, the shore. Shorebirds include the sandpipers, plovers, oystercatchers, snipes, and stilts, among others.

Besides their regular migrations, their lifestyle includes other highly developed rituals of behavior, including elaborate courtship displays. Most of us have never had the pleasure of witnessing these displays, because many migratory shorebirds nest in remote Arctic tundra or open grassland.

There are about 214 species of shorebirds in the world. Almost 80 of these regularly occur in North America. Seventy-five species breed in the Holarctic region. This means they summer in either the North American Arctic (Nearctic) or Northern Europe and Russia (Palearctic). Many species of these great migrators breed in both of these areas. See if you can tell why this might be so by looking at a globe.

The Shore
Land and water — they are the two most basic geographic features of the earth’s surface. What happens along the narrow lines where these two great bodies meet? This fragile strip contains some of the greatest diversity (variety of living organisms) on our planet. It is enriched by life-sustaining water, yet must also endure some very powerful natural forces. It is called the shore, and it is land that:

• faces regular and irregular periods of drying out, dampness, or flooding;
• contains a tremendously fluctuating range of salinity; and
• is eroded by wind and water.

Maya’s Story
A story for your class

Experience the last 24 hours with Maya, the Western Sandpiper, before she migrates from Mexico to Alaska. [See her route on the map] Stay tuned to this space, because in January 2002, students will learn about Maya’s amazing migratory journey. In March 2002, students will learn how we can help Maya and other shorebirds like her.

Get ready! We are about to embark on an adventure that will take us thousands of miles from Mexico all the way to Western Alaska with only brief stops along the way.

Chapter 1: Maya on a Mexican Shores

Hi! Hola!

My name is Maya. I am a Western Sandpiper and just a little under one year old. I am basking in the warm Mexican sun and listening to the waves crash on the beach in the distance. I am on the edge of an estuary. While it is a beautiful day with a warm breeze at my back, I am nervously considering what migration means. What is migration? As far as I can tell, it is scary because it means a very long journey without many stops. My family flies this marathon two times a year with a few short stops along the way to rest and eat. That’s like driving thousands of miles in a car with fewer than five rest stops! We travel north up the Pacific coast to our breeding grounds in Alaska. At the end of the summer in Alaska, we migrate south back to Mexico. “It’s … well… like endless summer!”

I was born in an Alaskan wetland and flew all the way down to Mexico at the end of last summer. But that was many months ago and I was so young then. I barely remember the trip. The amazing part about the journey is the fact that shorebird parents leave their fledgling babies [“yep, like me!”] behind to find their way south all by themselves! I can’t believe I really did that! Somehow, the stars and some kind of internal compass guide us all the way to our final destination. The fact that we can do this all alone is an incredible mystery–even to scientists, who are still trying to figure it out. And then upon our arrival in Mexico, we reunite with our families.

Since I don’t remember my first migration very well, I am told that when I arrived in Mexico, I was exhausted and so, so very happy to see everyone again. Jorge, my brother, and Abulito, my grandfather, showed me how to quickly regain my energy by eating nutrient-rich food and getting the rest I needed. Once I recovered, I soon met Oxy and Maria, who are now my two best friends. They are young Western Sandpipers, too, and they will soon join my family and me as we embark on my first migration north from Mexico. It can be confusing: we live in Mexico in the winter and in Alaska in the summer. Humans call my winter home in Mexico “wintering grounds”

Historically, I’m told, my family makes four stops along the Pacific Coast. [See the map to enlarge and to find the wintering, staging, and breeding areas we will visit.]

Our journey will take us to the Alaskan tundra where I will find a mate and breed. Such a long journey makes me very nervous. We start off from here, Sinaloa, Mexico, and make our first stop in Southern California. After this stopover, called a “staging area”, we stop in other wetlands along the West Coast like the Copper River Delta, my brother Jorge’s favorite place in the world. Jorge tell us that there’s a huge variety of clams and worms as well as many different kinds of shorebirds to meet here, in the Mexican State of Sinaloa, and make.

Chapter 2: Maya Gets Ready

In part I’m nervous because my body tells me to eat faster, eat faster!!! This is an unsettling feeling. I’m trying to eat as much as I possibly can. My body says, “stuff yourself!” before taking off for spring migration. Oxy and Maria are puzzled by many of the same things and share some of the same fears, although everyone agrees that I ask too many questions and have far too active an imagination for my own good!

From my vantage point on the shoreline, I can see my brother, Jorge, in shallow water, probing in the sand with his beak for aquatic insects and invertebrates. He, like all of us, is working on increasing his body weight by 50%! Can you imagine? If you weighed 75 pounds you would weigh 112.5 pounds in just a week! That is one gigantic difference. And he will soon lift off the ground in spite of this load! I am envious that he has migrated several times already and knows all the tricks of survival as well as the lay of the land.

I’m amazed that Jorge can continue to noodle around in the mud–non-stop–without stopping for a break. Even if Maria or Oxy tease him by screeching, he ignores them and continues to search for little marine worms. No doubt in the back of his mind he’s thinking about how he can get them back later.

The sun is now setting and I admit that I am tired from gorging on so many little marine critters. But more than that, I am frustrated that my parents and Jorge cannot explain something so simple: why do we have to take such a huge journey? Their answers are always different. My mother says it’s because we need to take advantage of the plentiful insect life in the Arctic during the summer months. No one disagrees with her, but my father says it’s because we have some instinctual need or urge to head north, one that has existed for many, many generations. We will fly over 250 miles a day!

I get worried not so much because of migration, but because our survival depends on healthy wetlands and resting areas where we stop during the journey to the nesting grounds. My grandfather, Abuelito, tells us that each time he flies north there are fewer wetland habitats and more houses and developments built by humans. How can we be sure that we will find the resting spots (also known as “stop over” sites) that we depend on for rest and food?

Abuelito, is nearby and I look over at him. He has been on the beach for years and years. After he completes a full migration, he gets a bit grizzled and his feathers get a bit frayed. But now, his feathers are clean and shiny and ready for our imminent departure. He tells us amazing stories about his adventures and “near misses” during migration. It is miraculous he’s lived so long considering how many times he’s been close to dying. He always reminds me that I should be very proud to be a “Western Sandpiper.” I wonder what this label really means. I guess it’s “Western” because we migrate along the west side of the continent while many other shorebird relatives fly through the middle of the continent, or along the East Coast–the two other primary migratory corridors, or flyways. There are over 79 species of shorebirds in South and North America and they all use one of the flyways.

Abuelito is old and we have a lot to learn from him. The one thing I hear over and over again is how neat he thinks it is that other shorebirds have different types of bills. This means that we don’t compete for the same food on the shoreline. For instance, Jorge’s best friend is a Long-billed Curlew. He is very elegant and probes deeply into the ground with his long curved bill to reach buried invertebrates. Curlews especially enjoy ghost shrimps that live in very deep burrows. And then Jorge’s other friend couldn’t be more different! He is a Snowy Plover and has a short, stout bill, which he uses to pick up prey from the surface of sand and rocks. Abuelito reminds me, too, that Western Sandpipers are special, because our beaks aren’t either long or short. This means they are more versatile so that we can choose between a larger variety of food and habitats, too.

When I get scared about our coming migration, Oxy and Maria tell me not to be so nervous, because nature has blessed us with many advantages. I’m told that by the time I reach Alaska my feathers will change and I will have “breeding plumage.” This means my head and shoulders will be rust and tan speckled, my belly will be a light color, and my breasts and sides will have dark, arrow-shaped spots. This is comforting. These colors will make me blend into the environment better so that it is more difficult for predators to spot me. I see it as my own “camouflage.” They tell me that before the winter I will grow once again, new, gray feathers that blend well with the sand and mudflats.

Chapter 3: Maya’s Unique Design

Jorge thinks I worry too much and tries to relax me by focusing on all the amazing qualities that we have. He gets very excited when he lists off to me the remarkable number of adaptations that help us survive. He insists that we are unique and different than other birds–and much better (but how would he know?). One thing is for sure: an adaptation gives us an advantage, or an edge, for survival in our wetland habitats.

According to Jorge, my entire body–from the tip of my bill to my tiny toes–is uniquely designed so that I can survive more easily in a wetland habitat. This means that I am “physically adapted” I am told. Last night as we were feeding by the shadow of the moon, Jorge rambled on and on about how I need to begin to appreciate how lucky we are. These are the reasons he gave:

• Our bills are like surgical instruments that can probe the mud for tiny animals and work just beneath the surface. (And Papa reminds us that our bills are also important for building nests and courtship as well.)
• My long, pointed wings allow me to fly long distances at a fast speed during migration. In fact, some of my shorebird friends can fly 50 miles per hour. If I had short, stubby wings, I wouldn’t be able to fly great distances, or I’d have to migrate slower and stop more often, which would slow me down.
• I have hollow bones that keep me “light as a feather.” They help make flying easier.
• I have large air sacks that supply me with lots of oxygen to nourish my flight muscles. I fly hours and hours at a time.
• Located at the base of my tail I have an oil gland. Even though I live in and around water, I like to stay dry. Oil from my gland keeps my feathers waterproof–it’s like an instant raincoat that goes with me everywhere I go. All I do is preen my feathers with the oil using my bill or the back of my head. The oil also keeps my feathers clean.
• My long legs allow me to wade in water or mud while my long toes give me stability when walking, kind of like wearing the right types of shoe. I don’t swim so I don’t need webbed feet.

Certainly this means that our chances of survival are greater–and I feel much better. I thank Jorge for reminding me of these advantages. Oxy interrupts me by raising her beak from the sand and screeching from the mudflat, “You can’t argue with that. Now, that’s enough talking–you’d better get eating.” She gets easily annoyed with Jorge for being a know-it-all, but the truth is that she is right. Almost every minute must be used to build our fat reserves–which to humans is like extra gas for a car. The food we eat is the energy that allows us to fly for long distances without stopping. So last night was a long night of stuffing our faces with as many little pink clams as we could get our beaks on. Thank goodness we have long, pointed beaks to help with this job. Well, I’m going off to use my bill right now!

Chapter 4: Shorebirds Special Gifts

Earlier this afternoon I watched Maria fly over to Jorge. I could hear her chirping to him quietly. She wants to be sure he understands that not all adaptations are physical. I heard her suggest that, in fact, shorebirds also possess behavioral adaptations. She explained, for example, that these adaptations include migrating and defense mechanisms (such as dragging a wing to distract a  predator from a nest of eggs). It’s incredible what she has learned in less than a year. She gives Jorge another example of a behavioral adaptation. For instance, when we migrate, we fly at high altitudes to take advantage of the stronger more prevailing winds than can be found at lower altitudes (and the air is not so hot!). I could see the expression on Jorge’s face. He was feeling a little embarrassed that he had overlooked this point. He responded with a quick retort: “Well, we might as well fly incredibly high since we shorebirds can’t set down in the ocean to rest–because as you know, we can’t swim!–at least for very long.”

Chapter 5: Fear of the Falcon

Suddenly I hear my mother cry with a high-pitched cheet, “Falcons are coming–take flight!” Her short song consists of a few notes rising in pitch and then fades off with the breeze. What she “cheets” to us may sound like a strange suggestion, but the best defense for a shorebird against a raptor is to become airborne. Once in the air, we can get up to an evasive flight speed, maintain a tight flock formation and thus outmaneuver that menacing beast.

I can see through the grasses at my back that they aren’t threatening. I “cheet” back to my mother so that she doesn’t worry about me and knows that I am ok. I scan the shoreline and see Oxy and Maria in the distance. They look safe, too.

I look back again at my mother and think about how beautiful she is. Now that the danger of the falcon is gone, she is preening her feathers. She has arrow shaped spots on her breast and sides–and has other common Western Sandpiper features like a belly that is a light buff color. She looks identical to other shorebirds, but she is my mother and very special to me. I’m told that when we reach the breeding grounds in Alaska her coloring will change so that she has a rust- and tan-speckled head and shoulders. In other words, we have two sets of clothing: the breeding plumage and the non-breeding plumage, which are like two different dresses to humans. In each situation, a change in the way we look ensures that we blend into the background. That way, we can hide from predators.

Now the sun has set into the ocean and the breeze has died down completely. This is the time of day when I think about the future and make myself more nervous than usual. But I have a good reason to be. Tomorrow we start off on our very long journey north. Jorge, Oxy, Maria, Abuelito, and my parents have gone to great lengths to help me prepare. We will be together for the whole journey, which makes me happy.

I doubt I will be able to sleep tonight. I see Abuelito just six feet away, and he already has one leg tucked into his chest for at least part of the night. I want to ask my mother one last question, but she is already asleep. She did a good job over the past two weeks insisting that I eat and eat and save my energy for the long flight ahead of me. I am as ready as I can be. I have doubled my body weight in just a few weeks; I have preened and re-preened my feathers so that they are clean and prepared for the upcoming journey. I have asked all the questions I can think of and can picture many wetlands from Abuelito’s stories, which we will soon see.

Right as I’m about to fall asleep, Jorge swooshes right above my head and cheeps, “Get a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow you start one long, wild, and crazy ride!”

Chapter 6: Maya Heads North
Late March in Sinaloa, Mexico

The sun rises this morning and I watch it inch up over the horizon. Today, I can’t stop thinking about the huge journey ahead of me. I am about to begin a 7,000-mile migration! That is hard to imagine. We’ll fly about 250 miles a day, depending on the weather and other unexpected events. How funny to think that this journey is routine for Abuelito, and the others who have done it before.

As I think of the trip, Jorge lands on the mud next to me and feeds. Most of the time he acts silly or mischievous and flies in funny ways to catch my attention. Today however is different. He knows that I am anxious about leaving and wants to help me feel better. He calls out to me, repeating, “remember… persistence and accuracy, persistence and accuracy.” If I focus on these two things I just might make it to the Arctic!

Above us, many kinds of birds fly over in a beautiful sweeping motion. They are heading north. Suddenly our group takes flight and joins the patterns in the sky. I too am swept into the scene and I spot Maria and Oxy off to the west. I know that there will be many days, and even weeks, when we won’t see each other. But, maybe, just maybe, we’ll land next to each other after our 2,000-mile trip.

Here we go! What in the world makes us take this long journey? How is it that our breeding and wintering grounds are so far apart? It is hard for anyone to answer this question. All we know is that we seek “eternal spring” – warm sun and lots of food resources. During migration, we stop at wetlands along our route to rest and eat. These staging areas, or migratory stopover sites, are nutrient-rich wetlands that give us space to rest and rebuild our food reserves for the next part of the trip. We basically leapfrog – “hopping” from wetland to wetland all the way from the tropics to the Arctic.

Gusts of wind push me from behind as I think about all of this. It is a “rush” to be carried by the winds at two or even three times my normal flight speed. We spend many hours searching for the best pockets of air to fly in. At 6,000 feet it isn’t always easy to see land when many clouds block my view. Abuelito taught me to look for ‘visual aids’. A “visual aid” is something that helps me navigate. I look for landmarks like coastlines, rivers, and mountain ranges or even the moon and sun and stars. Some believe that an “internal” compass in my head helps me find my way by following the Earth’s magnetic field. Visual aids make our survival possible. If we fly or are blown off course by just one degree, we could miss our destinations and die along the way. The fact that many of us complete our journey shows the incredible accuracy of our navigational aids.

As I fly, I think back to Abuelito and his descriptions of what California looked like from the air. Now, what he described is opening up in front of my very own eyes. It is amazing to peer down and see the coastline and all the human settlements. There are many parts of Southern California where the air has a yellow or brown haze to it. There must be many creatures that live and breathe below this pollution.

Chapter 7: San Francisco Bay
First Migration Stop-Over Many Days Later

Excitement surges through the flock as we approach San Francisco Bay. I’m exhausted from hours of non-stop flight, but I feel a tiny burst of energy just before landing. I keep repeating Jorge’s last words “persistence and accuracy.” I am so tired I can only follow the flock. Each wing beat is painful and is a huge effort. I don’t know if I can make it.

San Francisco Bay should offer a number of good places to stop and refuel. There are tidal marshes, mudflats, salt ponds, seasonal, brackish or freshwater wetlands, tide pools, islands, rivers, creeks, as well as bay shoreline. But about 85% of San Francisco Bay’s shoreline and tidal wetlands have been altered since the 1950’s. This gives us fewer and fewer places to land and rest. Historically, many shorebirds have used the wetlands south of the San Mateo Bridge (South Bay). But this is also where humans built big buildings and where we want to rest and eat. How can we both use the wetlands?

Our flock swooshes down toward this marsh. Huge new condominiums greet us and we panic as we lose energy looking for a new place to feed and rest. There is no choice but to stop. We are too tired to go any further and we have no fat reserves left. We land in a marsh that borders the development and hope that there are no dogs or water pollution.

For three days we gorge ourselves non-stop on crustaceans and mollusks. All I care about is eating and eating and eating. I am not aware of much else around me.

On our fourth day at this marsh, I learn that the decision to stop here saved our lives. If we had tried to find a different wetland not too far away, we would have died. A local bird told us the sad news. Chemicals from a smoke stack were caught in clouds; they poisoned the rainwater and then poisoned marine life in that wetland.

Shorebirds like us depend on healthy wetlands for survival. When we hear about situations like this it seems like a miracle that we survive our migrations. This has been an exhausting several weeks. But there is still something that pushes me on – something beyond my ability to understand. All I know is that I must move on. My friends and my flock fly north.

Chapter 8: Gray’s Harbor, Washington
Several Days Later

I fly over southern Washington State and think about my family and friends. Even though we are all flying north, we are spread over a wide band along the Pacific Coast. Migration routes are not distinct, direct flyways, but area wide, broad routes. These ‘highways’ in the air lead us to a place where we get funneled together in a ” staging area.” Once we arrive at a staging area, we cluster in large numbers. Because we group together in a fairly small area, we are very vulnerable. If something bad happens – like nasty weather, or an oil spill – many of us will die.

These “staging areas” are important because they are very few and very far between. There are not many places along the coast that are good places to stop and rest. There are so many of us flying north and it is only in these special wetland “staging areas” that our huge flocks can rest and feed. Scientists don’t know why, but we use the same stopover sites year after year. Due to our adaptations, we are instinctually locked into our staging areas.

Favorable winds push me north. I wonder where Jorge is and if he is being helped by the same winds? As my energy begins to wind down, I spot the coastline of what I think is Gray’s Harbor. I see healthy estuaries including open water areas (subtidal) and mudflats with rocky shores (intertidal). Here humans have made some changes to the landscape but there is also open marshland. The flock swoops down to join a busily feeding group. I am relieved to land, but I am SOOOO hungry. Rest can wait. I must eat.

How many weeks has it been since we left Mexico? I spot Abuelito! I am so excited! I try to take off before my wings are ready for flight. I chirp and chirp in glee as I approach him from the west. He looks weathered and drained but is focusing on eating as many mollusks as he can. Neither of us has energy to do more than push our beaks into the sand. It is so nice to be in the safe presence of someone familiar and wise. I feel like I can relax a little bit. We are lucky because it is low tide. The mud flats are not covered by water and it is easy to find worms.

After many hours of feasting, Abuelito raises his beak out of the mud and wants to know how my journey has been. I tell him that I almost died at San Francisco Bay but that I feel a bit more confident now. Abuelito says that my feathers are starting to change. My head and shoulders are speckled with rust and tan. “Another miraculous advantage that nature provides us,” he laughs. We are very fortunate to have “camouflage.” We blend into the environment better and predators like hawks can’t see us as easily.

Abuelito points out other shorebird friends who use a similar “short-hop” strategy as they migrate to the Arctic. Across the mudflats are flocks of dowitchers, yellowlegs, dunlins, and semipalmated sandpipers.

Several days of gorging with Abuelito has me ready for the next leg of the trip. When the flock lifts, we join the group. Once again, we are airborne and on our own.

Chapter 9: The Beautiful Copper River Delta

The air is crisp and inviting. The sun feels stronger. I fly hour after hour, thinking about the next stop-over. Many shorebirds like Copper River Delta best of all because there are expanses of beautiful marshes – the Delta is the largest intact wetland on the North Pacific coast!

The best thing about the Delta is the amount of habitat it provides. Over a million birds can use the Delta in a single day. Over 20 million birds use the Delta during spring migration. All my western sandpiper friends will stop at the Delta. Scientists have found that the entire population of western sandpipers passes through this staging area within a week. The Delta is one of most important and heavily used staging areas in the world for western sandpipers!

The Copper River Delta region is a wonderful resource for us. It’s wonderful to not worry about human disturbances, like skyscrapers and shopping malls. Here, on the Delta, we just need to worry about falcons and spring storms. Here there are bald eagles, moose, swans, and beavers. It’s a very different world from our flight through California. Here we feed on tasty insects, tiny clams (mollusks), worms and crustaceans buried in the mud.

Like all Western Sandpipers, we feel incredibly lucky when we finally reach our final destination at the end of migration. It is wonderful to have some confidence now and feel surer of myself. We are almost there!

As I go over in my mind what will soon happen at our breeding grounds in the Arctic, Maria and Oxy suddenly appear! We are so happy to see each other again. It turns out that they had winds that helped them arrive 36 hours before me. They had a chance to rebuild their energy reserves and could spend the energy to try to find me!

Maria tells Oxy and me all the details of what we should expect when we reach the Arctic. We will each find a nesting site and will defend it against other birds. This is called territoriality and it ensures that my mate has a nesting site when I arrive – which is the first step in starting a family. My mate will show flight displays that may include wing fluttering, tail cocking, or nest scraping. Oxy and I giggle at the thought! These are more examples of behavioral adaptations. The females select the males. Once this happens we will breed and take turns incubating the eggs. After the chicks hatch, both my mate and I will help care for our young until they are almost ready to fly. Taking turns incubating and caring for them are behavioral adaptations of the western sandpiper to ensure the survival of the species.

With that brief lesson finished, the sun is setting and we continue to eat and eat and eat.

Chapter 10: A Sudden Storm

Today we are supposed to lift off to our final destination, but we can’t! The soft snowflakes keep falling and falling. The only thing left to do is eating, and keep eating! So far, two feet of snow have built up in places. It’s actually quite beautiful. Finally the snow stops in the late afternoon. A good strong wind arrives from the east. I lift off with the flock and head toward the breeding grounds where I am going to raise chicks of my own. I think about the cycles in nature and how miraculous they are. Off we go… I hope I find Jorge up in the breeding grounds. I have a lot of news to share with him!

What is a wetland?
Bog, mudflat, quagmire, muskeg, tundra, swamp, fen, marsh, pothole, beach. These are some of the many areas that people recognize as definitely land, but also definitely wet. What do we need to know about a wetland to understand why it is important and how it functions?

Let’s start by looking at some common features of any wetland. They are measured and studied by people with different jobs.

How wet is it?
A hydrologist, someone who studies the water cycle, is concerned with the wetness of a specific area. Wetness varies according to how much water falls on it in the form of rain or snow, flows across it from the ocean or upstream, or enters it as runoff from surrounding higher lands. How long an area stays wet and how wet it stays depend on the type of soil or plants, and how steeply the land slopes to the next downstream area. Water disappears down into cracks and holes between rocks or soil particles, is taken up by thirsty plants, or quickly streams off steep cliff faces. However, some water remains on the surface in areas where a subsurface layer of rock or permafrost won’t let it continue down into the ground or where it enters an existing pond or stream. Wetlands are areas where water remains pooled on or near the surface and saturates the soils, leaving no airspace for oxygen between the grains.

What adaptations does it take to live there?
To a biologist, wetlands are places where the plants and animals must have adaptations for both terrestrial (on land) and aquatic (in water) life. If the amount of wetness changes, the organism must be able to quickly respond. What would you do to survive if the tide came over your head twice a day? Also, the saturated soil has limited or no oxygen. This means that plants with their roots in the soil and other organisms that live in the soil must have adaptations to these anaerobic or low-oxygen conditions. The plants and tiny animals with these special traits are part of the wetland food web that includes shorebirds.

How do laws define “wetlands”?
Because humans use wetlands for many things, and because humans recognize the importance of wetlands to the overall cycles of nature, there are many laws concerning wetlands. Is the land that you want to build a gravel road across a wetland? Is the land where you saw two rare snowy plovers feeding a wetland? Legal definitions are ones that people use to help answer these questions. These definitions come before the really important questions, like how will people and shorebirds be affected by any changes you make to the area?

There are regulatory agencies that are charged by the Clean Water Act to protect the important functions of wetlands (like providing drinking water). The regulators have a specific legal definition that recognizes hydrological and ecological conditions described above. However, because the water cycle is dynamic and the wetness of an area varies accordingly, determining whether the legal definition is met in a specific area is often very difficult.