- WARM GREETINGS ALL
Waders as the name implies are birds that like to feed in shallow waters. Waders or shorebirds number over 20 hundred species.
Waders do not have especially vivid colors but their dashy flight and sticking wings marking capture the admiration of many observers. When shore birds take to the air it is a sight to behold. Amazing to see thousands of tightly packed birds twist and turn rise and fall as if some invisible hands are controlling them. Some waders are truly global travellers. Waders may turn up on shorelines practically anywhere on earth and they cover some 32,000kilometeter in their animal Odyssey. Some of these journey require crossing the ocean, since they cannot swim nor rest on the water.
To cross ocean they need to accumulate [fuel] in the form of fat and feed voraciously on the mud flats of the coast that in few weeks they almost double their summer weight, many ii their internal organs including their brain and guts shrink in size to accommodate this additional weight. The ability of the golden plover that migrates from Alaska to the Hawaiian islands is so impressive. It can endure the 4,500 kilometer non stop flight from Alaska to Hawaiian island and the ability to locate Hawaii in the middle of the ocean is a miracle of the avian navigation.
When they finally arrive at their Artic breeding grounds they face a hectic life. Within 2 weeks they must [1] find a mate [2] establish a territory and make a nest, they now have about 3 weeks to incubate the eggs at another 3 weeks to rear their chicks. When they are ready to head south again by the end of July, they face lots of great threats from humans- hunters shot 48,000 American golden plover in a single day. Today the total world population of this species has recovered somewhat, but it is still probably less the number killed that day. Another threat is the disappearance of Westlands. The survival of millio of Waders depends on the preservation of a handful of key migratory stopovers.
Aprime example is Delaware bay along the coast of New Jercy USA. There about a 100 thousand red k ots congregate in spring to gorge on the eggs of horse-shoe crabs. The birds ay ravenous sincy they have completed one of the longest flights nonstop flights of the avain world. Conservationists puts effort to ensure that the birds favorite stopovers of the shore remains intact.
Finally once youhave watched a flock of Waders twisting and Wheeling over the waves or you have listened to their haunting calls you will find it hard to forget them.
Glad I'm able to stake some alive tokens on my favorite day of the week. I hope you participated.
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