Today is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD).
A large number of waders are champion migrants. Two great examples being the globetrotting Red Knots which breed in northern Canada and winter on the coasts of southern South America, and the record breaking Bar-tailed Godwits that fly from Alaska to New Zealand non stop. However, there are a tremendous number of others that move from one place to another at the change of the seasons. Some take equally long and arduous journeys as the record breakers mentioned, some merely disperse to cover a wider range of habitats. Others will descend to lower altitudes where they nest in high mountain ranges.
To whatever extent birds migrate, even if it just to the coast from their inland breeding grounds, they all deserve our respect and hopefully World Migratory Bird Day will highlight their needs.
The battle to make as many people aware of the problems waders and other migratory birds face is an endless one. But we must continue to try. We must increase the number of people who are aware and that care about what is happening. Only when there are enough of us who want to see changes being made are prepared to stand up and be counted, will any changes take place. We need the will of the people to persuade those that can influence decision makers to make changes that will benefit our wild birds, animals and what wild spaces we have left, while we still can make a difference.
We have been sent this wonderful video of an Asian Dowitcher that wintered in Jamnagar. This bird featured in our newsletter Vol. 6 Iss. 2 July 2019 We’ll let the commentary tell the story. It was sent to us by Yashodhan Bhatia who with Birding or Nothing is a Corporate Sponsor of Wader Quest.
