Posted 4th August 2020 by Richard Willis

Space for Shorebirds – Bird Migration

Can you imagine yourself waking up one August morning and deciding to go all the way from Greenland where you have spent the short summer to the west coast of Africa, entirely under your own steam? Your metabolism has transformed itself without any training, it’s purposes directed at turning you into an athlete ready for the huge effort ahead.

You were starting to feel restless weeks ago, noticing the shortening days, and in preparation for what was coming you’ve been eating masses of oil rich seafood, so that your condensed stores of fat can be converted into energy to speed you on your way. You’ve been simply trying to eat and conserve energy, because you know you’ll need it later.

The muscles that will carry you have grown and even your internal organs have changed size, your liver and kidneys shrinking. Your gut which initially expanded to get more energy on board will then shrink.

Imagine that even though you’ve never been before you know the way, you have an in-built sense of direction, an internal map and compass within that shows you the way. You will follow others of your kind and when you get there you will know that you’ve arrived. Your heart beat will exceed 400% of its normal rate, peaking at more than 600 beats per minute and as a consequence your body temperature will soar and you could be in danger of overheating.

Imagine during the journey all of the weather conditions you will face; driving rain, winds and Atlantic storms. All may threaten to blow you off course. You will watch the weather and judge the winds carefully before you decide it’s the right moment to go. You will also face an array of predators on the way, including the fastest animal in the world – the peregrine falcon.

You know sadly that this effort and the perils ahead claim many lives every year and yet you will continue.

You’ll rely upon a series of stopover points where you will rest and feed, each one vitally important for you. If any one of the stopover points is too disturbed by human activity a link in the chain is broken, and the journey will become more difficult.

For many of our shorebirds on migration like the bar-tailed godwit and the turnstone, what I’ve described above is exactly what they will experience. Incredible, can you imagine?

The Northumberland coast is one such refuelling stopover point, where plenty of food can be found in the mud and rocky shore. Some birds will stay here for the winter, but many will continue as Northumberland is only half way to their destination. For birds on the edge of survival undergoing the biggest effort that they can face, the only help that they need from us is to just to simply look out for them and give them space.

During the winter the Northumberland coast is host to over a thousand turnstones, just one reason why our coast is internationally important. Many more will pass through during the autumn migration stopping over to refuel for onward journeys long and short.

The bar-tailed godwit is one of the natural world’s most amazing long distance migrants. Northumberland has a wintering population of over 150 bar-tailed godwits, but many times more than this will pass through, some on their way to west Africa.

In 2007 a member of the New Zealand bar-tailed godwit population, a bird which was tagged as E7 for scientific purposes flew all the way non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand, an incredible journey of 7000 miles and the longest known non-stop journey by any animal on record. The journey took her just 9 days.

Featured photography by Iain Robson.