Photo: Red Knots, Elizabeth Brensinger/Audubon Photography Awards
This article from All About Birds describes some of the incredible migration feats performed by shorebirds and how their unique anatomy helps them go the distance. For example, while some say eating like a bird is eating light, shorebirds are actually legendary gorgers. Migrating Red Knots stopping over in Delaware Bay feast on horseshoe crab eggs and more than double their body mass in just three weeks. Not all of that food goes toward fuel. Research on Whimbrels stopped over in Chesapeake Bay showed that the protein from a feast of crab eggs went directly into producing eggs when the Whimbrels arrived on their breeding grounds in Churchill, Manitoba, just days later.
Need a break from the heat? A trip to the shore is a fun escape and a great opportunity to work on your shorebird identification skills. Mid-August is actually the start of fall migration for many species of shorebirds.
