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Hi Birders
Up here on Roebuck Bay, Broome, we are currently
experiencing the magic of the annual migration of waders, most of whom will end
up in northern Asia and Siberia, some well inside the arctic circle, where they
will breed before returning for some Aussie sunshine and tucker sometime around
September. Their first stop is generally around the region of the Yellow Sea.
Being 6,000 kilometers away, this journey usually takes 3 or 4 days flying
between 60 and 75 km/h, in which time these fantastic birds will neither eat,
sleep nor place a foot on the earth.
On Wednesday night, we experienced the largest
known departures of Bar-tailed Godwits in one evening, when around 9,200 birds
departed from Roebuck Bay. Departing flocks ranged from an enormous 3,500
individuals, down to around 200 or so. These incredible birds gather on the
mudflats in huge and very vocal flocks and, when enough have heeded the
call and joined their travelling aprtners, they collectively launch up to
test the air. After cirling the bay once or twice, these beautiful birds gain
considerable height, all the while summing up conditions before forming
massive lines of sometimes up to 300 or more birds. These lines gradually
take on the classic huge "V" formations and begin to move off
northward.
If you are at all a lover of nature, there is
no way that you wont get goosebumps and shed a tear before such magnificence.
Having shared the bay for many months almost totally alone with these incredible
birds, I find their departure to be a somewhat sad event too and I am already
looking forward to welcoming my friends back in
September.
Ricki
Broome Bird Observatory WA
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